A New and Improved Knot Top Pattern

One of the Liz Claiborne pieces I bought in Seattle was a knot-front top made from a rayon/spandex knit. As soon as I tried it on, I was reminded how much I like this style. I would have bought one in every color except that it only came in black and an orange-y coral. DD#2 nixed the coral.

[I took the girls with me one time to shop for a bathing suit. I think DD#2 was about 4 at the time, but she’s had definite clothing opinions from a young age. I tried on a bathing suit and she looked at it and gave me the thumbs down sign. At least I can trust her to tell me the truth.]

I should have bought two of these tops in Seattle, but I didn’t, so I came home an ordered another one. I took the second one apart to determine how it was constructed and to make myself a pattern from it. This is the second time I’ve reverse engineered one of these tops. I made this one last summer using a pattern I copied from another Liz top in my collection that had seen better days:

The fabric was a linen/rayon knit I snagged from the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby for $3 a yard. I expected this one to be a prototype, but I wear it quite a bit. I wore it last weekend for the serger class. I had every intention of making a few more like it this summer, but then I found the black top in Seattle. The construction of the black one is similar but with a few improvements. I’ll talk about the differences in a moment.

Burda has this pattern, 6911, which I made the muslin for:

I don’t like this one as much as the Liz version. For one thing, the construction is much more complicated—so complicated that spatially-challenged Janet had to watch a YouTube video of someone else making it in order to understand how it went together. The pattern has facings to finish the top bodice edges, but the facing extends down and becomes part of the bust darts. That doubles the amount of fabric in the front bodice. I don’t need the extra padding there, believe me.

The issue with the Liz Knot Top 1.0 (Hobby Lobby version) was that the top edges of the front and back piece were hemmed with a narrow hem. Hemming knits that way is do-able, but tricky. The fabric stretched as I was hemming it. The neckline has sprung back into shape after a few trips through the laundry, but I am not a fan of that technique.

The Liz top I bought in Seattle features facings on the front bodice pieces to get around that problem. (The back piece still has to be hemmed.) A facing also hides the wrong side of the fabric, which otherwise would be exposed in the knot. Unlike the Burda top, though, the facings in the Liz top don’t extend all the way down the front, nor is there a bust dart. I’ll take some pictures as I make this new version and hopefully, that will help illustrate what is going on.

I made a pattern from the deconstructed top. These are the front bodice pieces of the Liz Knot top 2.0:

The facings are included in the bodice pieces; they fold down from the top, which is at the right side of the photo.

[This is another rayon/spandex knit from the clearance bin at Joann Fabrics. I’ve already made myself one top from it.]

The tricky part, now, is going to be finishing edges and putting these bodice pieces together in the proper order, because there are a number of steps to take to make the knot. Fortunately, I have the other top to use as a guide. If this works, I expect I’ll be making several summer tops from this pattern, in colors of which DD#2 approves. These will be done on the new serger, which I am picking up from the quilt store today.

***************************************

The influx of rodents into the greenhouse seems to have slowed; we’ve only caught one in the past couple of days. Maybe the other mice got the memo.

We’re full to bursting with plants in there. I dug up two dozen lavender seedlings from the garden yesterday and potted them up for the sale, along with some salvias. I still have to do lemon balm and bee balm and echinacea.