This top started with the fabric. I found this novelty fabric on Marcy's website some months ago. It is a fuzzy grey fabric with holes edged in a bluish teal color. The back of the fabric has a teal colored blue tulle fused to the grey fabric. So the holes are "filled" with teal-colored mesh. Very unusual.
I knew right away that I wanted to use a solid teal contrast. I then bought three rayon lycra fabrics, two by mail order, and one in a fabric store, but without a swatch of the novelty fabric at hand. None was right. All three are a greenish teal and not a blue teal. I now understand when a friend of mine talks about the challenge of finding the "right teal". Blue-teal, in particular, seems to be hard to find these days.
I finally decided enough was enough. It isn't a perfect match, but I used the green teal. In the photos, it looks like a close match, but in real life, it is off.
I spent a lot of time dithering on whether I wanted a zip-up sweatshirt with a hood, or a pullover with a tube neckline. The tube neckline won, largely because I wanted to try this double collar. The outside collar, out of the holey fabric, is finished with a channel. At center front are two black grommets and a thin self tie is threaded through. The inside collar, made from the teal lycra jersey, is taller than the outside collar and is finished with a channel through which I inserted plastic tubing from the hardware store.
Other than the collar, this is a very straightforward pullover. The novelty knit has 2-way stretch. The stretch ran along the length of the fabric, so I cut it on the crosswise grain so the stretch would go around the body. I did my usual knit FBA, which meant lengthening the front 1-1/2". But when I went to sew the side seams, I could not ease the fullness in at the side seam because the knit, quite literally, had no give whatsoever in the other direction. So I sewed standard darts and that worked fine. The only other alteration I made was to narrow the shoulder by 2".
Finally, I wanted to add a pocket. I used a hanging pocket, also trimmed and lined in the teal rayon lycra jersey.
And that's it! (Oh, I should mention that I am wearing this over a black tee, or you would see through it.)
