Tilly & The Buttons Freya Top & Bibi Skirt

I'm a bit late to the party when it comes to Stretch! - the second book by Tilly Walnes of Tilly and the Buttons fame. When the book was first released, I thought the patterns looked nice but I had other things I wanted to be sewing so I didn't immediately buy it. As I saw more and more people sewing up the projects from the book, I decided that I'd like to make some myself so I got it as a Christmas present to myself.

The project that was top of my list to sew was definitely the Freya top. I knew that the mock neckline would be lovely and cosy at this time of year, and that it would work well with all of the my much-loved pinafores (I'm wearing it here with my Freja dress, and a pretty brooch from Layla Amber).

The Freya top is a nice simple sewing project and, as you'd expect, Tilly's instructions are very detailed. Truth be told, I actually just skimmed through the instructions and was mainly guided by the photos because I've sewn a few jersey tops now so know what to expect. From what I saw though, I think you'd be fine with Freya even if you haven't used knits much before.

The fabric that I used for this one is a lovely mint glitter stripe jersey from Sew Me Sunshine (just to be entirely transparent, I bought this fabric using the voucher that I got for winning the #sewingsunshine competition in November). It's a lovely jersey - nice and opaque and with just the right amount of sparkle in the glitter. And the glitter isn't at all scratchy on the skin as some glitter fabrics can be.

I was so happy with how my first Freya turned out that I went straight on to make a second version - this time using the cowl neck variation. I love cowl necks but don't have many so this is a welcome addition to my wardrobe.

The fabric for this one is from Sew Crafty and is an arrow print cotton jersey. Again, it's lovely and comfy to wear. I like the fact that it's black and white so will go with lots of colours, but the arrow print keeps it from being boring.

The pattern sizing puts me in a size 5 at the bust and waist and between a 5 and 6 for the hips (for reference, my measurements are bust 38", waist 32", hips 42"), but I wasn't sure whether I wanted quite as much negative ease (2 inches) as is built into the pattern so I compared the pattern pieces with my traced pieces from Tilly's Agnes top (which I know I like the fit on), and based on that I cut a straight size 6. I like the fit that has given me - close-fitting enough to be flattering, without being too tight.

After I'd finished my Freya tops, I was tidying up my leftover bits of stretch fabrics and found a sizeable chunk of ponte roma from my Gable dress. I realised that it was probably just enough for a Bibi skirt, so I thought I'd give that a try too.

I'll be honest and say that Bibi was probably the pattern that appealed to me least from the book because I don't generally wear straight skirts but, being as I already had the pattern and fabric, I didn't have much to lose!

The Bibi skirt is the first project in the book, and the most simple, so I had this whipped up from start to finish in just a couple of hours. I made a size 5 at the waist, blending out to a 6 at the hips as recommended for my measurements and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I like it! It is, unsurprisingly, fabulously comfortable to wear, yet could look quite smart if you wanted it to.

My only slightly criticism is that my waistband was starting to feel a little loose by the end of a day wearing the skirt, so if I make another (a definite possibility as I might have some more leftover fabric I could use) I'd probably add some elastic inside the waistband - not to gather the waistband at all, just to add some extra stretchy reinforcement.

All in all, I may be late to the Stretch! party, but I think I'm making up for lost time with three projects completed already. I can see myself making all of the projects at some point, so I'm glad I finally got on the bandwagon for this book. Have you made any of the patterns? Which one's your favourite?