Parrots. Clowns. Confetti.

 Sometimes you don't want to play for sheep stations. Sometimes you just want to make a quick top from some inexpensive material you picked up in an op shop.  And sometimes it all works out marvellously.

I found this remnant at my local Vinnies and paid about $2 for it, if memory serves me correctly. There was barely twice my top length, or in other words not even enough to construct a top. But I wasn't daunted. Last year, inspired by a Halston post by jetset sewing (https://jetsetsewing.com/2015/03/05/banish-the-fiddly-bring-on-the-funk-halston/),  and this pattern(http://vintagepatterns.wikia.com/wiki/McCall%27s_6528_A)  I made a poncho top.

A poncho top is a poncho that's a top.  (Glad I could clear that up for you, you're welcome).  Oh, ok - it's made from one piece of fabric with a hole cut in it and it probably represents the majority of tops made and worn in the history of clothing. So, when faced with just enough fabric to run over the shoulder from rear hip to front hip, I immediately thought of the poncho. 

The top pattern is shaped like so:

(This is the one I prepared last year and unpicked for a pattern.)

Edged all around with the widest narrow hem foot I own (6mm) and then stitched closed for just a few centimetres on each side.  It is a brilliant top shape to wear on super hot days, because there's a lot of airflow, and though your arms do have a bit of fabric on them, it doesn't cling. But it does shield you from the sun. I suspect it would make an excellent festival top and I will check that some day.  Maybe.



The neckhole is asymetrical and the narrower side is the front. I just happen to like it that way. On the second top I used a round neckline and a front slit.

I faced the neckhole as shown, and then, on a whim, unpicked the top centimetre of each side of the slit, inserting a neck tie then restitching. A bias neckline edging that turned into ties would work just as well. Maybe  better.

 Here I demonstrate the ties, airhostess style:

Anyway,  in the event it worked a treat. I also really like the fabric, which has lots of my favourite colours in a groovy eighties abstract pattern. Is it parrots? Or confetti? Or clowns?  That, my friends, is between you and your subconscious.