‘Locked and loaded

Its finally here!

I’ve been talking about making a long sleeved merino version of the Megan Nielsen Briar top since my first post on this blog, and here she finally is! Just in time for another cold snap. Its like I planned it this way…

The most exciting thing about this top is that its the first thing i’ve ever made on an overlocker! I’m borrowing one from my not-quite-MIL, and it was surprisingly easy to figure out how to work. The only thing that freaked me out was how expensive the thread was! It cost me over $40 for the four cones of polyester thread, I almost passed out at the till! Next time I’ll look at spotlight, rather than the local craft supplies shop, and see if its any cheaper…

I only made a few changes from the first version I made, the major one was taking almost two inches out of the centre back. It fits much more snugly across the back of my shoulders now, which is nice. The merino is also slightly more stretchy than the cotton I used for version 1. I used the neck binding option again, just because I prefer how it looks. I should try making a standard neckband one day! Instead of putting a pocket on my Briar, I used the curved pocket pattern piece and cut two out of some super thin, soft leather to use as shoulder patches.

I topstitched the leather down just using standard cotton and my usual machine needle, as the leather was so fine and soft that I didn’t feel like I needed anything special! I really like the way the leather looks with the merino, it lifts it up a bit, and makes it less ordinary.

The only part of this top that I’m less than thrilled with is the hem, its just a bit wobbly. The bobbin tension seems to have been a bit off, as there is a bit of a pucker between the lines of stitching from the twin needle. i’m not entirely sure how that happened, as the sleeve hem is perfect, and I didn’t fiddle with anything between sewing those and the hem! I may unpick it and re-sew it, I’ll see how much it annoys me when I’m wearing it! Its a brilliant pattern, I’m sure this won’t be my last Briar…

I’m so excited about my overlocker success, its going to make my plan of a winter snuggled up in many layers of merino wool much more achievable!