Knits That Fit #1: the Quest!

I should be writing my PhD thesis, but I've spent two days feeling like death as a result of the medication change I had on Wednesday. Ugh. Anyway, quick break to think about sewing before I forge on with the writing.

Where am I on my wardrobe plan? Well, between shopping and sewing my bottom half is almost fully outfitted for a winter at work, hurray! My remaining to do list for "bottoms":

1. Hem Skirt #4. Not looking forward to this as the fabric is so badly behaved. Will get to it this week.
2. Make skirt #5. The pattern is already traced and cut out, the fabric is prepared, so "make it" means: cut the pieces, make the skirt & lining, and finish, review and post about it.

Ottobre 2008/5. I will not be making a 70s style top to go with mine.

Skirt #5 was a late addition to the mix after I suddenly realized I didn't have a plain black skirt in my wardrobe. I have decided to go for a black pencil skirt but in a gored, lined pattern from Ottobre, specifically 2008-5-12, modelled on the right of this photo. I picked up some black wool mix online , and I'm going to use a patterned grey and white lining I had in stash. When the wool arrived, though, it was very thin, and in certain lights you can see through it to the lining beneath. It's a really interesting effect, though I don't know yet whether it's good-interesting or weird-and-bad-interesting. I guess time will tell.




The next thing on my list was to make some knit tops. In preparation for this, in between pounding headaches, I went through my wardrobe looking for knit tops I liked that I could copy. I wanted knits that were work appropriate, not so much rectangle + sleeves t-shirt type tops which are too sloppy for work for my tastes. I came away more or less empty handed, and the problem is, as always, my bust.

Maybe I should sing I'm a little teapot

I have a 14cm difference between top and full bust, and 21cm difference between full bust and ribcage. This puts me firmly in ultra-busty territory (H cup bras, anyone?) which is a nightmare to shop for. In general, my knit tops fell into two categories: Boobs Ahoy!, where the rest of the top, especially the neckline, fit nicely, but the top strained unattractively over the bust; and I Have Cut A Hole In A Knit Tent, where in order to stop the straining I bought 1-2 sizes up, meaning that my shoulders practically fit through the neckline and it swamps me around the hips.

Here is a lovely example of the latter, a top from LTS in size Large that I only just bought. Observe the bra strap inconveniently on show! The 3 acres of (unstretched!) fabric hanging at each side of my hip! It's also much too long, but that's because I mis-read the description and though it was a t-shirt when it was a tunic, so that's entirely my own fault. I am contemplating whether I want to try to alter it to fit a little between at the waist/hip/length, but there's nothing to be done about the neckline I don't think.

"Tip me up and pour me out!"

This is probably the best knit top I own. It is from Next, it was very cheap, and I would have bought more colours as I like it so much except the only other colours they made it in were yellow and orange, which, with my skin tone? No, unless I WANT to look like I am about to die. It's a dolman sleeve and (not visible) although it is a knit the shoulders and back yoke are in a woven fabric, which I find I really like.

On the plus side, this top doesn't show bra strap, it drapes nicely over my bust, and it's neither too tight nor too loose. I think what I like most about it is the understated shaping of the body -- it's relaxed fit, but it is curvy at the same time.

 On the minus side, it's very short-sleeved and thus no good for winter. It has a narrow band at the hip, which is not a look I prefer. I also think if it were just 2-3cm longer, I'd be happier with it. But it's not bad, and though I only bought it this summer I've worn it quite a lot already.


Enquiring on Pattern Review what anyone might recommend for the very large busted knit wearer, what I got was a ton of people recommended Pamela's T-shirt Pattern for "real" women. I immediately have three problems with this pattern and company.

Pamela's Perfect T-shirt for real (ugh) women

1. ALL WOMEN ARE REAL WOMEN, NO MATTER WHAT THEIR BODY LOOKS LIKE. The answer to the fashion industry telling us we're not worth dressing if we're not a perfect perky UK size 8 with B-cup breasts is NOT to turn around and tell people who ARE perfect perky size 8s that they aren't "real women". Let's not actually make the body shaming WORSE, shall we? That set my teeth on edge from the start. I don't want to support an independent pattern maker who uses that language. I'm not going to go into that on the PR forums though.

2. It's $18 to send me a pattern in the UK. Is it being hand-delivered by a coach driven by transfigured mice? It's $4 to send a typical pattern US->UK first class, which I know because I just had someone send me one. I can (and do) live with people doubling this and charging $8-10 for postage because, whatever, it's a nuisance to do international postage, I get it. But $18 postage for a $12 t-shirt pattern? Yeah, I don't think so.

3. I REALLY don't like darts in most knit fabric. If it's a heavy substantial knit without much stretch, then maybe, or sometimes if there's a busy pattern to hide it. For a typical lighter jersey or slinky knit in a single colour, which is what I mainly want to wear? Ugh, no. I've seen reviews where it's like "Oh, I've made loads of t-shirts with darts and they look great!" and then you look at the photo and the dart is a horrible wriggly line pointing straight at their nipple. DNW an ugly arrow shouting BREASTS HERE on my t-shirt, thanks. I am sure there are people who sew it beautifully and it looks great but as a beginner to knits (and bust darts!) I think I have to assume mine would fall at the "appalling" end of the spectrum.

What a lot of people suggested though was to find places to rotate the darts to, which makes a lot of sense. I've started looking at patterns I have with an eye to wear I might add fullness without going down the fugly dart route. As ever, Pepperberry was a useful source of inspiration, being as how they make jersey tops designed for very large busted women (but as always, charge far more than I am willing to pay. Have you noticed a trend in my blog is how very cheap I am? I REALLY am. I'm not even going to pretend I'm not.)

Burda 2012-10-114A

Pepperberry sell two darted design jersey tops at the minute, and half the reviews are "the darts look terrible and are like a line pointing at my bust". (I AM NOT ALONE.) Other than that, there's a lot of ruching, gathering and pleating going on. Pepperberry have a very specific manufacturing challenge (which I talked about here) which I don't, so some of their solutions (tops cut at empire level with a separate skirt in particular) I don't have to worry about reproducing. What I need though are patterns for tops where I can move some fullness into similar design details.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

This is from Burda 2012/10, which just arrived. Not sure about the dubious not-very-straight ruching, and the fabric is just VILE, but the idea is clearly there!

Ottobre 2012-5-11

Very similar, from the most recent recent Ottobre is this blue jersey top. I feel like I might need to extend the ruching downwards a little, but I am pretty sure I could muslin that and work it out. There are three other jersey top with gathers at the neckline in Ottobre, plus the Hot Pattern Sunshine top I've mentioned a couple of times has a ton of gathers. I also went mad and ordered the J Stern t-shirt pattern, on the grounds that the description specifically mentions an FBA being easy, and if I need to I will fork out the $44 (ouch) for her video class on PR.

Ottobre 2007-2

That's just the patterns I own! I am also going to keep an eye out for patterns I don't current have that might work.

What I'd really love is to think of a way to modify a couple of other Ottobre jersey top patterns that DON'T have an easy design feature to do so. The main one I want to do is the famous Rose Top that everyone loves so much. I keep wondering if I could rotate the dart and somehow put gathers around the point of the V-neck like this Hot Patterns dress.



The upshot of all of which is: my epic quest for a knit top that fits has begun!