I love wearing body suits - generally underneath another top. In these winter months, I don't think I could sit around my cold, cold Victorian house without one.
So I made the Closet Case patterns Nettie one a while back - might even have been last winter. It was an easy sew - but I did not do myself any favours with the fabric.
It just really is not that stretchy - I can't really remember what I was thinking!
But, in fact I like wearing it - it is quite like a spanx thing - keeps my belly in and is really warm. But every time I wore it I had sore armpits from where it was rubbing - time for a little post-make adjustment.
There was nothing fancy about it - I cut the arms off just inside the seam. It was all overlocked and I could not be bothered ripping them out.
Then a little adjustment to the pattern and recutting of the arm scythe (I think that's the right word?). It wasn't much but would make all the difference.
The trickiest bit was then refashioning the sleeve head. I measured the new hole it was to fit into and then spread the pattern out so the curve would match.
Then all it took was a more sensible fabric choice (a nice mesh-y, very stretchy knit). I also decided to make the sleeves longer so just extended the lines.
So, now I have best of both worlds - a tight body piece which still holds in my Christmas excesses - but is now wearable without cutting off the circulation to my arms.
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