Fitting Issues

I spent some time reworking my grey coat this week. I just never was happy with the button closures. As I'm writing this I'm trying to focus on the main thing I didn't like about it, but honestly I have zillions of reasons, which I will list below!

A) I admit, I made the button loops WAY TOO BIG... so the buttons had to be scooted over on the jacket to an awkward place. Rather than being able to throw on my coat and button and make a graceful exit like in the movies, I was forced to bend my arm into a weird position and kind of try to button my coat under my left arm. No good. So this week I decided to take off the button loops and toggle buttons and use standard buttons and button holes. I'm so much more happy with this coat now!

B) The toggle buttons themselves were kind of floppy.

C) I used simple black cording for the button loops. I think it could have looked much more professional if I would have made custom loops out of the grey wool.

I'm having a bit of a struggle with the fit in some of my garments. This coat fits ok but it does have a weird fold at the upper bust. I wonder if I should have done an FBA on it. I'm not really sure yet how to make things fit exactly perfectly. Why didn't the fit on my Armani knockoff turn out as well as Tany's coat or Erica B's coat? I need to invest in a good book this weekend. I know how to do an FBA but I wonder if I'm just making things too big in general. I actually make one size smaller than the big 4 suggest on their sizing charts. Still, sometimes things seem to swim a bit.

I'm nearly finished with my new grey fleece tunic. It is turning out so cute. I took a quick picture last night that shows the keyhole and the neato seaming on the front of the garment. The only things I have left now are to put in the zipper, put in the neckband and figure out what to do with the bottom of the sleeves. I drafted a pattern for sleeves for this tunic, since I was going to be wearing it for warmth. I made them extra long and with a slit on the outer wrist. I might use facing in them so that I can fold them up. That might be pretty cute. Anyway, I should have this shirt done tommorrow!

The shirt does seem a bit big, even though I scaled it down one size. This pattern is so great and I want to make it again using nice fabric, so I need to figure out the fit :) I'm sending this message out to the great void.... if anyone has fitting tips or recommendations for books, I'm all ears!