Flower Power Pt. 1 // Tilly and the Buttons Coco Top

Well hello there friends! It’s been a while. Spring has come in roaring and ready this year, basically kicking off with a few weeks of summer-like weather before settling back into its normal routine. Flowers are steadily popping up from the ground and I am finally getting around to sharing some cute floral numbers I sewed up literally about a year ago. (Better late than never!).

The story begins with this irresistible daisy jacquard knit from Blackbird Fabrics. It was selling like hot-cakes and I snuck in my order with the last 1m they had left. I sent an email to see if there was a little bit extra at the end of the roll and thankfully I was able to snag an extra half meter! Woohoo. Now the question was, what would I actually do with it? See, I had no plans when I asked for more…just regular old fabric stash hoarding.

It’s a light, summery print, but the knit is quite warm and squishy so I needed a pattern that would work for all seasons. I eventually narrowed down to either the True Bias Marlo sweater or a Tilly and the Buttons Coco sweater. Both would be so perfect but I couldn’t choose and I didn’t have enough to sew two sweaters…or did I?

I started getting creative with my pattern pieces and noticed that if I made *cropped* versions of both patterns, I could juuuuust squeeze both onto this yardage. I could have my cake and eat it too! I am planning to write a larger post soon about how I actually managed to pull off this fabric wizardry but for now, sweater number one: The Coco Top.

The Coco pattern already has such a retro 60s vibe with the wide roll neck, so making a cropped version feels like a natural fit. I cut a size 3 of the pattern and naturally had to make a few adjustments. I chose to crop the length at the waist  ‘lengthen/shorten’ line and then added 1 inch for a wide hem. I also eased the curve into the waist and made it fall more straight down from the bust.

As per my usual tall-gal adjustment, I added 2 cm to sleeve length, but after sewing it up and trying it on I realized the sleeves were still a wee bit too short for my preferences. (It was totally wearable but I like my sleeves to basically cover my whole hands, especially in snuggly fabric.) To combat this I went back into my off cuttings and was able to cut out two rectangles and added little cuffs to the ends of the sleeve. It makes the top a little more casual feeling but it also feels pretty natural on such a plushy knit.

In my creative pattern finagling, I couldn’t cut the neck piece on the fold (which would have one center back seamline), and so I had to cut it in two and have two seams. I aligned them at the shoulders and you can’t really tell. One thing I didn’t consider was the thickness of the fabric affecting the rolling over of the neckline. I didn’t have much fabric room to play with, but in the future if I were making this pattern in a thicker knit, I would make it a little taller so it would fully roll over properly. Again, not a big deal and it doesn’t change the overall outcome, but its one of those small details.

As for construction, it zipped up super quickly in an afternoon, just using the overlocker and ta da! It’s been pretty fun playing with ways to style the sweater. I had assumed it would be more of a spring/fall garment but I found myself digging it out over the winter and wearing with wool skirts for a serious retro look.

Stay tuned for part two with the Marlo Sweater!