Even before I had got home and opened my copy of this month’s Love Sewing, I’d spotted photos of the free Simple Sew pattern on Twitter. It looked great – easy to wear and marked Beginner. It was also a pattern for knits, which I haven’t used that much yet.  Turned out that the crossover back blouse wasn’t for knits, but as I have way more cotton prints in my stash I wasn’t too perturbed. I began to search, then remembered the piece of crepe type fabric I had left from making one of my Staple dresses. The fabric was a cheapie from The Textile Centre on eBay, but the dress I made with it is one of my favourite ever makes. I spread what was left on the table and *just* squeezed on all of the pattern pieces.   I followed the instructions as per the pattern, but found the facings hung out on the sleeves, hem and back. I liked that the pattern included the tip to just do a bit of hand sewing and tack facings to seam allowances, but once I’d done this, I found it hadn’t made a lot of difference. I’m thinking this was mainly because of my fabric choice? I went back and under stitched which helped a lot.  I think if I had chosen a cotton which would have pressed more easily, the facings would have probably worked better. I think the top is a nice length. And I still like the print very much. It’s quite a plain design from the front, with the feature being the crossover back, but I quite like the fit. 

Once I’d tried on the completed make, and lent forward, I felt it would benefit from a few stitches in the middle of my back to prevent too much flesh being exposed, but even with pinning, once I’d sewn the stitches the back didn’t hang right at all. Instead, I simply wore a plain black vest top underneath. 

  
 I think I will get a fair bit of wear out of this top, I like the look and the cost was basically zero as it was leftover fabric. I may try the other view of the jersey top next. 

Have you tried this make or something similar yet? How was it and what fabric did you choose?