Simplicity 9880 (1996) blue cotton Part IV

Listening: The Foghorn Stringband.

I stayed up far, far, later than I should have last night finishing this.  It always takes longer than you think it will. 

So, the FBA by cutting through the shoulder totally helped

It created more bust room but also more upper-chest room.  I guess technically that means I needed a bigger size but I didn't want it any bigger around the waist, and the shoulder length was OK. 

Other thoughts:

1. Close up the neck some.  I keep thinking it's still buckling around the neck because of the shoulder angle but I think it's actually that it's a little too open and feels loose.

2. Take that half-inch of length back out of the bodice.  Flattening out the shoulder slope gave it enough extra length; I didn't need the added bodice length and now it's kind of droopy.  I also need to maybe shorten the front bodice a little bit; it's a bit pigeon-breasted.  I could also rotate some of the waist fullness to a shoulder dart to see if that creates a better shape.

3. Something is still pulling a little bit across the upper back/shoulders.  I think I probably need to do an upper-back width addition and then rotate the darts into the back neck; this could solve both the shoulder-pulling and would refine the neck fit.  I might also need to make the armscyes less scooped out in the back. 

4. The sleeve caps were a pain in the neck.  I think they need slightly less height and slightly more width.

Good thing I have so much cheap fabric to use to test patterns, right?

No pix right now.  I was too bloody tired last night.