Postmortem - and wake up call!

I asked Rory at our new season sewing bee today about the top I've spoken of in a couple of posts, the most recent here.

She agreed it was better than the original I produced before the change in bias binding stitching.

She concluded it was too small from bust level upwards on the front only. The fabric was under too much tension between the breasts. There was plenty of room in the back and the reason it felt as if it was pulling when I bent forward was that it was too tight across the bust. I asked if that meant I needed a bigger dart but Rory drew a diagram showing that I needed to add length to to shoulder seams and extra width at the curve of the armscye where I feel the tightness - effectively going up a size in that area. She didn't feel my back was rounded. She dislikes terms such as 'sway back' etc because she feels this leads to body dislike and over-emphasis on negative aspects and prefers that we simply change to fit that which is in front of us. There is plenty of fabric from bust down.

One of the other ladies in the class tried to delicately phrase that as I had put on weight, it was too tight in that area but if I lost it, it would be perfect. That may be so. She felt that my first was better and that I had gained weight between drafting and producing this version. She is correct, of course.

This is the first top I made from my pattern, before making side slits and adjusting a narrowed back cross armscye area,  a style which I didn't really like. I still like and wear this top though the fabric is slightly prickly.
I reckon I do look better in this photo.

Rory didn't think that the dart position wasn't a huge issues - and yes, if I lost a bit of weight that would alter.

I was working on Joanne's culottes which I hope to finish for next week as I am seeing Joanne at the weekend.

One of the other ladies is working on seam line pockets in trousers for her daughter. I was wearing a pair of wide-ish legged trousers (pants) which fit me reasonably well and I feel quite comfortable in. One of the issues, however, is that the side seam pockets gape and show their innards when I sit. I demonstrated this to the other lady.

Rory thought that the trousers would do this if they are too tight - but these one are not too tight. That was the third component of my wake up call. I certainly must lose weight!

She then demonstrate that if a pocket is drafted basically ignoring the dart in the trouser, that the pocket won't fit well and will gape. She explained that in ready to wear (in which she has a long career) a properly drafted pocket has less 'hanger appeal' as it doesn't hang nicely than an improperly drafted pocket which will - so often it is the improperly drafted pocket which wins the day. She reminisced about how when we were all younger, in the department stores there were knowledgeable sales persons and on-site seamstresses to alter your garment to fit. This doesn't happen now. There is so little knowledge.

We have only 3 big department stores remaining in our city. Two of these sell fabric and haberdashery. Both have much smaller sections than say 20 or even 10 years ago. One of them is pulling out of selling fabric altogether, sadly. The remaining one rarely has a salesperson with any knowledge selling. It's usually a case of getting a generic salesperson to cut or whatever.

So, anyway, I will alter the pattern for the top and think about that diet.