Everybody loves raglans! (or Finished Project: Simplicity 1317)

I have a couple of well-worn raglan tops that I bought from Old Navy a few years ago. They're actually made from French Terry, and I love that weight-wise, they're somewhere between a t-shirt and a sweatshirt, making them very versatile for layering. I've also been digging the trend of the past few years of raglan tops with contrast sleeves, interesting uses of lace, etc. So while I have several other projects in various states of muslin and UFO-ness, when my husband offered me a free weekend afternoon to sew as I grieved the loss of my father, I headed straight for Simplicity 1317 in hopes of a good, instant gratification project.

Simplicity 1317 - raglan sleeved top

Oops. Didn't notice that bra strap until I looked at the photos on my computer!  The pants are my second, wearable-on-the-weekend muslin of the HotPattern pant pattern that I originally muslined back in February. I can see that I need to shorten the front crotch length a touch here, but most of the wrinkles in front are just from me having sat in them all day before we took these pictures.

Pattern Drafting Notes/"Does it look like the envelope?"

I found the pattern to be well-drafted in that everything lined up as expected; however, the sleeves on this run large in the larger sizes. How do I know this? This pattern has been pretty popular on PatternReview and in the SBC for the past few months, and the sleeve fit looks normal on smaller women (say size M-L on down), whereas the fewer curiver sewists who have made this up also appear to have the baggy sleeve issue that I do. I hadn't noticed this on others' posts/reviews (it wasn't called out), but it's visible in their pictures. So, if you're sewing the size XL or XXL of this pattern, check the fit of your sleeve before doing anything semi-permanent with it. Baggy sleeves aren't usually an issue with my large arms, but there's an excess of ease there with this pattern.

As far as whether it looks like the envelope, I think it's pretty close (baggy sleeve issue aside):

Simplicity 1317 envelope

Fabric and Notions Used

• Black sweatshirting: Cottons sweatshirt fleece from Girl Charlee ordered during one of their recent big sales around the holidays. I prewashed this several times and have washed the top twice now, and so far, it's holding up nicely. This is a nice, midweight sweatshirt fleece. No regrets about this purchase yet.
• Black ribbing: (Used on the cuffs/bands.) Cotton ribbing from my stash. I'm not sure if this was purchased from fabric.com or perhaps from JoAnn's at some point.
• Contrast/houndstooth print: Heavy-ish weight cotton knit from deep in my stash. No idea where this one came from. It doesn't have a lot of drape to it, and it doesn't have any stretch to it, either. This sat in my stash for years because although I liked the print, your options for a stiff-handed knit with no stretch are kind of limited.

Pattern Sizing and Alterations

This pattern is available in Big 4 sizes XXS-XXL (29"-48" bust). I sewed an XL through the neck/shoulders (based on my high bust measurement), grading up to an XXL at the armscye down through the body of the top. I commonly do this "cheater FBA" in knit tops. Additionally, I lengthed front of the top by 1", easing into the side seams of the back piece in the bust area to give me extra room over my bust without adding a dart. I think that the ease in this pattern is pretty much as you would expect, so you can probably go by your high bust/usual pattern size as a starting point.

Obviously, if you've looked at the photo, you can see that the top has a few fit issues:

• The wrinkle between my bust indicates pulling and that I could use a tad more room in the bust.
• The dragline that you're seeing from my bust to my butt indicates that in addition to needing a little more room in the bust, the top is getting hung up on my high hip in back, which you can see more clearly in the back view photo.
• That wrinkle coming out from my armpit is a dart wanting to form. These wrinkles can happen when you only do a cheater FBA, and you should have done a full-on slash-and-spread FBA. I really didn't want to bother with a full-on FBA for such a simple knit top, and I did yesterday run across a possible solution to this wrinkle in a fitting book that involved transferring (but not sewing) a dart to your pattern tissue. I'm going to try that for my next version.
• There's a ton of ease in those sleeves, and the length is a bit dowdy. The dowdy length is what I get for rushing through the project (Hey, I wanted to finish in the afternoon that i was given!) and not checking the sleeve length before serging on the cuffs. I ended up turning up the cuffs and stitching them into place--what you see here is a huge improvement over how they originally were.

Simplicity 1317 - back view

These are all pretty easy fit adjustments, so I'll make those to the pattern tissue and see how the next version looks. This version, while not perfect, is certainly wearable for a casual knit top. I sincerely doubt that the people at the grocery store are going to be pulling their spouses aside and going, "Oh. My. God. Look at her armpit wrinkle! It's so big!"

Pattern Instructions

I didn't even open them to look at them. Reviewer fail, I know. This is such a basic top, though, that most people with sewing experience probably won't need the instructions. If you don't have much experience, though, Google the pattern number and/or check PatternReview--there are plenty of other reviews of this pattern out there.

Similar patterns

Interested in a similar pattern to Simplicity 1317? The following patterns are similar designs:

• McCall's 6992
• Grainline Linden

Final thoughts

I'll be making this pattern again (with the proper fitting adjustments), since it's a quick and easy pattern and has a ton of stashbusting potential.

One observation: I've sewn three Simplicity patterns (all from recent releases) in the past six months--two for me, and one for Eva. Every single one of these has run true-to-size, IMO. Is Simplicity finally getting away from the "excess ease" issue that the Big 4 have been so notorious for? Or have I just gotten lucky? What have your experiences been like with their more recent patterns?