Burda 04-2009 #110 Gathered Knit Top

Usually I don't go for low cut tops. But, I find that I always gravitate to higher-necked boat tops. I like to step out of my comfort zone every once and a while so that I don't have the same thing in my closet every day. This is not the best top for me. It's cute but it probably won't get much wear. I will always wear this with a cami underneath but I wanted to show you the depth with out a cami on. It's plunging, that's for sure. Where I'm standing, I can see glimpses of my bra peeking over the edge of the top. You can't see it in this photo. I'll link to the full review once I get it done.

This isn't the right cami for it. I have a plain white one that would look better. You can also see that it's pretty loose in the bodice. That is probably half my micro-boob-ed fault but the pattern is also loose. Below, I'll show you what I should have done.

I get a bit of the pregnant look from the side. I may try handstitched the SA up. That seems to take care of most of the puffiness. There are darts in the back of this pattern. I did not do any swayback adjustment and it's okay in the back.

Here's the inside as I was putting it together. They have you bind the back and then attach the front. When you sew the shoulder seams, you also fold in the front facings so they stay put. As you can see in this picture, I did not include the front facings in the seam. That's because I plum forgot.

Later, I went back and hand sewed the facings back.

Here's the front with the tab. You can see that I didn't gather the front bodice enough because when I folded over the tab, it didn't fit. I would need to gather the front a bit more and have a smaller "knot" on the front.

Here it is on my double.

Here's a close-up of the knot.

I won't be making this again but if I was going to make it, here's what I would do instead:

1. Cut off the damn front facings and just add seam allowances to the front bodice pieces.
2. Gather the shoulder sections.
3. Attach the front to the back at the shoulder seams.
4. Bind the front and back in one swoop. I would make sure that you stretch the binding as you attach it. You can see mine needs a little tightening up. I would do this by cutting a stretchy strip of self-fabric binding. I would sew it RST to the shirt front and back. I would flip it to the inside and topstitch from the front side to secure it to the inside. This would do two things: ensure a snugger fit across the bust and get rid of the sloppy facings.
5. Gather the bodice fronts the recommended amount and carry on with your top.