I can't say that I had a lightening bolt moment, but I do at least have a starting point, which is progress in itself. Here's a photo of the original pattern piece, with my first alteration cutting line marked in red. I know it's hard to see here; however, if you open it in it's own window, you can see it quite clearly. My plan was to cut out a box around the armscye, slide it over 3/4", then redraw the side seam. This was also going to increase the width of the shoulder strap.
Here it is after I moved the armscye and redrew the side seam, waiting to be cut out. You can see I also extended the shoulder strap a ridiculous amount; I wanted enough length to just be able to pin it to fit at the next fitting. You can also see that I've redrawn the armscye. My daughter's shoulders are broad, but not as broad as her back is wide, so I removed 1/2" of what was added when I made the broad back alteration.
Here's a detail shot of the armscye and shoulder.
Here's my new pattern piece...
And a side by side comparison with the original.I
Comments, opinions and advice are most definitely welcome!
9 comments:
Paula, did you ever make the muslin??? don't do anything to the garment fabric until you have, put up some pix of the back and front muslin, if your DD approves that.
ps. none of the mail that I have sent you have been delivered, they bounce back, can you send me your phone number and tell me the most convinient time when to give you a ring, you were interested in a jacket in my blog, remember?
Marita
Haven't made a muslin yet, just these alterations to the pattern so far. I'm going to make up a quick and dirty muslin for Thursday to see how they work.
Wish I could help with advice, but I'm a complete newbie on fitting - so mostly I just wanted to say "Thank you!" for posting with these illustrations - I really learn a lot from post like these and hope to be doing my own fitting adjustments some day. Good luck! :)
Gwen, thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to leave a comment!
I'm pretty new to fitting myself, and I think it's interesting that my size 0 daughter is harder to fit than I am, at least on top. I haven't tried pants for myself yet.
When you make a muslin of your altered pattern, my guess is the back armhole will gape, and maybe also the V (if she has truly rounded shoulders.) When I draped the "Sabrina" dress bodice on my DD, I draped a full blouse, meaning; a blouse going all the way up to the neck, front and back, fitted it with the princess lines (which is basically darts), marked the lines of the finished bodice, and CF and CB, and cut it apart to use as a pattern. In your case, I would just sew up a muslin, see where the gaping occurs, and dart those- either with a princess seam or regular darts. Depending on the fabric, you can 'dart' additional fabric to the shoulder seam, which will help on both the V and the armhole, or just run a dart from the shoulder seam.
Birgitte, thanks. I'm hoping to be able to dart it to the shoulder seam. I'm not sure my fitting skills are up to anything else.
edit previous comment to correct my typo that changed the meaning of a sentence, and clarify grammar.
When you're fitting your muslin (what fabric are you using, BTW?) you will undoubtedly have gaping at the neck edge, and maybe at the armscye.
When constructing dresses like that for my dsd's I finally just cut the bodice the way they drafted it, then, in fitting, pulled the bodice CF down into the midriff until it quit gaping. It's what I've found works best, short of drafting the pattern like Birgitte, or draping from scratch like I'm doing with Lauren's current dress. (WIP on PR).
The pattern calls for crepe, which has some inherent give in the weave structure, or jersey. If you use jersey you can pull some of that gaping back in to the chest by stitching clear elastic to the seam line (like I have with my Maggy London cross bodice dresses - reviews on PR). If you use the crepe, or a woven, you'll want to fit it right on her.
oh, and to muslin - is the fabric really expensive? Because the only way to accurately muslin a bodice like this is to do it in the actual fabric - each weight/weave will have it's own amount of give, and each knit will have it's own amount of stretch.
Hope this helps a bit.
Marji, thanks. I'm using a cheap cotton to get a ballpark fit around her. The problem isn't so much that her back is broad, it's mostly that she has well developed lats, especially when considered in relation to how tiny she is. Her shoulders definitely pull forward and her back is slightly rounded. I have a gut feeling that I'll be able to eliminate any gaping at the back armscye at the shoulder seam. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, anyway.
Then I'll be making a practice dress, because I don'e want any construction surprises when I make the actual dress.
I was planning on getting extra fabric for the actual dress. We'll be using polyestercrepe-back satin so it's not expensive. The bodice is fully lined so I was also wondering if I could put a dart in the lining piece and ease the main piece onto it to eliminate gaping.
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