Pattern: Simplicity 2593 (Cynthia Rowley)
Size: 10 graded to a 12
Fabric: Cotton eyelet from Mood Fabrics in NYC; Kona cotton from stash

Shorts: Old Navy
Earrings: Macy’s
Hair pin: J Crew

This top is my attempt at copying a Calvin Klein eyelet pullover top I saw in a department store last spring.  It was a simple, short sleeve white blouse with no shaping and a silver exposed zipper in the back.  So so cute, yet so so expensive: $80! Here’s a picture of the original:

 On an unexpected shopping trip to Mood last summer, I stumbled upon some aqua colored fabric with an eyelet pattern almost exactly the same as the original Calvin Klein, and for $25, I had the fabric to make my own version.  (Note: I also found a matching silver zipper, but decided not to go through the trouble of creating a CB seam to sew the zipper in.)

Construction:

I made view A of this pattern back in 2009 and didn’t have much success – it fit well but the twisted band didn’t look good after I washed the tank.  A loose fit with a straight up-and-down cut was what I was looking for for this particular top, so I picked view D.  This went together in a flash: I cut out the top and finished during an afternoon last week while on vacation (I blogged preview pics about it here).

I did my usual mods of grading the pattern out from a 10 to a 12 from waist to hip and that was pretty much the only thing I needed to change on this pattern.  I ran into an issue when I tried to cut out the neckbinding: the eyelet pattern did not run the whole width of the fabric and I was stuck with some of the neckbinding looking like plain aqua cotton, some eyelet.  My mom pulled out a cotton from her stash that was almost the right color, but I liked the slight contrast and decided to use that in place of my eyelet.  I think it creates a nice, subtle design feature.

The top is a little boxy and I probably could have gone down a size, but it’s nice a cool to wear on muggy days like today.  It’s a great go-to and no-fuss pattern for a simple summer pop-over!