Lady Grey Phase "Ghaaaaah": The fit problems.

"Gaaaaaah!"

That is what I have been saying all week (alongside some light expletives and some self deprecating and unfair internal chastising). This tissue fitting is a wreck. A hot mess of a wreck, I tell you. The bust is now too big, the lapel gapes hugely from my shoulders, and the entire fit is wonky and messy. I am not sure where to go with this. Back to the beginning, I fear.

So, after round one of the pattern alterations, I had the back fit pretty good. It might need a bit more room added in the seams or with a broad back adjustment to allow ease of moment, but all in all it was and remains pretty decent.

The front, however, needed more full bust room. I originally gave it an inch and a half FBA on either side, but my knockers wanted more (they always want more, they are such demanding knockers!). So I diligently traced a new front side and front center, with the first round alterations intact. Then I performed a second full bust adjustment using the same method, adding another 1.5 inches to the full bust.

Then I put it on. It is crazy huge. "Gaaaaaah!"

(I was trying to make a concerned face for theatrical effect, and it turned out like this... ha!)

With a bit of frustrated assessment, I see that it's as though my pattern demands the width, but not the fullness or length, of a second FBA. This second adjustment pulled the princess seam to my center front, and that is good. It also gave me fullness for a whole other boob to sit on top of my already ample bosom, and that is bad. And it added inches of length above my bust, toward my shoulder. This is one of the biggest problems because now there is an extra six inches or so of length that the two adjustments added to the front center piece. It is unwieldy.

In looking at these adjustments, it is as though I am short chested... is there such a thing? In the same way that a short-waisted person must tuck out length in the torso, I feel I need to tuck out length along the high bust. Otherwise the shoulders want to press up off my upper shoulder and around my neck, and my upper chest fabric gapes and flops open. I repeat, "Gaaaaaah!"

Oh man, I am SO discouraged. Given my feeling of failure (and the fact that I am out of tracing paper to redraw and start from scratch until my order arrives) I am going to set this project aside for a bit. Just until my tracing paper arrives. In the meantime, I will try a simpler Colette pattern. I have the Sencha blouse and it looks easy enough.