Afternoon tea trial

So, I made up my muslin of the afternoon tea top. You thought I would never get around to it did you?

I made two small adjustments to the pattern. I added straps (which I think I must not have measured exactly because one side looks slightly lopsided) and I made the darts seams.

Here is how I did the darts.
First I cut the darts out of the pattern paper and then cut straight down to the bottom for the part below the dart.

Then, when cutting the fabric I made sure to add seam allowance to the new seam I made.

I made this out of old baby receiving blankets.

cute little detail that was on one of the blankets and made it into the top :)

 

One was not quite large enough so I ended up using two of different patterns but I like the result.

here you can see the lopsidedness

There are just a few changes that I will make to this pattern when I make it out of my fashion fabric.

1. I will gather the top front before attaching it to the bottom part. It will make attaching it to the base harder, but I think it will make the gathers themselves look much nicer. Oh and ill use matching thread. I used bright in the muslin just so I could see it better.

maybe a half inch or so too low

2. I am considering shortening the bust section or maybe just gather it more. I'm not sure yet, but I know it sits a bit to low.

3. I will shorten the pattern. I put my hand on my natural waist for the photo. Because the shirt is so long it is quite tight around my hips and bottom

For the swimsuit version, I am considering getting rid of the back facing and just put that part into the bottom back. I will also need to figure out how to add bra cups. I pinned directions for how to do this, so I'll check that out closer to time.

So, next step...

I need to decide on a color scheme if all of these tops and bottoms are to be interchangeable.  I will need to do that before making the top out of fashion fabric, which will complete one beach wardrobe necessity, a halter top. Then I can move to figuring out the bottoms and making this swim wear.

Oh, the pattern said this is not suitable for stretchy fabrics. I have seen that other people have used them though, so what considerations do I need to take or should I just scrap this idea and go back to the Burda's Allison swimsuit pattern (that I picked up back when it was free)?