DIY: Contrast color top

I've been sick for the whole week, which has sucked major ass.

I caught a nasty cold sometime during last week, and woke up on Sunday with a sore throat and sneezing like hell. For three days I couldn't do much besides lie in bed and watch Pretty Little Liars (I randomly started watching it and now I'm halfway through the second season, so I'm guessing that tells its sad story about me lying in bed and binge-watching it for three days?)

Yesterday I started feeling a bit better, so I decided to do some sewing.

I have made skirts and dresses and the like, but now I wanted to make a top. I had this thick, stretchy white fabric that I'd bought a while ago, but I hadn't figured out what to do with it. I decided to make the top out of that fabric, but since I shy away from clothes that are all white, I wanted to throw in some black for contrast.

Since my last project included bias tape, I decided to try it for this one as well.

My original sketch looked like this:

I wanted to make a cutout neckline and add black bias tape around the seams.

The original top front part didn't work out at all, so I scrapped it and was left with the bigger front piece and the back piece. I then went in a completely different direction and took a piece of black fabric, deciding to make the top front of just black material.

I finished the top and tried it on, and stretchy as it was, it was waaayyyyy too small for me. Like, I could just squeeze into it, but the seams didn't like it that much, and in the end I had to rip myself out of the top with a seam ripper. :D

Damn.

I ripped open the other side seam that I hadn't destroyed while trying to get out of the top. I rummaged around my stash to find something to add in between the seams, and found some black lace. I added strips of black lace on white fabric (on white fabric so that the lace wouldn't be see-through) to make more room for my stomach flab. The pieces of lace were actually the sleeves of a button-up lace shirt that I made into a sleeveless button-up during the summer heat.

So then I ended up with this:

Even though the original plan didn't include any side panels, I'm really happy with how the top turned out. The full-black top piece works pretty well, too.

Modeling the top:

(No face in the picture because I've just been sick for the entire week and I look like it, too. :P)

So yeah, now I can't wait to get well so I can wear the top (possibly with my kick-ass leather skirt). And then in like five minutes I will probably spill coffee on the top and that will be the end of that top, and it will remind me why I never wear white clothes. :D

But anyway, that kind of DIY piece of clothing this time. :)

love,
sneezing scoundrel