Coco Loco: Three / Five Coco Tops

I loved sewing up a very quick lady skater dress from this gingham ponte so much that I immediately cut out a Tilly and the Buttons Coco from my leftover fabric. I am a chronic overbuyer of fabric, so usually have big enough offcuts that I can make something "proper" out of them. I still have more even after this top is finished! Perhaps enough for a baby pinafore dress. Wouldn't THAT be cute?! 

I was a bit worried the gingham would look weird as a top. I’m still not sure to be honest, but it has proved very useful as a warm, practical, easy to look after kind of garment. My only gripe is that this fabric bobbles terribly. In these pictures the top is about 3 months old, so has been worn and washed a bit, but not a huge amount. I don’t know if you can see but it is very very bobbly. I’m a bit disappointed but I know now I should invest in better quality ponte di Roma. This ponte also didn’t have the same type of stretch or the weight of ponte I have used before. It’s rather odd. As soon as I looked at these pictures I threw the thing away. The gingham is way too stretched out over the bust, so that coupled with the bobbling made the decision easy. It’s not a good look.

Library Card Top (Tilly & the Buttons Coco pattern)

I made my lovely sister a pair of Coco tops for Christmas, in solid magenta and a navy and white Breton stripe. I liked the idea so much I made myself a matching pair! The Coco is such a great, quick sew, and a very practical item of clothing for my life right now. I can see why the Breton tee and jeans is such a mum uniform. It just works! The same with short hair! I seem to be conforming to stereotype here but again, it just works! Haha.

HTO Top 

For All the Family Top. Camera could not capture the magenta colour!

The navy and white stripes are my favourite. I am not sure what is going on with the Coco sleeves. I often have this problem as I am an apple shape (thin arms and legs, all my extra padding in the middle), so the sleeves here just look a bit baggy. Must fix.

For Christmas I got a twin needle - finally! - and was so excited to try it on my pink Coco which was still not finished. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that my machine doesn’t do the kind of twin needle finish I was hoping for! This is the only stitch on my machine that looks remotely like what I was after, and that produces these stitches:

It looks ALMOST how I had imagined, but because it’s a stretch stitch it is not just straight lines of stitching. Is this normal? Does anyone else have a Janome 525s and know how to get it to look like two lines of normal stitching?

To add insult to injury, just when I had decided it didn’t look that bad and I’d just go for it on the neckline, sleeve hems and hem, disaster. I had got all the way round the front of the neckline when the needles jammed going over the thick shoulder seam. Drat. By the time I had freed it all, the twin needle was bent beyond usefulness. It would have hit the throat plate if I had used it. Well, I wanted to get the top finished so I just finished the rest with zig zag. At least I had done the whole of the front neckline with the twin needle before it got bent. Design choice. Ahem.

ANYWAY I am not in love with these tops, but they are simple, and that’s exactly what I was after. 

They got worn lots but now, months on, the navy striped one is bobbling horribly too. This fabric wasn’t even that cheap (though it was from an eBay shop I hadn’t used before), so I am a bit annoyed about that. 

The quest for the perfect Breton top continues!