Ah, yes. I remember this feeling now. I was feeling so good after making the girls’ jackets… /sigh.
I was trying to make my version of the “Anna top” off Burdastyle. The pattern is only available in the one size. Should be ok, I thought, her measurements aren’t THAT far off mine.
I was good. I made a muslin that confirmed (what I thought) that the shirt was, in fact, a little too small in the waist and a little too big in the bust (sigh). Also it seemed to need a major sway-back alteration (which I don’t REALLY know how to do) So I reduced t the cup size (no big deal) and did my best to figure out how to shorten the back, while also widening the whole thing (easy) a bit and the waist especially (less easy). Also the pattern has basically full-length darts which I wanted to re-draft as princess-type seams since I have had good luck with princess seams and no luck at all with darts.
And I thought I had it. I measured myself. I measured the pattern. I added movement ease. I added overlap in the front. I actually worried I’d added to much (at the underbust part, which had pretty much fit me on the original pattern). I measured again.
And then I cut it out of my “good fabric” (a remnant of black cotton with black embroidery leftover from another project, so not a huge loss, but pretty). I had pretty generous seam allowances, just in case. I pinned the waist pieces all together, just to make sure they went around me. They seemed to.
Black Anna top... only problem, it doesn't fit.
And I sewed. I sewed and I sewed and I sewed. I did hot pink topstitching (a whole nother learning curve… apparently my topstitching is worse than I thought it was). I got the gathering under the bust mostly even. I even managed, after a couple of tries, to turn neat little straps for it.
And then, once I had the straps on and the facing sewn in (its own private nightmare) I tried it on again.
It’s too small. Like, at least two inches around too small, in the whole ribs-to-waist section. I spent half the day trying to convince myself that I can probably get the extra width from the back seam allowances (which are generous, like I said), but I think that won’t even be enough.
Back to the drawing-board, I guess. Maybe my daughter will be able to fit it in a few years…
Tanit-Isis Sews 