Skip to main content

Cashmerette - Brattle Top - 2211


Cashmerette - Brattle Top

The Brattle Top is a simple tee with a twist! The Brattle is a curve-friendly t-shirt with a faced neckline and an inventive twist that adds visual interest without adding bulk. Opt for the Brattle's short sleeves or swap in any of the sleeves from the Concord T-Shirt or Carlyle T-Shirt patterns for even more possibilities. Don't tie yourself up in knots trying to figure out what to wear: from brunch to the gym, the Brattle is your new go-to top! April 2023 Club pattern
Sizing 0-16 & 12-32 as PDF download only with yearly subscription to the Cashmerette Club. April 2023 Club pattern

Reccomended Fabric: Light to mid-weight knit fabric such as cotton/lycra, poly/lycra or rayon jersey, or ITY with at least 20% crosswise stretch.

I made size 18 graded out to 20 at the hips to accommodate the not so stretchy fabric choice.

For my PJ top:
I used a light weight very stretchy bamboo jersey in mint and a lilac for the front and back with a matching waffle stretch jersey in the same colours for the sleeves. These fabrics were left overs from making myself new PJ’s in November 2022. This fabric has more stretch than recommended so the size 18 was fine. 

Brattle top worn with RTW pants
For my cowl neck test run I used an autumn colour pallet print knit with gold lurex thread from my stash of gifted fabric. This fabric had less stretch than recommended and was tight on the hips. I don’t like the colour palette of this fabric so I’ll probably give it to a friend.  

Brattle top worn with Cashmerette Ames Jeans in metallic stretch denim

For my second test run with the Tobin Sweater cowl neck I used a ponte fabric in red. Also a fabric from my stash, I chose it because it has a similar weight and stretch to my final fabric. I don’t wear red normally but the bold colour is very striking and impactful so I think I will wear this one a lot. 

Brattle worn with Cashmerette Club Elmwood Skirt in metallic linen

For my final garment I used a silver foil print on light grey knitted fabric from Ferrier Fashion Fabric’s. It is 97% polyester and 3% spandex. This also had slightly less stretch than recommended. I bought 1.7m and I just fitted all the pattern pieces.

Pattern Alterations: Fit Changes 

PJ top: none,I made a straight size 18 and because the fabric had more than 20% stretch it fit fine.

Lurex autumn print: I added 7.5 cm in length to the front and back. I wanted a longer version but this turned out to be too much and so the X drape at the front was lost. The fabric also had less stretch than recommended 20% so the size 18 was tight on the hips.

Red Ponte: I scaled back the extra length to only 1” all the way around, I also widened the waist and hips to accommodate the less stretchy fabric choice. So this one is a size 18 to the waist then graded out to a 22 at the hips.

Foil Knit: I used the red ponte pattern again.

Pattern Alterations: Design Changes

PJ top: I colour blocked my top by adding a centre front and centre back seam line instead of cutting the front and back pattern pieces on the fold. I also colour blocked the front and back neck facings.

colour blocked facing
coverstitched narrow hem

Lurex thread top

I wanted to add some interest to the neckline of the top so on this version I redraft the neckline with a cowl. 
I used another pattern I had and looked at Pinterest for a guide on how to do this. I didn’t love this look so I scrapped this idea for the final version.

Drafting off the new neckline
The front cut out
laid out into the shape it will become

I drafted a cowl drape neckline directly onto the pattern. The back neckline is the same as the original pattern. The sleeves have been lengthened to three quarter. 

After sewing it together I added a weight to the neckline by sewing up a little pouch of the fabric, popping the round curtain weight inside then attaching it to the inside centre front neck edge so the neck would drape.
neckline weight in fabric pouch
back neckline with facing


worn with Cashmerette Club Elmwood Skirt

Red top

On the other two previous tops I found the amount of hem allowance given very small. Especially at the centre front where the cross over starts. So on this version I added 1.5cm all the way around starting at the point the cross over is hemmed from. 



wider hem shown on silver version

This made it a bit trickier to sew the starting point of the hem but having a wider hem made the hem sit flatter and not roll up when worn.

Cashmerette Tobin Sweater Cowl collar.

I decided I didn’t like the previous cowl neckline I had drafted so for this version I changed the armholes, neck and shoulders to Cashmerette's Tobin Sweater pattern - I have made the Tobin before and love the collar - I also used the Tobin patterns long sleeves. 

Tobin Sweater in scuba knit
Cowl collar

 




Final silver top

I used the pattern from the red ponte version.
When I cut out this fabric I just had enough to have the lurex print facing in the same direction. The upper collar pattern piece was placed on the fabric upside down. This way when the outside collar rolls forward the print ends up facing the same way as the body. This print matching was a fluke because of the pattern Tetris I was forced to perform to make the pattern pieces fit! 

I added a press snap to the centre back outside neck and to the inside edge of the centre back collar so I could snap the collar to the neckline and secure them together, otherwise the collar kept moving around and this annoyed me aesthetically!

snap holding collar in place


The front has a gap where the sections cross over


Popular posts from this blog

Bojagi CBD

  CBD BOJAGI Art Quilt Photo by David Leane, Photography by David In 2014 I attended the Geelong Textile Forum, studying the technique of making silk Bojagi garments with tutor Catherine O'Leary. Bojagi is a Korean wrapping cloth. While the technique fascinated me I had no use for a transparent silk organza garment so I sold mine to anther student attending the forum. I still wanted to use the skills I had learned but utilise them for something very different.  Bojagi jacket and hat Every 2 years the South Australian Quilters Guild holds an art quilt exhibition called "Dare to Differ". I have previously entered this exhibition twice and you can read about the creation of my "Cityscape" quilt on this blog. For the 2015 exhibition I chose to use the Bojagi seaming technique to create a map quilt showing a scale street map of   Adelaide,  the capitol city of my home state, South Australia. This is the...
Read more

Generational Christening Gown

Generational Christening Gown My Aunt passed away in late July 2021 and my cousin gifted me her wedding dress. At my Aunts funeral, her grandson expressed his deep sadness that his Nanna would not be at his wedding in November 2021. She had been greatly looking forward to it after a very long wait for him to propose to his girlfriend of 10 years. My Aunts Wedding Dress I do not have children of my own, so once I received her dress and had it cleaned and decided to create a unique Christening Gown from it. I wanted it to be for my extended family to hand down through the generations.  My Aunt was my Mothers Sister so I decided to use wedding dresses from the matriarchal side of my family and the future bride. I have had a signed copy of Martha Pullen's Grandmother's Hope Chest since 1993 when I met her in Sydney Australia at a Pfaff sewing machine convention. I won it in a competition! I then worked in sewing machine retail and was 20 years old with hopes to have my own family o...
Read more

'Sewing Patterns' APP review

'Sewing Patterns' App review The app I was using to comprehensively catalog my sewing patterns crashed  when an iOS update I did on my iPad was no longer supported by the app.  This was in October 2020 and because the developers had not bothered to update the app in years. No warning, just gone. I discovered this while shopping for fabric and trying to work out how much I needed for the pattern I planned to use.  So I took this as an opportunity to cull and resort my patterns which I have been collecting for over 30 years.  The next month was devoted to this undertaking and surprisingly, it was a very enjoyable experience to reacquaint myself with my patterns.  I began by sorting my patterns into defined sections in my pattern cabinet.  I then had to make a complete list ready to upload into a new app. Now I had to “audition” potential app’s for suitability. I did some research and consulted other social media forums for options. The previous app I used was...
Read more