Exercise tops, Ottobre 05-2010-20

After the dull-but-useful sewing of exercise bottoms, naturally the next step was exercise tops.


I have progressed from the knit-trousers-laid -out- flat-on-the-verandah photo, to an attempt at introducing the currently lovely purple scenery at the town park for version 1 of the Ottober 05-2010-20 top, with the #19 trousers from the previous exercise clothing post.



I think the clothing and model do not quite live up to the flowers, particularly if I crop sufficently to show clothing details.

Hmm, perhaps a background photo with no foreground

The Ottobre top is rather deceptive in my opinion. In the model shot, the neckline and straps of the under top are clearly visible.
On me, although you can just see the under top at the front, it is not visible at all at the back.
The under top is also very high cut under the arms, which might be fine for some gentle pilates or yoga but would cause unpleasant chafing on a longer run. I usually run for about an hour.
Looking back at the magazine to make sure I had traced out the pattern pieces correctly, I saw that the technical drawing shows the under top only just peeping out, and not showing at all at the back, just like my version.(My photography aspirations are dwindling rapidly.....)


I can't see the point of this. The neckline and armscye are the most time consuming part of this top, why make 2 necklines if you can't see them?
Unfortunately, I had already constructed x3 outer layers before I realised the problem.


You can see here that I am making a faux underlayer, not full length, as it gets hot here, and I want the appearance of wearing 2 layers without the extra fabric around my middle.

This may seem like an excess, but, I do need this many. Despite appearances, I exercise 7 or more times per week. I am trying to confound my dreadful paternal medical history, and the 95% or so chance I have of developing type 2 diabetes, having experienced the gestational type during all my preganancies. Wish me luck, I probably need it!

I added a tiny panel to the front neckline and a tiny bit of binding to the back neckline of the black outerlayer ( right middle)
I used just the front piece and straps in purple for the underlayer in the beige/black outerlayer, attaching the panel at the side seams and at the back neck.
I coverstitched most of the side seams after severely trimming one seam, to make a flatter, less abrasive seam under the arms.
.

The beige fabric is wicking polyester, and the other fabrics are cotton/lycra knit, both from Stretchtex. I will use the knit tops for stretchy type exercises and the wicking tops for running, or on the windtrainer.

Finally, I made a new version of the outerlayer, so that the underlayer is visible.






I had to lower the neckline rather a lot to achieve this effect.


Sewing with Ottobre is not at all like sewing with Burda :)