Seamwork York Top this is a long one.....

This is the York top from Seamwork, it's free now, if you're interesting in trying it.

I'm thinking cute summer top.

This was one of the few times I went to Office Depot to have them print it in large format.  At home I logged on to the OD website to send them the file, but could not figure out how to just send one tab in the PDF file, as per the OD website it would have been $12 to print on their largest blueprint paper.  I threw up my arms and drove in.  I just wanted them to print it off on 8.5 x 11, to take home and assemble (because my printer sounds like lazy gerbils are running on squeaky wheels).  I brought the file in the format to print on large paper, he gave me an estimate of 1/2 hour and $6.00, so yay!

For my size I need 1 7/8 yards for 60" fabric.... although when I measured the patterns, you really only need 1 1/3 yd.   The fabric used was marked as a cotton but feels more like rayon.  The color and pattern are versatile.. and they're my palette.  So.... this better not get donated.

I cut a 16 based on the information on the website, I really wanted to love this pattern.  It was a fixer upper. The drafting around the neckline and shoulder area, and the sleeve had to be tweaked. The Shoulder is too wide - my natural shoulder points are 15", the pattern measured aprox 18". Neckline is too high and the sleeve too long.  I thought the dart and ease were going to be the biggest issue, but it was actually ok.

Here we are looking a bit boxy.

When you sit in the shirt it has a tendency to buckle, as if you are wearing a tube, this could be the fabric.  Even though I had enough ease, and it looks good while standing, adding side vents would be a nice alteration and it will match the the sleeve cuff slit detail. That might be done down the road.

1 1/2" drop shoulder

 Shoulder- The shoulder extended 1 1/2" beyond my natural shoulder point, on each side.

To correct this the sleeve cap stitching was ripped out 4" on the front and back (from the shoulder down, so where most of the ease is located), and let out some of the fullness of the cap. 

 Redrew a line 1" up on the shoulder and reattached the sleeve, matching the center point. 

It still has a bit of a drop, but it looks better because there is less ease in the cap, so the sleeve is flatter, and this also corrected some of the excess fabric at the center front neck. It's not perfect but a lot better.

Shaped the side seam, just a little bit so that it was less boxy, just a slight curve under the dart side seam.

Lowered the neck 5/8" by using a facing instead of the bias they ask you to use. 

Facing pieces drafted from existing pattern

Used a small piece of bias tape for a button loop instead of the tie.  I could have gotten away with eliminating the key hole, so you might want to try that.

Shortened the sleeve 3/4", and it's still a bit long (and I have long arms).  

When I did this it landed on a wider part of the sleeve, which left a little gap in the slit.  I could have corrected it by narrowing the sleeve a bit, but I'm not ashamed to admit I was getting tired. My old kitty jumped into bed this morning and threw up on me, I've not had much sleep and I still smell like tuna.

It hemmed easily, the curves match up nicely.

The more I work in the larger size ranges of patterns, the more I wonder if grading isn't the issue that causes the issues. Hmmm

I'm moving onto another pattern..... thinking maybe Vogue 1503...