I continue to slog along on the top. I realize that I am somewhat reluctant to finish it, as I am more interested in the idea of this blouse than the actual wearable garment. As much as I have cursed--and yes, even shed tears--I have found it mind-expanding to unlock the secrets of its architecture. I suspect that it will be constricting to wear.
Before I start sewing anything, I try to mentally map out the process of construction. With this pattern I had the directions, but not enough information to actually understand it. In order to make the neckband work, I had to just ignore the directions. Isn't it crazy how often it works that way? In order to get from the point where you have two curved pieces of fabric (or whatever) to a neckband ( or whatever) you just have to discard everything you are told and do what seems "righter".
And then, emboldened by that, I came to this step:
Which frankly, made even less sense to me. I didn't understand how to get from that first picture to the second. I guessed that when I held the non-theoretical, fully physical evidence in front of me, the course of action would be apparent. It wasn't.
So then I decided to use what I already know about underarm gussets to sew it up--and made an absolute mess of it. Twice. And then the fabric tore from being old and over-manipulated, so I ended up having to do its second mending job, before it was even finished. (The first happened turning the top facing.) That's when I cried. (In my defense, I was really tired by that point.)
I decided to give up and just sew the sides up, but I had already slashed between the stitching, so that option was out too. That's when the late night stubbornness kicked in. I tried again and figured it out. Ripped that out because it was messy. Then successfully did the other side. Ta da:
Now it looks simple. Has anyone else encountered one of these rectangular gussets ? I have only ever seen diamond shaped ones.
Isn't that the way of it. After you knock yourself out trying to figure something out, it looks, in retrospect, absolutely elementary.
