DIY WOOL + PLEATHER BOXY CROP TOP | NAMED PATTERNS INARI

I’m stupidly busy at work at the moment, so not a lot of sewing time, but I did manage to squeeze a few more projects to sew & show you before the end of April.

As I anticipated in the previous post, I did end up making more Inaris, this time the top version, with a few alterations. It was meant to be a quick project, but it took me a bit longer than I thought. On the plus side, I do love the outcome and already wore it 4 times since I finished it last Saturday. So here she is, my baby Inari top!

Ta-dah!

Pattern: Inari Tee crop top, from Named Clothing, size 38

Fabric: It’s a wool pin-stripped cloth, medium to heavy weight, which I had in my stash for years. It was part of a bargain bundle from Abakhan and it’s been lingering at the back of my fabric cupboard for ages, as I had no idea what to make of it. I was convinced when I first saw it that it was some sort of mystery polyester, so I threw it in the washing machine for pre-wash. However, when I took it out, it smelled like wet dog, so that made me think there might be some real wool somewhere… So I did the burn test and it turned out it had wool in a fairly big proportion, with a terrible burnt hair smell coming off it, plus the thread crumbling to ashes. Brucie bonus, what can I say? I had about 2 metres of it, and I had used the bulk of it for a pair of culottes soon to be revealed, so I had a little piece left that was just right for another Inari quick make. It’s a tiny bit itchy, especially around the neckline and on my back, but I just wear it with a cami underneath, so all good.

You will notice my snazzy contrast band, which is made of a piece of faux leather (of course it is!) that I had knocking about in my scrap pile. It’s actually really good quality faux leather, £15/m from Goldhawk Road. Again I can’t remember the name of the shop, but it’s one where they have really great faux leathers of all colours, in the middle on the lefthand side as you come from the tube stop.

Alterations: As you might notice, my top is not cropped, as per the pattern. I had actually cut it as Named planned it, but it was ridiculously short on me and I don’t really like too much bare midriff action, especially since it was meant to be a colder weather top (with short sleeves, I know, duh!!). So I reduced the level difference and just added the two pleather bands, 10 cms of them, to offer some more cover-up.

Construction: Not a lot to be said on the construction side, it’s really really simple. So, I had to make work for myself by wanting to add faux leather neck binding. It did not work, because I didn’t have enough scraps to make bias binding and it was not stretchy enough on its own. Then I thought to finish with regular bias binding, but the fabric has frayed like crazy in the previous step. So I had to go back to facings, which I had wanted to avoid because of the itch factor. well, never mind, it really ended up being the only option to avoid fraying.

As to the rest of the finishings, I overlocked the side seams and all other open seams. For the pleather, I didn’t want to sew the hems by machine, so I decided to use PVA glue to stick them instead. I worked really well, I used craft clips to hold them up really tight to dry. If you do that, make sure not to clip them on directly,  put a scrap between them and the hem, because they have (or at least my Clover do) tiny teeth, which might leave marks in your pleather. I’m pretty happy with how that worked, and I know it saved me a lot of agro trying to sew up the hem instead.

And that’s all folks! Nice and easy, very effective and easy to dress up or down! I will wear it tomorrow to work on top of a long sleeve white shirt, as it’s still blinkin’ freezing in London! I am really excited to show you the culottes from the same fabric in my next post, I’m supper happy with how they came out and my little two piece outfit!

Have a fab week, everyone!

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