Friday, April 13, 2007

Simplicity 4076 gathered neck knit top


What a fun little top I whipped up this afternoon. After making the robe and PJ bottoms, I wanted something a little more fun. This top was definitely it. I fiddled around with the pattern pieces for a while trying to figure out what to do for the fit and finially decided on a 10 at the shoulders tapering to a 14 at the bust and down to the hip in the front, and the a 10 in the shoulder in the back tapering to a 12 from the armscye down. I paid $5.00 for one yard of this fabric at JoAnns, so that was a steal. I think I will cut out the sleeveless twist view from some leftover fabric I have from Textile Studios patterns when I made the Madison Avenue dress.

Fitting tops is always a challenge for me.
My bust measurement is a 36 = size 14
Upper bust is 34 = size 12
underbust is 30" = size 10
since my shoulders are narrow and so is my back, I decided to cut a 10 in the shoulders, do a pivot and slide FBA to size 14 and trace it out to a 14 at the hip. For the back I cut a 10 in the shoulders and adjusted out to 12 at the bust and hip. This gave me the perfect fit for a "semi-fitted" top. the neckline and shoulders are perfect. I think if I make it again I would like more fullness in the front, so maybe I will add 1/2" to the CF seam, but keep the neckband the same size. I really want to feel confident about how to cut a pattern with alterations so that I don't have to rehthink it every time. According to all the "experts" I should cut a 12 with a FBA, but then often the back is too big or the front gaps. I think in wovens I need to add a bigger dart as well as doing a FBA to avoid the pulling up in front and arm gaposis. Anyone have similar problems?

I'm so excited because I received the Summer 2007 Vogue big catalog in the mail today. I've never ordered one before but I may find that it is worth the $30.00. I'd really like to order the Burda catalog, but haven't found a place to do it. Does anyone know where I can find that? I haven't found our local JoAnns to be very cooperative about selling their old books - no, they'd rather throw them away. Go figure.
Oh, here is a picture of the robe and PJ pants. Working on that cotton terrycloth was not fun - and it was messy. I'll probably be cleaning up terry crumbs for weeks.

0 comments: