We had one day of warm weather in Portland this April and now it’s back to winter. Well, it’s fine with me because my go-to tops for cool weather often have a high neck. This week, I was excited to try my first pattern by Style Arc, an Australian pattern company based in Melbourne: the Winnie Knit Top.

This top was a really quick sew as I did everything but the split hem on the serger. I’m pretty sure I found the fabric at Mill End, a local fabric store. It’s a thick knit with four-way stretch and still quite a bit of structure. I bought it with a Sew Over It Edie Dress in mind, but thought better of it, as dresses just never tend to get worn.

I absolutely love the little details in this pattern, like the long cuffs and long, split bottom hem. The one issue I had was that the shoulders are much too narrow. This is causing some pulling in front under my neck. I was tossing and turning the night I finished this top, just thinking of a dozen ways I could fix this issue; cut a keyhole in front, change it to a v-neck, make it a cold shoulder, split the top of the sleeves and add fabric underneath that puffs out like a Cinderella ball gown. You get the idea — it became more and more ridiculous. In the end, the top is not uncomfortable and I’m just going to live with it!

The funnel neck was a new feature for me. The shoulders are sewn all the way up a grown-on neck piece. Then the neckband just folds under. There were no more instructions than to fold the neck under and tack it in place. I wasn’t sure how really to accomplish this, so I folded the neck piece under and stitched the two seam allowances together. This seems to hold it down very well.

I first heard of Style Arc on the Sew Essential blog on YouTube. Lucy, the host, raves about the patterns but always mentions the instructions are much less than you usually see with indie patterns. She wasn’t kidding. The instructions were about an inch long — I almost didn’t find them. I agree with Lucy, though, and think someone who has sewn a few knit tops can figure this out.

Style Arc is a pattern company I will definitely look at again. Maybe not for jeans or coats right away, but certainly the beginner and intermediate patterns. -rp