An Ashton Top with Sleeves!

I love simple tops such as the Ashton top by Helen's Closet. It's the perfect top for summer and I've been wearing mine all winter with cardigans. And then a little while ago, Helen came out with an expansion pattern to put sleeves on the Ashton top, making this top even more versatile! I immediately purchased it and pulled some fabric from my small stash.

The fabric is a gorgeous blue Tencel twill from Blackbird Fabrics. I'm not going to lie and say it was easy to work with for a beginner like me because it was definitely a challenge but the resulting garment is so comfortable, it was worth the pain.

The difficulty of working with this fabric though means this garment is really not perfect. And I'll need to make some minor adjustments for my next one.

For example, the shoulders are a tiny bit wide for me. I will probably need to take about 1/2" off there. The shoulders also do something funny when I lift up my arms - not sure if fixing the width will also fix that, but I plan on doing some research on that. I shall report back!

The darts are also a little weird on my top - I blame the shiftiness of the fabric for that though. Tracing, pinning and sewing those darts wasn't easy! 

But the length of the top and the sleeves are perfect for me. These sleeves aren't super practical and I found them to be a little bit of a pain when doing dishes, but they look pretty good I think.

I didn't have enough fabric to cut the back on the fold, so you'll notice a seam back there. I really don't mind the seam - this isn't a print so I didn't need to worry about print matching. I only had 1.5 meter and I really wanted long sleeves. The only way to do that was to cut the back as two separate pieces, add the seam allowance and then sew them together.

I'm so pleased with my Ashton with sleeves! The colour goes really well with these tan pants and will also work with jeans (I'm thinking my new York Pinafore) - definitely fills a gap in my closet.

The details:

• Pattern: Ashton top by Helen's Closet with the sleeve expansion pack
• Size: 16 (D cup)
• View: A (hip length)
• Fabrics: Tencel Twill from Blackbird Fabrics