African Sunset

Back with another finished project!  This time it's Simplicity 2372, which is one of those sportswear patterns that doesn't look all that interesting on first glance.  The ensemble on the model did not appeal, but I wanted to give the top a try, because I'm always looking for simple patterns for cotton tops to wear in the summer.  In cases like this, I immediately remove all the pattern pieces unrelated to what I'm sewing and mark the envelope accordingly.  The cats love to have a pile of tissue to romp around in!  You can also use the pattern tissue as, well, tissue paper for wrapping little gifts.

The fabric is an African print I bought at the thrift shop, two yards for four dollars.  I wasn't actually crazy about the print, because I kept thinking of it as either bows or wrapped candies,but cutting in the other direction mitigated that, and now I really like it! The state of the price tag tells me I prewashed this at some point.  It's especially important to prewash ethnic fabrics like this, because you never know what sort of dyes they used.  I usually dump in about a half cup of salt for the first wash, to set the dye. 

I am pretty pleased with the result! 

I lined things up pretty well in the front...

...and in the back!

 There was one flaw in the fabric, which I didn't notice until it ended up right in the front.

I wore the top, as is, and it didn't seem too noticeable, but just to make myself feel better, I zigzagged over it with some matching thread, just to help it blend in.

My only problem was figuring out how to wear it.  The darkest color in the print is actually navy blue, but I don't own any navy bottoms.  I tried it with black for the pictures, but that seemed too stark.  Finally, I ended up wearing it with brown pants and a brown, beaded necklace.  I thought that did a nice job of warming it up!