Yellow Nursing Top

A few months ago I bought some yellow jersey material from an op shop. It was a very pretty yellow, just my colour. I make it a policy to snap up knit fabrics if I see them in opshops as knits are quite pricey compared to wovens. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it then, but a few days ago I thought that I should start drafting patterns for knits. And I've been wanting a top for nursing-ones that have discreet access for breastfeeding. I came up with this design.


It was to have an empire waistline, a wrap front with bust gathers, and a modesty panel behind with cutouts for nursing (see dotted line and gray shaded area). At first I wanted to make puffed cap sleeves  as in the picture, but when I made my pattern, I forgot and just make short set in sleeves.

I drafted the pattern from scratch using Winifred Aldrich's close fitting jersey bodice block.




I chose the option with greater ease (Aldrich gives you instructions for close fitting with maximum stretch, and another with more ease for less flexible material).



I took some pictures of the drafting and pattern manipulating processes- but stopped halfway because the pictures weren't that good. Here are some of them.

The back and the modesty panel for the front


This is the wrap front-I'm correcting the gape by slashing the neckline and pivoting it

That's all I have of the drafting. I WILL take more organised pictures in the future...

Anyways,  that was a few days ago and I didn't get to put the whole thing together till today. This is how it looks like.

Front View



Back View


That's an awful lot of wrinkles. Methinks I have to do a narrow back adjustment, a swayback adjustment, and a forward shoulder adjustment. Or maybe it's the way I'm standing.

Closeup


Below you'll see how it functions as a nursing top.

Discreet nursing access

Instead of pulling the top up for feeding, this top provides full coverage.

I'm really happy with the way this top turned out-it looks completely store bought. It's not my first time sewing a knit top, but it was the most successful. This was because I used  tricot knit interfacing strips to stabilise the necklines and armholes to keep them from stretching out of shape.

If anybody is interested, I can draft a custom nursing top pattern based on this or make you one. Just email me.