Buoyed by the success of the criss-cross top, and entirely inspired by the no-pattern clothes that Nikki makes, I reached into my stash and pulled out a small remnant of something very stretchy.  I suspect that it could even be swimsuit lycra.  There wasn’t much of it, only enough for a sleeveless top.  Believe me, this top looks much better in three dimensions than it does in this flat photo.

I used the rotary cutter to straighten the edges of the fabric, then sewed it into a tube. The tube was pretty roomy, which I figured would be cool and comfy. Because I was making this up as I went along, I tried it on with pins in various places, and decided I’d try for a cowl-type effect at the front. I folded the fabric in half and cut out armholes, trying it on each time until they were around the right size. It was pretty much like making a pillowcase dress at this stage, with the armhole shapes cut out at the top of each side. I made sure that the seam stayed at centre back, because I knew I’d need to play with it more later to improve the fit.

Next up I sewed the shoulder seams a couple of inches each, leaving a wide space in the centre for the neckline. Tried it on again and moved the seams across onto my shoulders. This made the front and back drape into a slight cowl. I pinned out the cowl at the back (actually, Clare helped me with the pinning) and resewed the top five inches of the back seam so that the back neckline lay fairly smoothly against my back. Then to the machine and the twin needle to hem the bottom edge, the armholes and the back neckline. I left the front as it was because it was rolling nicely anyway. The next photo has awful lighting but shows the front a bit better.

The shoulder seams were sticking out a bit, so I grabbed some scrap fabric and sewed up a tube. I cut two pieces about three inches long from the tube and wrapped each one around the shoulder seam as a feature and to improve the way the neck and shoulders sat.

So woo-hoo, my first no-pattern top! I’m definitely going to try this sort of caper again. What fun! Go on, buy some bargain stretch fabrics and give it a go! They’re very forgiving and there is always the bin if it doesn’t work out. But it’s so freeing to try.  I suspect that Nikki may even be a little proud of me.