Icicle Creek Top

Instagram followers will already know that I recently spent a warm, sunny afternoon frantically photographing six months worth of garments. I definitely sew faster than I blog! So if you notice similarities in the next gazillion blog post photos, you're not imagining things, I did take them all on the same day! I'll start with the oldest garment just to make sure there's some kind of order. First up, the Icicle Creek Top!

Holy guacamole, the Maker's Retreat was five months ago! That's where I was when I made this shirt. Originally a retreat-exclusive pattern, Kimberly has recently released it for everyone to buy. She also added a second tunic-length view. At the retreat, Kimberly provided 2 yards of white rayon knit (I *think* she said it was from Dharma Trading Company) for all of us to either indigo dye or ice dye. I opted to ice dye mine. We did sew up the shirt before dyeing it, although we had a chance to practice the ice dyeing process on some tea towels first.

The Icicle Creek Top is a dolman-sleeved shirt with a half button placket. I made a size 2 graded out to a 4 around the hips. Per usual, the placket was the only challenging part of the top, mostly because knits can be fiddly to press neatly. I recommend trimming away as much bulk as possible before trying to topstitch everything together. The top can also be made without the placket altogether, and I think that's what my next one will be. I sewed my buttons directly through the placket so they are not functional on mine.

For such a basic design, I really, really LOVE this shirt. Not just because of the memories of sewing it up surrounded by an amazing group of talented ladies, but the fit is spot on for me. Kimberly is tall and drafts that way. I am 5'4" but long-waisted and I prefer my tops long. I did not remove any length in the bodice or the sleeves. I'm particular about how long sleeves fit me, I like them at just the right length and tight enough to push them up, but loose enough to not feel constricted. These sleeves are just the way I like them!

As I said, I sewed the shirt and then dyed it at the retreat, but I opted to bring it home to do the hems with my coverstitch machine. The rest of the top was sewn on a regular machine, we had no sergers at the retreat. A super quick explanation of ice dyeing: you put ice on your fabric, then powdered synthetic dye on the ice. It melts and dyes the fabric.

Choosing colors for ice dyeing was SO hard! There was a tendency to want to choose all.the.colors. I tried to channel the ocean as my inspiration. It was difficult to keep any cross-contamination of color off the fabric, so there are some tiny spots of colors I didn't intend. But it all leads to a one-of-a-kind garment.

I have some drapey pink rayon knit picked out for a second Icicle Creek and can't wait to sew it up!

Retreat photos were not taken by me! Used with permission from Kimberly Payne.