A Comedy of Errors

So I had this brilliant idea to turn the lady skater dress into a empire waisted top. The idea came after seeing Jill's version at Made with Moxie.

I got right to pattern hacking.  I wanted to use this terrible drapey, thin, rayon jersey that pills to no end for this experiment but I didn't have enough. Alas I found his cousin in my stash in a darker blue of the same terrible fabric.

(horrid inside night time pics)

Front looks ok, slight pulling at bust

I cut off the bodice right under the bust and then eye balled how long I wanted the bottom piece to be.  I used the skirt part of the skater dress pattern but took about 1-2 inches off width-wise.  I sewed in clear elastic tape to help hold the shape under the bust - as the pattern states for the skirt.

Everything sewed up nicely despite using crapy, slippery fabric - to the point where I felt bad about writing this fabric off as ok to destroy.

I went to sew the side seams and realized my measurements were WAY off when cutting the back bodice. I had to laugh. Nonetheless I trudged on and fudged up the arm band.  Here is where I stopped and decided it was "made" enough to see how I liked it.

laughing at my poor measuring skills - the back is almost 2 inches higher than the front

I do like it! I really do.  It hits me quite nicely under the bust where I"m almost smallest in width.  I like how it flows over my stomach - my not so favorite area.  I couldn't decide if I liked where the bottom hit on my thighs though.  The shoulders do fit right but this fabric kept riding up so there is a weird poof on top of them.

Seeing the pics I think I need to add just a tiny bit to the bust area because there are some pulling lines.  The swayback looks great for once!  (granted this is very flow-y fabric).

sway? no way! :D

 (back bodice will be lowered 2 inches to match front)

I think though that I would like to make the front and back one piece and add a casing to the inside and feed elastic through it, instead of messing with a top and bottom piece.  I picked up the most luscious, soft, amazing knit from fabric.com (believe it or not) and plan on making it into this top.  It is in my "must do sooner than later" sewing list.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~