Continued win!

Today was somewhat revolting in parts (health stuff, still; writer's block on my thesis) but the parts that involved sewing were a win, even though since I last posted all of my previous win had drained away down the plughole of bad fit.

The last time I posted, I had decided that I could resurrect my old Connie Crawford blouse block and hopefully move myself along a little further along the road towards being able to make woven tops with darts. I was super excited because having made one muslin I felt like I was getting somewhere on fit. Except... when I tried it on again Tuesday, I felt a lot less excited about the fit. I re-sewed the dubiously sewn darts and found that actually, no, the problem wasn't the sewing. There was something off about the fit of the bust, and everything I read seemed to suggest it was because hugenormous darts don't really work that well.

Too much room at the bust (a first for me)

Next I tried splitting the one hugenormous dart into two darts (using this Colette tutorial) which was a useful and interesting exercise. However, it also didn't work. The more I looked at the outcome, the more I felt like the problem was that I had far too much room for my bust, which is a an absolute first! At this point I was, as usual, starting to think that I would never ever manage to make a woven top that fit, and contemplating, I don't know, burning everything and selling my machines. I did neither, of course, but I did dramatically fling my muslins in the bin and stomp out my sewing room (and then I had to go back in, because I'd left the iron on. I can't even do a good dramatic exit!)


Wednesday, I got over myself and decided that right, the best thing to do was start with a basic,
simple darted pattern and start again with an FBA. I already had the Ottobre 02-2014-05 darted tee pattern, so I decided to do that. When I looked at the pattern, it was about the right width compared to the Connie Crawford block hack I'd done, but it had only a small dart. For the heck of it, I decided to just move the dart to point at my bust point (my bust is very low as well as large) and sew it up. The sad fact is that my spatial reasoning is hopeless, and I couldn't see how it would fit with the small dart but I also couldn't work out how much extra room I would need without working in fabric.

Except it fit. For real this time, pretty much perfectly, with no FBA or anything!  I actually sewed it up in the morning and I kept trying it on and trying it on all day and all evening to make sure I didn't need to make any further adjustments, but no! Still fit!

Today I got up and in my breaks I cut out and then sewed a version in a piece of fabric that I have had for a while and have been wanting to use for ages, and I am SO IN LOVE with the top I made. I still need to do the hem and the sleeve hems, but oh my goodness, it's PERFECT and I LOVE IT and want to wear it a million times. The best thing is, I now not only have a great pattern (Ottobre is now pretty much permanently my favourite pattern source) but I also have something to compare every subsequent darted front top to... which means I can legitimately move on to trying to make up some patterns I have been dying to make for ages. The other thing I got done today was print and stick together the Pauline Alice Carme blouse pattern, which I bought months ago when the pattern creator first started to sell it (because it was on sale, and I am a cheapskate), and I already excited to give it a try now that I know that I have some hope of figuring out the fit.


In short YAY! And also, pattern review and photos of my new top tomorrow, for sure, health permitting. :D