0 Fitting Vogue 8766: Final Thoughts and Review of "Sew the Perfect Fit"

Woo! With the bodice-fitting done, let's get back to more fun garment posts on this blog soon (well, hopefully)!
Previous posts on this bodice: post #1, post #2, post #3.

Before

After! Garment post is here. (must tweak the CF waist seam upwards slightly for next time ;) )

I'd like to round up with a review of the course and what I've learned.

I learned to face what is non-standard about my body. 
First off, everyone is different. To expect to have the exact body the pattern is drafted for is silly.

Secondly, after all my years of illness, it's probably impacted my body shape. And now I'm well, I'm still unfit! There, I said it. I'm unfit, world!! I feel this may be another reason for some of the things I have to adjust for.

Should I beat myself up about this? Or should I just accept who I am right now and that I may change in the future? (Hint: it's the second one).
The point is, even if I become a bodybuilder or a total hunchback, at least I'm building fitting tools to help me if and when my body changes.

It's a challenge, but I am learning to accept my body for what it is!
It was actually good to see all the other students' photos within the Craftsy class, because it was nice to see that I'm not the only one who struggles to get a good fit, and that there are other non-standard bodies out there :)

I learned that my fitting issues are pretty consistent.
I found myself making the alterations I've discovered a need for across the many pattern companies I've tried out, so I suppose that's good to know. I'm no longer hoping for some magical pattern to come along that will happen to fit me from the envelope!

I learned new methods of tackling fitting and pattern alteration.
The more ways I try, I more I discover what feels right for me. The great thing is that there is no "wrong" way, as long as it works for you!

I learned that internet people are the coolest.
I want to say, thank you SO much to all the lovely, lovely comments you guys gave me, encouraging me, giving me advice, and letting me know you guys have fit issues too. It really helped me along, and I highly appreciate them! You guys are fantastic! :D


And now for my review of the class:

Sew the Perfect Fit on Craftsy

-Content-wise, it was good value, though I wouldn't call it a comprehensive resource for fitting. Three different models were fitted, so a variety of fitting challenges were covered. The initial muslin-altering stage was followed up with how to transfer it to the pattern, which was great to see. I learned a lot of new ways to tackle pattern-work.

-I enjoyed the slash and hack approach to pattern fitting. I enjoy the intuition of this approach, and also, who doesn't like slicing up fabric? She describes the muslin as a laboratory, which is a great way to think of it. There's such freedom to it; drawing on the fabric, cutting slits to relieve tension... which is why I don't believe in wearable muslins, unless the fitting issues are extremely minor.

-I was impressed by the prompt replies from the teacher, though the answers were not always thorough enough to address the questions I brought up. I like to understand everything about what I'm doing, so it was sometimes frustrating.
The difficulty in communication is a standard downfall of such a medium though, I suppose.

-This is more of an annoyance at the Craftsy platform, but the commenting system kinda sucks when you want to add photos. You can only add one photo per comment, and when viewing comment threads you have to click on each photo individually to view them at a good size. It's a real pain to deal with.

-I liked the personality of the teacher. No fluff, just good information. I've viewed other classes where the teacher waffles on and on about irrelevant material for minutes, which is so frustrating.

-The pattern is included as part of the class, and I think it is a good choice of pattern. A basic darted bodice and fitted skirt, which I feel is a great tool once the fit is correct! One thing I would have preferred is for the sleeve to be a standard set-in sleeve with no darts in the head. I haven't tackled fitting the sleeve at all yet. The journey is just getting started!


Final thoughts:
YAY IT'S OVER!! I hope to use this bodice for the base of many garments, to avoid future fitting headaches. Also, huge thanks to my husband for pinning me in so many times and taking photos of me wearing hideous bedsheets. What a gem right? :)
I hope these fitting posts helped some people. Now let's make some garments!

Detail: Fitting Vogue 8766: Final Thoughts and Review of "Sew the Perfect Fit"

0 Fitting the Vogue 8766 Bodice: Part 3

Phew, here we go again... Muslin #3. Well technically, #2.5, as I just cut a new front and used the old back!
Here's a link to post #1, and post #2.

A recap:

Muslin #1

Muslin #2

New muslin... #3!

Apologies for poor quality photos, guys.

Here are the changes I made:
-I moved the shoulder seam again, to be on top of my shoulder for reals this time.

- I raised the neckline (this wasn't fitting, I just did it because I figured I'd like to use the pattern as a base for other styles, so wanted to make sure the high neckline worked).

-I reduced the length at the front in the waist slightly, to make the waistline more level.

-I did the small bust adjustment by slicing through the apex and waist dart, tapering to nothing at the shoulder seam. This is the main change for this muslin. I don't think it made a huge different to the fit of the bust, really.

 -BUT, I noted the side seam tilt was improved by the bust adjustment, though it still tilted a bit. I guess that makes sense, as I took out width at the bust level, pulling the garment forward at that point.

Muslin #2 side seam tilt

Muslin #3 Look! It's much straighter!!

So does this mean the side seam tilting backwards was partly, if not all, a small bust issue?

-More bust stuff: I think I'll decrease the length of the waist darts as they are riding up a little high to the apex. And I'll lengthen the side bust darts as they are chilling out a bit too far away from the apex...
I'm also going to try curving the waist darts in a bit under the bust to contour to my body better. Gertie explains it here.

Darts.

-I still needed to lengthen the back waist darts. Related: the centre back gapes outwards at the waist. Based on the advice of the teacher, I increased the waist darts a little.

-I pinned in some small neck darts also as it was tending to gape at the back of the neck. I'm thinking I'll rotate these into the small shoulder darts already formed with my shoulder blade adjustment. (And you can't see the shoulder darts on this muslin because I was too lazy to stitch them and just eased the back shoulder into the front shoulder.)

Muslin #3 back

Muslin #3 back after added dartage!

You can see in both pictures, that my right shoulder is higher/more prominent than the other, as it has more strain lines pointing to it and the HBL is slightly higher on that side! Isn't that interesting. But I'm not going to make an asymmetric pattern piece as it doesn't bother me.



-On one armhole, I clipped and turned it under to see how the armhole really fits. It looks pretty good, but I think I need to scoop it out a little around the top/front of my shoulder. I also feel I need to raise the armhole as it's pretty low. I'm thinking the armholes being too wide is why I'm getting those vertical lines of looseness from the shoulders.
I read on Neeno's recent fitting series, that a forward shoulder (which I have), needs less width in the front armhole, which definitely is true for me here.
For a style with sleeves, it would probably be good to leave all or part of that extra width, for a better range of motion. But for sleeveless, I think I'll just scoop out the extra by drawing a new armhole.

-The side seam tilt was still bugging me, and I felt the bust was still a little loose. Here's where I came up with a simple solution- to simply pin out extra width on the front at the side seam, tapering to nothing at the waist.

Now the only worry I have with this, it that I'm reducing the armhole circumference. That'll mess up the sleeve I suppose (not that I'm even bothering with that for now!), but I also worry that it might make the garment less comfortable. I think for my (hopefully) final tweaks, I'll scoop out the armhole to a flattering width in front, and wear my muslin around like a crazy person to make sure it's comfortable!

I feel I'm on the home stretch here, but do you want to know something funny? I don't even have fabric to make a dress for this!! Isn't that amazing... sometimes I get so caught up in the fitting, I almost forget that there is a possibility of getting a garment at the end of it. That light at the end of the tunnel can seem rather dim at times.

Now please people (oh, you're still reading?? Well done!), if you have any thoughts or feedback on this, let me know! I crave understanding of fit!

Detail: Fitting the Vogue 8766 Bodice: Part 3

0 Fitting the Vogue 8766 Bodice: Part 2

Okay, so in my first post I showed my first muslin.

Muslin #1

I'm onto muslin two and I've got a lot to say about it! So if you don't like fitting and pattern alteration talk, leave now :)



But first, a disclaimer! I am just finding my way through, with a bit of help from online sources, but a lot of following my nose, so keep in mind my theories and ideas could be a load of nonsense :)

So, for my second muslin I tackled several issues but not all of them. I didn't want to try too many changes at once, since it was enough of a mess already.

I always find taking out excess length makes a huge difference, so I took out a chunk of length for my short waist in a straight tuck across the front and the back. That's the simple stuff! It really helps take away the distracting wrinkles though.

I'll go over the rest of my changes from the top down.

1) Shoulders: Oh my goodness, I faffed around with these for so long! I had read in various places that the shoulders are what the garment hangs from so they're super important to the fit. So I was hoping that by fixing the shoulder area, I'd fix all the tilting that was going on.
Long story short, it wasn't the answer to the tilting. I experimented with various things, but ended up deciding that I would just redraw the shoulder seam. I took 2cm length away from the front and added 2cm to the back, to get it sitting right on the top of my shoulder.
According to Sarah Maynard, a good shoulder seam should not be visible at eye level from the front or the back.

I overestimated how much I need to move it though! Now it sits too far forward, but interestingly, this showed me that I need to move the seam LESS on the neckline side- see how it's much more visible at the neckline edge than the shoulder edge?
So I'll be moving it back a little on the shoulder side, and moving it back more on the neckline side, instead of just moving the whole seam the same amount.
Ooh, learning!

2) The upper back: This was an alteration I was prepared to make, as I've made it before. I tend to need a bit more length in the upper back for my rounded shoulders (This may be a posture/hunching thing, or may be prominent shoulder blades. I like to flatter myself and tell myself it's just my shoulder blades, lol! I don't believe myself.)
I've found this manifests itself in my garments in two ways- tightness/strain in the shoulder blade area, or droopy armhole wrinkles that point towards the shoulder blades. I had a bit of both here- I noticed in the photos the slightest strain wrinkles pointing from the shoulder seam to the area. I also noted my HBL was slightly high, indicating the need for more length.
So I added some length there, slashing the muslin and letting it drop. Fun!
By doing that adjustment, it also got rid of the armhole gape, as the length across the back was now in correct proportion.
So I think by now this is a pretty tried and true adjustment for me.

muslin #1 

muslin #1 pinned in adjustment

muslin #2 

Muslin #2 . My shoulders are asymmetrical but I'm not going to bother adjusting them separately...

More on the upper back- you can see on muslin #2 in the picture above I pinned out an armhole dart on one side. I did this when I had the garment on my custom body double, as it was still gaping a bit. But when I tried it on my real body, the drooping wasn't an issue. It seems my posture has improved since I made the body double?

This is me exaggerating hunch posture, and see the armhole starts gaping again (along with creating other issues)

3) A quick note on a learning I had about the HBL above the bust. Why was it angling up? This must indicate a fitting issue! I agonised over it, before realising, duh, of course it's going to angle up, it's going over the bust, so it has a shape underneath it… I realised after seeing someone else ask about it on the course, the point of the bust HBL is to check it is level from apex to apex.

4) The tilting HBLS! The HBL was going up in the front, and down in the back. I apparently have a tilted waist?  Essentially my front is longer than standard and my back is shorter than standard.

Therefore I added length to the front and took out from the back. I think I will slightly reduce length in front, but it looks almost even now at the waist, so that's good.
In the past, I'd never added to the front, only taken away from the back. I wish I knew if it's the same net result.

*getting technical* Now, in the pattern work, these uneven wedges distort the darts and seams below them, so I trued them up like Lynda does in her class. However, I'm thinking if I hadn't trued the side seams up, it may have rectified the side seam tilting, as width would have been added to the front, and taken away from the back. Coincidence?? I have no idea.

*more technical stuff* After I'd made those pattern adjustments, the HBLS and VBLs (horizontal and vertical balance lines) below those points had been broken, so I redrew them on the cross grain. However, I'm wondering if I should have redrawn them on the new diagonal angle, as it still appears to be tilting on my new muslin. This is something the class didn't cover.

5) The side seam tilt:

Though I do wonder if it's related to the previous point I addressed, I suppose it can be addressed separately just as well!

I'm planning to add to the front and take away from the back to fix the slant of the side seam, same concept as the shoulder seam really- essentially redrawing it. It really feels like cheating to redraw a seam. Like… really? It's that easy? Shouldn't there be some big technical thing about it? Haha.

Or maybe I should correct it at the armhole level so it's centred under the armpit- if I move it back at the waist, it won't be in the middle of my body, the whole seam will sit towards my back. I'm going to ask Lynda... I suppose it'll complicate any future sleeves if I mess with the armhole.

I just think the tilting looks really stupid. It's annoying. lol.

6) I added to the side seams evenly so it would be large enough in the waist.

7) I still need to increase the length of the back waist darts. The fit in the back isn't too bad now. If I'd clipped the back armholes, it would look better too, as it's too wide with the seam allowances included.

8) I'm planning to adjust the width across the front to make a small bust adjustment.

Alright, so that's all the fit talk for now. Watch this space!
Making muslins is hard enough work, but blogging about them takes a lot of effort too! Phew, I can't wait till it's over!

On a more fun note, yesterday was my birthday, and I got some crafty gifts, yay! I got some vouchers for fabric and yarn, and Gertie's Book for Better Sewing, as well as The Perfect Fit. Fun times! Well, it will be when I get over this fitting hump, lol :)

Detail: Fitting the Vogue 8766 Bodice: Part 2

0 New Year, New Fitting

One of my goals this year was to use more tried and true patterns, to circumvent the fitting issues I have with every pattern I make. 
So naturally, here I am, attempting to fit a new pattern!


No, but I do feel I have a good reason. I bought Sew the Perfect Fit on Craftsy for 80 % off while back, which is such a great deal! I would never have bought it without the discount. I wish they they'd have specials that good more often, as my sewing budget is low, soon to be lower. Heh.

I've largely muddled through fitting on my own so far, because I didn't want to spend any money on books and classes. In hindsight I should have sacrificed a few fabric purchases for fitting resources- I'd probably be a lot better off by now.

I do have a princess seamed bodice that Maryanne helped me fit, but I thought a basic darted bodice would be fabulous to have as well, and great to modify to lots of cool styles. Ooh, the possibilities of dart rotation eh??  
Plus, I guess I'm a masochist, and wanted to make this my own personal challenge. It's a satisfying yet tough road to learn to do it yourself.

What can I report? Well, I debated whether to do this, but I'm going to let you in on my unflattering muslin shots. You're welcome! 
I feel a bit exposed, but, well, I appreciate when others share the less shiny aspects of their sewing.

One thing I've learned recently in my fitting journey is the usefulness of HBLs- "horizontal balance lines". You mark the crossgrain in several places on your pattern and muslin.

Sarah Veblen uses them in her book "the Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting", and so does Linda Maynard in her Craftsy class. I'm a convert- they give you additional visual clues to work with.

I decided to make my muslin as the class advised- pick the size off the bust measurement. There were things I knew I'd need to do but I cut it in a straight size 10.
I knew for certain I'd need to let out the waist as well as shorten it an inch or so, but opted to start with a  completely unaltered pattern. 

So this is what a pattern looks like "straight out of the envelope" for me:
Just soak in the horror.

Here are the things I think I see:

-shoulder seam sits too far back. I have a forward shoulder I believe...

-too much length in waist 

-too small in waist hence unable to pin it properly closed

-HBLs are raised at centre front and low at centre back at the waist 

-side seam tilts towards front at waist

-excess width in front shoulder causing vertical wrinkles

-waist darts at back are too short

-gaping back armhole (I have this all the time- it's because of my curved upper back/prominent shoulder blades)

The good news is, at least this is consistent! I've had these issues with pretty much every dress bodice.

And, I know how to fix at least SOME of them.

The number one issue which has stumped me has been the darn tilting waistline and side seam! Everything seems so off balance, ugh, and I've never been able to fix it to my satisfaction. 

I've had these issues with The Anna dress (whose fit I'm still not satisfied with), New Look 6799, Butterick 4443, and a UFO stuck in muslin form, Gertie's Shirtwaist Dress (stuck due to these exact issues actually).
Therefore surely once I crack these issues, I can apply this to many different patterns- now wouldn't that be a dream!! Almost seems too good to be true...

I've examined these issues as well as getting some advice from the class teacher, and have made some changes to my pattern. I'm ready to make my next muslin now.

I'm slightly scared but hopeful and I will let you in on my progress and thoughts as I go. Wish me luck guys :)

Detail: New Year, New Fitting

0 Fitting AKA Why I Have No Completed Garment.

So, this is the project that's sucking away my sewing mojo (aka sewjo) at the moment.  New Look 6808, my old nemesis.

Yes, I first starting trying to fit this over a year ago.  I did make a finished garment out of it, but it definitely wasn't fitted to perfection.  lol.  However, it was leagues better than my first toile:

I must never forget this picture.  lol.

There's something you should know about me, and that is that I'm determined to a fault.  This pattern has made the mistake of challenging me, and now I can't rest until I've conquered it.

Of course that's easier said than done, given that my knowledge of fitting is little.  Quite honestly, I've tortured myself with it, and I know that's not good.
I went to a dark despondent place while working on it, but dare I say, it is looking a bit better now.  I think the light may be shining through, after having serious trouble figuring out what to do.
So here's some stuff I did on it.

On the front, I feel I've improved the bust fit a little.  I grabbed a dart of excess fabric from the armhole pointing to the bust, and rotated it into the bust dart.  You can see the excess in this picture (on the right).
So this is my current toile:

I reckon the front ain't bad.  Shorten the bust darts slightly and I'm happy.

I added a centre back seam in an effort to accomodate my curves better.  This is the biggest thing that was driving me crazy- a clumsy, wrinkled back.  I really struggled with this all throughout! 

So many wrinkles.  So many.

At this point, I didn't know what to do.  I let out the centre back seam at the waist a bit which helped, since there were wrinkles pointing to it.


Then I ignored the lower back for a bit and slashed the shoulders to accommodate my shoulder blades, which will also add a shoulder dart like I showed in this post.  It was gratifying to see that tension relax:

I hope you can see the difference in the before and after in the strain on the shoulder blades.  Although I admit the lighting is different.  Oops.

So, progress had been made.  But.... THAT.  BACK!  The fit on the back has tortured me since the start.

First of all, my apparently giant butt seems like it can never have enough fabric.  The garment constantly rides up on my butt!  Yet my back curves in a lot.  Without sufficient darts, I look "back-pregnant" as Andrea would say.  But I just didn't know how to get it to sit nicely. My frustration reached critical levels.

I then thought maybe I'd gone overboard with the shaping so tried reducing the darts slightly, but honestly, I couldn't tell if it made it any better.

Anyway, a few days later, as I'd had time to stew, I got the idea to slit the seams, and I think they have revealed the answer.  So here is the before and after:

Better right?  Please tell me you agree.  By the way, seeing pictures, I'm amazed at the size of my caboose.

 Anway, getting that back transformation was as simple as doing this:

Update for clarity- I don't plan to have a split on the final garment- I will add the size of the split to the centre back in my pattern work :)

So that's the progress.  Oh and I didn't even mention the sleeve malarkey.  I'm over it.

What do you think?  I know it's not perfect, but I've looked at it so long that I can't see it objectively any more.  It's a bit better right?  Would you say... ready for a real garment? 

I wonder how many hours I've spent wandering the house in my toile, poking at its wrinkles in the mirror and hoping for some magical answer to shine down on me.  For now it's just good enough to know that if I bash at it for long enough, something will improve.

But seriously, guys, do you have any advice?  I know I'm being my perfectionist self (umm whoops, didn't I have a goal about that?), but I just gotta beat this thing.
What would you do? :)

Detail: Fitting AKA Why I Have No Completed Garment.

0 Fitting Ruminations

Well, here in New Zealand, warmer weather is coming, so time to start on some lighter clothing, hooray! The Pendrell Blouse, I've been anticipating for a long time.  Here I am in my muslin- I've already taken a length adjustment.

Anyway, I had an epiphany of sorts while standing in front of the mirror, contemplating my fit issues.
Warning- I'm feeling my way in fitting so let me know if you have any thoughts on this!

First of all, I will have to make a sloping shoulder adjustment.  It's causing some gaping in the back armhole.  But forget that for now okay?  (I blathered on about it a little bit here if you're interested).

I realised along with vertical folds near the shoulders, there was gaping in the neckline.
As I contemplated how to get rid of the neckline sag, I realised these issues are connected.

Here, photos make it easy to see.
Basically, my shoulders roll forward due to poor posture (no doubt due to the years of illness and tendency to hunch over a computer screen).  See how it causes the neckline to crumple?

Here I've exaggerated my poor posture.

But what happens if I try improving my posture?

Neckline looks much better right?

My posture is somewhere in between these two.

I started thinking about what I'd have to do to get the pattern to fit my poor posture.  Then I thought, wait a minute, maybe I should be changing myself, not the pattern!
Perhaps this Pendrell could be an opportunity for self improvement- what if from now on I teach myself to hold my body better?  And if I don't my punishment will be a saggy neckline and *horror* wrinkles!  lol!

Isn't it interesting how fitting increases your knowledge of how your body differs from a "standard" figure?
So, what would you do- adjust pattern, or adjust yourself?  :)

Detail: Fitting Ruminations

0 Fitting, I'll conquer you yet!

Welcome to "Even More Fitting" AKA "This sewing malarkey is trying to crush my iron will"

Seriously, this stupid toile/muslin is getting to be an albatross around my neck!

Okay, so on the last episode of "what does that wrinkle mean?", I was unsuccessfully trying to fix my back with a sway back alteration.  (Okay, enough quotation marks).

Nothing I pinned seemed to look right, and they all pulled up the hem at the back (which I've heard sway back adjustments aren't meant to do).  So, after I made myself a dressform, I finally had the freedom to pin it on the dressform instead of pinning, then trying on, then photographing (tedium).
Surely this would solve all my problems?   If only...

I couldn't see the "horizontal wrinkles" that a sway back was mean to cause.  I umm-ed and ahh-ed, pushed the fabric and prodded and poked my dress form, full of confusion.  Isn't the fabric supposed to tell you what to do?  So... I just grabbed it and put some pins in it where they wanted to go.

Umm... don't know what those wrinkles in front are doing...just... ignore them for now.  They were there before I pinned the back anyway.

Hang on a minute, this seems to have helped!  More confusion as I had pinned out practically the opposite of a swayback- instead of horizontal, I'd pinned vertical...  Hmm.  I started to wonder again if I was able to do fitting.

So, I've been stewing on this for days now.  I will even admit to tossing and turning in my sleep over it.  I'm thinking- maybe I never had a sway back?  Maybe I simply have some kind of small/narrow back, and a big caboose?  And, if I am to take out vertical excess, I can't simply add it to the existing darts right?  (I don't know, there's something in my brain saying you can't make a dart super wide for some reason.  Too much pointness?)  The only thing I can think of is maybe creating two darts?  Hmmmm.  So many questions.  So very many questions.

I've been thinking about maybe getting out some library books on fitting, but I'm a little scared they'll add to the brain stew, and I could end up with a steamed brain!  lol.

I also realised that on the first dress I made, and on a recent bodice toile, I had back issues too!
Please excuse these awful pictures.

Before and After.  Saggy back made me look pregnant.  I took the back waistband in by 6cm I believe

And here, please do excuse the dodgy looking photo.

Then I also realised I took some out of the back of my nightie too.

So basically I seem to have a strange back.  It looks like it might be extra thin back there or something.  I don't even know if that's a thing.  Gosh, my brain is a mess right now!  I've been going over and over this in my head, and looking for answers- it's enough to drive you bonkers!

Any feedback or help is so appreciated!
I'll look back on this one day and laugh right?

Detail: Fitting, I'll conquer you yet!

0 Renfrew Fitting

After celebrating the success of making my first Renfrew, I thought I'd take a critical look at it to hopefully make my next even better!

There are a few fitting issues I noticed.  Firstly, in my original post picture, I had pulled it down which eliminated some wrinkles.  However, the dirty secret is that it likes to sit a bit higher than that.

This is the reality of my Renfrew:

So what do we have?  Firstly, horizontal wrinkles around the stomach- my diagnosis, too much length.  I think I shall take out a centimetre or two from here.

Next up, slightly more troubling wrinkles-  See the horizontal strain lines around the neckline?  They are also present across the shoulders:

So, my uneducated thoughts on this:  It's too tight around the neckline and shoulder so perhaps I should have gone up a size!  Perhaps based on my bust measurement (size 2), the pattern assumes I have a smaller frame and bigger bust.  Yup, maybe my bust is too small for a pear shaped pattern.  I get it, it's small!  lol :)  Either that or I just have wide shoulders?

The only problem is I also tampered with the pattern by cutting off some of the neckband as per Lauren's advice.  I shouldn't have done that- lesson learned, don't make alterations to the first test of a garment.  So perhaps the smaller neckband is causing these issues?  Aw, shucks, I don't know!

Oh shoot, almost forgot!

Sway back?

The old sway back-  I'm actually not super bothered about this.  But I might give it a whack anyway!  I enjoy how casual the fit on knits is, I don't feel the need to get it perfect!  I may give it a try using this tutorial.  We'll see!    

So, those are my thoughts- take out some length through the torso, maybe try a sway back adjustment and cut a size larger for the shoulders (probably).  Any thoughts or insights guys? :)

Detail: Renfrew Fitting

0 The Renfrew Top

All the things I seem to be posting are firsts!  I guess that's part of being a beginner :)  So here we have my first knit top, and my first Sewaholic pattern!  Oh, and my first "wearable muslin".

On the envelope I was size 2 for bust and hips, and size 4 for waist.  I just made a straight size 2, since I'm a crazy rebel, plus I like a fitted waist.

The pattern is for "stable knits", but the man at the fabric recommended a knit with spandex in it.  I think this knit has slightly more stretch, but apparently spandex knits have better recovery.  Or something.

I've heard lots of bloggers say how easy it is, but never mind- I managed to find plenty of challenges for myself.   I didn't even know what the right side was at first (it's the one with the vertical ribs btw, lol), and I got all freaked out about cutting it out!

Then, after reading Lauren's advice about cutting off more of the neckband since my fabric was a bit extra stretchy, I haphazardly hacked off an inch and a half  (3.8cm), and then realised the markings I was supposed to match up weren't right anymore... Hmm.  So I decided I'd just wing it, stretching it to fit and it'd magically work out.  It didn't...

So puckered!

Then I tried doing maths, which is always annoying.  In the end I sort of figured it out.  It still ended up a teeny bit puckered in places.  But you know what?  After I did the zig zag on top it seemed to fix itself!  So that was nice!  After all that though, I don't even know if I needed to hack any off. 
I figured out the original pattern's neckband is 12% shorter, so it IS a bit shorter already.  But then again, if Lauren queen of knits says so, it must be so!  But then again, other bloggers have made nice Renfrews without this rigamarole!  So basically, what I'm trying to say is.... I overthink things.  A lot :)

Here are some thoughts on the project:
-I found the internet recommended to use a stitch length of 3 and a width of 0.5.  I always heard you use a zig zag to sew knits but it's so narrow, you can barely tell it is one!  It works though!

-I used a stitch length of 2 and a width of 2 for the zig zag topstitching.

-Not having to finish the seams was weird!  Yet liberating :)  I still wonder if maybe I should have done something to them though?  (I don't have an overlocker).  I trimmed them but I don't even think I needed to do that, for most of them.

-Some of the bits were a bit bulky due to lots of layers. 

-Ooh, the fiddly little cuffs were hard to put in!  Having to stretch them while you sew, and they don't even fit around the machine's arm!

-I was expecting the pattern to be really in-depth because of Tasia's really awesome sewalongs (I was disappointed when she said she wasn't doing one for Renfrew), but the pattern instructions were quite simple.  I guess if I succeeded then they were enough!

The back- hmm does that look like a sway back?

Overall I'm pretty happy with how this turned out!  Once I got on track, it was satisfyingly fast!  And my husband said it "blew his mind" cos it looked like a shirt you could buy!  Heh heh :)  There are a few fitting issues I'll try to work on before my next one, but that's a post for another day.

I got lots of awkward pictures taken by my husband.  I'm very shy about posing in front of a camera, so most of them turned out pretty bad!  I had to put this one on because it made me laugh.  I was trying to run away from the camera!

Detail: The Renfrew Top

0 A Skirt Toile

Yep, I started another project.  What's that?  You want to hear about the top I was working on?  Here, let me just push that under the table with my foot....  I'll work on it some more later, I swear!

I found this cute 70s pattern secondhand- I don't look in many secondhand shops but this makes me want to!  (Too bad the shop I got it from is not in my town).

Here is my toile: 

I said I looked crazy in this picture- my husband said "you always look crazy!"..  Thanks!  lol!

I really want to work with more vintage patterns now as they don't seem to include the bucket-loads of ease all the modern ones I've worked with seem to!  In fact, if anything it was too tight!

I originally thought it would sit lower than this- damn you deceptively long and slim fashion drawings!  I wondered if it would be flattering sitting on the waistline so I tried comparing it on my croquis.... but unfortunately my drawings didn't look that different, lol!  The one on the left is also drawn slimmer so it makes it even harder to compare.  I'll do better next time!

Okay, but for the record, the one on the right is higher on the waist like my toile.

So, even though my drawings are incredibly similar (lol), which do you think is more flattering?

Oh and one more thing, to get a nice swishy hem like the fashion drawings on the envelope, I'm thinking of putting either interfacing in the hem, or getting fancy with it like I've seen other bloggers do and go for a bit of horsehair braid!  Any thoughts on that? :)

Detail: A Skirt Toile