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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

The least trashy sheer animal print top in the world!

Well, I did it!  I accomplished a great feat today.  I made a cute top out of a questionable animal print sheer--and get this: it doesn't scream Janice from Friends or biker bar!!
I got this fabric at JoAnn on the clearance and they had several animal prints to choose from, all $2/yard after the extra sale markdown.  I don't usually like animal print, but I was drawn to these, and chose this nice brown zebra-inspired stripe rather than the slightly louder leopard or tiger prints.  I was imagining something with tucks and a yoke, a little structure added to the natural feel of the fabric.  I used this pattern:

One of those Fashion Runway, create-your-own ones where they act like variations on a simple base pattern is a novel idea.  I do like them, usually, though, since I tend to want to create or modify patterns to make them fit the garment I'm imagining.  Anyway I used this pattern, with the roundish yoke with four 1/4" tucks on each side, and ruffled bias edge for sleeves (I wanted to do the larger ruffled sleeve but didn't have enough fabric).  Here it is:

I think it's meant as a loose top with jeans as I'm wearing it in the picture, but I think it would be cute with a wide belt at the waist and high-waisted pencil skirt.
I don't have a lot of experience sewing on polyester and I have to say this sheer crinkle poly was a NIGHTMARE to work with.  Nearly impossible to cut, press, gather, and backstitch on.  Only redeeming quality was, since it is so loosely woven, seams pull out quite easily!

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