Linen Santa Rosa Top

I made another Santa Rosa! Actually, I made this top before the dress, to test out how the unfamiliar placket worked. You can also see this project on the Liesl & Co blog now, as well. 

Here I made the top view only, but it's very similar to my dress version, in that I left off the pockets, as I'm not a huge fan of breast pockets. The main difference with this (aside from length of course) is that I left the placket loose, no buttons at all. 

This linen blend is a stiffer fabric than called for in the pattern, so the interfaced placket is quite sturdy, in the sense that it will hold its shape and place - I don't have to worry about gaping and sagging with it. So it works out well just leaving it as is. It's not too low, and the way it sits means that unless you are doing some active moving about, it's not going to reveal anything.

I left the length of the top at the pattern lines, and quite like it. I was worried it might be too cropped for my tastes, but it really isn't. I have a higher waisted skirt in my closet (Butterick 5466) which is perfect, as it removes any concern that my midriff would show when I raise my arms. 

This top was such a quick and simple project. I really like the way the placket is constructed on the Santa Rosa, it made it easy to get a good result on the first try. And the standing collar is a little different and gives this top that extra flair that makes it a good addition to the wardrobe. Also, this fabric is a remnant that I've used in two previous projects, and is now mostly gone. It's also very light and cool for these summer days. A win all around! 

Liesl & Co. Santa Rosa

My latest project is one that I made as part of the Liesl & Co. Advisors Circle. You can see my full post about it over at their blog now! 

A few notes about it here for my readers, though. I combined the top and dress views for my outfit; I cut the dress length but used the cap sleeve of the top view. I also decided not to include the breast pockets from the top view. Instead, I added some side seam pockets, marking the waistline when cutting it out so that I could place the pockets correctly. To add these, I just used my favorite pocket template that I keep pinned up in my sewing room.

I made a couple of minor changes aside from these - I graded from 10 at the neckline to 14 at the hip, adding a tiny bit more across the hip area. I also changed the self-tying sash to a narrower D-Ring belt as I was using bronze toned buttons and had matching bronze D-Rings in the stash and thought it would look nice together! 

I can see switching the box pleat at the back yoke to an inverted pleat for another option, if you wanted the back to be less poofy at that point. Because I'm using a fabric with nice drape, it works very well, although I will always wear this with a belt, as the design intends. My height and shape means that the back is too voluminous for me without a belt. If I was a bit taller or the dress a bit shorter, it could be carried off loose, I think! 

In any case, I love this fabric and was so pleased to match it up with this pattern. It works really well, and is light and comfortable to wear. I was a bit worried when I started that the colour was a bit too orangey for me, but when it was all done it actually worked well and is more red than orangey against my skin so it works! It's a nice pattern with a very interesting placket construction so I'm keeping this one in the rota for potential duplicate makes.