Japanese top revisited

I cleared out the Scary Understairs Cupboard last week, and sorted some of my sewing stuff. Do you remember the episode of Friend with Monica's cupboard? Well our scary cupboard is a bit like that except the rest of the house is a mess too. Things tend to get thrown in the cupboard. We keep rucksacks and large bags in there. I also hide toys in there on a rotational basis, for instance a large box of playmobil and the toy farm. I haven't put in a photo because it really is too too bad.

I filled two bin bags with too-small children's coats, fabric oddments, old clothes for a rag collection that raises funds for T's school. I sorted out two bags of fabric that were in the cupboard when they really should be somewhere else. And I found this top screwed up in (one of) the sewing bags. I made it at the start of the summer in a Nani Iro sewalong set up by Cecili. I enjoyed the whole process of making it but I didn't like the finished top at all. I think it was the brown neckband that just didn't look right to me. I unpicked the neckband in July and then altered the sleeves. They had a wide shape that looked great on the hanger but just wrong on my arms. I made a casing at the end of each sleeve and inserted elastic. I then got too frustrated with the whole process of neck edging and chucked it in a bag. I was also put off after a (non-sewing) friend came round and critiqued the top for me. Now, I like to think I can take criticism but this conversation just made me want to give up. Maybe advice is easier to take from a fellow sewer? Any opinions?

So, when I found the top again last friday I decided to try and salvage it. I have given it a narrow binding type of neckband in a patterned fabric that I had scraps of. Apologies for its unironed state and that is a glimpse of vest underneath as it is too cold now not to wear one. The top looks much better now I think, much less Nativity Play costume, and I will wear it now. It is loose and comfortable, though I am not sure if it will make me look three times bigger than I actually am.

There is something so appealing about Japanese pattern books. I keep browsing them over at M is for Make and thinking about getting one for Christmas. I have some idea that if I wore these clothes I would be a calm person living in a beautiful house, with minimal and tasteful decorations. I would waft around drinking green tea from a tastefully handmade mug and I would never, ever shout at my children....(who would also be beautifully attired and have exquisite taste in toys, no second hand barbies in this world) I most certainly would not possess a Scary Cupboard. Ahhh, it's good to dream. I will report back in case my life suddenly and drastically alters due to wearing this japanese top.