Long, emotional review of Vogue 1261

I spent a lot of the weekend working on Vogue's Alice and Olivia knit top with unfinished edges V1261

This pattern raised profound philosophical issues for me about how the pattern companies handle some things.  I will go into those in detail later. I have a lot to say about this pattern and the thinking that went into it before it went into the pattern envelope.

I think I will start here with general thoughts on the style itself and then do the technical stuff tomorrow night. I have some work to get ready for tomorrow that I need to do before I go to bed.

First the pictures of it on the sewer:

General comments on this design:


Flared, slightly asymmetrical top with pointed hems at the side. Main feature was the unfinished hem at the bottom and what appeared in the pattern envelope picture to be a lot of unfinished construction edges. I really wanted to try this as I really believe that knits are best with minimal handling and wanted to know how that worked. It will take a little getting used to but I really do believe having a cut edge at the bottom allows this top with an uneven hem to flow and hang better than if I got at it with hemming techniques.


A couple of deceptive features you might not notice:


1. The sleeves are really narrow. My own arms were once described by a physiotherapist as "deconditioned" which I believe means the muscles of a mouse. If you have more than the muscles of a mouse and say can open your own jar lids you will find these sleeves pretty darn tight.


2. Likewise the chest is pretty tight, this really has a T shirt fit and in another version I would add a FBA (I have already altered the pattern for this the next time by slashing up through a hypothetical bust point from the bottom stopping in the middle of the shoulder and spreading.) 


3. Speaking of the shoulder seam it is only about 1 1/2" long. You might not be able to see it from these shots but the cowl is cut really wide, almost as wide as a ballet neckline and so the actual top of the body drapes a bit not just the cowl.


4. I added 2" because I am tall to this and it ends at about hip level. This is fine with me because my hips are not my issue, everything above them is, but if you have hips this top might not be your best look, although the cowl does balance pretty well. IMO the other views with the super wide about to slide off necklines would make pretty dumb tops unless you were into wearing a lot of things underneath like camisoles with straps showing or were going for the "Footloose" off the shoulder look. I am not, and only wear one top at a time, it's all I can get organized, apart from a nice cup of tea cardigan which I might add as necessary.


Now the technical side of this top is really something.


I will give you a hint, they suggest some seams be butted (pressed under 3/8" first), have paper taped behind the place where they are joined, sewn up with a twin-needle straddling the butt, from the wrong side so the underside of the twin needle is on the right side, and then have two rows of ribbon top stitched on either side of this so-called seam.


Can you imagine your average new sewer getting mixed up in this, an "easy" pattern.


Give me strength.


O.K. The details tomorrow.