Bonfit Basic Top

Need to sew... need to sew... need to sew a top or something... Anybody else understand that feeling? I've been sewing journal covers and curtains for the past week and need to do something garment related really quick before I go nuts! So I take out the Bonfit patterner and have a quick fix... ahhh.

Bonfit starts everyone off with a simple basic top consisting of a front piece and back piece. It helps familiarize you with the way the patterner works. I've used the patterner several times before and am currently working on making a properly fitted shirt pattern. It still needs lots of work to get it to fit properly. I'm finding there are lots of adjustments necessary and am thinking that it would be easier to start from scratch. In the meantime, I wanted a quick sewing fix to curb my cravings for a decently sewn top, so I drafted and sewed up the basic top pattern.

The basic design features are cut on sleeves, front slit opening, side slits at the hem. I cut it on the bias to take advantage of the stripes.

Initially, the back piece fit poorly. I found this to be true of the shirt pattern I drafted as well. It's extremely baggy and I needed to remove a couple inches from the CB at the small of my back. I tapered it back up to the shoulder blades and that helped a bit. I suppose the basic shirt pattern is meant to be baggy, but adding the CB seam shaping made a big difference in the way the shirt fits. If I could take out a pinch from the waistline, it might improve the way it hangs at the hip. Here's a picture of the alterations I made. The red line shows how much I took it in, the black line is the original sewing line.

And here is the back AFTER I removed most of the excess bagginess. Imagine how bad it was before...

BUT, the withdrawal symptoms have subsided and I am content to get back to my work things.