Love it so much. Amazing fabric from The Fabric Lab, an embossed crocodile double knit with ”good, structured drape”. Its very light, a little stretchy and altogether incroyable.

This fabric, being processed as it has, on no doubt toxic terms, doesnt fray, so I wanted to use a raw edge in a Tom Ford kind of way; sexy dark and edgy. Kind of worked?

Freakin Celine SS13. Talk about timeless.

This kind of sleeve was once referred to as a “kimono sleeve” or dolman or cut-on, and I determined that this design approach was key to preserve the unique quality of this fabric, and I didn’t want to deal with managing the croc-pattern across sleeve seam lines, so I determined that no seam at all was ideal.

Like the image above, I wanted the shape to be fairly pronounced so the shoulders would hold themselves, and this fabric would manage that

Having made Style Arc’s Joan top, I liked the shoulder and neckline but it was a little bit not-great at the sides.

I looked at several patterns including some vintage caftan styles (I made up that that size 16 pattern bottom right and it was the equivalent of a child-sized 16, so teeny! Beware vintage sizing) but nothing was just right.

But still, the Joan top stayed on my mind…it just wasn’t exactly the thing

Having just made the Cora top I report on further down the page, I thought, I know what I’ll do. I’ll do a thing made of two things. So starting with the Joan (above left), I extended the shoulder line to meet the Cora top (above right), mashed in the Cora side seam & cut that thing out. Worked. Basic sewing pattern smashup.

Sometimes late at night I take the diagrams of pattern pieces on the pattern instruction docs & see how they look layered up. See how the lines and cuts compare on similar-but-different patterns; its like having a whole separate hobby. I’m not a would-be designer, its just…interesting to me, how things are drawn.

Two pattern pieces overlaid in real life, below.

Steam-a-seam! Fusible web on the shoulder & side seams seam allowances

I love this Steam-a-seam stuff

I can do double sequin, and I can do double Animal Kingdom, so I wore this with a long slim pencil skirt in dark leopard ponte from The Remnant Warehouse. Shown above in different lights dont know why I took two shots?

I love this outfit, its an excellent outfit.

Style Arc Joan top neckline & shoulder + Tessuti Cora top side seam. Perfect for this fabric and a resounding win.

And now this is the first Cora top I made (now 4 Cora tops deep) in a heavy duchess stretch satin from Drapers Fabrics (same fabric different colourway to this outfit), with a jewel trim from the Makers Society.

I made this before I made the top reported above, but mostly just to see the look of it. I had left off finishing all raw edges. Then, following on from making that other top and being newly excited about Steam-a-seam, I used it to finish the neckline on this top. And this fabric shows everything, and it came out really badly, so I had to hide it somehow. I wanted a jewel trim and amazingly, this trim showed up and its the perfect color & shape & everything.

It took 5 sections of trim to go around the neckline and I tacked them on thinking I’d have to attach them on in a more permanently complicated way once I’d established the thing, but then it seemed to look fine, and I thought well, I’d have to remove them if the top needs washing, so they’ve stayed haphazardly hand-tacked on and its fine, it’s quite secure & looks good.

The neckline on this pattern is wide, in order to avoid any closure so it just slips over the head. This fabric is kind-of heavy and with the binding around the neckline, it’s substantial, so the trim could be borne. But it did kind-of stretch out a bit so the neckline felt a bit too wide and deeper than expected on me, however this first one I’d made as a size 14 instead of a 12. Subsequent Cora tops have been 12’s and I’ve run the neckline in and up slightly & it still pulls on over my head.

Just mentioning this as a good sewing blog citizen; if you are looking to make this, the neckline runs wide and a little deeper than you’d think (on me).

Yeah this fabric is prone to show crumple, and given the neckline disaster, I hand-stitched the sleeve hems. But pulling the the thread through puckers the fabric and that’s the way it is.

And on the hem, just had to let the stitches be the stitches. Just couldn’t fully control the curvature because this fabric crushes, but wont really take a crease. It looks totally fine on the good side

This is the only photo I have of the night, it was the first proper night aboard this holiday vessel so I started high as I meant to continue re dress code, and it was fun! It was the least planned piece of my Cruise Collection and not my favourite or most daring, but there hasn’t been an opportunity to wear something like this for many days, so I seized upon it & liked that I started strong. Worn with black satin cigarette pants and Prada mules. Worked it.

Bonus top! A straightforward Tessuti Myka top in a nylon taffeta from Tessuti, with the same skirt. I had a spreadsheet of everything I had made (about 15 things!) and it was so fun getting dressed every night of this holiday. Every night, I was best dressed, or so my mother said lol.

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