Burda WOF 12/2006 #107

When did I last sew?  When did I last write?  Oh yes, that was Thursday. 

I did take those extra 15 minutes on Thursday to finish the swirly tee, but it was not fated to be.  I put the tee on Matilda and pinned up the neckline, then stitched it up.  I had to try it on to mark the sleeve hems, even though they are marked on the pattern, and it was a good thing I did because I shortened them by an inch.

But the neckline was funny, with extra fabric on one side and it needed to be turned up differently.  It seems that Matilda and I are not shaped exactly the same through the upper chest.  That’s OK because the top looks better on me than it does on Matilda.   Unfortunately I did not have time to rip out the seam, repin it, and do the hems so everything got put aside until today, when I took a break after hours and hours of accounting work followed by a few more hours of shifting and filing of what appears to be a never ending pile of paperwork, but more about that later.

So here’s a partial view along side a shot of the first draft (that seems so long ago).

As you can see the neckline is quite different, but nothing shows.  I kind of liked the wide low neckline as seen on the original pattern, better than my redrafted neckline, although I realize that it was perhaps a little revealing for everyday wear. I see that I changed the angle of the front trying to cover the bra straps and I wonder now if there was a better way to do that, a way where I can get that angle and swoop that I see in the all white version.  Of course the fabrics are quite different in the way they stretch and hang as well. Still I think the white is more flattering, and the swirl more mundane and boring, not that I won’t wear it and love wearing it.  I just hope there is some happy middle point I can find in adapting this pattern to my body.

All in all, it is nice, and wearable but there are things I still might change.  Although I did not change the shoulder pieces or the back neck, the second top has excess fabric at the back of the shoulders that I did not see in the white top.  I wonder if that is caused by the changes in the shape of the front, or if it is caused by the different fabric.

It seems there is always something more to learn.

Here’s what I did:

As you can see I raised the neckline  on the right side and also made the front narrower under the arm, changing the shape of the armhole opening.  I then made corresponding corrections to the sleeve pattern.  Although you can’t see it here, I also added some increased room through the bust because the first top was a little snug and the second fabric was slightly less stretchy than the front.  If you look closely at the photo above you can see that I still get some wrinkling and I probably need to add a little more, especially on the right, where the shoulder curves in more and there is a more dramatic change from the fullness at the bustline to the smallness under the arms and at the upper chest.

Here is the altered front piece in full view.

To me this looks very asymmetrical, more so than I think I appear when I look at myself in the mirror.  When I look at the photo above I can see that a bit of asymmetricality, although the wide point of the top hits at exactly the same place relative to my bra strap on each side.

But other than adapting the pattern  to my own idiosyncrasies, it was an easy top to make and I will make it again.  I highly recommend the pattern.

The only thing I really did differently than the pattern was make a
double front, especially since the white fabric was a little
transparent.  The pattern calls for a front facing piece that ends just
below the bustline.  But I really don’t like facing pieces, and by
lining the front you have the opportunity to hide the side seams so
nicely, giving a lovely finished look to the inside of the tee (as if
anyone is looking).

And the only part of the process I had trouble with (aside from the comedy of errors I call fitting and pattern alteration) was hemming the sleeve.  I am not sure how to double needle hem a narrow sleeve hem easily and well when it is too narrow to wrap around the sewing machine under the needle.

I kept holding out an inch here and there and stopping and pulling and turning, hoping desperately that I wasn’t catching the underside of the fabric and sewing the sleeve closed.   There is probably some obvious solution that I am just missing, aside from making the sleeves wider, but I like close fitting sleeves at the cuff and my wrists are not large.