Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Working on that shirt...

So I'm totally obsessed with Celebrity Apprentice now, are you? American Idol has taken a back seat, and even Fashion Star didn't hold my attention last night. (Well, honestly, Dean agreed to suffer through it but the cable messed up and the only channel we could get was Fox News, so I only saw 5 minutes of it.) I just totally love Ivanka, and Lisa Lampinelli is hilarious. Penn Gillette is absolutely a stand-up guy who refuses to bow to peer pressure and is always diplomatic, totally professional. He is my new idol...and Ellen DeGeneres.

Okay, well on to sewing. Remember we started with this last week:



The front armholes were gaping. So I took Gwen's advice and watched Silhouette's webcast on fitting knit tops and French darts. Awesome - she recommended changing the angle of the shoulder seam, so I pulled it up by about 1/3" and voila:


The wrinkly, gappy thing that was worse on the right arm is gone! Magically delicious! Here's what that looks like on the pattern.


Next was the plethora of fabric pooling at my back.


I assumed swayback, but then I read somebody's blog on this issue, and just knocked off 2 inches of length. This would've been at the lengthen/shorten line on the pattern, but I had added 2 inches to the bottom (blush, so dumb) so I just took that off and did a small 1/2" swayback adjustment. Now on the muslin, I just sewed that right in to see what would happen - uh, yuck, but I get the point.


And finally, the French darts seemed to be too shallow and didn't end anywhere near my bust point.


I made them a little deeper and extended them closer to my "apex." Well, just take my word that the drag lines are much better, but I think I'll back the point down a bit. I don't think French darts are supposed to end in plain site at the front of your bosom. The webcast pointed out that they're invisible because they're off to the side doing their work.


Okay, now I might work on this some more, but Betzina's class starts tomorrow and I've got to get myself together. That brought to mind the scene in Airplane where they're taking turns slapping the screaming woman while shouting, "Pull...yourself...together!" I actually dreamed last night that I was headed to the class and had forgotten something, so I was going to be late. (But at least I wasn't naked.)

5 comments:

Kitschy Coo said...

This is just what I needed right now (knit shirt fitting advice)! Your changes are fantastic, thank you. Off to find that webcast :)

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

http://silhouettepatterns.com/html/media/livestreamchannel/replay_01_31_2011.htm is the webcast - sorry it's not a hyperlink - I'll email it to you.

Ann Made Studio said...

I think Peggy's webcasts are full of information and she does such a great job.
You would love Cynthia's classses too....she is amazing :)
Your changes looks great.

Anonymous said...

I love you blog! You are so funny--you say all the things that I think but won't put in writing ;)

We should definitely get together to sew some and maybe go on a fabric buying trip somewhere more exciting than Joann's.

See you tomorrow :)

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

Ann, I definitely want to check out Cynthia - your description sounded great!

Katrina (Susie Homemaker) - your blog is stunning - how do you have the time for all that baking? I have 2 questions - where do you get your fabric, and did you take a photography course?