Breastfeeding Agnes Tops

A few years ago I wrote this tutorial/pattern hack for making a breastfeeding/nursing-friendly knit top. I based that tutorial on the Tilly and the Buttons Coco pattern, but in hindsight what the tutorial was really waiting for was Tilly's Agnes jersey top pattern, which was released after I wrote it. The closeness of the fit of the Agnes is much better suited for the type of 'access' the tutorial creates, and shortly after the birth of my second child in October 2016, I set about to prove it. 

I prepared my Agnes top pattern pieces as per the tutorial: making two front pieces instead of one with an overlap. This time I had to make the overlapped section lower than my breastfeeding Coco top, because the effects of breastfeeding and three more years of gravity sadly made it necessary! 

For my first version I used some of this cheetah print jersey, which was kindly sent to me by Girl Charlee. I love the neon green in it, which has pushed me slightly out of my stylistic comfort zone. The fabric itself is the perfect weight for an Agnes: fairly light-weight with excellent stretch and recovery. I also love that the print is performing a cheetah skin's original task of camouflaging, and you can barely see the edge of the overlap at all. 

I've been wearing the cheetah print top almost constantly from the day it left the sewing machine, so another version was clearly on the cards. Not wanting to splash out on fabric for a top that I'll probably only wear for a year or so, I hunted through my stash for a suitably sized piece of knit. This super soft striped interlock is lovely to touch and feels great to wear, but not as ideal as the cheetah print in other ways. 

Firstly, the overlap on the front is much more obvious, which might make it look a little weird to some, especially those who haven't figure out that it's there for boob-access. Secondly, I should have made the neckband shorter than the pattern piece because it doesn't lie flat. There's no elastane/lycra/spandex content to this interlock to help it spring into shape. It doesn't help that I tend to shove my hand down the neckline of these tops to unclip my nursing bra (TMI? Don't care).  

Thoughts:

Although both these tops have been worn way more regularly than any of my other tops over the last few months, it's probably no surprise that the cheetah print one sees much more action. Not only does the superior stretch and recovery work better for this adapted Agnes, but the print is more fun to look at. I was considering making more of these with the shorter sleeve options for when warmer weather blesses us, but by then the longevity of my need for breastfeeding/nursing tops will be even further reduced. I'm also sorely tempted to make a breastfeeding Bronte top, but having already made a squillion Bronte's, I think I'd rather try some new-to-me patterns like Jennifer Lauren's Gable knit top pattern. With so little sewing time currently at my disposal, I'd rather spend it making myself garments that will potentially have years of use in them. Ya dig?

Nippy Weather Sewing Plans: Addendum, A Thermal Under-T-Shirt

When I was figuring out my nippy weather sewing plans, I really should have included a plan for something like this: a warm under-garment. As much as I like my denim Tova top and as pleased as I am to own it, it turns out that nippy weather wear it is NOT! This, however, IS. 

Pattern:

This is my third go at the Tilly and the Buttons Agnes knit top pattern, and I'm confident that it won't be my last. The Agnes top is actually very similar to my early attempts at self-drafting a knit top pattern, but it's just so perfect that I doubt I'll ever return to my self-drafted efforts again. Having learnt from the fit of my previous versions, this time I used a size 3, grading out from the armpit to a size 4 for the rest of the sleeve. I knew this would result in a snug fitting garment, but as this is intended to be underwear, that was what I was looking for. When I say snug, I mean snug: I not sure you're ready for this jelly so I avoided sharing a modelled shot of this garment! 

The Agnes already has a fairly wide neckline, but I omitted the neckband in favour of a decorative elastic finish to make the neckline wider still. I did this to avoid it peeking out from whatever I'm wearing on top. 

Fabric and Notions:

This knit fabric had been burning a hole in my stash for about the last four years! For a while I was planning to use it to make a cropped, short sleeve Jenna cardi, but A) I wasn't sure there'd be quite enough, B) I think a tiny summer cardi would see so little wear throughout the year that I wasn't sure I could justify using this fabric on that project, and C) I hate wearing white. I considered dyeing this fabric red, but was worried about getting an even result so I ended up doing nothing with it.

I don't know what the hell it is, or even how to adequately describe it, other than it's fairly thick with a floral design/texture somehow knitted into it. Any ideas? Basically, it looks like its designed for thermal garments. Hey, I never claimed to be reinventing the wheel here. When I realised that a warm layerable under-t-shirt would help my current clothing selection limp along 'til Spring, I knew where to look. 

The cotton lace elastic that I used round the neckline was kindly given to me by my lovely blog sponsor, Textile Garden. At time of writing I couldn't find it on their site so they may have sold out. It's really special stuff so hopefully they'll be getting more in soon, otherwise you could drop them an email in case they still have a stash somewhere. I applied it by gently stitching it to the right side of the garment neckline with a lightning flash stitch, then I flipped the bottom elastic part to the inside of the neckline and secured it in place with a tiny zigzag so only the lace part peeks out. The whole thing stretched out a little through handling but a healthy dose of steam from my iron did the trick and made everything sit as it should. 

Thoughts:

The aim of this garment is to bring some of my garments back into regular rotation that would otherwise be hiding until Spring. It has succeeded in that I have been wearing my anchor applique remade sweatshirt, but sadly even this wide neckline is visible underneath my 1960's Breton top. 

Cost:

Pattern: £0 (I got it for free because I teach at Tilly and the Buttons HQ, but it can be bought here for £12.50. If I hadn't got it for free, I definitely would have bought it anyway because it is excellent and my ideal knit top pattern. I've used it three times now, with plans for many more).
Fabric: £0 (it was lurking in my stash but I'm pretty sure I didn't pay for it in the first place)
Elastic: £0 (I got it for free, but sadly I can't link to where it came from at this time, sorry)
Total: £0

Refashion Friday: Remade Leopard Print Agnes Top

After the success of my first TATB Agnes top, I knew that it wouldn't be long before another sprang forth from my machine! This time round, I've really explored this pattern's trashier, Rockabilly possibilities. 

Pattern:

I used the same pattern as my previous version, which graded from the Size 3 at the shoulders and bust out the Size 4 for the waist and hips. The only change I did make was to implement what I learnt from the stripy version: that I needed to grade out to a Size 4 around the upper arm part of the sleeves. I fannied about applying, unpicking and the re-applying elastic for the front neckline gathering detail. However, I ended up unpicking it for good as the print is so busy on this fabric that the gathering kind of got lost. 

Fabric:

I bought this humungous, nasty-synthetic leopard print top (pictured above) from a charity a few months ago. Amusingly, the garment label tried to claim a hefty cotton content in the fibre composition. If that is the case, then I can legitimately claim to be 75% inuit. I intended to make some baby trousers from it but ended up finding something else instead which was more suitable. So this top had been knocking about in my sewing corner clogging up the place for months, until inspiration struck.  

Refashion/Remake:

I cut along the original top's seam lines to harvest as much fabric from it as possible. When laying down the Agnes top pattern pieces on to the fabric, I positioned the bottom edges 2 cm lower (see above) so I could use the original top's existing hem on the front, back and sleeve pieces. By eliminating the need to hem, this became a really quick make. I used my overlocker for everything except for topstitching down the neck seam allowance. I did that with the twin needle that came with my regular sewing machine (see below). It's my most successful attempt to use a twin needle so far! 

Thoughts:

This top is awesome, in a trashy diva kind of way. I'm wearing it in these pictures with my denim high waist bow skirt, but I'd love to make some stretchy black capri pants to wear it with. Although I don't like to think what I'd smell like after a day in that synthetic substance! 

I have plans for one more Agnes top project in the near future, then that's my Agnes-appropriate stash busted and I'll have to move on. I'm going to try the poofy sleeve version next, I'm excited to give that feature a try. Have you sewn the Agnes top pattern yet? Or do you have plans to? Which is your favourite combo of features? 

Stripy Agnes Top

It's very rare that I make a pattern within a couple of years of its release, let alone a couple of months. But I've firmly fallen in love with Tilly's new top pattern, Agnes, and I had appropriate fabric on hand so I jumped right in with uncharacteristic speed. It'd be hard for me to argue that I need another stripy top, but I do only have two short-sleeved jersey tops/T-shirts and both of those are looking pretty ropey these days. Therefore I've filled a wardrobe gap with a style that I know I'm going to wear! 

Pattern:

First off, full disclosure: I was given this pattern for free but without any expectation that I would write a review or even actually sew it. I'm not in the market of sewing anything that I genuinely am not interested in making or wearing, but this particular pattern is so up my street that I've given it a spare set of keys in case I ever get locked out! In fact, it's very similar to a self-drafted scoop neck top pattern with gathered sleeveheads that I used to make this black top (third picture down from the top) and this leopard print version (seventh picture down from the top). The general fit is almost the same to my self-drafted attempt, but I love the dramatic ruched sleeves and cute gathered neckline/bust detail included in the Agnes pattern. 

I plan to make a bunch of tops from this pattern, I really like how the different elements of this style can be mixed and matched for a lot of different looks. I chose to start with the gathered neckline variation and the plain half-sleeves. I blended between sizes from the Size 3 at the bust to a Size 4 for the waist and below. This worked out perfectly for the body, but the Size 3 sleeves were too tight for my 'substantial' upper arms. I ended up having to cut them down to the shorter length sleeves that you see in these pictures. As I said before, I'm pretty low on short-sleeves tops and T-shirts so it was no bad thing in the end. For my next version (which I actually finished making last night!) I've blended out from the underarm points to the Size 4 for the rest of the sleeve.  

Fabric:

This is some slinky jersey that was cut from a sample piece that was donated to the textile recycling charity that I used to work for. We used to be sent sooo much fabric to work with, way more than we could ever use up. So if there were pieces that weren't appropriate for the clothing range we made, or the lengths were so long that we could cut off a metre or two and still not be able to use it all, we would sometimes buy them for ourselves by making a donation to the charity via the 'karma tin'. I'm finally running pretty low of knit fabric that I acquired this way! This stripy jersey may look familiar to you, I've used it before for my long-sleeved Dolores batwing top, which I wear A LOT. It's very drapey, but its fine weight and excellent stretch and recovery works well with the snug silhouette of this pattern.

Thoughts:

Ah this top is so pretty! It's sexy and fun, with a kind of retro/French/Rockabilly vibe (IMO). I love the way the gathered neckline detail distorts the stripes of the fabric. Or rather the stripes of the fabric highlight the gathered neckline detail. Either/Or. However, I'm not sure if the position of the gathered part looks quite right on me or not. My boobs aren't quite as high and pert as they were before breast-feeding took its toll on them and the gathering sits kind of high up on me. I've experimented with making the gathers lower down, but it looked a bit odd as I think it really needs to start at the bottom of the neck binding as it is indicated on the pattern to get the gentle sweetheart neckline. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Am I over-thinking it? I'll give the top a few wears to see if the position of the gathering continues to bother me or not. I doubt that it will!