My sloppy Sloppy Josephine

The more I sew for myself the more I realise how important drape, fit and form are... and with that in mind I recently ordered the Sloppy Josephine pattern by Papercut Patterns. I had been lusting after this pattern for quite a while. I've always loved that slouchy look (camisole straps showing and all - that's surely a feature of this top), it lends itself beautifully to layering and has a relaxed but elegant feel. So although that little voice in my head kept saying "it's such a simple pattern, you should draft it yourself and save some cash", the voice that was louder was this one: "it's the cut of the pattern that's lovely... you could stuff around for ages trying to draft something similar and not get it right - or just buy it! And hey, you'll be supporting a small company, that's gotta be good!".



The irony of all that about simple lines etc etc is that I totally stuffed up this top and it ended up not so simple afterall! The original lines are a bit lost now that I have a massive pleat in the front. To explain: this is my second attempt at Josephine. The first I made as a muslin and was fairly uneventful, all went well and I liked the fit, but the fabric was a bit thick and didn't have the lovely drape that a lighter weight would give. So I pulled out this soft almost mesh-like pale grey fabric. I don't know what its made of and found it in one of the cheap fabric places I go to when I need something inexpensive.

The fabric was a bit hard to work with but all was going OK til I got to the neckline, which stretched and moved so much that it looked a sight when it was done :-(. So I carefully cut it off - there was no unpicking it, I'd used the overlocker and well, life's too short! Then I made another band and reattached it. Still no success. Then I grumpily put it aside for a week or so to take the sting out of the whole process (do you do that?!). So by the time I went to sew on the third (or was it fourth?) neckband, it worked well enough finally, but the neckline was so big that it was falling off my shoulders, and not in a good way! Pulling in the excess with a pleat at the front was the only thing I could think of to save it, because despite all of this I do really like this top.



So now I am on the hunt for beautiful tissue weight knits that I can use to make more Josephines. Can anyone help me with my neckline issue? Maybe I need to add something to stabilise the band? I'm not usually one for using all sorts of products but I'm concerned that this is going to keep happening. Any suggestions welcome.