Don't Faint! I Actually Made Something!

After all the family stress, it feels so good to just sit and sew and listen to music.  Fabric and music never gets mad at me over my blog!  What shocks me the most is some members of my family seem to think the ENTIRE WORLD reads my blog.  Good heavens!  If I thought that, I would DEFINITELY go get that face lift I've always wanted.

So, guess what I made?

It started out to be this Vogue pattern.

I looked at the measurements on the flap -- see those little green circles -- and it said I needed a size 16 AND a size 18 AND a size 20!  Good grief already!  HOW does anyone gets these things to fit?

Look at the FRONT pattern piece compared to my Sure-fit Designs pattern piece.  IF I made the size 14, the edge of the shoulder was still 1 5/8" too far out past my shoulder.  The blue lines on the neck show where my shoulder/neck junction is.  And, of course, everything under the size 14 would have had to increase gigantically when I reached the underarm.

SO, I decided to get out my Sure-fit Designs knit pattern that I had used to make four tops.  They all fit me perfectly, and I thought I could REdesign the pattern to have stripes going all different ways.  I had to take the v-neck out too.

First I put the pattern from my envelope down on my table.  I put paper on top of it and traced a new pattern to chop into pieces.  This is the FRONT.  The original front was to be placed on the fold.  The new front has to be all in one piece, and I had to change the neckline -- always a HARD thing for me for some reason.  Especially, the BACK.

Here is the new FRONT and the new BACK.  Formerly 2 pieces -- now 4.  I made sure the side seams would match up and the length of the triangle side seams were exactly the same length.  I made the mistake of taking a tiny tuck in the front neckline.  I will have to take that back out.  Not needed.  I should have realized that since I started with Sure-fit Designs.

Next, I finagled the material all around to get the stripes going the right way.  NOT EASY!!!  You have to cut the sleeves out ONE AT A TIME, unless you aren't the perfectionist I am.

 I wasn't sure WHAT to do with the neckline.

I decided to TRY the version on the pattern envelope, but made mine a little wider like a band.



WRONG!!!

I had to take a huge tuck on the top of each shoulder to look like I was NOT wearing a paper bag.





I took that off immediately and decided to just turn under the 3/8" hem and Steam-A-Seam it.  MUCH Better!

Lucy is modeling today as I am not in the mood.

Maybe I'll wear it tomorrow and take a pic of it on me.

Here are the sleeves.  NOTICE the bust darts that were NOT suppose to match at the stripes.  One of them came out perfect without even trying, and then I spent 30 minutes making the other one match.

AARRGGHH!





And last, but not least.  Here is the back of my new striped knit top:

Pretty cute, I think, and the fit is AWESOME!

Jackie's fence is being put in tomorrow, so I may dig out some more stripes from my stash, and try this again.

Maybe I'll put the diagonals on the big pieces this time -- or maybe mix a stripe and a print - or maybe a stripe and a solid -- or maybe I'll just swing on my swing and dream of Jackie.




Hugs,
Joy