Pink gingham: Anne Adams 4569
Of my three extant abuela’s pink gingham projects, this is the first one started and the last one completed.
I probably should have done a muslin. This pattern is one of the ones I trace and traded with Clara @stitchmaven, and was in size 36 so I just rolled with it. Not shockingly, it came out a big in the bust. I dealt with this mostly satisfactorily, but I’m also wearing the top pinned at the top to prevent gaping when I move in these pictures!
This was a pattern where I was extremely grateful to have the instructions on hand, because the construction was not at all intuitive for me. The gathers on the sleeve with the big cuff being one area, the tie another. And the tie construction is actually a big point in favour of this pattern - it is secured with two snaps along the front edge with a much smaller waistband like section to anchor, which the large tie covers. It feels very secure and keeps everything from shifting, rather elegantly.
In terms of pattern edits, the original design offers a ruffle along the wrap edge or a simple collar, both of which I skipped. I’ve been a big fan of the collar 3/4 sleeve look on the illustration for awhile, but it just didn’t feel like it would look right with the gingham.
I found the original sleeve draft to be not to my taste - the gathers were distributed only along the outside of the sleeve giving it a big bulb on that side and a straight inside, plus the cuffs came well past 3/4. So I shortened them up and distributed the gathers through the whole sleeve.
Unfortunately, in so doing I lost the marking for where the sleeve cuff should land on one side and eyeballed it. Could I have just transferred the marking from the other side? In theory, but it was already attached. Anyway, it’s about an inch rotated too far too the back and I thought I’d be fine with it but it actually irritates me quite a lot so I suspect I’ll be removing and reattaching in the near future. I hand sewed the inner edge of the cuffs, and quite nice and invisibly, so it feels too bad to do just precisely right now!
The sleeves tackled and the garment assembled, I was left w/ the problem of the too-large bust, which it took me some time to decide how to address. I considered taking out the excess at the shoulder, tapering to nothing at the sleeve, but that interrupted the shoulder pleats, which are one of my favourite parts of this design (admittedly, they would fall better if the whole thing wasn’t too large due to the bust and what I think constitutes too much design ease for a wrap front). Ultimately, I took out the excess at the bottom of the bodice where it meets the tie, by folding/darting out roughly an inch on each side of the wrap front where it met the ties. I didn’t cut this away or re cut, I simply folded down and hand sewed in place.
This was mostly because by the time I’d worked out what I wanted to do, I’d already finished facing and assembling the garment, and I’d continued along with completely hand finishing the long tie (rolled hem) and inner seams (overcast/fell/invisible). It’s a very lovingly carefully finished garment - I gave myself tennis elbow once in the handsewing process, but otherwise, no news.
It’s also a garment that benefits from period undergarments, that is, I bought a bullet bra to put on under and it looks subtle but totally improves the look to my eye! Which is good, because i bought the bullet bra specifically to see if it would help with the overlarge bust area, and you know, i think it does, but not enough to feel secure. Needed the bottom darting action for that.
Oh, also one extremely dumb thing I did! I interfaced both front facings identically, not mirrored. And I wasn’t about to recut or risk damaging the existing facing, so the facing on the outer edge (because i didn’t think about that at all) is interfacing side out -_-
Pattern: Anne Adams 4569
My measurements: HB 34 FB 35 waist 30
Fabric and notions: Abuela’s pink cotton gingham, lightweight knit interfacing, two thrift store snaps
Size made: Bust 36 ( 1 inch later darted out)
Next time: I might use this as a block for another style, but it’s pretty distinctive. I might also try it out in something super flowy like a white silk. I still kind of can’t believe I didn’t put the collar on this. Anyway. Do a small bust adjustment!!
