Idoru Knits: Finished!

It's all done - my first ever knitted tee-shirt, just in time for the cold weather... Never mind though; my next project is a jumper. I expect to get that done just in time for spring.

Anyone who's read my previous posts will know that I'm not entirely happy with this tee, and if I were to do it again I would most definitely change things. It started out badly, with the wrong tension given in the pattern. Having sorted that out by emailing the magazine, I found it's fine up and including the waist band, but from then on, not so much. It's wonderfully shaped into the waist band and then the tighter rib pulls the waist in even further. But then there's no bust shaping. So it's fine if you're a classic English pear, but not if you're big up top. Then the length isn't great. I added four rows and it still wasn't long enough so I had to crochet a hem.

The pattern says it's great for girls who want to show of their curves and will fit 12-16. And this isn't really true. It is very stretchy but I still don't think it would fit a size 16, unless it was extremely stretched and who wants that in a new tee-shirt? The arm holes aren't huge and I think would be very tight on anyone with biggish upper arms. And as for being ideal for curvy ladies, I assume it only means those with curvy hips, because the lack of bust shaping means it's not that great for busty girls, like me.

So what would I do differently? I'd many more stitches after the waist band, giving the ladies more room, bringing the band itself down to my actual waist and making a better length. I'd incorporate bust shaping to give me a bit more room up top. Just these two things would have turned an OK tee-shirt into a fantastic tee-shirt.

In my last post, I promised pictures. So here they are.

Don't worry, my head isn't really blurry, it's because I'm in disguise. Front view of the tee. I think you can see it's kinda stretched over my lady lumps and could do with being a bit longer.