A Case Study in Proportions

Okay, so my alpaca knitted sweater was a'might big and, frankly, made me look quite dumpy. I consulted with fellow (superior) knitter Amy, who concurred with my plan to run it back through the sewing machine and serger, and here we go. First, a before picture again.


This is what it looks like with my zigzag stitch and the the serger to clean up the seam allowance.


I went back and forth about 4 times taking deeper and deeper seam allowances, because there's no ripping out a seam in this yarn, and I thought about Gwen and her fabric art, because it makes some interesting textures with lots of seaming and serging on knitted yarn. I felt like I should make some project with the stuff I sheared off.


Several things happened. The armscye looks better and more my size now.


The waviness of my previous side seam is gone for some reason, though I didn't pay attention to my ribbing and it ended up not quite even at the bottom.


And the shoulder seam now sits right at my shoulder. Hey, my hips don't look quite as big!


And finally, I put a slight curve in the side seam to make it fit a little bit tighter. I think it's amazing how my silhouette changed. I think it was Pati Palmer's book that talked about moving shoulder seams in or out to get a different look in a garment, and by golly she was right!


Here's the before again, so you can compare them kind of side by side. Heck of a difference!


And after all that, I did cut out my first pants muslin from the fitting class. Now to do a flat butt adjustment and figure out that diagonal wrinkle from hip to knee. I do have to say that these are the most comfortable pants I've worn in a while. The waistband, crotch, and legs just feel really comfortable and right, if you know what I mean.


Have a great rest of the weekend!