New Knit Top! Burda 02-2009-118

I have had the pattern for this top traced out for over a year now. Probably close to two years. I finally made it and boy, do I like it! I made it from a remnant I picked up at Fabricana. I didn't try a burn test, but I'm pretty sure this is a cotton and bamboo blend. It's a nice kelly green and there was just enough for the shirt with the exception of the inner sleeves.

Several other people made this top back when it was published and struggled along with Burda's completely mystical instructions and forged ahead with their own. Special thanks go to Dawn of Two On Two Off and Kay of The Sewing Lawyer. Together they are quite the duo (at least for this shirt). Dawn's tutorial is here and Kay's is here (it predates her blog). You see, the tricky bit is the way the puffed sleeves are constructed so close to the underarm seam. There's just an awful lot going on there and Burda couldn't even figure out how to make it make sense.

I ran out of the green fabric and had to make the inner sleeves out of something else. I still have a bit of this thin white knit blend that I bought a ton of to use for knit muslins, so I used that. Beware! No matter what you do, that inner sleeve is going to show a bit, so it would be best to use a coordinating fabric. After I constructed the top, I felt the sleeves were too long and droopy, so I pinched up a pleat all around the inner sleeve to shorten the sleeve. There was just no way I was going to attempt to pick out all of the stitching and gathering, etc. I think I took up the inner sleeve by about an inch all together.

This top has already had a fair bit of wear even though it is nowhere near warm enough for short sleeves here. I've been wearing it as shown above, with a long-sleeved white top underneath. That works well for now. I think I'll probably make another one for this summer as well. The puffs are somewhat feminine but the dropped shoulder and the seaming is interesting enough to keep it from looking childish.

Hooray!