Ah, there's nothing like tying up unfinished business. Crossing one more thing off the old Craft To-Do List feels mighty good!

I started crocheting this top, oh, two years ago. The pattern is from the July/August 2007 issue of Crochet Today, and was originally published with the option to crochet a whole dress or just the top (which can be worn alone as a crop top).

I always liked the idea of adding a fabric bodice to the crochet top, so that's what I did! I used this pretty Liberty of London print which I picked up at B&J Fabrics in the garment district here in NYC. Liberty fabrics are big in ready-made fashion this year, and it was a good choice for this top because the material is light and flowy enough to have the airy drape I was aiming for. (A heavier fabric might have been a bit stiff, creating poofiness. And poofiness is not my friend, especially around the abdomen area, if you know what I mean.)




I made one modification to the pattern: when working the band at the bottom, I crocheted it back and forth (instead of in the round), leaving a space under the arm where I made a button closure:



Why do this? If the band were worked in the round and the fabric stitched directly to the crochet portion, the sewing thread would likely break when the top was pulled over the head. Since sewing thread doesn't stretch the same way as yarn, the thread would just pop at the first sign of stretching. Then later on the thread would unravel and the shirt would fall off your body, most likely when you were off at a day-long event with lots of important people, and it would be a complete catastrophe. SO, the button closure gives more wiggle room for taking the top off and on, and it also creates a break in the sewing thread so that it won't be pulled taught and snap. Disaster averted!

Special thanks to my mom who helped me rescue this top from Unfinished Projects Land - she was sick of witnessing my procrastination on this particular item, so on a recent visit to her house she sewed up the fabric bodice for me, and all I had to do was hand stitch it to the crochet top while lounging on her back porch. (Mom - you're officially invited to my place for a month to help me finish everything else I have lying around!!)