Narrow shoulders?

Through both pregnancies and all the weight loss and gain that goes with that the one consistent measurement has been my shoulder width.  I’ve been a 34 in Burda though my weight has been all over the map.  Period.  But I’m starting to think that I need to revisit that measurement as tops are starting to fall off of the edge of my shoulders.

I wonder if in all of my working out that I finally lost some width in my arms themselves that apparently brought in the edge of my shoulders (because it would appear that my shoulder width has not changed by much even though shoulders are too wide on me these days).

Take this top for instance.  It is Burda 7434 in a nice wool jersey from Denver Fabrics.  I’m happy with the width and reasonably how everything fits in general, except that the top of the sleeves are falling off of my shoulders.  Because of the width of the shoulders, the princess seams are falling outside of where they should be as well.

So I’m asking for help.  I know that I need to do a narrow shoulder adjustment of some sort, but can I do that though I’ve made the garment minus hems?  My idea was to split apart the princess seam and make a dart of sorts in the front to take out some width, easing in the back shoulder to match.  Is this a legitimate way to retrofit?

On an unrelated topic, I think WordPress has lost its mind because I can’t seem to fit the gigantorness of the picture…

Hitting a moving target while blindfolded and hopping on one foot

 

Pants fitting is not for the faint of heart.  There are a lot of curves to fit.  Add the added challenge of having recently given birth and being in a weight loss/body reshaping trend after that event, and the post’s title becomes apparent. 

Thankfully I do have a group of ladies I’m meeting with once a month to work on the fit of pants.  I’m at a point though that I have to give up my perfectionism and just make these up as I have a choice between a pair of maternity shorts which are too big and often covered in spit up and workout pants right now.  I’m using OOP Simplicity 4135–the gaucho view…shortened considerably to more of a flared walking short length.

The front looks pretty okay,

and the top part of the back is pretty good too. 

 The problem that I’m having is those silly diagonal wrinkles from the side seam below my bum.  When I was with my group a couple of weeks ago, we had taken out a vertical dart from just under my bum to the hem which took out a good bit of excess that was in the back of the pants.  I’ve probably lost 4 or 5 pounds since then though.  I’m not complaining, but what’s a girl to do?  You can see in the unaltered side that those wrinkles are there too, but they seem to be magnified on the altered side.  The vertical dart definitely took out some excess, but I think there’s something else that I’m missing. 

Does anyone know how to deal with those wrinkles?

Batch fitting

Last week I sat down and drew out my goals for sewing for the month.  I am in need of summer clothes fast that aren’t scrubby t-shirts or shorts that I bought 11 pounds ago and are now falling off of me.  For once, I want to have a summer where I can beat the heat with my clothes and look like a lady too.

Here’s what I came up with: 

I’ll out myself and say that I sew knits as often as I do not just because I like them but because they’re a gazillion times easier to fit than wovens.  If you notice, there’s only 1 knit item in this batch.  This will be a great opportunity for me to figure out some fitting with wovens. 

I also decided that fitting takes up a whole lot of mental space.  I measure my patterns, trace them off, cut out a practice, see what I need to change, trace out more if necessary, cut out more practices if necessary, get things nice, cut out real fabric, construct, finish.  To repeat this cycle endlessly can sometimes feel not unlike the plight of poor Sisyphus.  I feel like if I can do one big round of fitting for several garments at a time, maybe I’ll save my brain some strain at the bottom of the hill later. 

I’ve been fitting the patterns, and paperclipping each one together and hanging them on the peg board before going on to fitting the next.  It’s been 3 days and I’ve made 4 seperate muslins for 3 separate patterns.  2 went rather quickly and didn’t need much tweaking–a little shortening here, but nothing dramatic.  The button-down blouse has taken a little more thought process.  I managed to avoid an FBA, which I’m grateful for because I’ve always ended up with so much waist distortion when I’ve done them in the past.  I will say that I’ve felt really relaxed and calm about fitting all of these instead of the usual frenzy/panic I put myself in at the start of a new project.  This seems rather counterintuitive that more causes less stress, and I I can’t say that I’ll batch fit all of the time, but I’ve actually enjoyed it this time.

Here are 3 of the fabrics in this first round of my plan.  The mini black gingham is on my cut table at the moment, but I’m sure you can imagine what that looks like.  I’ve actually fitted the pattern for the mini black gingham and not the red and blue floral fabric, but I forgot that the mini black gingham was on my cut table when I snapped this.

The red and blue floral isn’t actually cotton as I thought when I bought it.  It burns like silk, but usually at Denver Fabrics, they separate their silk flat folds from the rest, so maybe it’s a silk blend.  Who knows?  But a good old bit of mystery fabric never hurt anyone, right?

Super easy

My Jalie top is finished!  I decided not to go nuts as I contemplated in my last post, and decided to cheat instead (just a little).  While I’m generally against cheating, it turned out well and this might become my m.o. for knit tops.

Jalie Scarf Collar Top

What I learned:

1.  3, not 4:  I’m no serger whiz.  Actually, I’m kind of terrified of the thing.  This is silly of course, and I’ve been slowly building up my courage to deal with that.  In the past I’ve had really awful problems with this kind of fabric (rayon with lots of lyrca–10%!) in my serger.  The stitching has never locked on the edge.  From the info in the knits class I just finished at Patternreview, I took out my right needle and thread.  A 3 thread configuration has more built-in stretch than a 4, so it makes sense that 3 would work better with stretchier fabric.  You can see the difference here:

See how the bottom one is all distorted, uneven and how the threads don’t lock at the edge?  Actually, I was so impressed with the difference that I just serged off my hems and let them be exposed.

2.  Fit where the fullness is:  I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to fit a knit top without using a dart.  I won’t do it every time, I’m sure, but I’ve desperately just wanted to have the option in my fitting arsenal.  Someone else reviewed this top on PR and transistioned down from the armscye out to another cutting line along the fullest part of the bust and curved back in at the waist.  This seemed too good to be true, but I had to give it a go.  I’d seen this technique in the Threads fitting series too, so I knew it had to work.  So I traced the armscye I needed to, and studied the sizing chart on the pattern to figure out which line I needed to go out to.  On my muslin, I marked my full bust and the bottom of it on the side seam so I would know where to move my lines.  About an inch down from the armscye on the front only, I drew a transition line out to another line with my French curve and curved the line back in at the bottom of my bust.  The resulting change looks a bit like a bulge on the side seam on the pattern piece (like a dart would be if you didn’t sew it).  I thought there would be all this extra length that would make sewing the side seams kind of lumpy, but not so.  The curves still fit together well (probably because it’s a knit) and the fit is comfortable and inconspicuous.

3.  Hem markers are the jiffiest notion ever:  I’ve always just marked hems by whatever the pattern said, but in my never-ending quest for nice looking hems, I’ve been wondering if first marking a hem that is truly parallel to the floor really will make a difference.  Though it involves further investigation, my preliminary fiddling around with this gadget tell me that it does produce a nice result, but more than that, it’s plain fun to use.  I was a bit shocked by the $35 price tag at JoAnn for this gadget, so I bought a vintage one from Ebay for $8 plus $4 for shipping which seemed reasonable (especially given the way funny box). 

Mine attaches to the door and you screw the bottle of chalk into it and turn around while you squeeze the bulb to release the chalk into the marker.  Pretty nifty indeed.  I may get a little marking crazy I like this thing so much.

Coming soon…I’ve entered Patternreview’s Mini-Wardrobe contest that starts today.  I need to sew 4 garments in the next month, which seems to be about my pace.  Nathan is a week away from finishing his dissertation, working long hours and I’m trying to nurse a pulled muscle in my neck whilst I try to sew and take care of the baby.  Things might be a bit interesting around here…

Experimenting

I’m working on fitting this Jalie Scarf-Collar top.  I’ve been reading about this pattern on Patternreview, and I’ve been rather impressed by how tremendously flattering it looks on everyone and how much people seem to be excited about it. 

So I went over the edge and paid the piper for this pattern for the sake of trying something new.  I don’t like paying more than a couple of bucks for a pattern unless it’s for a special occasion, but I like this style so much that I know I will make it multiple times.  Once I figured out the sizing of these patterns, I cut out and assembled all the way through (it took me a couple of times to figure out the collar bit–which by the way is extraordinarily clever) so I could get a sense of everything.  Things look really good, but c’est la vie, I need to add a dart at the side.  Shoot!  I really thought that adding a little bit at the side seams would do the trick.  Nope.  No dice.  Go back to start.  It’s not uncomfortable, but there’s enough bunchy bunchy at the sides that it looks bad, which makes me feel almost as uncomfortable as if things were tight. 

But then I started thinking about it and really, I will wear this style less casually, so I’m not to weirded out by having a bust dart on a knit.  Actually, as a matter of fact, I’m kind of thinking of messing around with this dart a bit and rotating it to make something different.  We’ll see how things work out.

Spring preview

If I had to choose one garment to wear, I’d probably wear dresses every day and be totally happy for the rest of my life.  They’re so comfortable, you look like a lady, and somehow you walk taller when you wear them.  This is a good example.

This is McCalls’ 5752, dubbed “The Perfect Knit Dress.”  This seems a rather bold claim, but I do like it a lot.  As I said, this was a very interesting experience sewing this.

McCalls 5752

What I learned:

1.  Forget picking a size on your high bust measurement:  I sewed an 8 this time instead of the 12 that I have been sewing.  I was emboldened by Cynthia Guffey’s assessment of me that my neck and shoulders are much smaller than a 12.  Sure enough, I measured across my shoulders and compared that to the pattern, and I really should be sewing from an 8.  Why the shoulders though?  Well, when I’ve sewn from my high bust measurement, it’s true I don’t have to add as much for my bust, but it also means I’ve got a TON of extra fabric…and it likes to pool right at my center back.  Even after I’ve corrected my shoulder slope this still is going on.  Once I switched to the 8, my upper back was perfect for the first time.   Plus, the garment hangs from my shoulders, and it’s way easier to add extra across the bust than to fix the shoulders and neckline (says I after trying to do narrow shoulder adjustments and still having extra gaping at the neck).

2.  I’m a fan of these 1″ SA’s:  This is a Palmer/Pletsch pattern, so there’s lots of little fitting tips at the beginning of the pattern.  Some are useful, some are not, some I don’t agree with, but what they do do that’s super useful is have 1″ SA’s at the sides.  They call these “just in case” allowances…i.e.  just in case you need some extra room someplace else.  At any rate, for me they end up being extremely useful…let me try to explain.  At my hipline, I needed quite an extra bit of room.  I decided to sew 3/8″ seam allowances throughout  the sides (no extra trimming, I could just serge away which I did).  Because there was already 5/8″ extra on the pattern, I only needed to cut my hipline at a size 10 to give me enough room.  I also didn’t have to add as much across my bust doing this.  So without any extra cutting, I could sew the size I needed for my neck and shoulders and give myself the extra ease I needed.  It seems like cheating, but I’m going to give these 1″ SA’s some more thought.

3.  Solids are how I live, but man, I love prints:  I saw this fabric at Denver Fabrics and fell in love.  The splashes are my favorite shade of aqua (which the lady at DF informed me was my signature color–looking down at my basket, I realized how right she was–tee hee–sometimes people figure you out better than you realize) and chocolate.  As a rule I never ever ever ever wear brown, but I really liked the print and the aqua was awesome…and the stuff was $2/yd to boot.  It should tell you how much I love this aqua/print combo because the stuff is my least favorite kind of knit–poly/lycra.  With undergarments, it’s not that bad, but as I rule I started sewing to avoid this stuff.  But I really loved this print and I couldn’t walk away because it’s so hard to find smaller scale prints that aren’t juvenile.  The scale of this print was right in the range of not overwhelming me…and it’s aqua.  I love aqua.  Love.  My favorite color ever.

Final thoughts:

This is an easy dress to accessorize–I have a really cool German teal flower brooch my husband bought me for Valentine’s Day that looks perfect with this, and I have a vintage silk scarf that also is super fun to wear with this. 

This was also a fast sew.  Including the gathering and the hems and serging work, this took 2 naptimes to complete.  I wouldn’t mind making it again since the fit is so excellent, but I won’t do all the gathering (I made a quick mockup without it, and I like that you can see the shape of the midriff without the distraction of the gathering which is really bulky).  But we’ll see when I get to that.  My birthday is at the end of the month, and I have this dress in my sights:

I’m thinking of this in kind of a blush sort of color.  Plus this jacket in a pink seersucker I got from Gorgeous Fabrics with Christmas money.

My first drafting, or a skirt I don’t entirely hate

Ah, my first draft.  There’s nothing fancy about it, but it fits, well mostly.  I really overestimated my waist and I need to take this in quite a bit at the waist.  It’s just as well since drab olive is not my favorite.  I figured this was a safe fabric to test out this pattern on though since I got it for all of 97 cents for the whole yard and a half it is.  What I do like about this skirt is that it hangs on my hips and drops straight down from there and fits my curves in a way that makes me feel feminine, but not immodest or matronly.  I’ve never been able to get this from any skirt I’ve owned and I’ve been disappointed with my own attempts to sew from patterns where skirts are concerned.  I know this needs further tweaking, but things are looking up.

Self-Drafted Princess seamed skirt

What I learned:

1.  Fit where the fullness is going on:   I have wide hips–most of that is bone, but part of that is a more rounded backside.  I can add width across my hipline all day long, but at the end of things, my bum is still going to rob fabric from the widest part of my side seams and things will be tight across my backside.  Bizarre, right?  That’s what I thought.  I fundamentally don’t like sewing darts in skirts, so I innocently thought when I was drafting to just try princess seams instead.  I had no idea I’d stumbled across pure gold where fitting my backside is concerned…those seams let me put in a little bit of extra width across my seat at the center back without distorting anything, and their gentle curves just work better on my body.  The result is a nice smooth curve that skims my own curves.  When I’ve tried to fit simple plain front and back skirts that only have side seams, I end up every time looking like I’m wearing a potato sack.   Cynthia Guffey kept saying at the Sewing Expo–”You can’t fit curves with a straight line.”  I’ve been thinking about this a lot and it makes a lot of sense–my fluff is not on my sides (actually my hip bones stick out a bit)–it’s at center back, so adding to the side seams covers the fluff, but it doesn’t conform to its shape.  So I need a curve where I’m curvy.  I need to take in the skirt at my waist some more, but otherwise it fits really well.

2.  The only way to become less scared of zippers is to sew them:  I decided no more fear of zippers here.  They are useful closures and I plum need to deal with them.  I started with the zipper so it could be nice and flat and unfussy when I was installing it.  I sewed and serged my seam, changing to a basting stitch where I wanted my zipper to be.  I basted in a little fabric loop towards the top of the seam to reduce stress on the zipper and because I fundamentally hate hook and eyes.  I used steam a seam to position my zipper perfectly under the basted section of the seam, ran a chalk line exactly where I wanted to topstitch the zipper in place and topstitched away.  I took care of the top of the zipper by sewing it into my facings which worked out really well.  Tada!:

I’m pretty surprised at how this whole project was a lot less overwhelming than I thought it was going to be.  As for my waist, I shall save this skirt for my postpartum thicker waist the next time around.  Version 2 will fit better I am sure.

Mixed bag

I hate sweaters, people.  I love wool, but it does not love me back…within seconds of putting on a sweater, I’m itching and covered in hives.  It’s probably all of the chemicals sheep get dipped in that makes my skin freak out, but I have neither the budget for organic wool nor the heart to wear such sad colors (why do natural dyes have to be so ugly?).  This makes my life as someone living in a colder climate a little dicey at times. 

So when I came across Simplicity 2603, I was excited.  Why wouldn’t I want to swathe myself in fabric when I’m a bit chilly?  But this wrap was limited in what I could do with it because of its length, but also because of the shape of the extensions which for whatever reason didn’t work on my body so well, even after I tried on the full length version that I made for my Mother-in-law for Christmas.  So I went back to the drawing board.

Enter Vogue 8463.  One of my sewing goals this year was to attempt a Vogue pattern.  I don’t think I can count this one because it’s so ridiculously easy.  The hardest thing you have to do is hem a lot of fabric.  I liked that the extensions are longer on this one versus the Simplicity pattern (I didn’t have enough length to tie it in interesting ways) and that it very economically uses less than 2 yds which is quite a bit less than the Simplicity.   

Vogue 8463–wrap cardigan

What I learned:

1.  Interfacing the hem:  I did several tests on scraps to figure out which hem I like the best, and my usual steam-a-seam yielding a really crunchy hem on this amazing rayon knit from Gorgeous Fabrics.  Instead, I ironed on some SewKeysE all the way up to the hemline and pressed and topstitched accordingly.

2.  Look ma!  No pins!:  One of the other things Peggy Sagers said at the Sew Expo was that home sewers use way too many pins.  Pins slow you down whether you’re laying out a pattern or in the midst of construction, she asserted.  Of course, she’s right, but who wants to give up their security blanket?  I’m experimenting on how to go about incorporating this into my life, and this is what I’ve come up with for hems.  I pressed my hem like normal and ran a basting stitch about halfway between the top of the hem and the fold line from the wrong side and then I topstitched as normal.  This saved me like 8 years in pins, kept Noah away from my pins, and I was a lot less stressed.  I’m sure Peggy Sagers would say there’s an easier, faster way with hems, but this will do for now.

3.  I need to pull out my measuring tape and take an honest look at everything:  I’ve lost all my baby weight now.  Actually, I weigh less than I did before Noah.  This is great, but altering for my full bust does not need to be so dramatic, and my ribcage is more narrow again, the result being that I’m swimming in fabric.  So, while I love this finished garment for the color and for the style and versatility of wearing, I’m not too happy about it being too wide across the shoulders and all this extrey fabric at center back that’s happening I assume because of that.  You can get a little idea of the extra fluff here.

I imagine I’ll be making more muslins than anything the next few weeks just to figure out what on earth is going on with my changing body and to practice some of the techniques I learned this past week.

             3a) Tracing patterns: Fit for Real People is quite assertive in how they tell you to deal with patterns.  They have you slashing them up and shimming them with bobs of tissue paper and so forth.  This is great, but I’m coming to realize that perhaps this isn’t the best way [for me].  There are some styles that I love and will make a gazillion times and a few that I’ll only make once–like everyone else.  But seriously, God-willing, Noah is not our last kid, and this cycle of being a little heavier/fuller in some places back to being my usual self will be repeated here, so if there are things that I like, I best be treating my patterns nicer if it turns out that I have to alter them again.  So from now on, if there  is something that I make that I know I’ll want to make again in whatever capacity, I’m going to trace it off first, though it pains me to add the extra step.  It’s cheaper timewise and monetarily to do this versus buying another pattern, or so I’m telling my impetuous self.

4.  My camera has a self-timer?:  I’m such a camera dork.  I get the concept, but it’s like gardening for me…I just can’t be bothered with the details.  You lovely folk who read my blog put up with a lot where my pictures are concerned.  Bless you all.  So, miraculously, I figured out the self-timer, and these two pictures look a little better than my average. Phew.

Drinking from firehoses

 

(picture from here)

I’ve been at the Rocky Mountain Sewing Expo the past 3 days taking classes on fitting, with a couple of sides of construction and a nod to drafting.  I’m kind of just staring at my machine, trying to figure out where to start, I’ve picked up so many things.  I will try, for myself, as much as you, dear readers to condense my learnings, which I’m going to try to put into application like yesterday.

What I learned:

1.  What you don’t know about sewing is a lot.:  But I do know more than I give myself credit for.  I’m saying this realistically, not negatively.  I’m pretty bowled over by the depth of the knowledge that my teachers unloaded on me this week.  Holy cats.  I want to teach sewing someday?   I need a lot more experience.

2.  FBA’s don’t work for me:  I’ve been suspicious for a while of FFRP’s method of FBA’s.  I get plenty of room upstairs, but the method adds width at the hip and, worse yet, the waist…totally not where I need it.  For my Mom, this is a perfect method.  She needs extra room in the waist and the hip, but for me it distorts everything.  Remember this top?  I’ve lost maybe 5 pounds since I made it, but I seriously should not be able to pinch out 3″ on each side and still be comfortable.  The problems I had with this top (see waist darts) taking out extra room in the waist…it was from the alteration, not the original side seams as I thought.

What’s the solution?  The wonderful Lorraine Henry kept saying over and over again this weekend “When you alter any part of your pattern, it should not affect any other part of the pattern.”  This makes total sense, but how many alteration methods actually preserve the rest of the pattern?  She gave us all a quick blast of the seam method (there’s a little intro on it in this Threads article), which basically has you cutting into patterns along seam lines, adding hinges and pivoting things out where you need extra space.  The beauty of all of this is that the seams themselves are totally preserved, so there is no distortion in your final product, meaning there’s less distortion in your fabric too.  It’s so simple, and it makes so much sense.

3.  Pattern sizing, oy!  Dearest Cynthia Guffey talked at length on Saturday that you should buy patterns not based at all on your high bust but by the size that fits your neck and shoulders the best.  Her logic is that it’s easier to alter for waist/hips/bust if you need to than the neck and shoulders, plus, your garments hang from there, so give yourself the best chance of success and start with neck/shoulder bits that are closest to your measurements.  Looking at me, she said I should be sewing from an 8 or a 10 at the max, not the 12 that I have been using.  What? Really?  Of course my ego is happy over this, but I’m not really sure what to make of this one–I need to mess around with it.  Now that I think about it, looking back at the last couple of projects that I’ve made, there’s a noticeable amount of space around the neck and I’ve had to fuss to make the shoulders work for me.  Back to the drawing board…

4.  Princess seams are your friends:  One of the other things Cynthia Guffey kept saying was that if you have a particular fitting concern, you should pick styles that give you the most opportunities to make changes to address that.  So, for example, I can sew tops with just one dart at the side to fit my bust, but that’s going to be a big weird looking dart (and they are every time) because ALL of the fullness has to be dealt with in that one location.  In contrast, princess seams give you multiple chances to split up that fullness, the end result being a much smoother transition between the fullness and the remainder of the seam and less of that Eat-At-Joe’s look that you get from side bust darts.

5.  “God gave you a finger before He gave you a blending stump”:  My 7th grade art teacher, Mrs. Gast told us this one day…her point being that if you needed to blend your shading in a little corner, use your finger before you bust out your little paper cone blending stump.  It was a long time ago, but that phrase stuck with me.  Not surprisingly, something like that is true with sewing.  I have two hands, therefore I don’t really need to use my walking foot.  Peggy Sagers went so far as to say that walking feet are pricey gimmicks.  Instead of relying on my walking foot to be the extra guide to move the fabric under my needle evenly, she said you should be holding your fabric taut behind your work while you are guiding the fabric in front with your other hand.  I think I’ve noticed that the people on Project Runway sew like this too, and I’ve been curious about it.  I haven’t tried it because I’ve been worried that I’d bust a needle, but after playing around with this a little, I’m pretty shocked at how well this works.  The tension problems I usually have disappeared.  I have the most even, nicest looking hem on my latest project that I’ve ever made.  Not only that, the ugly shine marks that I get on my fabric from the walking foot are gone because I’m just using my favorite basic foot.

I picked up a lot more this weekend, but I will save that for later posts in the contexts of projects.

Sewing basics, yea or nay?

I know a lot of sewers have some strong opinions on the subject of sewing basic wardrobe staples like t-shirts and camisoles etc. that could be easily purchased.  I for one would love to be able to buy a few plain knit white camisoles to protect me from sweaters and to put under my v-neck dresses.  Sadly, though I’ve lost all my baby weight (yay!), my weight is distributed differently and it’s pretty hard to find a plain camisole that fits me.  No doubt that I’m sure I could find one if I were diligent enough, but shopping is usually a blow to the self-esteem, and it’s faster for me to fit a pattern and sew it than to spend a day feeling bad about my shape.

So, though there’s more exciting sewing that I’d rather be doing, I’ve been pretty excited this week to make something that I wear so much that fits me perfectly. 

New Look 6564

What I learned:

Incognito FBA:  I needed to do an FBA as usual with this one and this was a good pattern to practice a different way of doing an FBA that I’ve been puzzling over for the past few tops–is it possible to do one without having to put in a bust dart?  I mean, who wants a bust dart that you constantly have to readjust because you, in total innocence sewed it up in knits that tend to migrate down as you wear them?  It’s so terribly conspicuous to have a bust dart in knits–or worse yet, to pretend like you don’t need one and then have all that nasty fabric bunching at the sides that sounds the alarm that you really really need one (which is what happens in 98% of the knit tops that I purchase)

The answer is yes, you totally can do an FBA w/o a bust dart.  Whew!  What a relief.  I turned to help on the forum at pattern review, and the wonderfully helpful people there sent me to Debbie Cook’s tutorial for a FBA in a raglan sleeve top.  It looks a little weird when you finish, but, hey, so did that first FBA you did many months ago.  All that matters is that it fits, right?  I need to fuss around with the side seams a bit more to fit me really well, but for my first go at this, it looks pretty darn good.  And for the first time since before I was pregnant I have a cami that fits!

Plain, shmain!:  At first I was a little put off by the added lace on this pattern.  I’ve ONLY ever worn plain, white camisoles.  But, if I can start wearing lipstick (okay, organic lip tint, but that’s another story) at age 28, why not try a little lace on the camisole?  Plus I had some stretch lace leftover from another project that matched perfectly with more of the pink fabric I used on my asymmetric collared top.  I cut out the motifs I liked and sewed it on with a narrow zigzag and my trusty 75/11 stretch needle.  Super easy, and I love the little ladylike touch that it adds.  So, while I will definitely make a couple plain versions of this top, I might totally be a lace convert.