One day, Céline came to the workshop with her black linen trouser scraps and her jacket lining made from Japanese fabric with a great idea in mind: to sew the two-tone Quilla top. Wow Céline, what a great idea! I completely loved the concept and really wanted to create my own version too! Since Marie-Hélène had just joined the team, it was only natural that we suggested sewing a version together. 

So let's get started with discovering the Quilla top and the feedback from three seamstresses with different experience levels. 

The Quilla pattern

The Quilla top is a short, elegant, and feminine model that will be perfect for the warm season.

Quilla is worn cropped over pants, shorts, or why not a fitted skirt (pencil skirt) because this sleeveless top has a flared cut. So you need to balance the silhouette a bit. Quilla features a high neckline at the front and back, without being too high at the front. The neckline sits well. For the finishing touches, Quilla has a facing at the back and front that completes the armholes for a top-notch finish.

The prettiest detail that makes this top unique is the elasticated sides, which create all the originality of this top. 

Practical information for sewing Quilla

Quilla is a pattern available in Fibremood No. 23 (currently on newsstands) or as a PDF on the Fibremood website.

As usual, Fibremood offers a wide size range: from 32 to 60, enough to find your perfect fit! To sew Quilla, refer only to the bust measurement, as it is the key to determining your size. 

In the seamstress's basket

A whole range of fabrics will suit this Quilla top, Fibremood recommends everything from chambray to modal, double gauze, and even seersucker cotton. Tip: The project will be a bit easier with slightly stiffer materials like linen and poplin than with soft fabrics like crepe. 

To make Quilla, you will need:

• fabric or two if you want to make the two-tone version 
• good quality coordinated thread
  
• a 4cm wide elastic band
• possibly cones for the serger 

Our supplies

We chose very different fabrics to make our tops. 

Let’s start with Céline who was the first at the helm and made two amazing tops! Céline chose to work with the washed linen we have in the shop in several different shades for the body of Quilla. She chose black and cherry. For the first, she combined black linen with a Japanese fabric featuring peacocks highlighted with silver motifs. For the second, she combined cherry linen with an American fabric patterned with cats in tall grass, also available in the shop in green and pink. 

Marie-Hélène, for her part, chose to create a somewhat romantic model. Indeed, upon arriving at the shop, Marie-Hélène had a big crush on the embroidered fabrics that we really love. She therefore chose a pink embroidered double gauze. Double gauze provides structure but without stiffness. Given its airy weave, double gauze is an excellent choice for this summer top.   

Finally, I chose the washed red linen for myself (of course) because I absolutely wanted to work with it given the customer feedback saying it was great and that they kept coming back to buy more... so it was on the wish list and it was the right time. I paired it with a piece of Japanese fabric I brought back in 2018, I think. I remember buying it from a little old man in Kyoto. We were walking along the Philosopher's Path when I discovered his small shop that looked unassuming but was full of treasures! He had antique items including remnants of kimono rolls which are uniquely very narrow. The side of Quilla just fit perfectly into my coupon. I still have a small piece left and I already know what project it’s for 😊... shh, it’s a surprise! 

Technical points

Quilla is rated level 3 out of 5 by Fibremood and for once, I think that might be a bit "high" as a rating. I think a level 2 out of 5 would suit it better; of course there are technical points but nothing insurmountable. The particularity of Quilla lies in its assembly and our trio experimented with 3 ways to assemble it (we explain this in the sewing experiences). 

The technical points are:

• joining shoulders
• assembling and sewing the facings
• inserting an elastic into a casing and securing it
• attaching the facing and the elastic
• making a hem

Sewing experiences

We tested three different assembly techniques. 

Céline followed Fibremood's assembly instructions exactly for the first top she made and she, like me, was not convinced by the assembly of the facing on the top. 

So, I wanted to test the method I usually use when I want to double straps by sliding the front into the back but... the straps were too small to sew them on the machine. Well, it was no big deal, I sewed them by hand. 

The third method was therefore the right one with Marie-Hélène and Céline's second version where we used the burrito technique for the casing as seen on social media. 

Note that all three of us removed a few centimeters of elastic originally planned to create more gathers on the side; on average we removed two centimeters per elastic. 

What a pleasure to sew the same piece as a trio. A bit challenging for me because I had to fit sewing this top into three days in my busy schedule 😂 but it was finished 1h30 before the photo session... phew! 

Photo session which, I must say, was full of color, we had a good laugh! Maybe I'll share a blooper reel on Instagram for fun. 

So, what do you think of the Quilla top? On our side, we loved it and it was funny to see customers this Friday say to us, is this the Quilla top? yes, and then move on to the next colleague and after a few moments of thought say... oh, you too? A very nice moment of connection to experience. 

In short, your turn! Grab your needles!