First Go at Jalie 2794

This is a horrible poly knit that has almost no stretch, especially since I cut it on the cross-grain to keep the striping vertical on the slim chance that this might be wearable for someone. It's technically wearable for me, but there are a few issues aside from the icky fabric so this one will go to the donation pile.

I blended between sizes as I traced the pattern, which was a bit hard to judge given the odd shapes of the pattern pieces. But I used my TNT Ottobre tee as a basis to make some sizing judgments and it was definitely looking like I should blend. I'm still really curious, though, about how a non-blended size would work on me since the larger sizes seem so incredible LONG compared to the others. I have more of this fabric to use up so I might just do an experiement. There are not too many pieces to trace and the sewing goes fairly quickly.

As for the blending … The shoulder width and armhole height is a Z, blended into the EE for body width. The overall length of the top is Z. The separate "bolero" piece is a blend between Z and EE. The sleeve is FF and fit perfectly into my blended armhole, although the overarm length of the cap sleeve is too short for my arms.

The fit is mostly OK. It's a little snug, but I expected that because of the fabric choice. The gathering at the bust needs to be spread out more. I used the marks on the pattern pieces but with my blend between sizes, I should've adjusted the spacing of those marks too. I need to put it on again and decide if the bolero pieces need adjustment. They feel weird but a lot of that is because they are just a weird piece that I'm not used to.

The shoulder width on me is pretty good, although it looks wonky on Zillie. That's just a combination of the fabric and my haphazard arrangment on Zillie. Poor Zillie. She wears mostly ugly versions of my clothes. ;-) I didn't adjust for my square shoulders, but that's because I was unsure as I was tracing which end was going to be up on that bolero piece. Now that I know, I'll do the adjustment.

The back neck sits waaaaaaay to high for me. I'm going to scoop that out.



As other reviewers have mentioned, the length of the binding pieces seems to be off. The front binding piece is definitely too long. The back was too, for me, but I didn't pin/mark or anything. I just started at one end and stretched it a little as I applied it. (Oh, and Belinda, you could definitely use a CS binder with this top. But as you mentioned on the PR boards, you'd have to add onto the pattern's edges to make up for lost width of the Jalie binding so it's just as quick to do it the "old-fashioned" way.)

The one puzzling thing about the long binding piece was that it wasn't clear how long to cut it. The pattern has a "Cut on Fold" mark but it's in the middle of the strip, not on one end. (Did that confuse anyone else who's made this?) I guessed and cut it NOT on the fold. I got it wrong and my first strip was only half as long as it should've been. Oops.

I'm going to go back to the sewing room now, fiddle with this top some more and decide how I'm going to proceed.