Do not let the nice looking, nice fitting tank fool you. It was a lot of work to get here.
Let's rewind to the beginning. I saw this pattern and thought how cute it would be to have an easy tank pattern with color blocking, and other cute options, that I didn't have to work on myself. It's sometimes nice to just have the pattern already done and not have to do any of the work myself. Simple tank - easy sew, right? Ha!
K and I re-took our measurements this week, so I'm working with a fresh set of exact measurements for this top. 36-29-42. My high bust is a 34 and necklines usually don't fit me well so I go off the 34 for the shoulders and neck. I always look at the suggested size for my measurements as well as the completed measurements. I'm working with View C, and for this top that put me at 12 for neck/shoulder, 14 for bust and waist, and 16+ for hips. Before any alterations, I noticed the front armhole on the top contrast to bottom doesn't fit up right - the top is 1/8" off.
before massive alterations
I traced the 12-14-16 and completed a forward shoulder adjustment as well as a square shoulder adjustment. I also completed a 1/2" swayback adjustment. I tried on the paper pattern and although it looked a bit low, it all seemed fine. I cut out my pieces and sewed the shoulders together. That's when I realized this pattern's sizing was WAY off!
I ended up taking off even more than this in the long run (wrong side up is altered, right side up is original)
As you can see in these pictures, the armholes are far down and huge. The sides are large as well. I can't believe how loose this tank is because it looks nice and slim on the model on the cover. I was not giving up. I pinned and redrew lines where it should be. I took out a total of 8 freaking inches off the sides of this thing from the bust, down to 2 at the waist and 1 at the hip. I pulled up the shoulder straps to where the armhole would sit correct (this was 2 inches) - but forgot to make the back contrast match the front. Oh well, you win some you lose some.
(miss K was my unstable photographer, lol)
All these changes meant the neckline binding was reduced by 6 inches and the armholes by 5 inches. Funny enough, the instructions were written well enough. The only thing I would change would be to sew on the neck binding before sewing up the sides of the tank - but that is my personal preference.
I would not recommend this pattern to anyone, unless they want a very loose tank. In the end, I'm happy with my tank and how it fits -now!
The fabric is wonderful to work with. They are both from the Kaufman Laguna Stretch Jersey Knit Line. The orange is called just that, and the blue is Tile Turquoise/White. I used maybe 1/4 yard of the orange and 1/2 of the blue. It is thin but not too thin, and not see through at all. I love how soft it is too. I picked mine up from fabric.com on March 18th, 2014. $6.99 for the yard of blue, $5.43 for the yard of orange.
On a side note: I'm beginning to question the swayback adjustment. When it is completed, the back is higher in the middle than the front and side. This is sometimes annoying because when I stand you can see the hem is not level, it goes up in the back and my large rear is right there, boom! Also, when I bend over I risk flashing people. Sigh. I think I might try other options like lowering the hem in back and widening it to cover my larger rear to see how that affects the fit of the back. Does anyone one else have this problem? Any suggestions?
June Totals:
(stash is anything purchased before this year)
Stash used: 3 yards
Fabric Out: 4.5 yards
Fabric In: 24.25
Totals for the year to date:
Stash sew this year: 31 yards
Fabric out in 2014: 119.5 yards
Fabric in 2014: 129.75 yards
~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~
