Krystos Voskres! Happy Easter!
I knew I wanted to make this Burdastyle outfit as soon as saw it in the monthly Burdastyle magazine! However it wasn’t until 2.5 weeks before Easter, that I received my linen in the mail and began embroidering the crop top/blouse.
My wonderful mother came to my rescue by embroidering the dark red skeleton of the design. This part of the embroidery takes more time and attention because you have to count squares and make sure the pattern is straight of the linen bodice piece.
Unfortunately, I caught the stomach flu a couple weeks ago. Despite feeling awful, it was a godsend because I was forced to step away from my work and studio and spend 2 days in bed. During this time, I just napped, ate popsicles, and embroidered!
I finished the blouse embroidery on Good Friday. Then, I spent Friday evening and Saturday pulling out the waste canvas from the embroidery, sewing the linen skirt, sewing the blouse, and (of course) spending time with family.
Details about the crop top blouse:
The blouse is made of thicker unbleached 100% linen. This is the same linen I used for this linen and lace dress. I used Burdastyle’s 02/2015 #127 Top in size 17. I lengthened the front of the top about 1–1 ½ inches. (I wish I had lengthened the front more!)
Details about the skirt:
The skirt is made of ivory linen. This ivory linen is the same weight as the linen used in the blouse. I used Burdastyle’s 02/2015 #121 B Wrap Skirt in size 36. I played with the pattern a bit because at first, the back of the skirt had WAY too much fabric! The back skirt pattern was a 45” width piece. When this back piece was gathered to a 13” length, the skirt looked awful! So ultimately, I added a seam to the back of the skirt and made the back of the skirt to a rectangle about 20” wide.
Overall I was disappointed with this skirt. First, the original skirt pattern had too much gathering which caused a lot of bulging at the waist. Second, it was a bad idea for me to use linen. With the front draped, the skirt looked very frumpy when it wrinkled! (I show the skirt (in this blog post) when it’s steamed and ironed….it did NOT look crisp and clean when my family took photos after Easter mass.)
All in all, I loved the top. Not so much the skirt (or at least not with the fabric I chose).
The embroidery designs are from Ukrainian embroidery books from Ukraine! (Thank you Cha Cha Ola for the Christmas money 🙂
There were so many designs and not enough time to choose. I would’ve loved to do the bigger and more complex designs, but unfortunately I was short on time and kept the designs less than 15–20 stitches wide. I chose #35 design (pictured below) first, then decided to do #34 since it was part of that particular shirt pattern. I don’t really like #34, but I wanted to do something different than what I’ve embroidered in the past.
My wooden earrings are from Ukraine! They were a gift from my friend and they look great with this outfit! THANK YOU STEPHANIE!!!
Thanks for reading! I hope you had a wonderful Easter!
Wow the top looks amazing, you did such a good job! That’s a shame about the skirt, it’s disappointing when something you imagine doesn’t turnout out right.
Thanks Zoe! 🙂
Wow this looks great! It sure gives me ideas for my next year Easter outfit! I feel your pain about working with linen for bottoms, anytime move or sit can forget about having clean ironed look.
Great job regardless of wrinkles!!!!
Thanks Anna!
Beautiful embroidery! I am so impressed! this top is really great. I love the whole outift with he red scarf, it adds a nice colourful break between the top and the skirt.
Thanks Petite Josette!
This outfit looks amazing! I love the embroidered top, so beautiful.
Thanks Lisa!
The top looks beautiful, wonderful job with the embroidery! When you embroider like this, do you worry at all that the stitches will affect the way the fabric behaves? I want to do something similar on a skirt dress.
Thanks Laura! It would depend on the fabric. The softer fabrics can pucker from the embroidery if they aren’t interfaced. The interfacing may change the movement and drape of the fabric.
So beautiful! What a lovely choice of embroidery patterns, too. A little different and very, very nice. This top looks like a designer piece — which of course it is!
Thanks Melanie! 🙂
What a great idea, and I sometimes think of doing something similar on gingham which already has a built in grid. I’d cut out a big chunk of fabric, pre washing, then trace the pattern piece (perhaps the largest size just to be safe), then stitch away, knowing the stitches will pull the fabric in and make the fabric smaller. Then cut out the pattern piece, making sure to leave little fabric ‘tails’ around the hand stitching since you don’t want that to unravel!
Thanks Mary Beth! Thanks for sharing your tips! 🙂
[…] stunning crop top designed and embroidered by Marusya […]
Great looking top! Hand embroidery is beautiful!
Thanks Danvillegirl!
Just saw this article about Ukrainian fashion on Vogue Magazine & thought of you immediately. Don’t know if you’ve seen it so I thought I’d share it just in case! http://www.vogue.com/13257041/ukrainian-traditional-costumes-in-fashion/
Yes I did! It’s fun see all the Ukrainian fashions in stores! 🙂