A Hanger is Not a Body

I finished the On Repeat top yesterday morning.

I have some thoughts. I think this is a well-designed and well-drafted pattern. However, it is not nearly as flared on my body as it appears on the hanger. In fact, when I hung it up to take this photo, I thought it looked like a completely different top. That is the difference between a garment hanging on a hanger and a garment hanging on a body with significant topography. I probably could stand to go down a size, too, even though I made the size indicated by my measurements. The top is designed with relaxed shoulders which are intended to drop off the body a bit. I would probably move the shoulder seam back in on the next iteration. My shoulders are broad enough without having that seam dropping off, making them look wider.

Do I like it? Yes, but I don’t love it, not like I love the Simplicity 8909 raglan top I made. (I need a few more of that one.) Will I wear it? Yes, absolutely. It is the kind of top you throw on and don’t have to think about. I am going to wear it today, in fact. Will I make the pattern again? Probably, although I may want to tinker with it a bit. The linen is heavenly. I was tempted to show the finished top to you wrinkled, because I like my linen a bit rumply, but I pressed it before I took the pic.

[If you have a chance, go listen this this month’s Sewing with Threads podcast episode. It is an interview with Saremy Duffy, author of Fitopedia and a former guest on my podcast. I would love to have her on again if we can get something on the schedule. In the Threads interview, she made so many good points about clothing design and fitting. I have great respect for indie pattern designers because they are trying to please a lot of different body shapes, and I don’t think home sewists always understand that they likely will have to make changes to a pattern to make it fit them well.]

I spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon comparing the Scout Tee, the Cadence/Burda mashup, and this top. It helps me so much to see patterns in front of me and to compare the similarities and differences.

*****

I canned up the second batch of sauerkraut after lunch yesterday. Now I just have to do salsa and some pumpkin/squash for pies. Anna came over in the later afternoon to get tomatoes for soup. Amazingly, they are still going, although some of the plants did get nipped by frost and the turkeys are munching their way through the fruit that is left on the vines. This is the latest in the year that I have ever been harvesting out of the garden. We didn’t cover anything, either. Anna is going to move a bunch of the squash over to her garage and I’ll take what is left to church and the food bank.

I’ve got my first beginning sewing students in a class on Saturday morning. I’ll be taking some tables and machines up to the church tomorrow. I have permission to store a few things there, which is great. I didn’t want to have to be hauling tables, chairs, and machines to the church every time I teach a class.