Butterick 6183 top muslin part 2 - fitting the back

Fitting the back is hard and is not much fun when you have to do it on your own. It is so much easier to do the fitting on a dress form or someone else!
For now I have to rely on what I see in the pictures and make new pics after each adjustment to see if the fit is improved.

fitting 1
This is the size 10 muslin:


- At first sight you see a snug fit, no ease at the upper back. I already determined that my muslin is a size too small, but the length seems to be good (placing of the apex and waist markings are good)
- There are diagonal wrinkles towards the shoulder - I guess sizing up will sold this problem due to more ease across shoulder blades. If it was a sleeveless top I'd do a forward shoulder adjustment as well, but for a top with sleeves I think it is not necessary.
- Looking at the pictures, what's more interesting is the waistline. There are horizontal fold wrinkles at the waistline. What you also see (especially from the side) is that the back hem is raised. Fold wrinkles means there is excess fabric. At first sight you'd think it is a swayback problem, right? But: this could be a sign of a too tight fit across the hips. Probably the combination of both.
To check this I decided to open up the back seams from the waistline down.

fitting 2.


- The back looks much more relaxed with the seams open and wrinkles are gone! More room in the hips is definitely part of the wrinkle-problem. It would be easier to deal with this if the finished measurements were printed somewhere on the envelope or the pattern pieces...now I have no idea how much ease is built in...
- I marked the waistline and another thing I notice is that the waistline marking (black line at the back) is sloping downwards. (note: the line at the front is not the waistline but the lengthen/shorten line of the pattern):


The waistline needs to be 'lifted', which means that my back waist length is shorter than the pattern's. This is a swayback adjustment.You can see here that the side seam is pretty much vertical, so I only need to add width at the back.


fitting 3.
alterations done:
- Pinched out 1 cm at the center back for swayback adjustment, tapered to nothing at the side panels
- closed the side seams, added 1x seam allowance at both seams


- the fit at the hemline seems to be fine now, even when wearing a jeans underneath
- the waistline sits at the right place and looks horizontal:


I'm happy with how the top looks now and not going to make another muslin. I'm going to transfer all the adjustments to the pattern pieces.

pattern adjustments to do:
- add 3 cm length at hemline
- alter sleevecap by adding width (2x1cm)
- cut size larger pattern pieces (probably need to shorten the bodice pieces a tad to keep placing the waistline at the same height)
- add width at the hips in the back (3 cm at hemline tapering to nothing at waistline)
- do a minimal swayback adjustment (raise waistline by 1 cm)

Butterick 6183 top muslin - part 1

So, here is the muslin!
I must say, despite the amount of pattern pieces (4 front, 3 back + sleeves) this came together rather quickly.

sizing:
This pattern comes with pattern pieces for different cup sizes which is great, since in the past I was fine with the standard sizing and have never done a full bust adjustment. After checking the pattern instructions I calculated my 'new' bust size...which turned out to be the largest one, a d-cup.
I haven't really found the finished garment measurements so I thought I'd go with size 10, which with a semi-sitted garment fits most of the time, with just minor adjustments.

So, here is how it should look:


fitting:


+ 

• the size 10 shoulder width looks perfect
• the choice of the largest cup size was good (though size 10 is too tight)
• the waistline sits at the right height and I like the fact it doesn't look too loose around the waist
• I'd like to have this length for the finished length so I need to add extra length for hemming
• if I want the top to be somewhat fitted around the waist with this bust size, I need to put a side zipper in (I've already left one side of the muslin open)

-

• there are horizontal/diagonal wrinkles at the (finished) sleeve side of the yoke. The yoke is a tad too tight at the bottom seamline, so I need to go for a size larger there
• obviously, the fit across the bust is too snug, I need to size up that as well. Note: the apex marking is sitting at the right height but not at the right place. (The seams are sitting at the right apex placing) 
• the area below the bust in the front is slightly 'baggy'. Now baggy-ness is always caused by too much fabric. I could pinch a bit out along the seamlines, which would make the fit under the busts better. This can be done when assembling the top so I don't need to change that on the pattern pieces yet.
• the sleeve width needs adjustment, just like I did on my Simplicity blouse (you see the wrinkles when I lift my arm up)

• horizontal wrinkles at the lower back --> more about that next time!
• also the tightness at the upper back will be better with the size 12 pattern pieces:

pattern adjustments to do:
- trace a size larger (size 12) pattern pieces
(there is enough ease in the sleeve cap, so this change will not affect the fit)
- adjust sleeve width by adding a total of 2 cm (I think this is necessary, even if the sleeve is going to be a size larger) I have used Nancy Zieman's method and wrote about it in this blogpost

Pretty straight forward, right?  Next post is all about the back. I keep you posted!

Brown autumn top

   
Pic from Burda 09/2012

My favorite item in the september Burda was the dress versions of this pattern.The tops were okay but I didn't really liked the choice of fabrics and in the picture above they also ruined it by trying ironing (just look at the shiny lines alongside the darts). After seeing this version I was convinced that it would look good and wanted to make it as well. It also seemed a good wearable 'muslin' before cutting up the other fabric for the dress. The dress has  a round neck while the top has an interesting V-neck in the back.

Tracing the pattern was a horror. The people at Burda had the greatest idea of printing this pattern in pink. Not only tho outer lines but everything. Pink text and pink lines on a pink background. This made it nearly impossible to find the right lines while tracing. After that all kinds of things went wrong. I was so excited with my new parallel tracing wheel that I marked a 2,5 cm (almost 1 inch) seam- allowance everywhere instead of 1.5 cm (5/8 inch). Luckily discovered this after sewing the front darts. Next thing is that I rushed sewing the sleeves. I sew the darts first but that should have been the last step - sewing the shoulder seams and the darts in one go.
Did I mention I couldn't find any pins? There was a box of needles on hand...

I didn't like the idea of a 'standing collar' and cut about 12 cm inches off the neckband. Well, after sewing it it appeared to be way too small and pulled everywhere. After sewing one side of the neckband hand sewing the other side seemed just too difficult. I noticed that the basic zigzag stitch I choose worked really well (1.5 cm wide and 1.5 cm long stitches) but was almost impossible to remove the seams (of course, I didn't have my seam ripper on hand)

I removed the neckband and 1 cm fabric around as well. I cut a new neckband and decided to attach the neck- and waistband in the same way as on the Renfrew top.

Cavalli goes Renfrew - finished

I made a start with refashioning a Cavalli man's shirt. Due to a problem with my old sewing machine I had to stop but now finished it with my new sewing machine! The Renfrew top pattern is a quick and easy one.
I used the nr. 10 stitch + a small zigzag to secure the edges:

  

Matching the seams is easy with the walking foot, the layers stay perfectly together (seam allowance here already trimmed):


The length is slightly shorter than the original of the pattern. Since the fit around the waist is great I just took out 3/4'' from the bottom before attaching the waist band:



 

Cavalli goes Renfrew! - part 1

Even if I can't work on this project right now I'd like to show how far I am in the process of refashioning an original Cavalli shirt!
My boyfriend had about 7-8 years ago a period of buying really expensive clothes. Well, if you wonder we didn't know each other by that time.  As he were a bit older and gained a bit weight he didn't fit those pretty shirts anymore. These two with the cutout motives were just too pretty to throw or give away and I kept them for years and years in the closet:



Now, after sewing up the Renfrew muslin I thought the Cavalli shirts were ready for a makeover!I satred out with the purple one. Since the shirt shrunk a bit it was already closer to my size than to the former L of my boyfriend. Let's say they aren't bigger than a women's size medium.

This means there wasn't much fabric to work with. First I carefully took the shirt apart. This was a lot of work!

The front, back pieces and the sleeves fitted just right but then all of the available fabric was used. It would be nearly impossible to find the same color fabric so I decided to introduce another color. I took a basic black shirt to supply the sleeve and neckline bands. Decided to keep the original seam at the bottom of the shirt for now, I'm going to decide about the waist band after assembling.
   

I decided to cut in the motifs at the front and the sides:




Used the good old zigzag stitch everywhere, at the end two rows next to each other.
 

I reinforced the shoulder seam with satin bias band, cut in half lengthwise and folding the sides under:
 

Here is visible that the stitches aren't perfect, this was the moment that I decided the sewing machine needed some reparation again (though I'm really satisfied with the overall look!)

Renfrew top muslin

  

Well, all the plans for the weekend has changed. Instead continuing working on my Marfy dress I made anther muslin. I ordered the new Sewaholic pattern, the Renfrew top a couple of days ago and it arrived on friday!

The Renfrew top is a fitted knit top with banded hems and variations for the sleeves and neckline. I've seen a lot of pics around on sewing blogs and thought the fit was great. Also I love wearing V-neck tops with 3/4 sleeves and somehow, there aren't many out there to buy. This was the second pattern I ordered from Sewaholic Canada (there are no resellers in the Netherlands). Ordering the pattern was easy, and the delivery quick.

Of course I had to start with the construction of a muslin!
Since I haven't sewn knits for a long time I did not have knit fabrics in the house. But I did have a giant pile of crew shirts from my friend. I used an old, man's x-large sized crew-shirt which has been worn and washed for years and years. I thought long enough to make it a bit sturdy to qualify as a 'stable knit'. Since I don't have a serger I can't sew with really stretchy knits anyway.



 
Sizing is always tricky, so I pulled out my other Sewaholic pattern, the Lonsdale dress. I used size 8 for the bust tapering to size 6 in the waist and hips on that dress. I used the finished garment measurements and compared to the Renfew top finished measurements. Decided to go with size 8 at the top part (shoulders and bust) and tapered to size 4 at the waist and hips.

The V-neck neckband was a bit tricky, an interesting construction. It didn't turned out perfect, but will get better next time around.  I followed the instructions and used zigzag stitch around the neckline to secure the seam allowance and I think it looks good. (When I was young my grandma used to make almost all our clothes and she used to sew knits with zigzag stitches too.) Next time I might try to use a double needle, that way there would be two straight stitching lines instead a zigzag.

I think the results are not bad! I didn't have enough fabric to make the waistband, so I just folded the seam allowance back and stitched with a zigzag stitch. It is just a muslin, but surprisingly, the length of the top turned out just right! With a waistband would be a bit longer, but also perfect.
(I never wear my shirts tucked in) There is enough room under the arms, the top feels roomy enough but still nicely fitted.