I'm back! With the beautiful Nottingham Top

Hello again! I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has messaged, sent love and thought about me in my absence. I'm pleased to say I'm currently doing well and looking forward to sewing {and blogging} more regularly again.  I'm really happy to introduce the Nottingham Top to you along with my Mountain View Jeans I made a few weeks ago.  The Nottingham is the newest pattern by Itch to Stitch and the Mountain View Jeans are a fairly recent one of theirs too.  Nottingham is a lovely quick sew for jersey fabrics, with just 4 pattern pieces ad looks far more complicated than it is to sew.  In the past week I've made 3 and I'm only sewing an hour or so a day at the moment!

Those of you who have been following me a while will certainly not be surprised to see the first one I made was in a floral fabric! I bought this pretty viscose lycra at Kingston Fabricland in March and love how it turned out for this. It has plenty of stretch, beautiful drape and good recovery and it was the first of my stash fabrics which called to me having seen this pattern and even better that it perfectly matched my new pink jeans! 

The pattern includes 3 sleeve options (elbow, long and butterfly flutter) a round neck and is relaxed in fit through the body but with slim sleeves.  I chose the elbow length for this one as I knew it would make a pretty summer top.

Like all Itch to Stitch patterns, the sizing is US 00-20 (31-46" bust, 33-48" hips) and is a printable PDF pattern.  An A0 version is included if you prefer to skip the taping and get a copy shop to print full size for you however the pages all went together perfectly when printed 100% on my laser printer and I'd already sewn my first one {bar hemming} within an hour from downloading the pattern!  

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​As per the size chart, I made a size 0 grading out to a 2 at the hips {thanks lack of energy!}.  This is the first time I've ever had to grade an Itch to Stitch pattern and despite grading other designer's patterns regularly, I followed the instructions within the pattern to check them out.  As expected they were very thorough with illustrations and guidance of how to achieve the correct fit.  Other than grading out for my hips, all the tops I made are straight from the pattern without alterations.

the 'trickiest' part of this sew is sewing the knot and hemming around it but I found the key is to not overthink it.  The instructions are full of illustrations and lovely detailed instructions and talk you through each step and if followed fully it doesn't get overwhelming.  The top is hemmed after the knot is sewn which means I couldn't get as close to the knot with the hemming as I would usually like but it does get hidden inside the knot so it's not visible.  If you prefer, you could hem the front before sewing the knot but then you'd have to hem the back separately rather than at once, it's your preference really!

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I made number two in a very thin blue-green cotton lycra (approx 150gsm) which I bought at Birmingham Rag Market for a bargain £1 a metre!  I haven't been able to share that one here as our broadband is down and I can only use photos which are on my mobile phone but I'll add them here as soon as I can.

So number 3 was a little bit of an experiment, I thought the Nottingham would look awesome as a work appropriate jumper if I made it in sweater knit so I gave it a go! It didn't {quite} have the required stretch the pattern asks for but again this slub knit fabric was £1 a metre from Birmingham Rag Market so I was happy to take the risk and I'm glad I did!  It may even be my favourite of the 3 I've made so far!  It'll be great for ourdoor summer evenings once the sun has gone down too, just a little extra warmth whilst being pretty and a little different.

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With both of these Nottinghams' I'm wearing my Mountain View Pull on Jeans.....now be honest.....could you tell they were pull on?!  Great aren't they!?  As well as the extra comfort of a stretch denim waistband without fly or buttons, the other big advantage is that they sew up in about HALF the time of any other Jean pattern I've tried whilst looking just as convincing!  

​They still have the double topstitching, they still have the usual front functional pockets and back patch pockets and the fit really well partially due to the shaping the centre back leg seam allows!  

This denim was bought on eBay but I've since found it {and a green version the same} in Barry's Fabrics in Birmingham and on Minerva Crafts Website too, both for £7.99 a metre. I made size 0 in these and used 1.5 metres so a great value, easy to wear pair of jeans which I can be proud of saying I made when I get {regularly} asked about them and I've bought the green ready to make another pair as soon as I can.

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The Nottingham Top is on release sale until Wednesday 23rd May, click HERE for the pattern listing and HERE for the release blog with more inspiration from other testers in a variety of fabric in all sizes.

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Bellavista by Itch to Stitch

Uvita by Itch to Stitch

​Affiliate links are included throughout this post marked with GREEN TEXT it costs you nothing extra but means I get a few cents if you buy the pattern after clicking through.  I would love it if you could use them if this post has inspired you but feel free to navigate there yourself if you prefer! All opinions expressed on my blog are entirely my own. Thanks, Sarah