It says right on the pattern envelope: "fast and easy!"
Oh, so not true, but that's my fault. First, I dithered for about 4 months on what fabric combo to use. These are all Amy Butler, BTW (my obsession continues). Funny, the main fabric was a last-minute choice. I had yard and a half of it, barely enough to cut the main body pieces from and needed wide borders to make it just-above-the-knee length.
It looks shorter than it is because it's so wide. Which I'm kindof okay with. I did baste it all together and try on, because I want it to have plenty of ease in the hips. Headslap moment: for some reason it totally escaped my mind, at that point, to check the underarm fit.
So then I unbasted all the seams and redid them as french seams, and fussed with getting the bias tape finish to the armscye just right (including ripping out one and redoing it), and then fussing with the yoke. Especially in the back, where I had the ridiculous idea to extend the two sides of what should be a center seam (oh, right, I left out the zipper... seriously, why bother when you can pull this on over your head?), lap them, and add two not-functional buttons just for fun:
It wasn't fun, really, getting that all to come out right. But it's a nice touch.
Anyway, after all that, and then deciding it was too long and cutting two inches off the body and reattaching the borders... this was not even close to fast or easy.
Partly because the yoke assembly is a bit of a bear. Yes, they way they do it means you don't have to edge-stitch, which is a nice clean look if that's important to you. But this is my third curved-yoke pattern recently, and the worst yoke assembly process of the lot if you ask me. Won't do it that way again. One problem is it makes any bodice width adjustment at the yoke impossible. Argh to that, because I'd like to move the point where the bodice meets the yoke at the arm out just an inch. Can't.
The other problem is the horrific, mind-boggling, record-setting gaposis at the underarm, especially the front. Yikes, it's awful. How is it possible I missed that when I tried this on and posed and peered and turned in front of the mirror? Note to self: Raise your arms next time, and check what's goin' on under there!
Anyway, if this were just for around the house wear I wouldn't care, but I want to fix it. And that means ripping out the bias tape (again!) and putting in a dart, 'cause there's too much extra to ease away, and then re-doing the bias finish. I've been waiting a week now to collect the fortitude to tackle that, and haven't found it yet.
Maybe this weekend, if I'm not too busy playing with Burda 8280.
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