attainable perfection

'member when I said I was going for 'attainable perfection on this here garment?

Umm.

I think I may have set my sights a tad high.

Which makes them more difficult to achieve than, say, setting my sights low.

In some ways, 

I am so, so pleased with this top.

Even though I messed up and didn't do my beading on the body of the shirt like Alabama Chanin did theirs

with all the lovely white space between the beads,

a look I much prefer to my strings of solid beads (grrr),

I'm still happy with the beading.

And the beading along the neck-line - with the cretan stitch? love!

I'm pleased with my workmanship in general; for the most part, my stitches are even

and so are my seams.

I'm not real pleased with the not-smoothness of the neckline,

but upon reflection, I've figured out the problem:

I've seen lots of pictures of AC garments that people have made

(I am nothing, if not an extensive researcher ;-)

and several gals have had necklines that don't quite lay flat against the chest.

I made note of (what I thought must indicate) the necessity of slightly stretching the binding strips as I sewed them on.

So, I carefully slightly stretched the binding strips.

Only, the neck still doesn't lay just right.

Hmmmm...

I think the problem lies in the raising of the neckline.

See - being that I am, ummm, well-endowed,

my measurement around where I raised the neckline to, is 1 1/2 inches smaller

than my upper bust measurement where the original neckline would have hit.

One and a half inches!

That's bound to make a difference.

So, even though I wish it laid better (perfectly!) I'm glad that I figured out what to do in the future;

I need to take in the sides of that center piece a bit.

(which is easier said than done, based on the shape of that piece after raising the neckline, but doable anyways)

What really is a bummer about this supposed-to-be-perfect garment is this:

well, actually, there's two things.

First of all - a bug peed (Or maybe pooped? I'm not really sure what bugs do, waste-wise)

on my shirt (smack dab in the middle!) after I'd set it aside a few weeks ago, upon learning of my beading error.

The bug pee (or pooh, whatever the case may be) isn't the problem,

as much as the slub I created, trying to clean said bug waste product off my fabric.

sigh.

The other problem is

it's too tight
(which makes no sense; my muslins did NOT fit like this!!)

and it looks positively hideous on me.

argh!!

As usual, I'm joining Elizabeth's with needle and thREAD. 

Only. I can't remember if I've read any books or not right now....