Banksia

I was casually browsing The Village Haberdashery a few weeks ago and, I have no idea how (!), a couple of new patterns landed on my doorstep the very next day...! One was the Banksia top.

Banksia by Megan Nielsen

 Before I even unfolded the pattern I had to ooh and aah over the envelope it came in and the instruction booklet, the nicest pattern I have ever seen!

Anyway, I resisted the temptation to make it until last week then the urge bacame too much and it had to be made!

I used some cotton voil from my stash. I bought it 3 years ago and used some for an outfit for little e but, being very new to sewing at the time, bought far too much so I had about 1.5m left.

I cut the size large as that is what tied up with my bust measurement but I will definately go for a s/m the next time as it is fairly huge (and after seeing these photos will definately be adding some more darts to the front of this version so people don't think I am expecting!!).

Untucked is not an option, you should have seen how massive I looked from the side!!

The pattern is really quick to come together and the placket has two different options, both of which have great instructions.

Overall I loved the pattern and instructions and will absolutley make it again but...

 - The collar did not fit the neckline all that well, it is meant to butt up to the placket but if you put it on as it was there would have been about a 1 inch gap at either side. I had to fiddle a bit resulting the collar being slightly narrower at the back than the front. I am not the only one to have this problem it seems, I searched on pinterst for the top and a few of the blog posts about it mentioned a similar problem.

 - The bust darts are really low, I didn't think I had a particularly high bust, I have breastfed 2 children for 2 years each for goodness sake, but they sit really low (even taking in to account the fact that I cut about 2 sizes too big). I think because my top is so huge anyway I get away with it which is lucky because the fabric is very fine and does not like a lot of unpicking!

Now to resist the temptation to make it again straight away!

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