Wave-o-lutionary

This is the second pattern from her collection that I used.  From 1983: "Misses' Dress or Top: Pullover dress or top, tapered to hemline, has elastic in neckline and sleeve casings.



Size: Miss Medium



The style is a typical raglan-sleeved top with a gathered neckline. Although I sewed a 70's top from Simplicity, I was curious how this would turn out.

This is the first pattern from the Brooke Shields Signature collection that I sewed with.  It is from 1986.

For the 1983 top, I inserted the neckline elastic and stitch an end closed, I was shocked at the fit! Much to my dismay, it was a tent that P. T. Barnum would be happy to rent. This shocked my daughter the she was reluctant to photograph the "tent". A belt was not sufficient to "cinch away" the extra fabric. Here's the math: I ended up taking in the seams approximately 6" from each side and 6" from the center back. I made two darts with the widest part of each dart being 1". Therefore, I removed about a foot and 8" or about 5/9 of a yard of fabric.

I still do not like the fit of the back, although now it looks more decent than before. I am not sure if skipping my usual "petite" adjustments at the upper back and the other at the waist affected the outcome. The gathered fabric puffs out, making my upper back appear rounder and shorter. After my changes along the way, the top looks wearable, and would be more so after a few more adjustments. For an "easy" McCall's, I spent more time getting the top to fit than actually stitching the entire top. I prefer the fit of my "Super Simple" Simplicity top with similar styling. It is strange that the front and back section come from the same pattern piece, whereas in Brooke's pattern, the front and back come from two distinct pieces.

This pattern did not seem to be the same one that was used to create Brooke's top and dress. Also, A lighter weight fabric or one with more drape would seem to work better with this classic style.