I’ve been busy this week working on my dart manipulation projects. In the past few days I’ve drafted seven examples and sewn up six! I wanted to share with you my personal design with gathering above the bust. Although it looks a bit poofy in muslin, I think with a suitable fabric it could drape quite nicely. I plan on dropping the gathers (an inch?) and the neckline (a touch?).
Originally I wanted the top to be sans-closures so I drafted a simple keyhole opening at the back neckline. That should actually read “tried to draft” – I wasn’t exactly sure what a keyhole opening should look like but I knew I wanted to cut the majority of the back on the fold. I decided to pivot the shoulder dart to a few inches below the center neckline so that the center back tilted at an angle at the top. Does this make any sense? I just read that sentence over and I’m not sure I even understand it! Anyway, it ended up leaving me with a peak at the base of the keyhole which is understandable. I think next time I want a keyhole opening, simply cutting a straight slit should work fine enough.
However, now that I have the muslin sewn, I’m considering adding a button placket to the back and using button loops to close the garment. This would allow me to have a close fitting back that would offset the blouse-y front. This largely depends on the material I plan on using, of course. What do you think?
