Sewing for myself

I made myself another top using Simplicity 9502, and I am really pleased with how it came out.  I cut the pattern to the smallest size, and added a seam to the centre front so that I could insert a zip.  But when I tried it on, it was still too big, so I added some waist shaping to the sides to bring it in a bit.

You can't see from the pictures but there is also too much fabric in the top of the bodice.  Clearly even though I cut out the smallest size it was still made for someone with more bust than I have.  So I will have to do some kind of small bust adjustment to get the top part to sit properly on me.

That's a baby in background in case you're wondering

The photo shoot was hilarious fun since P and J took the photos for me.  Having a 3 and 4 year old give you photo directions was certainly interesting.  P told me that she could see my top, but not my eyes or mouth, and J wanted me to lie on the ground on my stomach.  All in all, they came out pretty good.

My favourite part of the top is the bias binding that I used on the neckline and hems.  I used this tutorial from Colette patterns, and it is awesome!

Don't worry if you don't have a bias binding making thing (gosh I'm articulate tonight), I use a needle stuck in my ironing board - stick one end through, and then measure the width of the binding you want (I went with 2cm) and then push the needle back through the board.  Feed the binding under the needle, and iron away.

I did manage to get the neckline misaligned, but the idiosyncrasies are what set a handmade piece apart right?

In case you're wondering, I deliberately mismatched the pattern, rather than trying to match it - in fact, its not as aggressively mismatching as I would like, but I didn't have enough fabric to really play around with the pattern and fabric.  Over all I am really pleased with the top, I feel like I've gotten closer to getting a great fitting top, and hopefully once I've adjusted the bodice, it'll be perfect.