Whitney Deal Ryan top review and variations

I was determined to make a velvet top using this pattern, but I knew from the beginning that it would take a few muslins to get the right fit.  I've never used this pattern designer before and I found the pattern somewhat lacking to start with.

It is a PDF with no A0 option.
The tiled A4 pages had borders on some pages, but not on others, so at times I had to line up pages and guess the right size of the gap.
The instructions have a 1/4" SA on most of the top, and a 5/8" SA on the side seams.  This is one of those new things indie pattern designers are doing, and it's annoying.

I made my first version in the smallest size, which says bust 30-32".  My bust may be in the 32-33 inch range, but my back is wide and this often confounds measures.  I knew the top would be way too long, and so I made zero changes initially in order to capture the fit.

Version one is as expected.  Pretty unglamorous.  I do like the fit just under the yoke with the gathers, but it pulled across my back, and the top is made for people with stick arms.  As expected, it is very long.

This data in hand, I increased the width of the back yoke by about 1.5 cm on the fold, lowered the armhole by just about an inch to make the sleeves roomier, cut off the bottom 10 inches of the pattern, and normalised everything to a 3/8" SA.

I scavenged up matching scraps and actually they are quite precious ones - the back top is a light silk cotton voile that I am oddly in love with, previously made into a horrific Vogue top (here, lurkers!) and the front yoke is a cotton voile I've used to muslin my Japanese pattern dress with.  The bottoms are delicious linen viscose from an etsy seller who subsequently vanished.  It has great drape and a bit of texture. If I wanted it to be less twee I might have skipped out on the hearts, but anyway it is cute.

I was actually really surprised to achieve total success with my adjustments, though I conceded I cut the top a tiny bit too short and lengthened the final version by another inch.  I've stuck with this pattern because, of course, I had a vision involving that hot pink silk velvet.  The only remaining question was whether to do the tedious and horrible facing when sewing with slippery silk velvet. I concede that the velvet would feel best against the skin, but a bit of bias tape would be much easier.

I went with the velvet. Actually it wasn't that bad to cut or to sew.  I used a lot of pins, and didn't have any trouble with it shifting around. I ironed only sporadically and doubled the top over itself when ironing so the furry side was always facing another furry side. Now that I'd made this three times it was a fast sew.  I overlocked all the insides.  The facing seam isn't quite straight on the front, but it's not too obvious and everything else was easy.

My velvet top is actually totally perfect.  I prepped the fabric by handwashing and airdrying so it should be pretty easy care.  I'm not all that fussed by how wear is crushing the velvet, because it's almost iridescent in the light and looks good wrinkled, hooray!

Can you tell by my pictures that I love this top?  Or do I just look like I have zero posing skills, as usual? 

Anna Allen Persephone Pants in Hermes Velvet

So apparently I don't learn from my errors.  Or possibly I just think that following pattern instructions and fabric weight recommendations...is optional.  Because version 1 of these amazing pants was made from a lightweight linen-silk blend that suffered from just not being heavyweight enough.

Thus for take 2, I naturally pulled this fantastic Hermes cotton velvet out of my stash. It's a one meter long and rather wide piece that I bought in Copenhagen and it is just so beautiful that I want to make everything out of it.  Naturally again...it's not heavyweight.  It um has great drape.

For this version I made size 4 again.  I removed the pockets.  They sit right on my hip bones and I can't get anything into them easily.  When something is in them, it hurts my hipbones.  So - no pockets.

Then by comparing closely to the first version, I removed 1 inch from the upper part of the waist.  I did this because I saw that the entire butt and crotch area fit me well, but I had excess fabric bunching at the waistband - the upper part of the rise was too long.  So I couldn't use the lengthen/shorten lines, since they are in the crotch and I didn't want to change that part of the fit.

I made parallel lines up high and used those.  I would lengthen the dart just a little next time as my modification led to a really short, fat dart.  I had to shorten all elements of the fly as well, and then make my own button placement.

I sewed these in one day.  It was amazing.  Except for the buttonholes.  I had small vintage buttons from etsy and no hammer, so I didn't test the buttons ahead of time.  And it ends up the crappy Singer I'm borrowing WILL make buttonholes but it does not align them correctly.  I had to do about 25 practice buttons before I could correct for the weird alignment.  That was when I realised that these buttons are some kind of vintage that look like they have to be soldered together. Etsy fail.  And since I had made 4 13mm buttonholes I was stuck with an irregular size.  I ordered So Many online buttons and nothing fit.  After a MONTH, I finally gave up and bought normal buttons at JoAnns.

And then once I finished the pants...the buttonholer Would Not make the buttonhole for the main button because of the many layers of fabric now present.  It's really frustrating to finish a pair of pants and feel like you are Just About to wear them but are stymied by a few small steps.  I seriously considered hand sewing the main buttonhole, but then I read a bunch of posts on how to hand sew buttonholes and decided I couldn't learn that before my frustration overflowed. So in preparation for a 3-day Thanksgiving sewing binge, I took these plus some big puppy eyes to someone I knew, who after much begging, grumpily sewed me one buttonhole on a Bernina.  I was never that excited by Berninas before but now I wish I had one.  It used a buttonhole foot rather than the long buttonhole thing, and because of this you have great control over the entire hole.

And my Persephone pants are done! And they are amazing!  And it looks like I need to size down for my next pair!  Which I will make in the correct weight of fabric, I promise!