Josephine with sleeves, BABY.
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I would love to think that people read my blog simply for the merits of my (always perfectly and never excessively punctuated or parenthesie'd, and of course I never make up words or unusual spellings, that would just be silly) exquisite writing skills, not to mention my glorious and always well-executed (and never slap-dash or messed up) sewing skills, but who am I kidding there's probably a rough 50% of my blog readership that are just here for pictures of my kids. Having a baby this year has more than quadrupled my readership. OK I'M TOTALLY KIDDING that's actually NOT TRUE AT ALL -- but wouldn't that be funny if it were? Like: Rae, we think your sewing and ramblings are OK, but what this blog really needs is more BABY. SHOW US MORE BABY. !!! Still, I can never be too sure that my own set of merits and winning personality (and not my ability to procreate) produces the faithful readership I enjoy, dear readers, but you won't hear me complaining.
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At any rate, when Hugo decided he was done entertaining himself with his toy bar during the roughly 30 seconds I thought I had to snap a few pictures of this new Josephine top with my phone the other day, I figured it wasn’t such a bad thing if he made an appearance. Maybe that was his plan all along. Sneaky thing. Always has to hog the spotlight. As you can plainly see he is a shameless DIVA for the camera:
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This is the second Josephine top I’ve made with the tucks partially sewn (the first was this sleeveless rayon one), and I still maintain this is probably one of the most brilliant modifications I’ve made to the pattern so far. One simply sews the pleats as far as one wants them — it helps to mark them first of course — and leaves the bottom portion unsewn. The result is roomy and comfortable and looks quite fetching if I do say so myself.
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I also decided to curve the hem on this one so I carved it out like a shirt-tail hem, which worked insofar as it produced the more casual look I was going for, but ended up a wee bit too short on the sides. When I raise my arms over my head, anyone in the vicinity receives a full view of my post-baby muffin top (and I think the only thing worse than a muffin top is the actual *term* "muffin top")....THE. WORST. ACK!!! Oh well, I will just keep my spontaneous baby dance party moves on the more conservative side then, which means NO KERMIT ARMS today. Sorry Hugo.
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OH! The fabric is a lovely lightweight cotton with a loose weave that has colored threads running throughout; I procured it online from Guthrie and Ghani, a UK-based sewing shop owned by Lauren from the Great British Sewing Bee; she carries a lovely assortment of apparel fabrics (including this fabric, which is still available in the voiles and lawns section as of this writing). The pattern can be purchased as a PDF in my shop, right here.
Well then, I think that about sums it up. Clearly I am a bit too slaphappy to be trusted with a keyboard and the Internets today, so I’ll be hitting publish then before I start having second thoughts about editing for the sake of coherency or the appearance of sanity. Who needs THAT? Have a great weekend everyone!