You’d pretty much forgotten about my SWAP plans, hadn’t you?  Because it certainly appeared as though I had!  Although I missed the SWAP deadline by many, many months I am still making some of the garments that were part of it.  These ones were actually sewn many, many months ago but I was slow getting photos.

The top is Vogue 8805, sewn in a ponte and shortened. I was using a remnant piece of fabric (I can’t even remember where from!) and it took considerable juggling to get the pattern pieces out of the small amount that I had. I decided to bind the neckline and sleeve hems rather than simply turning or facing. The neckline was also scooped lower than the pattern. The shaping of this top works well for me.

I completely eliminated the centre back opening – I don’t need to use it to get this on or off. There is plenty of ease through the back, which makes it super comfortable to wear.

There is not much to say about the skirt – it’s the Style Arc Fay skirt, but unlined as once again I was working with a small amount of fabric. The fabric is a floral textured jacquard knit from Tessuti. Side seams, elastic in the waist, hem turned once and sewn in place.

I also made a third item to wear with this top and skirt, a Style Arc Floating Fran cardi (actually a vest).

I used fabric from the Darn Cheap Fabrics $2 per metre table for this one. It’s quite sheer, and is a knit, but doesn’t actually have a great deal of stretch. And as it turns out, every time I put the vest on I take it off again. In this fabric it’s just that bit too firm around the bust. And the colour isn’t quite “me”.  So it’s been donated.

Despite that I do like the flare and the overall shape and fit – it just needed a softer and stretchier knit. I did shorten it throughout the body to accommodate my height, and it’s still quite long at the back. The fronts are faced, and the armholes are bound. Because of the flare it takes quite a lot of fabric. I’ll definitely use this pattern again.

So, I still have two pieces of the three in this SWAP 3-pack.