Hi there! It’s Fleurine from Sew Mariefleur and today I’ll show you my version of the Valetta Top (aff link) and the small changes I made to make it perfect for me. This month’s theme is “Around the house” – something that is very relevant for me right now, since I’m staying at home with my baby boy. But I don’t like wearing sweat pants and washed out tees all day long – I think feeling put together is important for staying well and sane when you’re staying at home with your kids and/or work at home. But at the same time, your clothes should be comfortable and easy to wear, making it possible to easily pick up and put down your baby, nurse, clean around the house and so on. I think the Valetta is great for all of this, while still making me feel pretty.
I’m not that much of a boho-kind of girl, and that’s what tassels and sleeve ties often remind me of. So I decided to make two small changes: not to add tassels to the split at the neckline and to alter the sleeve ties to simple cuffs with buttons. The Valetta is rather loose, so I knew I needed to look for a very drapey fabric in my stash. I have many lawns, which all felt too stiff – but then I remebered this very thin and drapey viscose I got ages ago from a store in France. Both the fabric weight and the print felt perfect for this project! Since the fabric is a little see-through I opted for a solid-coloured white viscose fabric as lining for the front and back yoke. The solid fabric is true white, while the main fabric is more of a light cream, but I still think it works.
Since this design is rather loose-fitting, I didn’t make a muslin. However, to make sure it was long enough, I added 1 1/4″ (3 cm) to the length of the top – a standard adjustment for me. To sew the sleeves with cuffs instead of the ties, I cut two pieces of fabric the width of the ties, but much shorter. I simply checked how wide I would like the cuffs to be and added a little to be able to sew a button hole.
I sewed the sleeves as instructed, but sewed only one raw edge of the cuff to the lower edge of the sleeve. After that I sewed the short ends of the cuff right sides together, turned the cuff right side out and pressed the remaining raw edge under, before pinning it to the inside of the cuff and topstitching along the cuff. That way I don’t have a visible seam on the inside of my sleeve. I sewed a button hole and added a button to the other side and that’s it! Buttoned cuffs instead of ties.
I love encased seams on my garments, so I decided to use French seams where possible (side seams and the seam where the sleeves are sewn to the top) and to use the burrito method to sew the front and back yoke, encasing the yoke seams and the shoulder seams. The problem is that the middle of the front yoke is very slim because of the split and there’s just not enough room to fold the yokes around all the fabric. My solution was to sew as far as possible using the burrito method and to slip stitch the rest closed by hand.
I really like my Valetta and I think I will get a ton of use for it – both now around the house (although white might have been a poor choice!) and next year when I go back to work.
