99.99% Finished

The only thing left to do is to press up and coverstitch the bottom hem.



If I had to do anything over, it would be to raise the waistband just a little because it's slightly too low in the back. But not enough to stop me from wearing it. Besides, I don't look at my own back, right? ;-)

It's very comfortable and the loose, flowy style is good with the poly fabric since it allows air to circulate. It's still over 90 degrees here during the day and will be for a while yet, so air circulation is a must.



These pics were taken during my pin-fitting of the sideseams.



I'm not used to wearing dolman sleeves these days but even so, I thought they were hanging a bit low and long, especially since I hadn't added the sleevebands yet. There was also too much ease at the waist and hips. I chopped about 3 inches off the sleeve length (before bands) and reshaped the underarm curve higher and tapered it down to the bottom hem to incorporate removing about an inch from each side at the waist and hips.

With the sleevebands sewn on, the finished sleeve length is not a whole lot shorter than what you see here, maybe an inch shorter. But with my arms at my sides, the bands are above the level of the horizontal line at the waist, which is what I wanted so the wide expanse would be broken up visually. With the slightly longer short sleeves than what I usually wear in the summer, the top won't scream "Summer" in the middle of December when I'll probably still be wearing it and wishing for cooler weather.



This is the back side of the modesty panel. To place it, I put the top on Zillie and then pinned a folded and pressed scrap of the print behind the neckline. (For the panel, I put the stretch going up and down so it wouldn't give when being worn.) I carefully pinned it to the seam allowances where the neckbands meet the bodice body. Then I sewed the panel to those seam allowances and trimmed away the excess, resulting in the shape you see above. The bottom of the panel is raw edges. I may end up hand-tacking the panel to the inside layer of the neckbands at the top, but I'll see how it wears without doing that. So far, it stays in place just fine so tacking it probably won't be necessary.

Since it's Sunday and no make-up and icky clothes day, I'll take a pic of me in the finished top in the next day or so. Maybe after I've made some pants to wear with this.