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| If I were a bell I'd be ringing, amiright? |
Clearly, that won't do. 'Cause, yikes. So, I went into my closet and pulled out a tunic from Lane Bryant (that I bought for the Disney trip, actually - the genesis of this sewing sickness), laid it over the lines I had drawn, and pinned through the seams all around. So much better. Actually shirt/person shaped this time! Terribly exciting. Time to pin to Gennie and make certain this bird will fly...
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| Okay, so it's person shaped. Just not this person. (And so you don't wonder, I was watching Friends.) |
I failed to give myself a seam allowance on the pattern (even though I distinctly remember telling myself, hey, draw your line further out, idgit) and so it was a tight fit with the unforgiving tension of the paper. And I could plainly see that I was going to have some bust-fitting issues, which meant bodice darts...really, this was supposed to be a simple project, people.
Okay, no problem. I cut down the arm holes (because look at that) and gave myself an inch of allowance all around as I cut the jersey (oh, right - it's this black that I bought to round out an order a while back), and - of note - did NOT cut out around the arm hole. I hit that edge and cut straight down at about a seventy-five degree angle, and figured I'd fix it when I pinned it. (If anyone's still paying attention, this is where it became a draping project.)
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| Draping! And you can see my little project area, too, all blinding in white, so it's harder to see the disaster area it is. |
So, after the fox shirt, I wanted to be sure I got the seam point right. Gennie is wearing one of my old bras, which is the kind I wear 98% of the time. I took my marking chalk and followed the outside of the strap at the very top of my shoulder, and then drew the line down around where it looked like it wanted to fall. I then drew out an inch all the way around for seam allowance (look at me thinking!).
Now, you also see that I have that big ol' flap there - I simply folded it into a dart and did my darnedest to make sure they were even on both sides. It's really not what I wanted to do, but I think for the stretch on this jersey, I'd rather have the darts than have a negative ease.
From there, it was all easy-peasy - no issues with any seaming (even went back through and zigzagged all of my SAs to finish them, because this stuff curls like mad), the sleeves just <popping noise>ed right in, and while I still have the little stand on the collar, it lays much much better than the fox shirt did. I think the shoulder measurement is what fixed that...
The only thing that didn't turn out exactly right was the darting - the points don't lay quite right, but it's still supremely wearable, and I get complimented on it every time. I'll be duplicating it, and it'll get better every time!
