Advance 5737.

Ugh. It's really hard taking pictures of yourself & worse if you're the sort who hates getting their picture taken in the first place. The sort who actively avoids the camera-toting mom, aunts, cousins, brother & boyfriend (by the way, Dennis the Menace is even worse than my mom with the picture taking) & can someone please explain to me why people insist on taking pictures of you that you don't under any circumstances want taken, & then proceed to send you the hideous pictures of yourself? WTH?

Anyway, it's much easier to photograph a garment on the dress form, but people who sew like to see garments on real live people because things hang differently on people. Plus, you can see every single fit issue or sewing mistake in all its splendor & glory. Which is just awesome.



I'm wearing the completed Advance 5737 (1940s), dress bodice turned top. It fits pretty well, although the armholes are a bit gappy. I'm not sure where I went wrong there. I had to remove some fabric because the sleeve cap was hanging off of my shoulder and it was binding underneath at the armpit.



After I removed the excess fabric, everything hit in the right place & was comfortable. That changed when I finished the armholes with bias tape. Now I have gaps. You can't really see them in this photo, but they're there.

I'm sure experience & future research will eventually reveal where I went wrong with the armholes, but I still like this top. It's super comfortable.

This green zipper is from my stash because zipper #1, a white invisible zipper, broke. The green zip matched the leaves & stems on the fabric perfectly, so I decided to sew it in so that it was semi-exposed.

I like the effect, but need to figure out some way to hide the very top & bottom of the zip tape. I can probably just fold the tape back a little & hand tack it, but I'll have to give that some thought. If I make another one of these tops, I'll move the zipper to the back. Or I might do buttons instead.

There shouldn't be a seam in the back, but remember I made a mistake in cutting the bodice back too short & ended up using the sleeves for extra fabric. It was a "make it work" moment, although if I'd really been thinking I would've put the zipper in back so the seam made more sense.