Sometimes I buy used clothing online that utterly mystifies me. Take the case of this red tunic from Swap.com.
On
the mannequin, it looked like it was going to be a lovely drapey top
that would conveniently cover my nether regions for use with leggings.
On
a real body with legs, however, it was quite the opposite. Instead of
all the folds falling towards the center, it split down the middle and
draped to either side. Although it failed the crotch criteria, I felt I
could still wear it with pants, but it still was too weird for me. The side seams flared out from the waist, came to a point, and then
continued down at a right angle. This resulted in a lot of extra fabric
that caused the pretty draping, but it also produced a pointy blob-like
shape over each hip if the draping wasn't arranged just so.
I wore the tunic one time to work and decided that was quite enough until I had found a way to rid my top of hip tumors.
The
solution? I just sewed down each side in an arbitrarily positioned
curve, so that the sides of the tunic would take on a more human shape.
The fit is slightly tighter now, but the overall appearance is basically
the same, minus the pointy hips.
In
another alteration, I raised the shoulder seams by about an inch at the
center, because the crossover neckline was just too revealing.
This top was absolutely the last of
the red items I had yet to wear (I know I said
the red pants
were, but they were just the last work-appropriate item. I decided this
top was too Spandex-y for work, so I designated it for after-hours-only
activities, which meant it could conceivably wait months before even
having an opportunity to be worn, which meant I didn't factor it into my
calculations). But then I wore it!
No more pointy hips!
