Liz Claiborne Knot Top Redux

I finished the new incarnation of the Liz Claiborne Knot Top. Overall, I am happy with it. Here it is sans sleeve and bottom hems.

I think it actually looks better on me than on the dress form, but it’s hard to get a good picture of me wearing it. You’ll have to take my word for it.

The Postives:

It fits, mostly, and requires only a few minor tweaks to the pattern. I need to add a smidge of width at the bust. (I am bustier than the dress form but my waist is narrower.) I may shorten the sleeves a bit. I’ll decide after I hem them. I may also change the top of the bodice and the sleeves to the same sleeve shape I am using for my T-shirts. This one has a much taller sleeve cap. It’s not bad, just different.

I will say that I don’t usually wear V-necks—even though DD#2 assures me that they are very flattering on me—because I have a couple of divots in my chest that are scars from my Hickman catheter placements when I was having chemo. (I had one, it got infected, so they took it out and put another one in on the other side.) I think I just need to get over myself. There is a reason this was one of my favorite tops.

The Negatives:

The negatives mostly have to do with the fabric. The Dreamstress has an excellent blog post about the differences in T-shirt knits in terms of weight/thickness, recovery, and stability. In short, this Hobby Lobby rayon/linen/spandex fabric lacks stability. For you handknitters out there, imagine a worsted weight yarn knit in stockinette stitch on size 11 needles. That kind of fabric is going to want to torque back and forth. This fabric behaves in much the same way. Less stable knits tend to be drapey, but they can be difficult to work with. I really had to finesse this one through the serger. Trust me when I say that you don’t want to have to take out any seams. I would like to make the next version in a more stable rayon/spandex or cotton/spandex knit.

The neckline finish is an issue. I decided to do a narrow hem on both the front and back pieces because I don’t want to take the time to go up the learning curve with the binding attachments right now. I will do that at some point, but it was easier to do the narrow hem on the Janome. The lack of stability in the fabric meant that the neckline stretched out of shape in the process, although I was able to steam it back into shape. (Mostly.) I need to go back and listen to a recent Sewing Out Loud podcast where Zede gave some tips and tricks for working with finicky knits. (I hope the coverstitch machine doesn’t decide to spit this one out.) The neckline finish also has to be done before the front piece is twisted on itself. I did the front finish and back finish on this top separately. Next time, I may sew one shoulder seam, finish the neckline, twist the front, and sew the other shoulder seam.

So there you have it. I’ve got another “tried and true” pattern to add to the collection. The Big Brown Truck of Happiness brought a delivery of more knit fabric this week—I gave the driver a loaf of zucchini bread—and I’ll be making even more tops to replace the too-short ones in my closet. I’ll provide a review of those fabrics in the next couple of blog posts.

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The husband has been spending his evenings getting the water line to the new shop in place:

The rocks. Oh, the rocks. This is what glacial till looks like, boys and girls. All of those rocks probably came down from Canada.

Plumbing the bathroom is on the list for this winter. The husband also put pumps in next to the new shop and next to the well casing, which will make hooking up hose and getting water to fruit trees much easier.

The construction company bought a piece of equipment:

The husband is 55, and despite the fact that he is in excellent physical shape and thinks he is still 21, he needs to be mindful of overdoing things. (I learned that lesson—I bought a tractor.) This is small enough that he can load it on our trailer and take it to jobsites to load and unload concrete forms with the fork attachments. I think it may get delivered this weekend. I have been promised a lesson on operating it, because I also have some plans. Heheheh.