This weekend, despite our usual Spring/May/End-of-the-School-Year epic slog through a mind-numbing array of social engagements for six-year-olds, I managed to cut out and sew a new top based on a pattern I tissue-fit last month. I hadn't cut it out before now because I tissue-fit it in an angry tantrum after having tissue- and muslin-fit a completely different top with horrifying results.
In fact, the first top was my second or maybe even third attempt to fit that pattern, which was The Shapely Shirt from Petite Plus Patterns. I have yet to make something from them that fits me. Which I find a little frustrating, since supposedly I am exactly their modeled type-- short, fat, rounded shoulder, “D” cup bra. Sheesh. Can you get any more “target demographic”? And still, nothing fits me.
Needless to say, after wasting not only an entire project's worth of fitting time, but also precious fabric on a muslin, I wasn't in the best of moods when I started on the next shirt in a mad panic. 
By the end of the weekend I was so crabby that I just threw the pattern aside and proceeded to steadfastly ignore it's very existence. Until this weekend, that is. Then I decided, having stooped to purchasing TLo five new pairs of knit shorts (and thus freeing myself from the obligation of making her any), that I had some time to sew something for myself. Well, that and coming to the realization that my only two t-shirts are so worn out, I probably can't consider myself decently attired in them any more (unless I have made some as-yet-unknown-to-myself decision to wear transparent clothing).
Anyway, long story short (ha!) I tissue-fit Simplicity 2614. I liked the vaguely vintage feel and it seemed like it might reasonably be altered to fit me. Which, surprisingly enough, it does.
I cut a 14 at the top and graded out to... something at the hip. I have no idea. I just added a bunch until it fit, but I'm guessing about a 20. Of course I also did an FBA. This pattern comes in four cup sizes, but because of some goofy labeling on Simplicity's part, I ended up tracing out the "C" cup by mistake. I couldn't be bothered to retrace, so instead of doing an FBA up one size, I just did it up two. That's still easier than doing it up three sizes from "B" cup, so I figure no harm no foul.
I also didn't cut the lower skirt or the back (or basically any part of it) on the bias. Bias is really not such a great thing for me. I decided that if I just added to the width a little, I could make up for the lack of bias. Actually, the photo below (besides being really blurry) makes the top look a little too big on me. I don’t think it will be once I wash it. For one very good reason:
See, I had this truly breathtakingly bright plaid seersucker in my stash (for what purpose, I have not one clue) and I figured it would be good for a "wearable muslin" since if it didn't come out I wasn't exactly going to cry my eyes out at the loss. Which of course just about guaranteed that it would come out and thus provide me with a shirt that fits great and gives people seizures. The photo doesn’t do it justice. Trust me. “Neon” comes to mind.
Making a muslin out of seersucker is pretty darn stupid, since of course when you press seersucker it gets, you know, a lot bigger. Still, since it's so loose on me, I'm going to say that it will fit just right when I make it up in poplin. (You're all laughing at me right? Because you all know that when I make it up in my beautiful poplin that I've been sitting on for three years it will be a size too small. Right? Hmmph.)
I also need to work on the back (which I couldn't get a decent photo of) because it's loose and sort of shapeless. I might try pinning in two narrow fisheye darts and see if that helps. My guess is it will merely help people pat my stomach and ask me if a baby is due next week, but I'm willing to give it a try.
Anyway. Here it is, the Epilepsy Top. Guaranteed to cause convulsions in under three minutes. Or your money back.
