Pattern: Circle Top by Papercut Patterns

OMG! HEART how this top came out. Here’s my Circle Top by Papercut Patterns! I chose a wool jersey knit (Gorgeous!) fabric with pleats that I found at Mood Fabric. $14 per yard! It gave it an Elizabethan-ish style. Yet modern. The pattern and the fabric together gave the piece this accordion looking edge. Such a lovely detail. No fancy tricks required. Some Nap wrangling is required though! It’s my ode to Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please!

Knits! This was my first project working with knits and it was actually not bad at all. The fabric was not at all that difficult to work with, all you have to watch out for is not stretching or pulling the fabric. Let it do its thing. Keep the fabric flat, in fact avoid lifting it as much as possible. I even pinned it while it was flat on the floor. The raw edges stay flat enough to work with as long as it’s not overworked while handling or sewing. When in doubt use lots of pins. Go slow and handle it gingerly. That’s pretty much it. The only difficulty I had was in getting it on grain in the very beginning because it does have weight and does stretch on its own. Once it was flat with no wrinkles or bumps I just left it there. Cut around the pieces and only picked them up when ready to sew.

Tops! This was also my first top and first piece dealing with armholes, sleeves, and cuffs. Not bad at all. Just make sure to mark the notches, line up carefully, and pin lots. The pattern instructions are clear and simple to follow. The piece is one giant circle with 2 holes (from sleeves), 2 sleeves, and 2 cuffs. The edge finish is a homemade bias tape. I left this out so the edges on my top could curl up.

Problems! I had two issues while making this top. #1 I did not have a serger or overlock machine so I could not do the Overlock Stitch. Instead I did the standard Straight Stitch on the entire piece. It still turned out beautifully. The only thing to watch out for is making sure the join areas don’t bunch up. I really didn’t have too much trouble with this at all. The seams turned out pretty flawless. #2 The Cuffs. Since I did not serge it, sewing the joins were different for me. I had to translate them slightly for traditional sewing methods. I ended up winging it and working the cuffs with Right Sides facing out and continued as directed. Attaching the cuff to the sleeve was also confounding but in the end I placed the cuff inside the sleeve to Straight Stitch it on to attach (Right Sides together) and it turned out fine. Other than that it was so fun to make, a great first knit project with really awesome results.

Awesome! Thanks Katie for creating this lovely pattern. Perfect for a beginner looking to try a knit top or someone more advanced looking to experiment. Suitable for any season – just pick an appropriate fabric. I also think the style is classic yet modern enough to fit anyone’s tastes. It’s so versatile and the possibilities are endless. HEART IT! See full details on the pattern in my previous post or read more on Papercut Patterns, New Zealand here – www.papercutpatterns.coms