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I really love all those feminine lace summer tops that are so in style these days. The problems is that a lot of the crochet patterns I see for them are for crop tops and/or tops with little stringies holding them on. And nobody wants to see me wearing something like that.
So I looked around Ravelry for a very simple mesh crochet top pattern that I could wear with a support camisole underneath and I got started on this one by Drops Design.
“Just Peachy” (aka Drops 82-2) is a pretty basic mesh tank top with wider holes below the breast. The front and back are virtually the same, with the neckline just being slightly higher in the back. They are worked separately and then the two pieces are sewn together at the shoulders and sides.
In the end I’m pleased with how my top came out and, once I got going, it worked up very quickly, however it was definitely not as easy to create as I’d expected due to problems with the pattern itself. Let me tell you a little about how I tweaked the pattern to make it work for me.
I am much more used to working garments in the round, which is great for trying them on as I go to make sure that the fit is right, but that wasn’t possible with this pattern. Before starting it, I crocheted various swatches to check the gauge and I measured myself to find the right size, which seemed to be M/L. However the bottom edge just didn’t seem right, and I kept restarting it.
I soon realized that my size wouldn’t actually fit me because this top is shaped with a much wider bust than waist/hips, and my belly is relatively wide compared to the rest of me. I went up to size XL, but realized that that still wouldn’t fit well around my hips. So what I did is start off with six extra chain stitches on each side so that I could add the extra width of the first increase right from the bottom, and I left out the first increase in the pattern.
After I got that figured out, it was very quick to work up, but once I got to the yoke, things started getting confusing because of the way the pattern itself was written. Instead of just having the instructions written out row by row, the different parts of the garment were described out of order. (I mean, come on… what crochet pattern starts with binding off?)
I also ended up making the body of my top longer to better cover my belly. Thankfully I wrote down all my changes on the first piece so that I was able to work from that for the second piece, just changing the height of the neck opening.
When I was done, I sewed the two pieces together and… wasn’t happy. My pattern adjustments made for a perfect fit, but the arm and neck holes were too wide and the edges looked kind of raggy. This happened in May, when I was very sick and stuck in bed for the whole month (hence my ghastly appearance), but I dragged myself out of bed long enough to take the picture above of what it looked like before I attempted to fix it up.
I first worked around all the edges in single crochet with a smaller hook, trying to pull in and tighten the arm and neck openings a bit (but leaving the bottom edge nice and loose). I then worked back around in crab stitch. These two extra rounds on all the edges succeeded in making the openings just a little bit smaller and much more finished-looking.
So much better! Here you can see the back and the stitches on one side.
In the end, I’m quite happy with how I managed to make this tank top come out and I love how cool it feels on hot summer days. However, I honestly wouldn’t suggest using this pattern because of its many problems, unless you’re feeling adventurous enough to work out all the necessary tweaking like I did.
You can find all the technical details of my Just Peachy here on Ravelry and you can find the free mesh crochet top pattern here.
Right now I’m about 3/4 done with a summer knit T-shirt, Gemini, which I started when I was in the hospital, and can’t wait to wear it!
If you like knitting summer garments, check out my review of the Basico sweater recipe (which is not the same as a pattern, even though that’s what I wrote in the image above… whoops!)
And yes, I will have more sewing tutorials coming up soon! I’ve just been too worn out with my health issues (a slight relapse) to get to them, but I will have lots of cool things for you soon!
