Monday 11 February 2013

A jersey top and a cry for fitting aid

Moths ago I cut out this top, and then it ended up in the to-do pile. I sewed it early January, but then it took me nearly a month to get buttons and sew them on. Now it's ready... and I'm not sure I'm loving it.


The style is cute, and I like the sleeves. However, I botched the neck-band (now I know what not to do!) so it's not very neat where band meets buttonstrip:

Colour a bit off here, the other one's are more accurate.

My main issue with it though are these stresslines:


They disappear if I do like this:


Why are they there? Any ideas? I'm thinking it's because there's extra fabric over the overbust, but it might just as well be something totally different, like the depth of the sleeve-holes or the angle of the shoulder. Ideas, anyone?


Ah, well, at least this make is ready to wear. It will not go down in history as my most succesful make, but I'm sure it will get worn every now and then =) It would be nice to try to correct the pattern before any other jersey sewing takes place, though.

Love, Erika

3 comments:

Unknown said...

If I had to hazard a guess I would say that the stress lines went away when you pulled the neckline in and narrowed it. So, I would reduce the amount of fabric in the over bust. I don't think you could just make the entire side narrower (from shoulder to waist) because you would take a lot of fabric out over your bust and then it would be really tight. Which is fine if you want a tight shirt, but it might make stress lines in between your boobs. I call that gap-osis. Like when your buttons pull across your chest and you can see into your shirt thru the gaps. Try making a dart in your pattern right on top of your... Ummm..... Center breast area. Ahem... It would end up looking kinda like a back shoulder dart on a blouse. I don't know of any other way to reduce that area without also drawing the shoulder seam in and that would draw up your armpit and pinch. If you squish your ladies down, do the stress line disappear too?

I've never had this problem, but I also have a very minimal chest. Sadly so.

Evie said...

I agree that it looks like too much fabric in the over bust. I find this frequently happens if you wear a cup size larger than a B (which I do). Sometimes the way patterns are cut don't really accommodate the greater difference between full bust and overbust or underbust. I would try folding out a tiny dart in the pattern above the bust in order to eliminate the extra fabric without altering the width at the side seams. It's a cute top though. I really love the outfit in general. Looks very comfy but really put together.

Erika said...

Thank you for the input, ladies! You both seem to on the same track - reducing the fabric in the overbust. Having worn it with a cardigan, I also noted it hits much higher on the neck than my other tops. So I may shorten the shoulder a bit, and take away excess fabric from the over bust.

Thank you so much for the help! I really needed the perspective of a fresh pair of eyes (even better with two!).