Scrolldown Fug

Oy. Where to begin?

So after a layoff of over a year, I finally finished my Noro sweater, made of Silk Garden, for my mom. It had rather strange construction, so I sent it out for finishing by someone who had been recommended to me, and... well...

Here's the model.


Here's the diagram of the construction.


Here's my mom. Please ignore the mid-remodeling wallpaper :P

The top is absolutely PERFECT in fit -- she loves it, and she can comfortably move her arms all around without bunching or riding up -- which is a miracle, considering that neither I nor the finisher put it together using her or her measurements (whatever they were). Don't try this at home, kids. Still, these particular fit problems weren't really due to not modeling it on her; this was the least fitted part of the sweater's "tailoring." The collar could be folded down, but she actually kind of liked it standing up.

We just needed the bottom part to lay equally well... yeah, not so much.



Hey, nice bellybutton!

As you can see, the fit is so nice on the back. When it comes to the cardigan fronts, though, it just puffs out and folds under.







In these pictures, she's pulling it a little to try to flatten it out. The finishing lady sent me an e-mail mentioning that it might need to be blocked more, but I still don't think that'll fix it enough.





So the way I see it, I have a few options.

1) Ungraft the vertical back seam, pull off the button band on the bottom, and see if widening the vertical area a little and making a longer button band loosens it up. The button band is 230 rows long; the directions said to stretch it before sewing it on, and the cardigan edge was 250 rows long. Still, I gave it to the finisher live, with the instruction that she could make it longer if necessary. I guess she didn't think so.

2) Picking out live stitches upside down and turning both the back and front into straight, more standard-looking cardigan backs and fronts.

Any other suggestions or thoughts? Merciful heavens, but this depressed me.