To cowl or not to cowl?

That is the question. I've made M6604 twice now. The first time I ended up with bewbsmiles...

M6604

As someone else said, "It is too tight but with too much excess fabric at the same time". (Sorry don't know who said it but from now on I will try to remember to save these posts to refer to later.)

But I did think it was worth another try. So then I made version two.

M6604

Unfortunately I made this a while ago and now can't remember exactly what alterations I made. I think I cheated by just adding to the centre front thinking that I could then take in the extra in the neckline tucks.

While this has largely solved the bewbsmile issue, there is now too much fabric around the shoulders.

Now I realise that I probably have to do an FBA. Which is fine and I probably will make another with one at some stage. But I would really like to try the cowl neck  version.

But given the fit issues I've already encountered I'm not even sure what size to start with. The first version started at 20 then down to 18. The second is an altered 18. I also cannot get my head around trying to do any sort of FBA on a cowl.

So any ideas? Have you made M6604? How did you go? Any and all thoughts or suggestions are very welcome.

January Make a Garment a Month Complete

This really should have been a much quicker make than it turned out to be. But that's ok, because I made it fit properly  pretty well and learned a few things along the way. And discovered that I actually really enjoyed the whole process.

It is McCall's M6604 view C. First up is that this pattern is really short. I added 2.5cm to both back and front and then another 5cm or so in the shaping on the front. When I make it again, which I will, I'll add at least another 2.5cm to the back.

So the first thing to go wrong was that I cut a size 20, sewed the pleats, and shoulder seams and then tried it on. It was huge but then that's no real surprise is it? As I mentioned once before, it is all very well to measure the pattern pieces and work out the ease, but I'm still learning how much ease I like and how a certain amount of ease looks. But anyway, I recut the size 18 and it's much better.

I did a 2cm forward shoulder adjustment and used Heather's fabulously easy tutorial to also adjust the sleeves. I also took 1cm off at the top of the shoulder. And then I put in the sleeves.

Looks pretty good, yeah? (Well except for the colour - this fabric photographs as a completely different colour in nearly every photo) But there is one small problem....

That is a rather large pleat in the sleeve. Talk about a generous amount of ease... I thought that a pleat might work as it would reference the front pleats. But it didn't - it just stuck out rather awkwardly.

So I looked for tutorials on how to fix this. There are a lot. However, most of them presume (quite rightly) that you want to make an adjustment to the pattern before you cut the fabric. I, of course, needed an on the fly fix for an already cut (and hemmed) sleeve. Casey's tutorial was just what I needed. I will also try to remember to check this on future garments BEFORE I cut them out.

After that it was all smooth sailing.

Well except for the weird 'smile' between my b00bs. But see it goes away when I do this

The problem is that the neckband is too long. You see I also did a straight shoulder adjustment, maybe.... Anyway I cut 1cm at the neck of both front and back shoulder seams graded out to nothing at the shoulders. But I din't even think to shorten the neckband.  No wonder it went on so easily...

I played around with lots of options to try to fix this. In the end I added a small piece of elastic inside the neckband just above the pleats. (I also tried elastic all the way around and just from the shoulder seams forward but both of those pulled it too far forward)

This is supposed to show my excellently placed shoulder seams and pretty damn good sleeves (maybe still need a small tweak at the back) but all I can see is ... b00bs. I swear they don't stick out that far in real life.

And the obligatory back view. I do sometimes wonder if I need some kind of back adjustment. But I think I can't need a sway back, because I have a flat bum but then I read somewhere the other day that that is precisely when you need a sway back adjustment. Can anyone shed any light on this for me?

But still I'm pretty pleased overall with this top. A couple of tweaks and it might even be a TNT. Which I do really need because when it is really hot you just can't beat a simple woven top.

So that turned into a really long post, didn't it? Next time I will try to do a WIP post, which is what I should have done when I spent so much time faffing about with the sleeves.

So how are your January plans going? And I would really appreciate any comments or suggestions you might have regarding achieving a better fit.

Oh and don't forget to leave a comment on my last post to win the Plus Size Pattern Pyramid.

Make a Garment a Month January

I seem to have an awful lot of catching up to do. With everything, sewing, blogging, the etsy shop, really everything. So something simple for January....

I am going to make view C (the floral image) in this lovely Thai cotton with a textured self stripe which I bought at the fabulous Narin Fabric Supermarket in Chiang Mai for about $1.50/metre. This will be a test run of sizing etc on the simpler version before I eventually make the blue one (view B) in some lovely blue linen. But that will probably be for the sewcialists blue february.

And just for the record, I did finish my green pants for December. See, here they are

Not much of a picture I know. They do fit ok, they have been worn but no pics were taken. And since I need to iron them before this can happen, it may be a while....

Happy sewing