I knitted it as written for the 41" size blocked, basted it together, tried it on and eurgh! Just not right. I hate the clingy horizontal stripes on the back and the straps were far too wide set. I'd used 2 balls of silk garden starting in very different places in the colour repeat and that as quite unflattering too. The photo of the original has them quite close together - a little askew! It looked much better. I unpicked the side seam a little and that helped the front to look better. I suspected that a bias knit back would be more flattering so i but the top on back to front to check andit no longer clung to my back fat. The back needed to be a few inches thinner than the front leaving a gap under each arm to be filled in by a shaped gusset.
I frogged the back and one of the front sections then re knit the back on 28sts. I worked both halves of the back at once using two balls and twisting the yarns at the back intarsia style. I chose two balls that started at close to the same point. I then worked another front section with similar colours to the first. Once i sew the fronts together i'll try the top on and see what size and shape the gusset panels will need to be.
Here's what the fronts look like before and after blocking.
