Vogue 8390 Knit wrap top

I have been sewing up a storm lately, and it's not panicked me-made-May sewing either.  It's just that I have the time, the fabric, the patterns, and the drive to sew.  I knew I wanted to work on some knit tops and start sewing up some of the (many many) knit top patterns I have acquired.  I was debating between Vogue 8390 and Vogue 8790 seen here:

Vogue 8390

Vogue 8790

They are fairly similar but after reading reviews on www.patternreview.com, I decided that the 8390 would be best to try first mostly because V8790 would require a bit of shortening.  

Ta Da!

I used a polyester-lycra knit from fabric.com, found here.  I cut a straight 14 making the sleeves the width of the size 16.  I love it when patterns have the finished bicep measurement on the sleeve!  It's something I often forget about until it's too late.

I did a few things differently from the pattern instructions.  The pattern calls for the front to be fully lined.  So over your stomach, there would be 4 (!) layers of fabric...on a summer top!  Nope, not going to do that!  Instead I cut a 1.5" strip of fabric across the entire width of my fabric (so it would be definitely long enough) to use as a neck binding.  This eliminated the need for the double layers of the front pieces and created a nice finished edge to the neckline.  This also reduced the amount of fabric required by at least 1/2 yard!  

By not lining the front pieces I needed to deal with hemming the overlays BEFORE sewing up the side seams since the right front overlay is raised up from the bottom hem.  I hadn't anticipated this but it worked out without any problems.  

Oh-I almost forgot!  I used Steam-a-Seam for the first time on the hem and boy was it GREAT!!

I love the finished top but I will do 2 things differently next time.  

1.  The shoulders are too wide, you can see in this photo how the shoulder seam is off of my natural shoulders.

2.  The left front is a little loose.  In this closeup from the first photo, you can see how the bottom layer (next to my left hand) is very floppy.  I plan on slimming that piece down at least 1.5".  I'll either take a pie shaped piece out of the center of the pattern piece or take small triangular pieces off of the sides starting from the hem tapering to nothing about 3" up the sides.  

I love this top and I can't wait to make it again.  What's even better is that I have made a coordinating skirt:

I'll post about that one another time!