After hours upon hours upon hours of labor, I’m ready to reveal my first crop top! This is a Cynthia Rowley design that at first glance looks deceptively simple to put together.

Ever since I made this floral midi skirt I’ve been wanting to make a matching crop top to go with it since I had about a yard left of this divine fabric. A few months ago, I had a go at Burda 6970. However, I didn’t make a muslin first so of course it wasn’t going to fit. I got this far and then gave up:

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, and I had planned to make the complete Cynthia Rowley top and matching pants as part of the Monthly Stitch’s August Challenge, which is “2”, however you want to interpret that. Well, I made a test pair of the pants and was not happy with how they turned out. I’ve never successfully sewn a pair of pants and I wasn’t about to start now. Then it occurred to me that I could use the top from this pattern and finally make the matching top to go with my skirt! I’m so glad I did. I think the two patterns go together perfectly.

I made the top in a size 12. It has a little bit of ease but I really did not want to go any smaller than that. I used leftover cotton brocade from my last project to line the top.

Sewing with this fabric again was so lovely. It’s really a beautiful silk fabric to work with and it has a surprising amount of body. It really molds well.

This project really was a labor of love. I made two muslins to get the fit as close to perfect as I could. It’s not perfect but it’s good enough. This is a project that cannot be rushed. But I also found it very enjoyable. There were a lot of new techniques to try out. It was a bit of a puzzle at times. I would get stumped and have to walk away for awhile to figure it out. But if you stare at the instructions for long enough eventually they’ll all make sense.

The best part is you only need 3/4 yard of fabric to whip it together. By the way, I completely ignored their instructions on putting in the invisible zipper. It was far too complicated so I simply put it in the way I would any invisible zipper and I think it turned out just fine.

The only question that remains is where the hell am I going to wear this to?