Hello happy sewists! I hope that you are having lovely weekends. The kind of weekends I love most are perfectly balanced between making things, drinking lots of coffee (who am I kidding, I do that every day!) and relaxing with friends and family. When I'm lounging around sewing, listening to the radio, topping off the water in the iron and the coffee in my cup, I wear my comfiest, stretchiest clothes. When sewing, I move around the house, from cutting on the floor, to the ironing board to the sewing machine, to a chair for pinning or unpicking, so comfort is a must.
While developing the Lou Box Top pattern, I took to wearing the knit versions during my weekend lounge time. This version has turned into one of my favorites. I bought the fabric from the bargain table at Joann's. It's very lightweight and I like the stripes and soft mottled blue colors but I wasn't crazy about it. So, I was kind of surprised when I ended up totally loving the top! I really love how the striped fabric looks along the neck edge. When sewing with striped knits, I always fussy cut the neckline along the stripes.
The Lou Box Top comes with 6 different views (super versatile!). For this top, I made the scoop neck with the View A, straight hem in size M/L. My bust is 39 inches, so there is 11 inches of ease in this top. It's a lot of ease but I really like this fit because it's not too revealing but you can still see a little bit of the shape of the body.
I'm 5'11" so I added about 2 inches to the length of the top. The hem hits at my hip. Here I'm wearing these super-high rise jeans so there's definitely no tummy peeking out. :) This pattern is designed to be mix and match with separate pattern pieces for the hems and body so it's really easy to swap out a different hem and really easy to change the length. All you do is move the hem pieces up or down on the fabric when you're cutting. Move it super low and you can make a tunic or a dress. (I have plans for a beach coverup soon!)
The fabric is very lightweight and a little bit sheer. The light weight creates a beautiful drape which is perfect for this pattern. It was a little bit windy when I took these pictures.
I'll be sharing more of my Lou Box Tops over the next few months and if you're interested in making one of your own, grab the pattern and join the sewalong starting next week!
