I hate hate hate the top pattern. The armscye…feh. There is something really deeply sucky going on there. Oh, and the whole thing is *huge*. The size chart said, make a 22. So I did. And then invited a couple of people to get in there with me, because there was certainly plenty of space. So I cut it down, but there’s still a lot of strangeness in the upper chest/sleeve area. The sleeves are binding at the bicep, and the neckline is gaping all over the place.

I’ve spent two days trying to make this thing work and it just doesn’t wanna.

So, I have another pattern and we’ll see how that goes. Simplicity patterns tend to run pretty true to size on me. I might lower the neckline a bit if everything else goes well, but I’m usually surprised by how low necklines actually are when I make them, so I’ll do the muslin straight first. I’ll also be lengthening the sleeve to elbow length. I’m using neckline B on style C, as shown here through the magic of photoshop:

Oh, and I found shoes. They’re at Talbots (ouch) but the color is perfect (well, not in this photo) and they’re flats and I can probably find excuses to wear them again. Ok, maybe not, but let me keep my little rationalization if I have to pay so much. I haven’t gotten them yet; I’m still hoping that my shoe karma will intervene and I’ll find the perfect shoes for under $30.