A Finished Object ! !

Yesterday, when I woke up, it was snowing - something it did off and on all day. This would have been far more frustrating if I hadn't already decided to stay in the studio, sew all day, and finish something new. And - I DID IT - I have a finished object ! ! !



The silk noil went through a hot wash and a hot dry and survived. Both the pink and the purple silk go well with the knit burnout print bought in February at Fabricana. How nice to use something from stash. I chose...



... Vogue 8390 for the style. Since it's a new pattern, I decided to sew a - hopefully wearable - muslin first and started by comparing my T & T t-shirt pattern to the Vogue pattern. In the end, I used the back and the sleeve from my T & T pattern and the front from the Vogue pattern.

The shoulder line of the T & T pattern is 1 1/2" below the shoulder line of the Vogue pattern although the angles match exactly. The ruler at the underarm tells me that 1" needs to be removed through the armhole and 1/2" between the underarm and the waist. Since I was using the back from the T & T which already had these adjustments, those are the amounts I removed from the front. The Vogue pattern has easing through the bust to replace a dart just as my T & T pattern does so I didn't have to adjust for that option however, because of this, I removed the 1/2" just above the waist.



One of the reasons for using the T & T back was the width of the Vogue back. You can see the difference in the image above. The shoulder and underarm points match but the scoop of the armhole is much shallower on the Vogue pattern. It was easier to use my tested piece than to reinvent the wheel. To match the design lines, I raised the back neckline on the T & T pattern which made the shoulder longer with a narrower neck opening. I also...



... added 1" to the length because the Vogue pattern was longer than my T & T. Since this is a muslin, I decided to test that length just in case it looked good even though I was pretty sure I preferred the length of my T & T.



The width of the front hip was significantly more than I'd anticipated and I didn't know how to factor in the gathers. Even after folding up the side to mimic them, it seemed amply big enough so I opted to cut out the smallest size.



For the front, I used a trick learned from Sandra Betzina. The fusible bias stay tape is 1/4" shorter than the neck edge which is then eased. This pulls the neck in tight against the chest so that when I bend over, nothing gapes. It works wonderfully.

Here's the finished top. Mostly I like it. The color makes me look pale which surprised me and the shoulders seem too wide. That really surprised me because I matched the front to my T & T back.

The hemline seems wonky. I'm not sure if this is my fault or the pattern's because I changed the sewing steps however, the review I read at PatternReview.com mentioned the same issue. This was a muslin. These are things to change for next time. In the original instructions, the front pieces are faced with a knit lining. The same PR review indicated this was too heavy and caused the neck edge to sag and gape. Unless it was needed for modesty, I couldn't see the point so I hemmed the bottom edges and used bias trim around the neck instead. I like that much better.

The gathers aren't as full in person as they are in the image, especially at the shoulders. That reality reminded me of what I learned from Ron Collins - that any Vogue patterns with drawings on the envelope have not been test sewn and if there is an image, only that view has been test sewn. Obviously, this is one of those patterns. Next time I will transfer the design concept to my T & T front for a better fit/look. Most likely, I'll eliminate the shoulder gathers and replace the side ones with pleats. I prefer pleats to gathers and flounces to ruffles. I had a fun day and it was FABULOUS to feel like sewing again. YES YES

Talk soon, Myrna

Grateful - finished objects and using stash fabric