Two tops in one blog post today… gosh. M7977 was THE ruffle top pattern for most of 2019 and 2020. It was still being bought up to 2022 of course but most people in the sewing universe had made it by then. Except me. I chose to finally make it after it went out of print!
You can still get it at a few online shops in the UK but I bought mine as a PDF from the US site. It goes together super quickly as its not many sheets and if you skip the sleeve you don’t want then it’s even quicker. I made a wearable toile of M7977 to test some changes. It was going to just be a toile but I found this pink viscose challis in my stash. It was riddled with holes and snags so I thought let’s try it and if/when it falls apart, I’d accept it had a good run.
I made view B without the sleeve cuff, instead using a gathered elastic hem. Then I cut the back bodice with a centre back seam instead of on the fold. This means you can create a seam opening and add a loop and button closure easily – It’s a bit a quicker than the keyhole facing. Lastly I used a bias binding facing at the neckline instead of the full facings.
I made a straight size 10 but it was too tight across the back and without the cuff the sleeve was a touch short for my liking. So I tweaked my pieces to add 2cm to the centre back, 3cm to the sleeve length and 5cm to the bodice hem length. Then started version 2. I’ve been hoarding this embroidered viscose with pretty pastel flowers for a long time. I got it from SewSewSew and although it was only 1.5m it was pleasingly wide.
Sadly it was a little doomed from the start as I knew this colour doesn’t really work on me. I’ve had my colours done and while I definitely believe in wearing whatever colours and prints you want… when I wear my recommend colours/shades I feel amazing. This is pretty and romantic but does wash me out a bit. But I’ll totally still wear it… until I spill curry on it.
I’ll try letting out the centre back seam to make the pink version last as long as possible. Don’t want to pop that centre back seam while out and about! Do you have a favourite version of the two? If you’re one of the few people like me who hadn’t made this pattern, I definitely recommend it. Quick and satisfying to sew and lovely to wear.
Saw you wearing the pink one the other week and thought the top lovely but I like the embroidered version the best. I think the colour looks great as the embroidered highlights brightens the top.