This is one of the many reasons that I love you blogger friends: You read my insanely long posts about reasonably trivial sewing projects and provide feedback.
I revisited the top pattern today, all set to do what I suggested in my last post. FYI, doesn't matter how short one's dart is, closing a 2.5 inch wide dart, of various lengths, yields a 6 inch span at the hem. Ridiculous. Plus, it makes the armsyce look weird and truncated - like a right angle sort of - which, when I trued for correction yields - guess what? - the same armscye curve as the modified one used the first time. My proposed fix seems destined to fail. I can see it, even if I can't articulate my reasoning well.
Three of you suggested that I probably need to go down a size. That seems crazy to me, but it's sometimes the way. I just redrew the size small armscye (recreating it with a french curve cuz, natch, I cut into the actual pattern first time around, stupid girl) as it appears that what I need is a higher armhole - not a longer one. (My own armscye is pretty high, and that's probably why I can wear all of those high-winged bras without issue, despite my shortness and short-waistedness.)
It occurs to me today that I graded from a small shoulder to a medium bust in the weirdest way. I didn't draw the armhole in size small and move to a medium side seam. I cut a small at the shoulder and graded to a medium along the front armscye curve. Effectively I lowered the armhole while neglecting to remove fabric as assertively as I should have, where I should have.
There you go. Can't say that my new size small - which if I recreated it correctly is exactly the same as the unmodified original - will solve the problem of 2 plus inches of extra fabric. But I did take off a reasonable amount of side seam at the underarm (like, 2 inches per side over front and back pieces) and raised the curve by about 1/2 an inch. Furthermore, I reverted the front and back armholes to a true size small, rather than something half way between a small and medium.
Hilarious, that I've managed to turn a simple shell into a complicated thing. But not surprising.
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So, the question is - does it fit better now? You can't leave us hanging in suspense.
ReplyDeleteK: I don't know! Haven't cut and sewn the next top. That's for the weekend. But I will share!
DeleteOops, sorry! Didn't realize it was still in the works... It was like reading a novel and not knowing what happened in the end. ;)
DeleteSometimes the simplest things offer up the most challenge. (Hey, is that a fortune cookie??). :)
ReplyDeleteLord - that has to be a fortune cookie!
DeleteSo this is a knit pattern, right? What about rotating the dart to the side seam, but doing some gentle gathers besides the bewbs instead of a dart? I've done that for some of Anne's tops, and it's really not noticible during wear!
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a genius idea. If this version of the pattern results in the same problem, that's how I'm going to try to fix it on the fly.
DeleteArgh! The suspense is killing me!
ReplyDeleteFear not - the weekend is almost here!
DeleteI think the simplest things often turn into complex by the need to change them and not having many choices as to where to change them. 5 Sorbettos and it still needs tweaking. I totally get it.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right. It's the lack of alteration seams that makes things so tricky.
DeleteIf you haven't done it already it might be worth the effort to draft an armscye block, basically a bodice block with an armscye that fits well, and use it as the armscye template for everything. You would probably need a few different ones for different styles and fabrics. When I self-drafted my bodice block the armsyce came out crappy but looked exactly like the diagrams in the drafting book. So I took a pattern I'd previously debugged in terms of armscye/sleeve fit and overlayed that one on my draft. Fits beautifully for fitted wovens. You probably need just a few different shapes. But drawing the right armscye on the pattern won't solve the dart issue.
ReplyDeleteI haven't and it would be totally worth the effort. I'm going to make that a priority over the next while. I don't generally have armsyce issues, unless I'm working with a woven, and then I solve the issue with bodice alterations. Mind you, on that last suit I made, the armscye was a problem. So I have to give this some more thought. Thanks for the idea!
Delete