Empire Crinkle Rayon, the pattern

To make the pattern for my Blue crinkle Rayon Empire top, I started with:

• the PMB DRESS,
• Empire Waist (raised setting 3),
• Double-breasted closure (button size 0.5),
• Curved V-neck with a depth of 11.5”.

In retrospect, that neckline depth was probably a tad low for this neck shape, but I was trying to make the neckline seam meet the Empire seam. If I had chosen the STRAIGHT V-neck instead of the curved one, this depth would probably have been fine, but when you add in the curve,...well....I had to 'tack' the fronts together at the overlap to prevent exposure…and where I tacked them is probably ABOVE where the pattern was designed to overlap! I put on the top and overlapped the fronts as low as I could and still keep my bra covered and tacked it in that position. This DID pull on the fronts a bit…they were telling me they didn’t want to cross that high!...but I forced them to!

I did as before…I divided the single under-bust dart into 2 released tucks. To do this, I first rotated the dart out of the way. Then I placed a point on each side of the bust point, distance away equals .75”. I drew lines from each point to the waist seam. Then I rotated HALF of the bust dart to EACH of these lines.

Next I drew a circle around the bust point, r=-2.5”, then drew another one .25” away. This is because if I cut both lines off at the SAME circle, the lengths of the tuck’s legs don’t match. Making the medial leg longer compensates for the angle of the tucks.

I had just about finished when I realized I might want to shorten the front neck a bit and transfer that to the bust darts, so I did that last...you can barely see the difference in the last two patterns, but look at the empire seam near the CF...it angles upward slightly (you probably can't tell that the dart/tucks are slightly larger.

Oh, gosh! I forgot to explain that front armhole!

Well, as you may remember, I have been trying to discover my perfect armhole shape. I have found that by deliberately MISSHAPING the armhole with the AH SHAPE TOOL during drafting, then reshaping it manually, in PE, gives a better ah shape and sleeve.

I am doing 17 clicks down and 2 clicks to the Right….each click is 1/10th inch, and the tool is moving the F-notch.

Basically, I am creating an armhole with a LONGER seam length by making it more square, so that when I manually scoop the lower front, the sleeve will have adequate length to fit the new armhole.

Ok, to redraw the F-AH
I locate a point 1” ABOVE the F-notch, then draw an arc from there to the underarm point…this arc will scoop 0.375” below the original lower armhole curve.

Then I draw an arc from new point to the shoulder point, again, curving slightly inward…but this time, only 0.125”.

This creates a really good armhole shape. When you align the front and back patterns at shoulder seam, this armhole shape flows smoothly from back to front.

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Ok, so that sounds like a lot of changes….really, it isn’t all that much. Reshaping the F-armhole is critical, but the dart-to-tucks is just a design thing.

Of course, as mentioned before, I must add length below the bust dart….I did report this problem, but was told it couldn’t be fixed. However, PMB’s MIDRIFF style does appear to have the needed dart length…I don’t know why the EMPIRE style can’t (?). But I don’t write code…

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Ok, for the LOWER FRONT area, I eliminated the closure part (shown in pink) as I planned to cut this on the fold.

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And remember, I draft with 2” MORE hip ease than I need in order to get the sideseams correctly shaped, then I eliminate this extra from the front patterns.

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Because of this, I need to remove 1” of width from this lower front pattern.

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I selected the outer part (shown in aqua) and moved it over 1”…basically making the front dart much smaller. I decided that tiny dart wasn’t worth sewing, so I just rotated the front sideseam just a little to close that dart over…yes, this made the sideseams no longer EXACTLY identical F to B, but I figured it was close enough for this crinkle fabric which ‘gives’ so much.

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For the BACK, I compared the size of the waist dart in the lower part to the size of the darts in my TORSO/Blouse pattern, and again, this Empire dart is smaller.

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Because of this, I enlarged the dart by .25” on each side.

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Then, to make the waistline seam of the BODICE back match this now-shorter lower seam, I ROTATED the lower ah and SS (pink area) CW to remove 0.5” at the waist seam.

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The upper dart was sewn as drafted.

Now about those sleeves… I have read where people join the front and back at the underarm seam and cut this as one pattern piece. Sounds ok, right? Well… Notice that when you align the front and back at underarm points, there is a GAP created at the hem edge. Obviously you can’t rotate the pieces to align that underarm seam, as the hem would form a inverted V there…and that would not be good to sew.

So I tried it as shown…with the GAP in the pattern.

The sleeves were awful.

They were large…like circle sleeves, hunging flat against my side under the arm with no shape. The inside of the sleeve was VERY visible.

Yuk.

So I sewed a dart there where the underarm seam SHOULD be…this corrected the problem. In the future, I will NOT join my petal sleeve patterns!

Ok, that’s about it.

Empire Crinkle Rayon

Perhaps I should have titled this post, "The Incredible Shrinking Woman!"

But that is not really the case...it is more like 'the incredible growing blouse'!

I wanted to make another Empire surplice top, to verify that the measurement changes I made after making this one are exactly as desired. I had this crinkle rayon in my stash...it was found on the bargain table at my local Hancock Fabrics* last summer and purchased for $1 per yard or some outrageous $um like that.

*BTW, that local Hancock store, where I have been shopping all my life...even picking out the patterns and fabric for mother to sew my school clothes when I was a kid...BURNED to the ground early yesterday morning!

I just HATE that...it was convenient and close to both my mother's and sister's homes, and I could often find things there that were bargains...not crummy stuff, but decent fabric that had been marked down. Now the store is gone (suspected that garbage truck emptying their dumpster hit a gas line...slow leak caused fire in the night.) and I highly doubt it will be rebuilt. Bummer. Really. Bummer.



Crinkle rayon grows if you iron it. Plus, it grows during wear. So I was aware that this might not be the BEST fabric for evaluating fit. (duh) But I wanted to use it, so I did.

To stabilize the neck and armholes, I ironed on some stay tape. I used a bias tape for these areas...to go around the curves.

Not giving it much thought, I pulled on the tape slightly to barely shrink the neck edge, as I usually do (You can see how the neckline is slightly shorter than the pattern's neck area). HOWEVER, I had already taken a 'dart' from the pattern's neck edge and transfered it to the bust dart (contouring) to make the wrap-style bodice fit closer between the breasts, and I probably didn't need to do BOTH.

I also put stay tape across both FRONT shoulders, to stabilize. For this area, I used the straight tape. I did not put tape on the back shoulder, which is sewn to this stabilized front.

I use 3/8" seam allowances, which is the width of the tape.

As you can see, the Empire seam pulls UP just a bit as it approaches the center. Bummer! Oh well...next time.

When I finished sewing this top, it was huge, due to ironing and pressing!

So I grabbed my water bottle and sprayed the whole thing until saturated. Then I hung it to dry. When dry it had 'crinkled' right back into shape!

The image here shows the difference between the top with the crinkles in place (left) and in the 'relaxed' state after ironing.

Again, the left is how the topfits with the crinkles "fresh" and the right side is what it looks like if ironed.

The REAL fit is somewhere in between...the crinkles DO relax a bit during wear and give a little more ease, but nothing like when ironed.

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I used PMB's PETAL sleeve for the first time. The outer edge is probably a bit more rippled than it would be in other fabric, due to stretching out the crinkles with the narrow hem, but overall, I think I kinda like this sleeve.

However, when I was wearing it, BOTH my mother and my sister asked if I had made this top...they were not together. Both said it was because they had patterns with this petal sleeve. It made me wonder...is this sleeve rarely found in RTW? Is this a dead giveaway that the garment is 'homemade'? What do you think?

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I have been gradually reducing my shoulder widths, and I am wondering if I can reduce the BACK SHOULDER WIDTH a little more (?). This would narrow the back slightly, but put a bit more into the back of the sleeve, and perhaps make it hang better. Hmmm.

I'll give the pattern details next time!