Do you remember the book “Go Ask Alice“?  It was all the go when I was in the early years of high school and was on high demand from the school library – it was about highly illicit activities like drug-taking and sex.  Reading it as a 13 year old was like eating forbidden fruit – it felt I like was doing something wrong but it was oh so interesting! And oh so different from anything I knew about!  Anyway, I digress.  This blog post is really about the StyleARC Alice top that I made last weekend.

This was actually the first thing that I churned out at Sewjourn. The fabric is the leftover from the Vogue dress I made a month or so ago. It’s cotton/lycra from Darn Cheap Fabrics, and it is a fantastic weight for this project. I introduced a centre back seam so that I could cut the top out from the fabric I had left, but if I’d had more fabric I would have gone with the pattern pieces as drafted and cut the back in one piece.

This was a marvellous pattern. The elastic that gathers the sleeves and the centre front is sewn on first. I didn’t cut this elastic to length, but instead marked on it the length in the instructions and made sure that the marking was lined up with the length on the pattern pieces. This gave me the rest of the elastic to hold on to as I stretched and zig-zagged it in place. Then I cut it off! StyleARC draft their patterns incredibly well – their background as designers/pattern-makers of ready-to-wear clothing is obvious. Their instructions are rather sparse, but are improving as they go along, and anyone with a little bit of sewing experience shouldn’t have a problem.

I made this in size 12, and the neckline is fairly wide. This is how it is drafted, but because I have narrow shoulders I would probably bring it in a little at the back neckline if I made it again. And because of my current weight loss I’d even bring it in a little at the side seams. I probably will make it again. As usual I stabilised the body and sleeve hems with double-sided fusible tape before stitching them in place with a twin needle.

It’s a terrific top! I wore it yesterday and felt comfortable and current. And it also looks great on Rachel!  I did think that it was going to sneak into her bag when we packed to leave Sewjourn.