Hi again friends! If you’re active on Instagram you probably know that it’s Hey June June. It’s a fun month of celebrating the awesome patterns from Hey June Handmade. I am definitely a Hey June superfan and I was excited to get in on the fun this month.
First thing first– I am hosting a giveaway today in the Hey June Patterns facebook group. If you’re not in that group, head over and request to join so you can enter! It’s a great place to see what people are making with Hey June patterns or get your questions answered if you’re having a sewing/fitting issue.
In honor of my giveaway day I made a new Key Largo top. I was a tester for this pattern and I loved the version I made, except that the fabric was a weird non-descript color that never called out to me to be worn.
I’d been wanting to make another and one day while I was window shopping on JCrew’s website I spotted this cute puffed sleeve Liberty top. I wanted to make my own from some Liberty lawn that I had in my stash and I knew the Key Largo top was the perfect starting point.
Let me tell you a little story about this fabric. One day a few years ago I was looking at Craftsy.com and I spotted 4 yards of Liberty fabric for $11. Not $11 a yard– $11 for the whole 4 yards. I ordered that fabric so fast and wondered whether I was going to receive bias tape instead of actual fabric.
When it came it was a total dream come true– 4 yards of Tana Lawn for $2.75 a yard. WHAT?!? It must have been a glitch in the matrix and I am still overjoyed that I stumbled on it when I did.
I finally got bold enough to cut into that amazing bargain fabric when I made this top. I made a couple of changes to the sleeve to get the slight puff. I cut it vertically in 3 places and spread the pattern 1/2″ at each of those places. This resulted in the perfect slight puff.
I lengthened the sleeve 2″ since my inspiration top has longer sleeves. I finished the sleeve with a narrow binding and gathered the hem of the sleeve to fit the binding. (I just measured my arm and added about an inch of ease to figure out how long to make the binding.)
It’s hard to tell from the photos but the JCrew top has a placket on the back of the sleeve and closes with a small button. (It also has ruffles on the shoulders and a keyhole neck opening which I decided to eliminate.) I kept this sleeve detail and used the binding piece from the tie sleeve version of the Lucerne blouse to create the continuous placket.
There is a great tutorial on the Grainline website for how to sew a continuous placket that ends up mostly hidden on the sleeve. I used that tutorial and my placket turned out beautifully.
I’m soooo happy with this top! I love when I can make my own version of something I’ve seen in a store. It’s so fun to wear and I’m really glad I finally cut into my hoarded Liberty fabric to make it.
Thanks for reading!
~Teri
Fa Sew La 