Aria Saga

Why? It is time to perfect a new basic shirt pattern. Influenced by influencers on Instagram and YouTube, and because I've been having good results with their knit tops, I decided to try Love Notions Aria.

Sizing: Love Notions has you select your size by your upper bust measurement and then choose between their standard bust or full bust front pieces depending on the difference between your upper bust and full bust. My measurement put me between a Medium and a Large, so I went with the Large standard bust for the first shirt. The finished garment measurements given with the pattern looked fine.

Fabric: lightweight crisp cotton chambray for the first, a more coarsely woven cotton for the second.

Alterations/Modifications: Foolishly, I cut and sewed the first one without making a muslin. Because this isn't a fitted garment, and because I'd been having good results from this pattern line, I thought I could forge ahead and that small tweaks would fix any issues. That was so wrong. 

A try-on of the first shirt without sleeves was surprising. The fit across the upper chest was more snug than I like, but acceptable. That all changed when the sleeves were set in. I thought I took a picture, but maybe I was too upset. The sleeves were all bunched up under the arm, and the front of the shirt would no longer overlap. What a mess. I tried scooping out the armscyes which helped a bit with the bunching, but there still would have been no way to button the shirt.

However, the back of the shirt did not hang up on my tush. This has been a huge point in Love Notion's favor and has been true of the other patterns of theirs that I've made. Because of that, I decided to try again. This time I picked the full bust piece, which included a dart. (One of the other disappointments with shirt #1 were the folds that draped from bust apex to hip.) And I made a muslin.

What a mess.

Not only was the bust point way low, but look at the weird folds around the armscye and the poor fit of the sleeve in general. There was also pulling across the chest from the armpit, like you sometimes get in tee shirts that don't fit. When I released the basting at the top of the sleeve cap, the folds in the sleeve improved. The sleeve cap as drafted is pretty flat. I needed to add about an inch in height.

Here is the strange shape of the armhole. The pulls were coming from the point of the notch, where that odd angle is. Maybe this is typical of patterns for full-busted figures? Feeling frustrated, and with nothing to lose, I decided to redraw the armscye, adding fabric to fill in that weird angle and scooping out to accommodate the extra height I was adding to the sleeve cap.

Huh?

red line shows new shape

That helped.

Results: I completed shirt #2, the pink one, with all the changes, and will wear it. In the photos it doesn't have buttons yet, because I want pink buttons and only have white. It will take a while to find pink ones. I also removed the sleeves (that I had done such a good job on) from shirt #1 because it would be wearable sleeveless. Had to make darts in the armhole because of gaping, and finished those edges with bias tape. I really wanted the sleeves, but at least the shirt isn't a total loss.

left off the buttons towards the neck where it is tight on me

deep back yoke and pleat

no sleeves, alas
The pattern has square corners on the cuffs, I prefer them rounded

What's good about the pattern: Doesn't hang up on the tush! Also, the pattern has excellent instructions for making the sleeve placket and I got my best results ever using their pattern piece and instructions. This alone was worth the price of the pattern.

What's bad about the pattern: I had to do more work fitting this pattern than any other I can remember, including redrafting the sleeve and armscye.

Conclusion: Because of the drastic redrafting I had to do, and because I don't have a lot of confidence in my drafting, and because of the voluminous fit, this is not going to be my new basic shirt. I'm just glad that in the end I didn't totally waste my time and fabric.

shirt #2, better than shirt #1 but not perfect.

pieced the back yoke to make chevrons