Itch to Stitch Crystal Cove Cami review

It’s been a minute since my last post.  Just as we thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse…..it did.   

Dave had a cardiac event (high blood pressure causing heart attack symptoms) a few weeks ago. I’m recovering from a bout of labyrinthitis.  Thankfully we’re both on the mend, though I’ll admit its been tough recently.  

Also, the minute I finished sewing this top and a pair of shorts, the weather promptly changed. It’s been more like October than August until this week. As I type it’s about 34 degrees outside, and I’m in the office with a (alcohol free) beer and two desk fans!

Since March I’ve mainly been schlepping around in a battered old linen shirt that is beyond comfy, and lightweight leggings, but today I had an appointment and needed to be cool but presentable so I pulled out this Crystal Cove Cami, which hasn’t been having much wear.

The reason for the lack of wear is that I haven’t achieved the best fit. It’s what I call a fidgety top, in that I’m always fidgeting with the straps or pulling it back into place. Which is a shame because I adore this fabric.

I can’t blame the pattern because I really buggered about with it before sewing. I changed the cross over back of the original pattern to a plain back, inspired by the Ogden Cami.

At the time I purchased the Crystal Cove pattern, the Ogden cami was only available in smaller sizes so I’d have needed to grade and do an FBA.

So, even though the Ogden now comes in a much bigger size range (hurrah!), I went with what I had and hacked the Crystal Cove. Which actually turned out to be just as much faff as grading would have been!

Anyway! Firstly I did an FBA and moved the dart. Then moved the dart straight back to where it started. I have no idea what was going on in my head that day!

You can see from the above photo that I still get lots of lovely drag lines pointing to the fact that it’s not right. I think it’s a combination of not doing a big enough FBA, and the fact that I moved the placing of the bust dart twice.

For the back, I just folded the pattern on the centre back line. I placed that on the fold of fabric and cut it as one piece. I’m happy with how that worked. However, I’m starting to think that I really need to do a sway back adjustment.

I’d welcome your thoughts on that.

So although it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever sewn, its certainly not the best.

Overall, though, I was really pleased with the pattern. I found the pattern pieces to be well tiled. They taped together so cleanly. That isn’t always the case, I’m looking at you Style Arc PDF patterns. I really appreciate when a designer making the effort to ensure you have a great experience from the get go.

The instructions are well written and easy to follow. It’s my first time with a pattern from Kennis and I’d happily sew her patterns again.

Any errors in the final garment I truly believe are due to my tinkering and lockdown brain! If I’d made the garment straight out of the packet, I’d have had a different result. Especially with a slightly bigger FBA,

In pulling together the links for this post, I saw that the Ogden Cami, in both size ranges, is on sale at the moment. I have some beautiful white linen ready to sew, so I’ll make the Ogden in that!

I may revisit this pattern at some point. I’ve reprinted the front pattern pieces so I can have another go. Perhaps I could buy the same fabric in two colours and do a head-to-head “pattern off”! What do you think?

Not to worry. The kids keep losing their face masks so I can always repurpose this top. But not until I’ve replaced it. Or the weather cools a bit.