Butterick 5283 - Green floral knit top

*Our Mac is in the shop so I'm having to use a very ancient Dell laptop to do this post. The screen resolution of this computer is so poor, I could have a huge piece of pepper in my teeth and not be able to see it. Please excuse any glaring flaws...

Here's my newest top, as promised. It has a cute front twist and is made from Ity Jersey knit. I accidentally cut it a little small. It's not super tight, just a bit more form fitting then I usually wear. I do love it, though. This is the first garment made on my new sewing machine. I had so much fun making it.

Here's the back. This design is very simple.

Close up of the front twist:
(This design creates a large space under the twist and above the bottom bodice, right in the cleavage. I slip-stitch it closed. The twist would be cuter if it weren't stitched down, so if I make this again, I'll have to figure out how to close that space up.)

This is the inside twist. I decided to hand-stitch the facings over the front seam, instead of catching the front and the facing together in the seam, per the instructions. I think it looks neater this way, and really takes very little time.

I used french seams for the sides and arms, and covered the armhole seams with bias tape.

Here you can see the back neckline, which is finished with bias tape. This is part of the design, and creates a smooth finish without the bulk of a facing.

I actually bought this pattern for view D, but don't like the dropped shoulders. I couldn't figure out how to make them into regular shoulders - will have to cut it out with the dropped shoulders, sew it up, then try the top on to determine where to cut. But that seamed like a lot of work, and I really wanted to try out my new machine, so I went with view B. I do plan to make D in the near future, though.

Oh, I just have to show you my fabric steal. Jo-Ann's was having a half price sale on all their clearance decorator fabrics. Sometimes these can be used for fashion fabrics, so I started looking around. This is a 100% silk with embroidered flowers that retailed for $49.99 a yard. It was marked down to $12/yard, so I got it for $6/yard!!! I think it's just beautiful and am going to save it for something really special.

Up next is the jacket from this post. I've finished tracing the pattern, and am going to start cutting it out tonight.