Orla Shift Top by Tilly and the Buttons

My second Tilly and the Buttons creation is complete! I used the Orla Shift Top pattern and the silk came from The Fabric Store. It felt like a splurge at the time I bought it, but it's turned out well. Despite the great end result, unfortunately the process of getting there wasn't smooth sailing. 

The vertical darts on the front of the top caused me some serious angst! I suspected that they would need adjusting, but I didn't realise quite how many adjustments I would need to make. The darts were designed to sit quite low and when I tried on the top, they were insanely low! This project made me realise how useful a dressmaking model would be. I pinned and resewed the darts so many time that I've lost track of how many. In hindsight, I should have used a very loose stitch until they were just right, since I ended up doing a lot of unpicking and pulled the odd thread. In the end, I had to bring the darts up quite high the stop them from creating a point. 

The zip also used a different technique to anything I've made before. The instructions suggested cutting a rectangle of iron-on interfacing and placing it where the zip would go. While I can see the reason for this, it was quite a challenge to get the iron-on interfacing to stick to the silk. I initially placed the zip over the interfacing to measure where I would need to cut. After having sewn one side in place, I thought it wouldn't fit so I cut further and ended up cutting beyond the bottom stop. Unfortunately inserting a zip where there isn't a seam means there's no way to cover up this mistake. 

The sleeves were easy to sew and quite similar to the Megan Dress that I recently made. My one suggestion would be for anyone with long arms to consider lengthening the sleeves before you cut them out - I ended up with only a 5mm sleeve hem.

All in all, I love the way the top turned out, but I'm not sure I would make it again without first re-drafting the front. I would probably consider doing away with the vertical darts on the front and instead use a standard bust dart.