Cowl neck top - Simplicity 1716

I have a ready to wear tank top that I love and have worn to pieces. It's a simple tank top with a draped cowl neck. It's soft, great for summer and has a little extra design detail with the neckline. I have probably had it for 10 years! So it's also old and basically worn out at this point.

I set out to make Simplicity 1716 as a replacement for my beloved, old, tank top.

To make it a little more work-friendly, I decided to make view E with the flutter sleeves and hem length F for a shirt length rather than a tunic.

I used a bright coral liverpool fabric, which looks kind orange in the photos, but is really coral. I don't love this fabric if I'm being honest, it's a little too cheap/polyester feeling. If I remember correctly it was cheap but it's not as nice as other liverpool I've used. Sadly I cannot remember where I bought it from so I might accidentally buy more. Something with a little more drape would probably also be better for this pattern but it works.

Directions
For the most part, this was a quick and easy sew. I have two minor complaints about the directions.

First, the back facing around the neckline is unnecessarily fussy. Knits don't fray, and attaching this skinny facing that is folded adds a lot of bulk and could easily look messy if it wasn't well executed. Next time around, I am just going to coverstich the back neckline before attaching the back to the front at the shoulders. You could also zig-zag it or use a double needle. I don't think this skinny facing is really giving a better finish that any of these much simpler methods.

Seriously it's 5 steps. Hemming would be easier.

That's before I flipped mine inside and top-stitched it.

Second the directions to attach my flutter sleeve were kind of odd because the pattern just says "refer to steps XX for View ZZ" for a minute I was like wait, what? My directions ended but the sleeves aren't attached yet and then I saw this little footnote under the previous direction. I did figure this out but since it's two steps, would listing them again for view E have really been so terrible?

I also didn't use hem tape in the shoulder seam but cut a scrap of woven fabric I had lying around an inch wide and the length of the shoulder seam and serged it into my shoulder seam. You could also use clear elastic if you don't have hem tape (I bought this giant roll of clear elastic last year).

I also used my coverstich and contrast white thread for to hem my sleeves and the bottom.

Fit
I made a size 14 bust, based on my high bust measurement (not full) and graded to a size 18 waist/hip. I actually measure a size 20 waist/hip in this pattern but I usually size down a little on big 4 patterns as they tend to have quite a bit of ease. This might be a little more fitted than I'd like around the tummy but going up a full size would make it too big I think.

Here it looks pink...

Here it looks orange...

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