For my third project, the letter C, in my quest to   I chose a Christine Jonson Pattern. Recently Christine Jonson had a holiday sale and there was a 30% discount on sewing patterns. That was enough of a savings on a single pattern to cover the shipping cost. Since I can never pass up a bargain, the time was right for me to try the Christine Jonson pattern line! I immediately ordered pattern #107, the Tie-back Top. 

When I read the reviews on the Tie-back top on PatternReview I found one review written by Diane Slade, who revealed that she has done pattern testing for Christine Jonson in the past. On Ms. Slade’s blog “Thoughts From A Seamstress” Diane posted a tutorial on sewing the Tie-back Top. So I felt very comfortable ordering the Tie-back Top, knowing I’d have lots of help on hand with its construction.

Christine Jonson patterns are made from the same type of tissue as the big 4. However Christine also includes a very handy “Perfect Sizing” worksheet with each pattern. Filling out the worksheet will enable you to pick your perfect size by taking into account factors that other patterns don’t – such as the stretch content of the fabric you are using as well as its weave and stretch recovery. She includes other tips about necessary ease and defines the difference between wearing ease, design ease and negative ease.

One thing to be aware of before ordering this particular pattern is that it requires over 3 yards of 60 inch wide fabric! This garment is long-sleeved, but over 3 yards is an enormous amount of fabric for a top! Why so much fabric? This top is completely self-lined, requiring almost double the usual amount of fabric needed for this type of garment. Since I didn’t look at the fabric requirements before I ordered this pattern I felt very lucky that I had two thin knits (that coordinated) in my stash and enough yardage of each to make this top.

I’m very happy with how this top came out. It fits well, and except for reducing the length (so the top didn’t end at my widest part) it required no alterations to the original pattern. It’s comfortable and easy to wear, with no gaping at the neckline, which is a problem I usually run into with clothes I sew for myself.

The wrinkles in the top in the photo are just due to my sad attempt at posing for the camera. I did have some better photos of the top, but in all of those I looked like my face was melting. Um, I have to admit that I the photo I chose to print is the only one in which my top looks more wrinkled than my face instead of vise-versa. Oh vanity, thy name is katboulder.