Knit Layer Shirt

It feels like it's been a long time since I've added any projects.  I've actually been sewing a lot lately.  Etsy stuff and finished a project for this blog contest I'm entering.

Next Monday, my project will be auditioning on So You Think Your Crafty.  It's a blog craft contest.  There will be 30 "auditions" and the 10 projects that get the most votes moves on to the competition and each week the crafters are assigned a theme.  Each week one of the top 10 get kicked off if their project recieves the fewest votes.

I've followed the first 2 seasons, and it's quite a fun little thing each Monday morning to see the latest projects and get to vote for them.  So we'll see if I even get through the auditions. 
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But this post is about this top I just finished.  I was really excited in the beginning, then hit a wall in the middle, hated it toward the end, but had to finish it to get it off my mind. 

Here's the idea behind it.

The bodice is layered in rows, then I basted them down into the side seam.  I think each layer was 5" tall and folded in half.

The top of the front was a cross funnel-type neck. 
I did the same layering thing as the bodice, but on the angle of the neckline.

The back piece was just a plain back, like a normal t-shirt, with a high neck.  I made a finished neck edge with a strip of the knit from one side, up behind the neck, and around the other side.

I sewed the basic shirt together, and as I had suspected, the layers across the chest kind of folded up.

On the left I pinned it down, and on the left you can see what the fabric does naturally.

So I hand tacked all the chest layers down, re-sewed the seam under the bust.

Then the sleeves.  I thought they needed a little more detail than a regular cap sleeve, so I used the petal idea, where the sleeve folds on itself around the top of your arm.  That is a bad explanation.  Anyway, I was out of fabric, so I lined the sleeves with lining.  And they don't lay right.  The sleeve curl forward, and the layers across the chest pull funny, I think due to the tacking in the center to limit cleavage.  Maybe if I unpicked the center tacking at the cross of the two top pieces, the chest layering would lay nicer. 

And I could take off the sleeves and just do a simple cap sleeve.

But the shirt ended up being a little small all around anyway, so all the work to fix it seems like a total waste of time to me at this point, so it may just end up at my mother in laws in the dress up box.

Once again, I think it was a good idea, but along the way turned in a bad direction and I'm too lazy to go back and fix it.

Good thing the fabric was only $2.00.

But it was a really nice knit and a steal, and it's too bad it was wasted on a failure project.

Maybe someone thinner out there with a smaller bust that won't stretch the layers would look good in it.  I could always tack the sleeves down so the cream lining doesn't roll forward.