Sunday, June 2, 2013

Buttereick 5645

 I couldn't wait to try View A/B of Butterick 5645.
It is one of the two current top patterns on my list for summer .

B5645


What I ended up with is a slight variation of the one pictured on the envelope. Here it.




Why did I change it?

My first problem was that I lost the instruction sheet. Normally, that wouldn't matter because like many experienced sewers, I can make a whole garment without ever looking at instructions.

 For this top, I had to guess at what to do .
The problem was that those sleeve inserts are too large and the shirring wasn't tight enough if one used the guide provided. I tried applying the zipper as in View B but it just wasn't right.

I ended up drawing up the shirring a lot more and cutting off about an inch of the length of the sleeve. That made it better.



The second problem was that the armhole is too low. I added a band under the arm which isn't great but makes the top at least wearable. It won't be noticed unless I point it out, for the most part.



After making those changes, I still didn't love it. I came up with the idea of putting the exposed zipper at the mid front neckline and then it seemed right to add the contrasting neckband . Now I love this top but I wouldn't make this one again.









Another comment about this pattern is that the size Medium was quite large. It isn't meant to be close fitting but even so, I could have cut a Small for this one. For comparison purposes, I usually wear a size 12 and sometimes have to add to the side seam.

The fabric I used is a slubbed cotton knit (no lycra in this one ) that has lots of body and is so comfortable to wear. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of me wearing it.



Hope you've found time to sew this week . More later from


5 comments:

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

I posted on your other blog, was going to leave a post here too, to let you know I tried.. Hope it is fixed for you..

Vicki said...

I am getting feeds via Bloglovin. I thought I had left a message on this post but maybe I didn't or maybe it disappeared? Anyway, cute save on this top. It really is quite cute.

Diana said...

Thank you Vicki. I tried some things hoping to fix my problem and wanted to see if it worked so I republished this post on yesterday's date.The comments of course disappeared. But it's still not fixed. I think I'll give up and start posting on Diana's Sewing Lessons.Thank you so much for your input I really appreciate it.

Cennetta said...

Thanks for the review. Very nice top. This one is on my summer sew list too. I planned to make all versions. I will certainly take into account the issues you noted in this post. The exposed zipper is a and the contrasting neckband are nice details.

Sewingadicta said...

Overcoming all the difficulties encountered along the way, the top is quite nice ... perhaps you are ready now to repeat it with smaller size and learned settings with it ... give it a chance, please ....