I violated one of the cardinal rules of sewing when I made this top - and I had to pay for my mistake. Always stop and fit a garment at key points during construction. Even if you have a TNT pattern you should still stop and check fit if you're making it in a new fabric. I tend to think that Vogue has a good standard consistent fit across their patterns. I was excited to get started on this new pattern (view B) using a peacock blue ponte roma I had recently bought from Fabricmart, so I jumped in and cut out my usual size 12.
I cruised along putting this top together and even added top stitching along the princess seams. Once I had the arms in, I wanted to check for the correct arm length - here is where I had to pay for my rushing. I put on the top and found that not only was the neckline waaaaay toooo long, but the shoulders were so wide they were off my shoulders!
First issue: shoulder fit- The cut of the upper chest of the pattern is very wide which resulted in a top that looked too big from my chest up, but fit fine below the bust. So, I took the entire top apart and started over (took at least an hour to take apart all of those serged seams!) I took about 1 1/4 inches off the width of the center front and center back pieces. I made this change to the side that attaches to the side front & side back pattern piece. The width only needed to be adjusted from the shoulder to above the bust point - so I used a french curve to blend the adjustment from the top of the should line of the front/back center piece to about where you see the single notch. Once I made this adjustment the shoulders fell back into place and the fit came back in line. See pattern adjustment below:
Second issue: neck length - If you notice in the picture above the top part of the pattern where you see the #5 is the neck of the top, and the full length of the neck doesn't even fit in the picture! The neck is about as long as the body length of the top. In my opinion - the length is just to long and unruly.
I used a ponte roma knit because the neckline on view B looks like it needs a knit with some body to stand up. If I had used a lighter weight knit, the length of the neck might have been manageable. But with the ponte roma - there was way too much fabric for the neck to work, I ended up cutting off 6 inches of the length of the neck.
In the end I was reminded of an important lesson in sewing, AND I'm happy with my top. One final adjustment I will make if I make this top again is to narrow the width of the neck. I would start by taking a 1/2 inch off the width from the the top of the neck opening down to the beginning of the shoulder line. You can find other reviews of this top here:
http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/patterns/sewingpatterns.pl?patternid=13549#.UOhNh7bA9hw
I cruised along putting this top together and even added top stitching along the princess seams. Once I had the arms in, I wanted to check for the correct arm length - here is where I had to pay for my rushing. I put on the top and found that not only was the neckline waaaaay toooo long, but the shoulders were so wide they were off my shoulders!
First issue: shoulder fit- The cut of the upper chest of the pattern is very wide which resulted in a top that looked too big from my chest up, but fit fine below the bust. So, I took the entire top apart and started over (took at least an hour to take apart all of those serged seams!) I took about 1 1/4 inches off the width of the center front and center back pieces. I made this change to the side that attaches to the side front & side back pattern piece. The width only needed to be adjusted from the shoulder to above the bust point - so I used a french curve to blend the adjustment from the top of the should line of the front/back center piece to about where you see the single notch. Once I made this adjustment the shoulders fell back into place and the fit came back in line. See pattern adjustment below:
Second issue: neck length - If you notice in the picture above the top part of the pattern where you see the #5 is the neck of the top, and the full length of the neck doesn't even fit in the picture! The neck is about as long as the body length of the top. In my opinion - the length is just to long and unruly.
I used a ponte roma knit because the neckline on view B looks like it needs a knit with some body to stand up. If I had used a lighter weight knit, the length of the neck might have been manageable. But with the ponte roma - there was way too much fabric for the neck to work, I ended up cutting off 6 inches of the length of the neck.
In the end I was reminded of an important lesson in sewing, AND I'm happy with my top. One final adjustment I will make if I make this top again is to narrow the width of the neck. I would start by taking a 1/2 inch off the width from the the top of the neck opening down to the beginning of the shoulder line. You can find other reviews of this top here:
http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/patterns/sewingpatterns.pl?patternid=13549#.UOhNh7bA9hw
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