Vogue 1247 - Top

I was intrigued by this pattern when I saw this classy top in silk crepe de chine at Sallieoh.  And this lovely one in orange shot cotton at Handmade by Carolyn.  Then I went into Fabricland, and Vogue patterns were on sale so it seemed like fate :).

But after I traced the pattern, it sat on my sewing table for at least six weeks until the spring top sewalong over at Made by Rae gave me the kick in the pants I needed. 

After reading reviews regarding the excessive ease of this top, I cut a size 14. I also added an inch in the length but really should've added two as I'm long waisted and this top is really short (to go with the excessively short skirt included in the pattern, I guess!)

The fabric is a swiss dot cotton voile from Girl Charlee.  It's very light, which is pretty much a requirement for this pattern as the instructions specify French seams for every seam.  And a whole whack of seams merge in the middle (I know they don't line up but there was no way I was going to pick them all out and try again after getting it all sewn together).

I didn't follow the directions for the french seams, by the way -- it says to sew at 3/8", trim and then sew 1/4" from the seam line.  I was being lazy and could not face trimming Every. Single. Seam so I sewed at 1/4" and then again at just shy of 3/8".  I got halfway through when I realized that trimming would've made my seams much smaller and on a top like this where you can see the seams through the fabric, that might have been nice ;).  Despite the French seams, this top came together really quickly and the instructions were pretty easy to follow.

The verdict in my house is that the fabric is thumbs down (too old-lady-ish) but that the top is *interesting*, if a bit baggy around the chest.  I think I need a couple more pleats to fix the crazy boxy thing going on in the chest area.  Next time, I would also forgo the seam down the back -- I had enough fabric to cut it on the fold and should have just gone with my gut.