Summer Pinspiration 2.0

Be Bold Top & Dress
Feel Pretty Pants

Yay! I finally managed to join another Pinspiration Challenge from Ellie and Mac. I’ve been missing those… so much fun!

I saw this cute top on one of those fast fashion shops (I forgot which one 🙁 ) and thought it was so cute for summer. I

The Be Bold Top and Dress was the perfect choice for this one.

The pattern is drafted for wovens and comes with a lot of options:

5 lengths: Bikini,crop, shirt, tunic, and dress;
4 sleeve choices: sleeveless, short, midi and long;
optional flounce;
button up option.

To replicate this look I opted for the crop length with short sleeves and no flounce.

The sleeves of the inpiration are puffier and it has a square neckline and even though I think it’s really cute I prefer the shoulder to shoulder neckline on me so I kept true to the pattern there.

Also, I think that the original fabric is something close or similar to a quilter’s cotton or a poplin so it has more body and keeps more its shape than the soft viscose I used.

But hey, how cute are these little whales? I just couldn’t resist them! 😀

So, what modifications did I make to achieve this look?

I started out by just adding the two straps on the side seam. I wanted the bow to be a bit dramatic so I used the width of the fabric for the longer side (the one that crosses over the waist) and about 60% of that for the shorter side.

The problem with just adding the straps, and keeping everything else as is, was that it created way too much volume on the front waist.

To solve this I made 2 darts on the front side to eliminate the fabric excess and hemmed the bottom edge instead of creating a casing and adding elastic. The back panel is as per pattern and has the elastic on the waist.

I sort of eyeballed the darts, I tried the top on and pinched the excess to figure out the amount needed to be removed. I made a note of how much it was but now can’t find it… *face palm* When/if I come accross it I’ll update this post.

This is what it looks like when untied.

For the shorts, I used the Feel Pretty pants pattern as-is, no mods whatsoever.

Feel Pretty Pants Sewing Pattern By Ellie and Mac Sewing Pattern

The options I used was the higher wasitband and shortest length and fabric is viscose linen.

This was such a fun project!
The top modification was super easy and quick to make and I’m super happy with how it turned out.

What do y’all think?
Did I nail or fail it?