Ok, McCall's 6035, you win. After 8 months, 4 muslins, and 1 break down, I give up. You win. I wave the white flag. I sadly thought that good reviews and cup sizing would be enough to bring you to my side. It was not.
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| Ok, you win. This time around, anyway. |
So in favor of actually reaching my goals set fourth in my sewing challenge, I have decided to make a pattern switch. After much debating and more than a little bit of time considering my pattern stash, I have finally decided to go with BWOF-07-2007-106A:
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| My latest pattern obsession. |
Visually, the front is very similar to the McCall's pattern, but the back is a bit different (McCall's used princess seams on front and back, BWOF uses princess seams on the front and back, but also has a back yolk in the shoulder area). I am going to hope that my track record with Burda is going to work out to a more useable pattern. And then from there perhaps I can go back and make changes to the McCall's pattern of doom. Or, you know, not. I like the back of the McCall's pattern a bit better, but at this point I just want a shirt that fits. Though if this one goes poorly I am tempted to just throw the whole project out the window and make coats the rest of the year. Because apparently that is how I feel it is best appropriate to throw and tantrum in this situation. Or something. Anyway, the shirt project of doom continues!
Good luck! I usually have good luck with Burda patterns.
ReplyDeleteBummer! Did you have any problems with the cup size in particular? I'm about to embark on a pattern with cup sizing and have been mightily confused by it... Here's hoping Burda can save the shirt :)
ReplyDeleteNo, actually the cup sizing was quite nice and easy! They print each cup size pattern piece separately, so you just pick the size you need and ignore the other pieces. The problem was that I (apparently) have a high bust (at least as far as McCall's is concerned...) but once I got it in the right place the fit in the bust was great.
DeleteThe problem was when I raised the bust then is screwed up the shape of the armscye and the waist area, which caused me need to fix the sleeve and messing with the princess seams, which just made the whole thing go to crap. It went from being a good fit except in the bust, to fitting in the bust but way too big everywhere else (because everything shifted up), to being way too small everywhere and coming out all wonky.
I still think it would be a good style for me, so I want to see what I can do to rescue it. So my plan is to make a muslin of the Burda, see how that goes and either stick with the Burda or try to use that to fix the issues with the McCall's pattern. Or I could just draft a new back based on the Burda pattern to get seaming similar to the McCall's pattern. The only reason I am stuck on the McCall's patten is I feel like the back on the Burda is less formal (due to the yolk) and the one from McCall's is a little more formal because it doesn't have this. It shouldn't be too hard to draft a new back, but I need to get something close to fitting before I start playing around with mixing up the pattern.
In the meantime I am also playing with another cup-sized pattern (Butterick 5685). We shall see if this one goes any better...
If you want good fit, Burda is always a better choice to begin with. And if you really hate back yokes (although I'm totally opposite you here :-)), why don't you just use the free JJ blouse on burdastyle? I've used it very successfully as a fitting shell for several people.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't so much that I hate back yokes as that I had a certain vision in my head for this specific fabric and it didn't have one. But, I will see how the Burda muslin works out and see how much I like or don't like it. Also, thanks for the suggestion on the JJ blouse - usually I am not a fan of downloaded patterns, but if that is what it takes to get what I want then I am willing to deal with it.
DeleteFingers crossed that it will be Burda to the rescue! Sometimes it's better to cut your losses on a pattern.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am hoping it will be like last year when I struggled with a Simplicity dress and finally realized that it was going to look bad on me no matter what, and took a chance and switched it out for a Burda pattern (at that point I had only made one t-shirt from their magazines) and ended up with one of my favorite creations to date. I don't *know* if that is going to happen again, but I'm hoping.
Deletei also hate the mccall's "cup size" patterns. for example, i am an A, but their A/B panel is just one panel. sorry, mccall, that is not the same thing. i imagine it's equally frustrating for other curves as well!
ReplyDeletei have never used a burda pattern, but i'm looking forward to seeing if it works out better for you!
I am impressed by your perseverence!
ReplyDeleteVogue patterns always seem to work for me so I rarely use others. Consequently I haven't tried Burda patterns. Once had to spend excess time and effort re-doing a simplicity dress. Haven't used their patterns since!