Scrapbusting! Handmade Cami Top

I try not to have too large a fabric stash, a goal which is fairly easy for me to achieve given that I rarely buy fabric online and am only able to visit fabric shops a few times a year. There are of course exceptions to this, I do sometimes visit my local Fabricland with a specific fabric in mind and I'm lucky to receive fabric from companies in exchange for blog posts. In general though, my fabric purchases are made infrequently but in bulk - my most recent fabric buying trip being in Tokyo last summer. I like to do this to be able to really make the most of visiting fabric shops in other countries (I always plan my holiday around fabric shops, much to my family's irritation!).
However, my fabric stash is very much present nonetheless and what annoys me the most about it is that many of the fabrics are offcuts from previous projects. You know those pieces that are too small to do anything with but too big to throw away? The bane of my sewing life!

I know that there are lots of ways to scrapbust, quilting being the most obvious, but because my sewing mainly consists of dressmaking most of these scraps are jersey which are pretty much impossible to make anything out of as they can't be sewn together to create a patchwork. I love upcycling (this top was made of old pairs of jeans) so I'm always trying to find ways of using those last scraps of fabric.  Recently, I've drafted myself a strappy top pattern for making out of the smallest pieces of leftover fabric.

I'm super pleased with this top, it's made from literally nothing! The pattern is a really simple cami design with a v-neck. I finished the entire thing with bias binding which gives a lovely neat finish and doesn't use as much fabric as a facing. Because I had so little fabric I added in trapezium side panels (much like the ones I added in to my Minttu Swing Top) which make the top wide enough. They were perfect for this project as my leftover fabric was in bits a pieces rather than one continuous piece. I love how the side panels make the top swing too.

You might have recognised the fabric that this top is made from. It's the beautiful viscose fabric that my friend bought for me in India, initially used to make a pair of Marigold Trousers. Although I'm glad to have made the trousers I kind of wish I'd saved the fabric, I'd really like to try and make a midi skirt at some point and it would have been perfect for that. I don't often buy viscose fabrics, they're something I'm on the lookout for at the moment. 

Like I said there was hardly any of this fabric leftover so I'm really pleased I managed to make a top out of it! It's definitely not warm enough for me to wear it at the moment but I'm hoping it will be lovely in the summer. I like that the simplicity of the top shows off the fabric too. If you look closely you might notice the centre back seam. This wasn't intentional but I found it was necessary from the absolute lack of fabric. I think it looks quite nice though, it's neatly stitched down and doesn't break up the pattern too much.

I used to really hate bias binding, I found it was never quite neat enough, but I've come to really love it now. It was certainly the perfect finish for this project, I even added it round the bottom hem to keep every last bit of length! The fabric was well and truly used up and I feel suitably satisfied.