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Thursday, May 15, 2014

A chevroned Hummingbird joins the flock (with dickey! and cuffs! and buttons!)

Me Made May 13: Finished peplum top

Yes, I have a peplum problem passion. This is my third Cake Patterns Hummingbird knit peplum top (after the polka dot one and the hummingbird colors one) so I guess it's now my official tried-and-true top.

Not much new to report. I cut the same bust size as before (the 35), but went with the elbow-length sleeves and the deeper neckline with dickey and bias cuffs. I basted the dickey in place carefully before topstitching it to the neckline binding.

I've always loved the look of knit tops with dickeys—they have all the comfort of a knit with a touch of the polish and crispness of a woven.

Cake Patterns Hummingbird "Blue" Peplum Top With Dickey and Cuffs

The chevroned knit fabric is a wonderful rayon/spandex jersey from Mood, and the woven fabric is a sheer black cotton swiss dot lawn from Fabric.com four years ago (but similar still available). The iridescent buttons are from M+J, leftover from a sweater. They are BEAUTIFUL but I could not get a decent photo of them.

Cake Patterns Hummingbird "Blue" Peplum Top With Dickey and Cuffs

Er, what's this? Why are there four button holes for two buttons, you ask? Well, either I am the WORST at buttonholes or my buttonhole sensor foot hates me, because this ALWAYS HAPPENS. And yes, I stabilized the area with plenty of interfacing and carefully marked the buttonhole placement and practiced on scrap fabric...

Moving on. I apparently also cannot photograph my own back properly, as this weird hunched-over blurry shot was the best I got.

Cake Patterns Hummingbird "Blue" Peplum Top With Dickey and Cuffs

Finally, I should note that this is actually another finished object formerly known as an unfinished object, almost the LAST one in the pile (and oh, it feels AMAZING to finally finish something and clear that mental space). I started her during the Hummingbird 30 Minutes a Day Sewalong last year, but then my sewing machine went beserk on the shoulder seam...

I think my sewing machine is really angry at me for neglecting her. Why else would she eat my fabric like this? Sigh... No new top to wear tomorrow. :(

... and I got discouraged and abandoned the top.

Now I love it. I love it so much I even wore it out for Mother's Day before I attached the dickey: here I am with my daughter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (my husband took us to the mind-blowingly AMAZING Charles James exhibit at the Costume Institute for Mother's Day and all three of us just LOVED it.):

Me Made May 11: Mother's Day at the Met Costume Institute

Which is especially fitting, because Charles James' famous 4-leaf-clover skirt design was one of Steph's inspirations for the Hummingbird peplum's shape.

I like this version much better with the dickey, though—the scoop by itself was a little too deep to be decent workwear.

Cake Patterns Hummingbird "Blue" Peplum Top With Dickey and Cuffs

I think the best part about finishing UFOs is that they feel like they were sent to me in a time machine by Mikhaela from the Past. I often find that cutting fabric is the hardest and most annoying part of the whole process, so it's awesome to just be able to open a bag of neatly cut and marked and notched fabric pieces all ready to sew—like someone else did all the work!

How's your Me Made May going?

5 comments:

  1. Cute! Reminds me of the Bargello embroidery in my McCall's Needlework Treasury.

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  2. You look spectacular!! Chevrons are striking on you and I agree, I love the total look with the dickey. Wow! Lyn

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  3. I love this top and you look smashing in it! I hear ya on clearing the mental space by finishing UFOS.

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  4. This looks great on you! You're reminding me, I have a WIP/UFO Hummingbird Skirt with flounce in my pile. From last summer. EEEK.

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