Something of a disaster (Silhouette 511)

I almost don't know where to start with this top.

Silhouette 511 "Angie's Top" in white double gauze front and back

On the one hand, on Flossie, I actually think the top looks actually pretty good. The main feature of this top is the front collar/placket piece, which is a nice feature that I still like tremendously. I actually didn't sew the collar in perfectly, but even with my somewhat substandard execution I genuinely think the collar is very cute.
 
The top is made in white double gauze, which I purchased at vast expense (by my standards) earlier this summer after I made a blue polka dot double gauze top. I agonized for ages over what pattern to use with it. Double gauze is lovely but it feels really fragile -- it's very easy to snag and stretch. I wanted to avoid anything that involved working the fabric hard, like a shirt with a button placket and collar or anything like that. My original instinct was to make another woven tee pattern from Burda, and really, I should have stuck to that instinct instead of going off-piste with Silhouette 511, a pattern from the very darkest depths of my pattern stash. 

Line drawing of Silhouette 511, from the Silhouette website

I bought this pattern right back at the start of my garment sewing adventures and it's lurked about ever since. At the time, I was drawn to it by the line drawing of the top and by the way that Silhouette advertise their patterns as having cup-sizes.

Front cover of the pattern

If you were buying this, wouldn't you assume that the big banner "with EXCLUSIVE B, C & D cup sizing" on the front of the envelope meant that the pattern would have cup sizes? That was for sure what I assumed. Well, you'd be wrong -- despite the princess seams, which would have made for ideal cup sizing -- there are no cup-sized pieces for this pattern. This false advertising has annoyed me every time I thought about this pattern for the last several years, and frankly I am still annoyed by it now.

The other sizing thing with Silhouette is that they are like "Body measurements won't help you choose a size! You only need finished garment measurements!" Then you're directed to measure a garment you like the fit of and then pick the Silhouette size closest to the finished garment you like. I can see some validity to this argument, and for sure I've measured some favourite garments to get an idea of fit that I like. However, as a pattern company solution to the sizing problem, I can't bring myself to agree with this at all -- I want both the finished garment measurements AND some sense of how much design ease the pattern creator was imagining, even if it's just to say "the model is wearing a top with 6" of ease at the bust" or something, the way that knitting patterns on Ravelry do.


As it turns out, I chose TOTALLY the wrong size. I'm not really trying to shift the blame -- I should have known better -- but I also don't think they made it easy for me to pick the right size, so I am still holding a grudge.

Silhouette 511 on me

So first: this top is the wrong size. I made a size 2, which notionally has 3" of ease vs. my body measurements at bust, waist and hip. It doesn't NOT fit, in the sense that although there are some little drag marks they're mostly from the shirt getting caught up on the cami I'm wearing underneath. However, it's MUCH too close a fit for the design, which was intended as an overshirt.

Top pre-sleeve-surgery

I also HATE the sleeves -- I added the photo with my hands on my hips so you get some sense of how the sleeves are constructed and why there are so many vertical wrinkles around the shoulders in the other shots. You can see I ended up cutting off the sleeves, which were weirdly constructed and weirdly shaped, in favour of short-sleeves.

A great deal of my current grumpiness about this top is actually about my own mistakes. I am VERY annoyed with myself for using an expensive piece of fabric to make this and not making a muslin first. I am annoyed because I cut the pattern to size 2 rather than tracing it the way I normally do and now I have one sheet full of the pattern at sizes too large for me (5W-8W) and the pattern at sizes 1-2 and not the size I actually needed. Not that I necessarily want to make it again, because I don't think even at the right size that shoulder/sleeve arrangement would ever suit me.

My cardigan hides the things I don't like, especially those shoulders!

The only SMALL plus is that I actually do like the way the centre front of the top looks on me, even though the fit is closer than I'd like, and it's therefore possible that I'll salvage some wear from it by wearing it under a cardigan. I feel like if I were a different sort of sewer I'd try to frankenpattern the collar, which I really do like a LOT, onto a different pullover shirt that worked better for me. However, I have to admit that I am not at all sure I am that kind of sewer or that I will ever be.

On to more cheerful things: my new Ottobre magazine just turned up in the post, so I shall be perusing that (images and line drawings for the 05/2016 issue are here if you've not seen them yet). I have a bunch of things in mind for the rest of this month but nothing concrete for my next sewing project quite yet.