Today I want to share a new make that may look simple, but has some complexity under the hood. I recently made my first Kathryn Top by Itch To Stitch and especially liked the short sleeves. The Edie Top by Sew Over It is another knit top I really liked, but I’m not keen on its long sleeves. I had a thought to combine the cute and simple neckline of the Edie Top with the short sleeves of the Kathryn. Together it sounds kind of like a nun — Sister Edie-Kathryn — but fits great!

The fabric is a very springy knit from Girl Charlee called “Butter Yellow Gray Mod Dotty Ovals Tencel Spandex Blend Knit Fabric” (what a mouthful!). I got 2 yards for $8.76 and used less than half of it here. This means I had money leftover to hit my local donut shop, Coco Donuts, as soon as I was done sewing.

I’m wearing my new top with my Mountain View Pull-on Jeans, also by Itch To Stitch. I probably wear them 6 days out of 7.

This Edie-Kathryn will be my second top for a 6-piece module I’m working on. I love working on a module because I end up with several complete outfits.

In May, I had put in significant time modifying the Edie Top to do a dartless FBA, which is my favorite thing to do with knit tops now. This technique lengthens the front and adds gathers on the sides with three lines of stitches, rather than adding darts.

To add the Kathryn sleeve to the Edie bodice, I lined up the shoulder of the Kathryn with the shoulder of the Edie, then copied around them both onto a new piece of paper. Finally, I cut that out and taped it under the Edie.

I did the same on the back piece. You’ll need to put the front piece on top of the back piece, right sides together, to be sure the sleeves are the same length on both pieces.

One other issue I wanted to fix with this Edie was, in my first one, the neck gaped open a bit. I wanted the neckline to sit on my collarbones. I found this excellent blog post on Phat Chick Designs that had a quick fix: Slice a triangular piece out of the center front that was a 1/2″ at the top and narrowed to nothing at the bottom. This worked and removed the extra fabric around the neck that was dropping open.

The rest of the neckline is so cute, and really easy to sew. The edge is just turned under and stitched with a straight stitch.

The Sew Over It pattern instructions for the Edie call for using a stay tape around the neckline. I couldn’t find anything like what they described in the U.S. (I did find it in Australia) so I just cut strips of Pellon EZ-Knit interfacing and ironed that on around the neckline. The neckline did not stretch out at all and I saved some international shipping.

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I was lucky enough in August to get an order in for a By The Lakeside knitting project bag. Sandy will update her store every month or so and then the bags sell out in a few hours (some in a few minutes!). Here’s mine:

I bought it especially to house my project for the Joji Fall Knitalong 2020, starting September 1. If you’re wondering, I’m making Joji’s Beachgrass socks for the KAL.

My By The Lakeside bag inspired me to try and make my own. My friend Amy had recently asked me to her house to fill a paper grocery bag full of fabrics. She’s also a knitter and I wanted to thank her by using some of her fabrics in a bag for her.

I used a pattern I purchased on Etsy by Kandou Crafts called the Easy Zipper Pouch. It was quite a bit smaller than what I wanted to make so I simply lengthened the pieces for the top fabric on the largest size in the pattern.

Amy was very happy with it and said now she needs to cast on something new! -rp