Simplicity 3805: Done (Photo Heavy)

The simplest little top, and it took me 5 days to make it. Well, not really. It took me 4-1/2 days to start it. I just wasn't in the mood to sew over the weekend, but I did make the pattern alterations so that when I was finally ready yesterday, it took about an hour.

After I decided on the pattern, I then realized that the size range in the envelope (20W-28W) was too big for me for the top. Figures, right? Well, I took the easy way out and kept the alterations simple. There are center front and center back seams so I just cut off 3/8" from those cutting lines (which equates to about 3/4" off each front and back) so the neckline wouldn't swim on me or expose bra straps. Since this pattern is drafted for wovens and I was using a knit — low stretch, but still a knit — I figured that would compensate somewhat if I had chopped to much. Plus, I still have about 2 yards of this fabric so if it was a complete wadder, I could always start over.

I altered for my square shoulders as I cut out the tissue and I also made a 5/8" length tuck above the waist (below the dart on the front). That's it. I did not do a FBA and left the dart as-is. A quick holding-up of the tissue to me told me it was going to hit pretty close to the right spot and I was counting on the knit to provide any extra bust room needed.

It worked. (Early AM with bedhead and smeared mascara from yesterday. Lovely!)

What I did NOT measure was where the hem would hit in relation to the jacket. Oops. So I quickly cut and sewed a tie belt so I could blouse the top a little to make its hem shorter than the jacket.

On Zillie:

On me:

Under the open jacket (why does my head look so HUGE in this pic?):

Under the closed jacket. I went a little photo crazy this morning. ;-)

Here's the unaltered dart. Pretty good, right? I wish all tops were this easy.

There are neckline facings, which I understitched and also topstitched to keep those suckers in place. The armholes (on the right in the pic below) are just turned and coverstitched.

The single line of topstitching around the neckline continues down the center front seam, where it echos the twin rows of coverstitching elsewhere on the top.

The center back seam is also double topstitched to match the front.

I like how the neckline slit peeks out of the jacket.

Parting Shot: The Marine driving around on the flight deck in what looks like a toy truck. ;-) Unrelated, today is his annual gas chamber qualification. He went through the gas chamber at boot camp, where the drill instructors made sure to unseal their gas masks so they all got a nice big deep breath of the gas. His letter home after that said it was horrible but at the same time he felt "so macho" afterwards and wanted to do it again. Well, he's got his wish today.