I’ve previously only made the dress version of the Tilly and the Buttons’ Stevie but I thought it would be nice to add the top version into my wardrobe. When we got the Rainbow Clouds Lady McElroy cotton lawn in, I thought it would look great as a Stevie.
I was all set to make it as normal, when it occurred to me, that I could make it a little bit more special by changing out the back yoke panels for our navy lace.
This did involve some changes to the pattern so I thought I would share what I did.
- I used the scallops of the lace as the back opening – this meant I didn’t need to finish those edges. To do this, I folded the pattern piece back by 1.5 cm to remove the seam allowance before I cut into the fabric
- I omitted the front and back facing pieces
- I used bias binding to finish the neckline
- I made sure all the finished seam allowances were pressed towards the cotton lawn fabric so they wouldn’t show through the lace
- I added some navy grosgrain ribbon instead of the fabric for the neck ties.
To bind the edge instead of using the facing pieces, I marked out the 1.5 cm seam allowance (note, this is tricky on lace!) and sewed the binding to the right side of the neckline, with the stitching line, on the seam allowance. I trimmed the excess fabric down to meet the bias tape and then pressed everything to the wrong side.
At this point, I tried to machine stitch the binding to the neckline but I could not get it to lie completely flat, no matter how much pressing I did. After a couple of attempts, I decided it would be best to hand stitch it. That worked much better, but I am still not 100% happy with it!
Apart from those changes, I constructed everything else in the normal way.
I’m really happy with the contrast panel – I think it gives a nice bit of detail and I love the combination of the two fabrics together.
I think the length is great and will look good over jeans or tucked in to high waisted trousers.