Yesterday I suffered a spectacular failure sewing the Sadie tank top pattern from Burda Style web site. I used the size 34 version, and smoothed it into a size 36 from the waist-line down for a little extra ease. The fit was fine, but I had some problems with the neck and arm openings:

I think the problem was a combination of things: I should have pulled the ribbing fabric tauter when I sewed it to the body; I should have used a longer stitch length on the serger so that the body fabric would ease in; and I totally stretched it out when I topstitched with the twin needle. Keeping all that in mind, I had another go at the top today, and here’s take two:

As you can see, the neck and arm holes are much better here. But I still got a lot of stretching and flaring when I hemmed the bottom with the twin needle on my sewing machine, so I haven’t done the top-stitching on the neck and arm holes because I don’t want to totally ruin it. I think it’s a tension thing, or the feed dogs stretching the fabric out on the bottom.

On the bright side, I bought both fabrics for $1.99/yard from fabric.com when they had a sale on baby-rib knits, so I’m not too upset about it. A little frustrated, but not upset. The second top is wearable. I like the fit and the shape on the whole: I dropped the bottom of the armhole opening about 1/2" on the second top and I think its still a bit high (note the bunching under the arms), so I’ll try dropping it some more. I could see making a few of these for summer tops or layering for work, once I get the kinks worked out.