Butterick 5321 Pleat Front Shift and Malaysia Stashoholism Confessional

For me it wouldn't be travel unless I stayed up super-late the night before finishing a project. My most recent trip to Asia was no exception, although I actually finished this little number in plenty of time the weekend before leaving (it was a bathing suit giving me a sleepless night). I love a shift dress with a jacket for professional speaking engagements--much more flattering, less stuffy, and more approachable than a suit.



As I observed previously, Vogue 1025, an Anne Klein designer pattern, is almost identical to this one. It seems odd because Butterick and Vogue are the same company so it's competing with itself, but perhaps they are run separately and the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. Or perhaps the Butterick was already drafted and in the catalog when Anne Klein handed in her pattern, and they couldn't exactly tell a top American designer her pattern was too unoriginal to accept. Or something. Anyway, I hesitated between the two, but ended up choosing Butterick 5321 because of the unusual diagonal darts in the back and the set-in rather than cut-on sleeves.

This was intended to be a muslin for the silk linen I bought a while back from Fabric Mart. I don't have a good solid black dress for either professional events or, not to be morbid, a funeral should one come up. When my dad had a health scare several months ago it occurred to me that I really ought to be prepared, because in a sad situation the last thing I want to think about is whether I have anything appropriate to wear and then have to go shopping or something. What a nightmare. Since the silk linen was expensive by my standards ($8.99/yd), I decided to practice on this $2.97/yard G Street polyester suiting first as a wearable muslin--a highly wearable one as it turns out!

My first pattern adjustment was, of course, a small bust adjustment. On the bodice front I reduced the pleat width and shortened the neck to shoulder edge by taking a tuck a couple inches below the shoulder. When I made it up it turned out I should have taken out just a little more of that distance; the photo here shows the new amount of tuck.

While sewing the dress, I found that the reduced pleat width was good, but the pleat needed to be closed up *much* higher than indicated. I sewed it up to just underneath the bust, so it is more of a released dart than a pleat, I suppose. It's much more flattering there--shapely, not baggy.

I knew I would need a swayback adjustment as well, though I was a little concerned how it would affect the diagonal dart in the back. But, that's the point of a muslin, right? I just took a regular swayback tuck. Luckily, this didn't seem to create any problem with the pleat. I also shortened the skirt a touch.

I do like the diagonal darts. They're so unusual and they add a little interest to what is otherwise a plain back to this dress (though I do like that V back much more than a rounded back neckline). My only gripe is that the fabric ends up so thick there you either have to insert a regular zip (ugh) or fudge your invisible a bit by sewing further toward the edge of the tape (away from the teeth) and compensating by pressing the fabric over the zip. This imperfect solution frustrates me because I take pride in my invisible zip application. In retrospect, I think perhaps if I had trimmed the fabric from the darts I might have improved the situation, but again--that's the point of a muslin.


This is a nice, simple pattern with four pattern pieces (front and back bodice and skirt), each of which is also cut out of lining. I hate facings and would have lined it anyway, so I'm glad Butterick was in my corner on this one. To ensure that the lining would not roll outward and show, I trimmed 1/4" off the neckline and armscye edges of the lining. This makes the lining slightly smaller than the fashion fabric, so it turns under and creates a nice finish.

It seems the Big Four have *finally* caught onto the all-machine method for sewing a lining to a sleeveless garment so the directions don't have you do any nonsense involving hand sewing the lining shoulder seams after everything is put together. Instead, you sew the shoulder seams of the fashion and lining fabrics (leaving the sides seams and back seam open), sew together at neckline and armscye, turn right side out through the strap tunnels, and then sew the side seams of the lining and fashion fabric at one go. I can't believe I did it the other way for so many years.

Since I love a surprise lining *and* I love shopping my stash for linings I pulled out this rayon challis from The Carol Collection. The rayon adds a layer of breathability to the polyester fashion fabric, but is still lightweight and drapey so it doesn't interfere with the lines.


I added pockets, based on the pattern for them from 07-2008-107. This has become my go-to pocket--the shape is good, the opening is large enough to fit your hand easily, but it's not ridiculously large. I don't expect to put anything more bulky into the pockets than business cards (or kleenex in a funeral dress), but there is something nifty about having them. Based on Butterick's method from the Maggy London pleated collar wrap dress Butterick 5320, I sewed the pockets on with a 3/8" seam. This magically causes them to turn under when the rest of the side seam is sewn with a 5/8" seam. It's a nifty little trick. I cut the front pocket out of the lining fabric, because I think the contrast is cute.

I love this dress. It's adorable but professional but comfortable.

HOWEVER, I am not totally sold on the style. The tummy-disguising front skirt pleats are what drew me to it. And they are tummy-disguising. However, they do their job a little too well and the skirt front is puffy and unattractive with a hint of Pregnant Chic when viewed from the side. But then again, seeing the pictures I'm wondering if everything else about it is cute enough to ignore that problem. How many people are going to view me only from the side? And do I care about their opinions?

But my goal for the silk linen is a classic dress I can keep at the back of the closet for many years (or at least as many years as it still fits!), and--while it has shown great staying power--I'm not sure that Pregnant Chic is here to stay. So I'm not yet committed to this pattern as my Reliable Black Dress (a different category than the Little Black Dress, to be sure), but it is still a contender.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here. Please excuse the indulgence of way too many photos of this one. The colleague I was traveling with also sews, so she understands the need for fashion shots, and we did photos all over the area. When you have a willing photographer *and* an exotic location it's hard to know when enough is enough!

=====================



This review is an attempt to make up for the lack of any interesting travel information or stories about Malaysia. I was on the resort island of Langkawi, which is a lovely spot but resorts are not highly cultural. I was working all day anyway.

One evening we had a tour of the island, but unfortunately it was more in the nature of shopping tourism. I was excited that one of the stops was to be a market of local handicrafts, but this was then substituted with a trip to the mall. Yep, a mall. In the department store, I was happy to find these fabrics. They came in pre-packaged lengths of 2 and 3 meters. On some of the fabrics the edges were finished and perhaps the fabric could be used as a tablecloth, but some of them had raw edges, which makes me think they really were sold as fabric.

They were marked as "batik" from Indonesia, but based on my knowledge of batik these are actually prints in batik motifs. It was better than nothing!

I was really drawn to the blue and orange flowers on the dark green fabric. I actually hate the muddy, dark background color and knew at the time I was taking a risk. Either someday a project will leap out for this fabric or I will someday purge it from the stash. It would make a good tier for a tiered skirt, but the hippie/boho thing is not really my style, so I don't plan to make any tiered skirts. However, as the fabric was around $2/meter, I was ok with buying a "maybe someday" piece.

The blue is a little bit like a cuter, girlier bandanna print and I love it! It will be a perfect summer dress.

The light green has so much going on with different prints and motifs, and the colors are sensational. I have a vision for it and I can't believe I don't have a pattern!!! I want a dress with kimono sleeves, a crossover V neck in front, a low V back, a relaxed fit at the waist but with some shaping maybe with an elastic casing or a drawstring, and fullish, short skirt. This style is very popular and I assumed I would definitely have the exact thing in my stash.

I went through all my back issues of BWOF and my envelope patterns and nothing! I have several in that style, but they all have a separate midriff. I feel like, given the elements of the fabric, a midriff would need to have some kind of special print on it. My plan is to cut the bodice with the border along the neck edge, and to use the sawtooth pattern in the center of the skirt (another problem because to use that motif on the front and back skirts the waistline will have to be closer to natural than empire because the fabric is quite narrow). That doesn't leave anything special for a midriff.

BWOF has a couple of options with kimono sleeves, a slightly below empire drawstring/elastic, and relaxed skirt but none of them have crossover tops, they are all very low Vs that require a tank top underneath, and they require fabric flowier than cotton. All the options have high round back necks.

I could draft something but really, who has time? Of patterns I don't own, Simplicity 2642 is OK, but again has the high round back, and the fit is a little *too* relaxed. Butterick and McCall have nothing.

Well, enough rambling. My Tokyo report is still coming!

Simplicity 2724, Ruffled Project Runway Shirtdress

I loved Simplicity 2724 as soon as it came out, and the cute versions that have been made since then (such as Story of E and Danville Girl). Meanwhile, back when I received the amazing Carol Collection I fell in love with these two fabrics together. I'm not really sure why they were so adamant in being used together; while the blouse fabric is the same color family as the skirt obviously they are many shades apart. But I really wanted them together in some sort of shirtdress arrangement. When I thought of cutting the ruffles out of the striped fabric on the bias, I had to use this pattern.

The first thing, of course, was to alter for a small bust. I narrowed the bust dart, but decided to leave the lower pleat alone. It is not very wide and seemed suited to my bust size. After sewing up the dress, I had to shorten the bust dart by about an inch and a half, as it was overshooting my bust. I don't do many horizontal bust darts (or many bust darts period!) so I don't know if that should be part of my standard SBA or is a quirk of this particular pattern.

Now it was on to construction. The instructions for the ruffles are needlessly complicated, though they will spare you a visible line of stitching (I think). You are supposed to first press in your fold lines. Then sew one gathering stitch through both the ruffle and the turned under allowance, and one gather stitch just through the ruffle. You're the supposed to sew the single layered gathering long edge of the ruffle down right sides together, then turn it right side up and topstitch the other long edge (as far as I can tell). With a lot of gathering plus a bias cut ruffle this was just not going to work for me. I just ran the rows of gathering stitches through both thicknesses on both long edges of the ruffle and topstitched both sides in place. I don't feel like I lost anything by having two rows of stitching, though I it does change the look a bit from the way it was drafted (which Story of E and Danville Girl faithfully followed).

When I read through the directions a while back, I was very confused. I had in my head that this was a shirtdress, and it was having you do all this finishing at the neckline and I was wondering how in the world you were going to put in the button loops after you'd already applied the facing.

When I sat down to actually make the dress, I realized that it wasn't designed as a shirtdress, it only has the look of it. The bodice center front is sewn to the neckline, and the facing is short and goes only to the center front seam line. I had my heart set on this being a shirtdress, so I lengthened the facing to extend all the way to the bottom of the blouse portion and sewed button loops to the right side and sandwiched them between the facing and the fashion fabric.

After I completed the dress I saw that I needed an underlap as my skin was showing between the buttons. Very tacky! So I just cut a rectangle of fabric, sewed the top edges, turned, and serged the long edge. LOVE my serger for this. If I didn't have it, I would have to have turned in that long edge, which would have created bulk. However, serging raw edges is a very RTW technique so it doesn't look homemade (I think) this way. I topstiched it in place by sewing over the inner row of stitching on the ruffle, so there is no visible stitching line. Had I thought about it before applying the ruffle, I could have hidden the stitching line underneath.

I intended to make this sleevless, but when I was getting close to finishing I thought sleeves would make it a little more professional for the office. Although the pattern offers several options for sleeves, they were not enough for me! I have been curious recently about what kind of sleeve a half-ellipse would make. Using an Ikea sheet as muslin, I cut out the shape on the fold (so it's actually a full ellipse, with the fold serving as the sleeve hem). I pinned it in place and found it cute, but trying it on I saw that even a sleeve like this benefits from more fullness in front and less in back. If you click on the photo to enlarge, you see that while the muslin is symmetrical, the actual sleeve is narrower at the back and fuller at the front.

When I installed the final sleeve, it was sticking straight out a little too much for my taste, so I folded out and sewed down some inverted pleats to tame the futuristic look. I finished the armhole edges by running bias tape all the way around the armscye.

Making this pattern, I realized that the Big 4 armscye does not fit me at all. The past several projects I've made it is just SO TIGHT and I have to lower by about half and inch and scoop out from the front and back. What I need to do is start narrowing the shoulders (which I think would be the same thing as scooping out from the front and back) and lowering the armscye as a matter of course. Cidell keeps getting on my case to make a sloper, and after this I definitely see the value in having a reliable armscye that I can slap on top of any project and trace out.

This was the most time consuming of my Four Projects in Four Days. I wasn't sure I was going to make it and I probably sewed a little later than I should have (I have instituted a strict "pencils down" rule at midnight), but I got it done and was ready to do the next project the next day!

I am really loving the result. It's cute, but because it has traditional blouse shaping at the top is completely appropriate for the office. I feel like it's a less formal, more everyday wearable version of the BWOF 11-2007-106 shirtdress, which I wear for meetings with opposing counsel and visiting dignitaries.

All photos are here and the review is here.

McCall 5752, Palmer-Pletsch Perfect Knit Dress

When I was visiting Texas over the winter holidays, my sister (yes, the one I went to Miami with--my only sister) showed me this pattern that she had bought for herself. I hadn't seen it in the book and really liked it, so the next time I was in a Joann I picked it up. After my experience with Simplicity 3775 I am all about midriff ruching, and I liked the interesting shape of the midriff here, the surplice top, and the tie option.

When I found the fabric in January on G Street's $2.97/yd table (a nice, heavy, good quality knit) I immediately thought of this dress. I wanted to get it done for Miami so I put it on my Spring sewing list. I had fun with the print; I don't know how noticeable it is but the arrows go down on the bodice and skirt (I felt like this was the most slimming direction) and up on the midriff and the ties.

I think this is the first Palmer Pletsch pattern I've sewn and I was suitably impressed. There is a whole sheet of instructions on alterations, and many alteration lines on the pattern pieces, including (yay for me) bust adjustment lines and swayback adjustment lines. My only grip is that there are detailed instructions for a Full Bust Adjustment but not even a mention of a possibility of a Small Bust Adjustment, even though it would take only a sentence. It's hard enough being small busted in a culture that prizes large breasts so highly as "the" way to be attractive, and little things like this--although I don't know how "little" failing to acknowledge that I actually exist is--are just so frustrating and discouraging. But I will try not to hold it against them because I've had to work out how to an SBA on my own. It's very easy, just cut along the marked bust adjustment line and overlap.

However, a small bust generally needs a shortened wrap as well, which the adjustment lines don't take into account. I actually cut it out and sewed it up as drafted, but found that the wrap was a little gapey for my taste. I ended up taking a wedge out of the center back neck (which is part of the front pattern piece), which tightened it up. Next time I will cut it out with the pattern adjustment shown above.

I didn't like the instructions for the midriff, which call for the overlay, a stay, *and* a lining. That is just way too many layers! Instead, I constructed it the same way as I did Simplicity 3775. I cut out only one set of stay/lining, sewed the side seams of the stay and of the overlay, put in the gather seams on the overlay side seams (but did not yet pull them up), lined up the stay and overlay along the top and bottom and stitched them to the bodice and skirt, pulled the overlay gathering threads to fit, and stitched in the ditch along the side seam to keep it gathered. I feel this results in reduced bulk at the side seams (too much bulk would defeat the purpose of the ruching!).

At first I didn't intend to use the ties, but when I finished it I found that the shaping of the front midriff provided a lovely frame for showcasing my round belly. Hmm. I didn't use the pattern piece for the ties, just cut them the length of one of my scraps. I folded out pleats at the tops of them and sewed both to the bottom of the center front midriff, instead of one on top and one on bottom. They don't show up much in my busy print, but I think they provide enough obfuscation to do their job.

I put in the hem and sleeve hem using fusible web, because I didn't want to have lines of stitching. It worked well.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

Small Bust Adjustment (SBA)

Let me first state that I feel that I am in no way qualified to provide any advice or information about alterations. I have no theory, only practice. Over many, many years of owning and operating both a small bust (32AA) and a sewing machine I have worked out my slapdash ways to alter patterns to fit my bust. I am sure anyone with actual knowledge and education will be appalled.

I should say the lack of theory is not wholly my fault. I have tried many books and websites to get more information. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of literature out there about the SBA. Most books carefully explain the FBA, and then say, "And an SBA is the opposite." Totally not helpful. There is one huge exception to the lack of SBA information and that is Shannon's tutorial on Hungry Zombie Couture on how to alter a standard darted blouse for a small bust. It is excellent, clear, well-illustrated, and extremely useful.

I get a fair number of questions about SBAs, so I know I'm not the only one out there looking so I'll share what little I know, with the caveat that it's just stuff I made up, mostly.

I would also like to formally object to the term "Small Bust Adjustment." It does make an easier acronym than, say, "Petite But Well Shaped Bust Adjustment," "Mine Will Stay Perky Longer Than Yours Bust Adjustment," or "I Can Buy Cheap, Cute Bras Bust Adjustment," but those accentuate the positive rather than making us sound inadequate (and my positive needs a lot of accentuating, let me tell you).

I generally choose patterns that are easy to alter with my bust in mind. Despite Shannon's fabulous tutorial, it is very rare for me to make a standard darted blouse because of the difficulty in altering it to fit the bust. Other styles are much easier, and at the top of the list is princess seams. I looooove princess seams (as if you couldn't tell from this, this, this, this, etc. ad infinitum). It makes no difference to me whether it is shoulder or armscye princess, I love them all. Shoulder is less common, and I wonder if that's because it's less curvy--which means it might be better for us. I haven't tried out enough shoulder princess patterns to tell (because there are so few).

==============================

To alter a princess seam all you have to do is shave some width off the bust curve on the side front pieces. Super easy.



==============================

If it's not princess, I usually go for something in an empire line with a bodice that hits right under the bust. I generally reduce the width of the gathered section or of the dart, and if the bottom of the front bodice piece is very rounded I flatten that out a little, as I did here for Vogue 8386; here's a comparison between the final altered bodice and the original pattern. If you don't flatten, you get what I call "Empty Bag Syndrome," where the extra fabric spills out over the underbust seam; it's like the opposite of the pencil test:



==============================

I have a short distance between my bust and my shoulder; I don't know if this is related to my small bust or my frame, but I suspect it's a little of both. I often shorten the front strap, usually taking in a little more at the neck edge than the shoulder edge (thus shortening the front neckline, which prevents gape). You can see that in the photo above for Vogue 8386, and here for New Look 6394. This is kind of a touchy alteration because it can create serious drag lines running from neck edge at shoulder to the armpit; this is especially a problem for styles with sleeves. I haven't found a way to deal with that problem and only go with the slanted front shoulder if there's no other way to get rid of the gape. I'd rather have drag lines than gape.

==============================

Wrap styles were always off limits to me until I discovered how to alter them by realizing that the problem really was as simple as the crossover neckline being too long. By taking out some length, I opened up a whole world of new styles. I am petite but have a long torso; Cidell was startled to find that our torso measurements are nearly identical though she is several inches taller than me (and well into the average height for which patterns are drafted). So I think this is not related to my shortness and the principle applies to SBAers regardless of height. For crossover necks, I take out a wedge of width at a 90 degree angle to the neckline. Don't forget to alter the facing if it has one, as with Vogue 8379 (though frankly I didn't love the facing on this pattern and will leave it off next time I make it). This one is still a work in progress because the angle of the marked pleats is wrong for my bust, I just haven't figured out which way to aim them:



For McCall 5314, a woven wrap, the line got too distorted when I tried to take all the length out at one go, so I shortened at about 1/3 and 2/3 of the neckline distance:



I mean seriously! Check out how ridiculous that alteration is! I took out about three inches of length! I really don't know who that *wouldn't* gape on. But the pattern looks fab on me now and is as snug as a bug in a rug along that wrap. No gape at all.
==============================

Sometimes you need to alter the pattern along more than one axis, as here for Simplicity 3775. I shortened the V neck/mock wrap to avoid gape, and narrowed the width of the gathering. When it comes to gathering, I also find it better to gather more toward the center front than to follow the markings. I don't know if it's my body in particular or general to a small bust to be more centered on the chest, but my girls seem closer together than patterns are drafted for.



==============================

For other miscellaneous styles, always, always, always narrow the width of a bust dart, whether it is vertical (a fisheye dart below the bust) or horizontal (a traditional dart to the side of the bust). It is invariably a mistake not to do this, and I made this mistake recently! Before I had any idea what I was doing I tried to deal with bad bust darts on the garment by taking in more fabric to try to reduce the bagginess. While that sounds like it will work, making a dart bigger makes it worse by increasing the difference in circumference between the bust and below the bust! It is essential to alter the pattern before cutting so there is less fabric to begin with.



You might also need to reduce the length of a bust dart. It's worth it to do a quick tissue fit and mark your bust point (i.e., center of your bust, i.e., nipple) on the pattern piece. If the dart apex is going to overshoot your bust point it needs to be shortened.

==============================

This post is still a work in progress, because I think there might be something to shortening armscyes in some patterns. I just made BWOF 02-2008-103 and it looks pretty bad under the arms and across to the bust. I think a higher armscye would deal with that, and I think it has something to do with a small bust (since a larger bust would displace that extra fabric and prevent the bagginess under the arm).
Luckily, a small bust is usually fairly high so we don't have to worry about lowering the bust point. That's some consolation, right?

New Look 6394 Maxi Dress

This is an oldie but goodie. I made the first version over 13 years ago for my 21st birthday and wore it at my college graduation as well. Around the same time I made a short casual version out of a rayon that I've worn as a beach cover up and occasionally a dress off and on over the years. I hadn't made it since, but had better sense than to get rid of the pattern.

Then Cidell went off on a maxi dress tangent. I resisted for a long time, pleading height issues, or perhaps lack thereof issues. But eventually, she wore me down, and this seemed like the right pattern.

I've learned a lot since the first time I made it, and a lot of what I've learned is how to treat my small bust. So I gave the front bodice pattern an SBA:



OK, fine, I have to admit that I didn't narrow the dart on the pattern piece until after I made the dress and the dart pokes out way too far. It's lost in my big print, but it's definitely pokes out way beyond my bust. Lesson learned. It's funny because I've been working on a post about SBA and I couldn't find a photographic example of a bodice pattern with a narrowed bust dart because I haven't sewn anything with a bust dart in several years. I just find them impossible to work with my bust. So I can excuse myself for forgetting that step.

As you can see, I shortened it below the armscye, tapering smaller at the CF point where the left and right bodice meet up so as not to lower the V. Then I shortened it at the shoulder (because with a smaller bust there is less distance between ribcage and shoulder), taking a wedge-shaped tuck that is deeper tuck at CF (about 1.25") to reduce that distance more and smaller (about 1/2") at the armscye.

The shortening at armscye was because I thought the bodice too long overall; I also shortened the back about an inch. I think it could stand to be shorter still, but it's not grotesque.

I loved this fabric when I saw it on the $2.97/yd table at G Street. Something about the big painterly lines and the little touches of yellow just made it perfect. It turned out to have a weird sort of coating on it; it was hard to sew and the needle left a trail of little puncture lines behind it. I suspect it was some sort of home dec or something.

When I was cutting, I was in a bit of dilemma about the print for the bodice pieces. I actually cut two more after I posted the two choices presented, but ultimately I went with the second one from that post. I'm thrilled with my choice, actually, and I love the way one side is black-with-white and the other is white-with-black, and it sort of matches with the way the print is positioned on the skirt as well. I had intended to put in side seam pockets, but I forgot and anyway I put the zipper down the left side (I hate back zips and avoid them whenever possible). The dress really needed pockets, so I cut them to sort of balance/echo the print placement on the bodice and I like them.

My tip for this dress is about the lining. When I went on my "I'm getting rid of my car!" trip to Ikea, I picked up some $1.99 Knoppa twin-sized sheets. They are a poly-cotton blend with an almost waffley/gauzy texture. While I don't think they would be great to sleep on (they don't list the thread count on the package...), they are EXCELLENT for lining/underlining. The waffle texture is very breathable and kind of makes it "stick" to the fashion fabric, while the poly in the blend keeps them from wrinkling. They're not entirely opaque, but two translucent fabrics here made a solid. And $1.99? After spending $5/yd on cotton batiste last time I was at Chic in NYC, I decided I needed to be a little more circumspect with it. For some projects, only the best batiste will do. But for other things, like this project, the $1.99 sheet is actually better. Now I have to figure out how to get back to Ikea somehow.

I feel like Angelina Jolie--minus the boobs, babies, and Brad Pitt--when I wear this dress. I've worn it twice and both times was complimented on the street (unlike its poor earlier "ugly dress" sister).

All photos are here.

Operation Easy Knits: Simplicity 3775

This easy knits thing is great! I've done three projects so far and am almost done with a fourth. Why didn't I think of it before?

Anyway, the first project I eased myself back in with was Simplicity 3775, one of Pattern Review's Top 10 Patterns of 2007. I had noticed this pattern in the books several times, but it was just enough off that I dismissed it. The midriff seemed a little too wide, the neckline of the t-shirt version a tad too high making it look like an icky crewneck t-shirt. Just a little off. But when I read the article and saw several examples that had been made from it, I figured I could spend the 99 cents at Joann's sale to get the pattern.

I'm glad I did!



Cute, no? And quite easy. At this point I have a pretty good feel how to do a small bust adjustment without muslining, so I fearlessly slashed and overlapped to prevent The Gape (the overlap along the diagonal front edge) and Empty Bag Syndrome (the overlap in the lower gathering section). I further fought The Gape by cutting the binding strip for the neckline pretty short--about an inch and a half shorter than the length of the neckline--and stretched the neckline to fit, so the binding pulls it in. And I further fought Empty Bag Syndrome by putting the gathers closer to (and across) center front, a couple inches in from the marking on the pattern where you're supposed to start the gathers. Nothing worse than having gathers in a place before your boobs actually start.

To attach the binding they want you to sew both raw edges to the neckline edge as one. This might be ok if you have a serger, but even then I don't really like it. Instead I sewed one long edge of the binding to the neckline, turned the seam allowance to the outside, folded the other edge of the binding over, and topstitched in the ditch. If I wanted to be really fancy I could have turned the seam allowance of the inner edge under so it would be enclosed, but I was only going for semi-fancy.

I also didn't like their instructions for the ruched midriff. They have you ruche the two sides of each midriff overlay piece, sew each overlay to its corresponding midriff piece, and *then* sew the midriff side seams. That seemed like a recipe for unnecessarily bulky seams to me (sewing two gathered sides and four thicknesses together). Instead I sewed the side seams of the midriff and the overlay, so that they were two separate finished pieces. Then I put gathering stitches, one on each side of the seam, on the overlay to within about an inch of the top. I did the method where you sew up one side, then turn around and sew down the other so you don't have to gather from both ends and the loop at the top holds your gather tight while sewing. I favor this method whenever possible.

Once the overlay was gathered, I pinned it over the midriff and topstitched at the side seam to hold the ruching in place. Then I took out the gather stitches and voila! The side seam is no more bulky than absolutely necessary. The busy print doesn't necessarily show off the ruching to its best advantage, but its tummy disguising properties were not negated.

Speaking of the midriff, I was a little skeptical about the sizing. I couldn't find a finished measurement so I cut up a size from normal based on my pattern size. Then I noticed that the overlay seemed narrower than the midriff and measured and it is indeed about 1/2 inch (as I recall) narrower than the midriff. So I cut it up two sizes. I don't know why I forgot how much ease Simplicity puts in their patterns because I ended up taking the whole lot in a couple of inches to get it to fit. Still not sure whether I like the overlay being narrower than the midriff. My feeling is that the ruching will make it tighter rather than larger, but who knows.

This was clearly the right project at the right time, because the next day I received a package from my mom with the adorable capelet! I asked her to crochet it for me a while ago and it just so happened to arrive when I had the perfect thing to go with it.

All photos are here.