The Tale of the Top part 2

In January I wrote the tale of a stalled out project, a pink silk top for which I had taken the dead-end path of fitting myself. Fitting yourself is like cutting your own hair. No matter how beautiful the front looks at some point you have to turn around and the back tragically shows.
The top, Vogue V7828 (now out of print) is a crossover wrap top with seams crossing the front diagonally. By fiddling with the seams, I came up with a great fit in the front. The blouse skims over my curves and highlights my best feature, a small waist. Because the eyes in the back of my head were not working correctly, the back was not as pleasing.


My choices were to throw the thing on the scrap heap or seek help. I hopped right on it, a mere 12 weeks after discovering that the back of this top was so unflattering, I met with my favorite fitter, Anita Marshall.
Before the meeting I had constructed a second muslin using my front adjustments. I donned the muslin for Anita and was rewarded with ‘oohs and ahs’. Then I turned around.  That’s when I heard it, that “tsk, tsk, tsk,” sound you never want to hear from a fellow sew-ist  (A sound I usually hear only when people get a glimpse of my sewing room). Anita agreed with my assessment. The back was my Titanic.



Actually, it didn’t take Anita long to figure out the fix. She took a large pinch across the back, parallel with the waist. It seems that my back from shoulders-to-waist is short. I shouldn’t be surprised at that as my front, from the shoulders-to-waist it short, too. With this pattern I had sucked up the extra fabric while fiddling with the front seams. With this pinch, the fabric smoothly skimmed the curve of my back. She redrew the arm-scythe and reduced the shoulder width (about 3/4” each shoulder) and we were done.
I am VERY happy with the finished results. Now I look good both coming and going. I’m anxious to find the right occasion to show off this piece. Maybe I need to manufacture an occasion.


The designs are from the Flowerful set (by the way).

I’m ready to resume my work on the green vest I wrote about last time. Hmm… it’s only been a month or so since I started that one. Maybe it needs to age a bit more.