What’s a girl to do? I wanted to experiment with a halter top, so I took an old swimsuit pattern and attempted to adapt it by widening the cup. I was going to attach the halter to a band around the rib cage, make it so that the band hooked in the front, and put a little hip-length baby-doll skirt on the thing.
I got as far as attaching the halter bit to the band. Then I tried it on. Not big enough to go around the girls. I mean, it halfway contained them, but it was awkward and gaped at the sides. I don’t even know where to begin to “fix” it. What shape is required to go around the girls? I don’t want a three-piece cup like you’d find on a proper bra – all we’re looking for here is something that is big enough to go under the girls so there isn’t skin-on-skin chafing, provides a little tiny bit of containment, but also shows the girls to their best advantage. This, unfortunately, isn’t it. Not even close. And I don’t know where to start. The patterns for the A-D crowd don’t work.
Remember the little whiny Asian boy from Project Runway? The one with the fuzzy accent? He failed miserably every time he came anywhere near a curve and his horror at boobs was palpable. Well, there’s a reason. Designing clothes for a plank is easy. Accommodating and flattering a three-dimensional figure is hard. No wonder so many designers don’t bother with it. I’ve got no technical training and nothing but 20 (gasp) years of puttering with fabric to help me and so far, I’ve got one success (the Smokin’ Pin Stripes) and a couple wretched failures. The halter top falls in the later category.
