Jennifer Lauren Esme Top

As I mentioned in my post about my Itch to Stich Glenelly top, I always like t-shirt patterns with a bit of a twist. It was therefore no surprise that I treated myself to the Jennifer Lauren Esme top pattern as soon as it was released!

The Esme top has gentle batwing sleeves with cuffed long or short sleeve options, and either a shawl collar or V-neckline. It also has regular and long-line bodice options. The pattern has multiple cup sizes (A to D in the original pattern, and C to F in the curve version), and the two size ranges cover hip measurements from 35.25" to 62.75".

I really like the shawl collar option and think that will be really nice for a long-sleeved top for winter, but I decided to try the V-neckline first.

The top above is the first version of the Esme that I made. It was actually intended to be for me, but when I tried it on it just didn't feel quite right. It was a little clingy around the waist, and although I really like the fabric itself, the colours didn't completely suit me when I was wearing it for some reason. I think if I'd only had one of those two issues, I'd probably have got over it fairly quickly and worn the top, but with the combination of the two I just wasn't feeling it.

Thankfully all was not lost and my sister happily agreed to adopt the top instead. She's slimmer than me so it's a little bigger on her than the pattern intends, but I think we can all agree that it's perfectly wearable and it's better for her to have it and enjoy it rather than it sitting in my drawer while I convince myself to like it!

Although my first version of the Esme didn't quite work out, I liked the overall shape so I decided to make another version of my own. For this one I blended out from a 14 at the shoulders/bust to a 16 at the hips. In contrast, my first version was a straight size 14. That's pretty much what's recommended for my measurements (my waist measurement is just fractionally above the 14, but is much closer to the 14 than the 16) and it did fit me, but it was just slightly clingy for my liking. Blending out to a 16 gives me that little bit of extra room to make me more comfortable.

Given that I've made two versions of the Esme now, I'm happy to report that it's a really nice pattern to sew! The instructions are very thorough. I'd say the only slightly tricky bit of the pattern is making sure that you get a nice neat finish on the V-neckline, but the steps are set out very clearly and I found that they made it a lot easier than I was expecting it to be. 

The fabric that I used for my top is a lovely cotton jersey from Like Sew Amazing - I really like the colours and the combination of stripes and florals!

The fabric for what is now my sister's top was from the Sew Hayley Jane outlet shop last year. It's a viscose jersey and so is a bit lighter weight - I think it still works OK for this pattern, but on balance the cotton jersey was better when sewing the V-neckline in particular.

I really like the Esme pattern, and I'm glad that I persevered and got the second version that works for me. In a funny way I'm also glad that the first one didn't work out quite right for me because I think it looks really nice on my sister. I'd happily recommend the pattern if you're in the market for an interesting jersey top, and I'll definitely be making a shawl collar version at some point soon!