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We have 4" of snow on the ground, and I just finished a thin, summery top. I'm not usually this far ahead of the season, but it's getting close to time to order Marfy patterns from the new catalog, and I thought I'd better get with it and use one of the ones I already had that I hadn't tried yet. I'm very pleased that I did as I think it turned out quite well.
I was procrastinating on this because I needed to do a major FBA on it, and I was worried about the empire seam being unflattering anyway. Luckily, I decided to do a muslin-method to alter the pattern, and it turned out well. It gave me more of a real look at what the final effect of the changes would be than a flat pattern alteration.
You can see the lines of the pattern here. I ended up adding width to the Side-Front panel at the bustline, and at the CF. I added quite a bit of length as well, which would happen automatically with a regular FBA. Since I added width at the bustline at the side-front/front seamline, I needed to add width to the Side-Back panel too. I ended up taking some of the hip room out again, but only on the right side.
You can see the side and back views below.
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The trickiest part of the construction was the neckline. They only give you a pattern piece for a ribbon to run through the casing, but I knew as soon as I saw it that it was going to need more than that to hold its shape, etc. I used 1" elastic which I secured to the back of the casing only at each end. I then ran 1 1/2" satin ribbon, doubled at the ends, through the casing over the elastic, and secured it invisibly through all layers. I may yet stitch the sides of the doubled ribbon together to make it work as a single layer, but I thought I'd try this first, as the stitching may make it stiff.
The buttons on the pockets and under the tabs are sewn on with backer buttons for strength. I can't imagine I'll ever be unbuttoning them, although they're perfectly functional. I did skip the tiny pocket bags under the tabs.
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