January Make a Garment a Month Complete

This really should have been a much quicker make than it turned out to be. But that’s ok, because I made it fit properly  pretty well and learned a few things along the way. And discovered that I actually really enjoyed the whole process.

It is McCall’s M6604 view C. First up is that this pattern is really short. I added 2.5cm to both back and front and then another 5cm or so in the shaping on the front. When I make it again, which I will, I’ll add at least another 2.5cm to the back.

So the first thing to go wrong was that I cut a size 20, sewed the pleats, and shoulder seams and then tried it on. It was huge but then that’s no real surprise is it? As I mentioned once before, it is all very well to measure the pattern pieces and work out the ease, but I’m still learning how much ease I like and how a certain amount of ease looks. But anyway, I recut the size 18 and it’s much better.

I did a 2cm forward shoulder adjustment and used Heather’s fabulously easy tutorial to also adjust the sleeves. I also took 1cm off at the top of the shoulder. And then I put in the sleeves.

Looks pretty good, yeah? (Well except for the colour – this fabric photographs as a completely different colour in nearly every photo) But there is one small problem….

That is a rather large pleat in the sleeve. Talk about a generous amount of ease… I thought that a pleat might work as it would reference the front pleats. But it didn’t – it just stuck out rather awkwardly.

So I looked for tutorials on how to fix this. There are a lot. However, most of them presume (quite rightly) that you want to make an adjustment to the pattern before you cut the fabric. I, of course, needed an on the fly fix for an already cut (and hemmed) sleeve. Casey’s tutorial was just what I needed. I will also try to remember to check this on future garments BEFORE I cut them out.

After that it was all smooth sailing.

Well except for the weird ‘smile’ between my b00bs. But see it goes away when I do this

The problem is that the neckband is too long. You see I also did a straight shoulder adjustment, maybe…. Anyway I cut 1cm at the neck of both front and back shoulder seams graded out to nothing at the shoulders. But I din’t even think to shorten the neckband.  No wonder it went on so easily…

I played around with lots of options to try to fix this. In the end I added a small piece of elastic inside the neckband just above the pleats. (I also tried elastic all the way around and just from the shoulder seams forward but both of those pulled it too far forward)

This is supposed to show my excellently placed shoulder seams and pretty damn good sleeves (maybe still need a small tweak at the back) but all I can see is … b00bs. I swear they don’t stick out that far in real life.

And the obligatory back view. I do sometimes wonder if I need some kind of back adjustment. But I think I can’t need a sway back, because I have a flat bum but then I read somewhere the other day that that is precisely when you need a sway back adjustment. Can anyone shed any light on this for me?

But still I’m pretty pleased overall with this top. A couple of tweaks and it might even be a TNT. Which I do really need because when it is really hot you just can’t beat a simple woven top.

So that turned into a really long post, didn’t it? Next time I will try to do a WIP post, which is what I should have done when I spent so much time faffing about with the sleeves.

So how are your January plans going? And I would really appreciate any comments or suggestions you might have regarding achieving a better fit.

Oh and don’t forget to leave a comment on my last post to win the Plus Size Pattern Pyramid.