Sewing Notes - Butterick 6167 Low bust adjustments

Do your boobs hang low, do they wobble to and fro? Do they hang out near your waist instead of being up by your face? Are they pointing toward the ground while you're walking around town. Do your boobs hang low? Oh yeah, that just happened and you're welcome. Now that we've gotten the juvenile humor out of the way, let's talk about how having a low bust complicates a dress with a bust shelf element.

One could make the argument that those of us with low busts should just pass on this trend. When your bust just rolls off the shelf into the "floor" is there really any reason to put a shelf there in the first place?  The answer for me would have easily been "No!" if I hadn't purchased a Bernie Dexter Paris dress. (Here's a photo of that particular RTW dress.)

Wearing that dress convinced me that girls with low busts can enjoy a bust shelf as long as you mentally relabel it as a rufflely bust dickie. It's there to cover your bust root and fill some your large upper chest area with fluffy goodness. To that I say, "Thumbs up to fluffy goodness. Let's sew some more bust dickies."

To do so we are going to have to brace ourselves for some pattern alterations.  Even on a pattern that offers different cup sizes*, the bust ease is not going to be in the correct place for those of us with "low hanging fruit." To see what I mean, let's take a look at the bust stay piece.

The bust apex is clearly marked more than half way up of the bust shelf with not much shelf height above it. (1.5" to be exact)  From this I can infer that the drafter is expecting there to a lot of breast fullness at the top of the dress.
To give you a colorful mental image of what I'm talking about let's think of the breast as a cupcake. The bust shelf is the ruffled cupcake liner with the top half of the breast, the icing, sitting above it. This is all well and good if your apex matches this point and you have plenty of "icing" to fill out the top of the bodice.  But what does this bodice look like if you have a low bust point?  Or to further our metaphor, your breasts are more like creme filled donuts than cupcakes? (Just as delicious but with less fluff on top) What you are going to get is a bodice with MAJOR gapituts along the top edge of the inset.

Sorry about the poor quality photo but I was a bad girl and threw this muslin alway some time in the last 3 months. You can still see that I have literally inches of extra fabric along the top edge since all my bust fullness in in the lower part of the bodice. What you can't see is that the front part of the lower bodice feels tight because that's where my apex actually is. My face also says, "Crap, I need to do some major fitting work on this pattern."

That muslin might make the pattern look like a lost cause, but never fear because the bust ruching is going to allow us to make an easy fix.  All we really need is elastic!  That's right ladies, we're gonna sew elastic into the upper edge of the bust shelf and make all our problems go away.  Woot, Woot, fitting short cuts!  But first let's make few minor adjustments to the front bodice.

First you can remove a bit of that extra ease at the upper edge by changing the curve of the bust stay. This will keep the lower part of the seam the same width, which is good because your boobs are in that area. On my dress I was also changing the location of the seam, so some of the width removed here was added onto the bodice piece.  (Note - I changed the height of the bust stay for aesthetic reasons, not fitting ones.)

On the lower bodice you'll want to add some extra ease to the princess line seam for your low bust point. I added 1/4" to each side of the seam. (You can also see that I added a bit to the outside curve and changed the length of the bodice. The lengthening was more for portional reasons than bust fitting reasons since my bust won't actually hit the shelf area.)

Then you may want to reduce the width of the bust inset. On this pattern the ruching ration is fairly high on the bust inset. Adding elastic to that area is only going to increase it and it may get poofier than you'd like. Of course this is more of a personal taste than fitting issue, so use your own discretion. On my dress I reduced the inset by making the same curve change to it as was made on the bust stay. Then made the pattern smaller by moving the CF fold line in and cutting off some of the ease. In total I removed 2 3/4" on the half.

To assemble this area follow the pattern instructions for gathering the bust inset, sewing it to the lower bodice and the top edge to the bust stay. Before you do any edge stitching on the top edge, open the bodice like so.

We are going to sew in some 1/4" elastic onto the seam allowance to tighten up the area.  On my dress the inset area was 13" wide without elastic.  I wanted to gather it down to around 10" to get a nice snug fit against my chest.  After much trial and error, meaning sewing and seam ripping, I ended up inserting an 8" long piece of elastic.  Long story short, I recommend basting in the elastic and checking the fit before "really" sewing it in.

The elastic is going to be basted into the seam allowance of the bust inset area. First fold the seam allowances the same way you would for stay stitching. Pin the edges of the elastic near the edge of the bust seam.  I found it's a good idea to baste both ends of the elastic first before attaching all of it.

Stretch the elastic to that it sits flat against the inset and baste it to the seam allowance. At this point try on the dress to see if the upper edge fit is to your liking. If not you can rip out the elastic and try a different length.

Once the you're happy with the elastic length, it can be secured with some edge stitching.  On my dress I edge stitched the entire upper edge of the bodice at once, but you could just do the inset area.

Go back and remove any basting left over. Then press the edge so that the lining rolls toward the inside of the garment

Ta Da! A perfect fitting bodice. See that actually wasn't all that hard to do. Thanks elastic!

* Note about cup sizes on this pattern - The shelf pieces vary 1/4" in height between each cup size but are the same width. I did go with the recommended cup size for my bust, but don't think it's as important for women with low busts.  You could just choose the height of the shelf you prefer the look of the most. 

Ginger Jeans Part 2 - Leopard Party

Today I'm straining the edges of tasteful dressing in the form of leopard jeans. Yes that's right, leopard jeans.  Meooowwww. Jungle January has come early.

Last year Marcy Tilton posted this denim and I resisted it for a long time. A loooong time considering that my browser finds it's way to the website pretty much every day.  Then one week Marcy put this fabric on the "deal of the week" page and only a saint/lover of nothing but solids could resist leopard print denim on sale. I am neither one of those things and leopard denim came to live in my stash. I hear Pretty Grievances yelling "Amen!"

These were sewn right after finishing my first pair of Gingers and some further fitting changes were made.

1. Reduced the front rise by 3/8".  The rise was definitely too long on the previous pair. I'm a bit unsure if it's the correct length now, as this area is always hard for me to judge.

2. Added more width to the front waist area by cutting into the fly area and spreading 1/2". This gives more room for "post mommy gut" and the like.  I went a little too far with this adjustment and need to scale it back to half of that amount of ease.

3. Cut down the front of the jeans 3/8" at the zipper and graded out to zero at the side seams for my tilted waist.  This is a pretty regular alteration for me, but I talked myself out of it on the first pair.  Probably cause I don't notice pants cutting into my waist until actually sitting in them for any amount of time.

4. Extending front of waistband to match the full tummy adjustment.  I put 1/2" extra on the end of the waistband.

5. Moved pocket placement 1" lower than previous pair.....scouts honor. My pockets are hiding like leopards in the the veld.

I didn't think of any new changes to make to the back view until this pair was almost done. So you'll just have to avert your gaze at my drag lines again. Or we can all agree on the lie that the leopard print totally obscures them. Let's Sgt Schultz this affair up, "I saw nothinz, Nothinz!"

Side note - How weird is the premise of Hogan's Hero's now that you're an adult? "Let's make a show about American POWS in a concentration camp and make it a zany comedy.  Haa Haa Haa Nazis!" Ten year old Heather thought it was great. Fooled you again Colonel Klink, when will you ever learn.

Back to jeans....on this pair I broke out the rivets and then spent about 2 hours hammering on my cast iron frying pan and while cursing rivets and people who make rivets. AHHHHH, my inability to hammer a nail/anything nail like in straight strikes again. My kingdom for more upper body strength or maybe a berserker rage state. That would show those rivets who's boss.

So if you're like me and this is your first time battling rivets I'd recommend buying some extra packs. That way when you stupidly try to hammer them in from the front and the rivet bends sideways you can throw it away.  Then google installing rivets and find out you're supposed to hammer then in from the back. Oops. (Mine still bent side wise 75% of the time. I curse you rivet!)

So that's the skinny on this pair of Ginger jeans. Here are some of the fitting plans I have in mind for the next pair.
1. Take out some of that hip ease that I added to the original pattern. I tend to forget that denim relaxes as you wear it and end up with baggier pants than expected.

2. Try that trick up making the back inseam 1/2" shorter than the front. I never remember this one when making pants until it's too late.

3. Reduce my full tummy adjustment by half.

4. I may need to dart the yoke out just a bit. Again it's loosing up back in the area during wear.

5. Barter an unholy deal with the devil were in all my rear fittings issues magically disappear but I have to contend with a Rosemary's Baby situation.  LOL, Nope.  Never gestating again until it can be done in a remote location. Oh dear I've horrified Past Heather. Tell her to stop trying to hide against that wall to escape devil babies. We'll just eat some more cookies to fill out those wrinkles. Problem solved.

My Quick and Dirty Hollow Chest Adjustment for Comino Cap

As I sat writing the meat of this post I kept thinking of a twitter conversation I had with Jo_Sews. She mentioned that he mother sewed for years, but had no idea about fitting.  She assumed that if a pattern didn't fit her out of the envelope it was because there was something wrong with the pattern. This stuck in my brain because it made me think, "How many people out there right now think the problem is with the pattern? When actually the problem is that they aren't aware of their own fitting issues?"

I distinctly remember in high school making a red brocade dress. (Tone on tone floral from JoAnn's. Probably polyester.... uggh) It was Asian inspired with a neru collar, frogs along the neckline (the decorative kind you know, not the fluffy kind that sits on my table) and a long slit up the leg. Even though the pattern measurements clearly showed I should have been blending two sizes, it never occurred to me to do so. I made the size that fit my hips and which made the bust area was way too big. The fit on the final dress was horrible and I never finished it, but didn't really put two and two together about why the project was a disaster. It was college that made me realize that garments need to be fit to particular bodies, even if they didn't really show us how. It took a lot of book reading, experimentation and muslining for me to figure out how to solve most of my problems, and I'm still learning new things.

Guess this is the long way of saying, "This is why I talk about my fitting changes all the time." I don't want someone to think there's a problem with the pattern, when the real problem is that we're all differently shaped. Showing my fitting fixes is something I like to do because I've been helped by other people doing the same thing. Sew smarter, not harder. :)  So let's actually get to the sew smarter part and talk about my hollow chest adjustment for the Comino Cap. Sorry for the unplanned long winded detour.

I think it's safe to say that we all have indie favorites based on style, but also based on how close our figure is to the designer. After all the designer is the "fit model" used for the drafting of the pattern. If our figure is close to theirs, then the amount of alterations needed to get the pattern to fit us are minimal.  I'll freely admit that this is one of the reasons I'm a big Kitschy Coo fan girl.  I need to make very few adjustments to Amanda's patterns because our body type is fairly similar.  But there is one area were we are completely different and that is where our bust fullness is. Amanda's bust fullness is fairly high on her torso, where as mine is working it's way down to my waistline. (Thanks for the genes great grandma.) On a one piece top I don't really notice this. However with the added visual interest of the sweet heart princess line the excess ease bothered me.  Cue the visual examples.....

Comino Cap without any changes - I get some pooling of fabric at the mid point of the bust and over towards the arm.

To figure out how much ease to remove for the seam line, I pinched out the amount of fabric naturally folding up on the seam. On me that was 1.5" of extra ease.  Then I went back to the pattern and removed that amount from the sweet heart seam.

Comino Cap with sweet heart seam line ease reduced - Smooth baby, smooth.

So now I'll show you the "quick and dirty" method used to reduce the ease on this seam line.  It's quick and dirty because instead of slashing and closing the pattern, I'm darting out the excess ease.  You can do this kind of half assed alteration to knits because the stretch gives you a larger margin of error. But It's not the "correct way" and my pattern drafting teacher would dock my grade.

This fix will work on bodies with large busts with lower fullness like mine.  I'm not so sure it would work well as a SBA type of adjustment. Amanda is going to write up a tutorial on adjusting the pattern for small busts on her blog. If a SBA adjustment is one of your standard alterations then you might want to wait for that.

It might also be helpful for everyone to know that I did not make any kind of hollow chest adjustment to the one piece version. Without the seam line to attract the eye to that area the extra ease didn't bother me.

How to Modify the Comino Cap for Hollow Chests
I'll be demoing the fitting changes on the dress bodice pattern piece. The process is the same for the shirt version.

1. Trace off a copy of the front contrast piece and the front dress/shirt piece.

2. We'll be marking out the amount of ease to be removed on the lower piece first.  The amount of ease I'm removing is 1.5".  Because this is a rather large amount for on "dart", I decided to break it up into two 3/4" segments.   The first is 1" away from the side seam.  The second is measured from the bust matching point. I used the notch as one side of the 3/4" marking.

3. Fold the first marked out area like a dart and tape it shut.

4. Repeat step 3 with the second marked out area.

5. Now we need to remove the same amount of ease from the top contrast piece. Mark out the two 3/4" (or your measurement) in the same areas of the pattern.

6. When folding the first marked out area like a dart be sure not to take very much length out of the armhole. You might want to angle the fold like this.

7. Fold the second marked out area like a dart, letting it go up into the shoulder like so.

8. The fitting adjustments are done but the patterns "as is" would be a real pain in the butt to cut. You'll want to trace new copies.

9. For the lower piece I suggest first tracing the vertical fold line, then trace the modified sweet heart line off of the adjusted piece. "True" the seam line so that it is nice and smooth and remember to transfer the center bust matching point

10. Now take the lower piece and place it on the original pattern. Trace the waist/hem seam and then blend the original side seam from the bottom up to the new edge of sweet heart neckline.

11. The upper contrast piece is relatively flat compared to the bottom, but you might still want to retrace it to smooth out the sweet heart seam line and the armhole curve.

12. Cut your new traced copies out and you're ready to make a spiffy new Comino Cap.

Ahhhhh, doesn't fixing fitting problems make you feel good? Like dancing? Then get down with your bad self. "She's a fitting freak, fitting freak, she's super freaky now...Yooewww."

Pants fitting - the cycle of hate

Hello blog readers, this is a post that I debated about writing. While I'm not an overall positive person, I do tend to be positive about my hobbies.  And to say something is hard often discourages others not to try it/increases their own doubts about trying it.  But I've decided this is an area where I just need to vent and maybe you'll just shake your head in agreement.  Ok here goes....

Pants fitting is hard!

So now let me give you some back story.  I haven't had a proper fitting pair of pants since I hit puberty and developed the family derriere.  The family derriere is large in proportion to the rest of the body and is very full at the bottom and ski slopes into the lower back. So that old adage of "take a pair of RTW pants that fit well," makes me want to grab said writer and smash their head into a wall repeatably.  (SHE HULK SMASH!)

What if every pair of pants you've every bought gaps wildly at the CB and yet does not give you enough butt coverage to confidently bend over?  (Other than maternity pants, which where the shizzel.) What if you've been living with a semi-wedge all your life that you're not even sure what a properly fitted pant is supposed to feel/look like?  What if the properly fitted pants you see in fitting books looks like something your grandma would put on with her Keds to go buy mass quantities of fabric at auctions? OK maybe your grandma plays bingo, but you get my drift.

I've been working diligently (in spurts) on pants fitting since 2011.  I've purchased several books, read blog posts, bought craftsy classes, talked to other sewcalists and still the cycle of pants fitting hate continues.  It goes like something like this...
1. See slim blogger with "flat white girl butt" rocking a newly made pair of pants.
2. Think that looks fantastic I must buy that pattern.
3. Full of enthusiasm the pattern is purchased with thoughts, "This time I'm gonna make some awesome pants and look fabulous too."
4. Pattern is traced and first muslin cut out. Dreams of fabulousness continue with planning shirts that will go with the awesome pants.
5. 1st muslin is tried on and I am once again confronted with "yes my ass is that big."  Still optimism remains, I have fitting books.... I can fix this.
6. Make 2nd muslin, try on. Think "I added 3 inches to the rise, how can this thing still be giving me a wedgie!  Also what's with all the wrinkling on the back of my thighs?"
7. Make 3rd muslin, try on... there is still not enough ass room.  I start scooping out the crotch but somehow it makes very little difference. My brain starts musing that the right measurement for the back crotch length must be some made up equation like (The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow - the number of red shirts killed in original star trek episodes x a number that Nathan Fillian is thinking right now.)  Decide to add length to the front crotch too.
8. Make 4th muslin, try on... now the damn front is f'ed up and the back looks exactly the same.  A pox upon you pants!!!
9.  Remove front crotch alteration, scoop back crotch even lower, extend back crotch another inch.  Make muslin #5, try on and.......@#&%^*(@&#%%  the back looks exactly the same as it did in muslin #2.  Commence a 15 min rant about how pants are a dirty dirty b**ch to my confused husband who replies with, "I thought your hobby was supposed to be fun."
10. There's a 50/50 split on the final step in the cycle of pants hate.  A. I make the pants anyway figuring they are slightly better than RTW cause they don't gap at the back, or B. I light the pattern on fire while laughing maniacally and then go make knit tops.

This is my long ass way of saying I'm in the middle of pants fitting again and I see the cycle of pants hate repeating and it frustrates me.  I don't want to hate pants because I vastly prefer wearing them. (Probably because I fall down a lot and not giving strangers and accidental up skirt shot is a real concern.) I want to be able to figure this out and then rock some (non granny) pants even though I have a giant ass.  Is that really too much to ask for?  Well I'm still on step 6 of the cycle of pants fitting hate so maybe, maybe this time things will be different. Cross your fingers for me.

Archer Shirt - Final Fitting Alterations

Yesterday I showed you the finished photos of Archer.  Today I'm going to show you what changes were made and how they were done. Most of these are standard stuff you find in fitting text books, but sometimes it's nice to see them done on a pattern. OK, let's get started....

Forward Shoulder Adjustment -  I'm both a sloucher and have done a lot of computer work in the past, both reasons for forward shoulders.   My standard adjustment is 1/2".
Add 1/2" to the outer edge of the shoulder seam on the back yoke.  Since the sleeve head is not on the seam line make sure to also move the sleeve head notch 1/2" forward as well.

Subtract 1/2" to the outer edge of the front shoulder seam. I'm showing the front seam with the new seam drawn in but before cutting the old one off.

Doing a forward shoulder adjustment means you can't set the sleeve in flat.....unless you don't mind shaving off a little of the sleeve/back bodice.  This is not "proper" pattern drafting but I did it and the shirt still fit great.  Take 1/2" off the front of the sleeve, I took that amount off the entire length of the sleeve and adjusted the cuff as well.  You could also take the 1/2" the sleeve cap and slowly blend it into the original side seam.  Then take 1/2" off the side seam on the back.  Here I did take that amount only off the top of the side seam, blending it into the hip.

Adding a dart with out an FBA -  Sometimes you need a dart but not extra width in the garment.  No worries you can just draw a dart in. For a semi fitted look I've found what works best for me is a dart about 4" down from the armhole angled up to the bust apex.

First I mark the bust apex which I've found through a lot of trail and error on other patterns.  If you have no idea where your bust apex is, holding the pattern piece up to your body is a good way to start.  (My breast tissue is very heavy so my apex is usually way below where the big 4 mark it.) Draw a line from the bust apex to the side seam right around where you want the dart.

Now draw in a dart around that line.  Again due to past projects I know my dart needs to be 1 1/2" wide.  I found that out by making muslins, pinching out fabric for darts and measuring how much was pinched out.

You'll need the proper shape for the dart intake so add some more paper to the side seam, fold the dart like you would when you're sewing it and then cut the paper straight along the side seam.  When you open the dart back up it will have the correct angle on the edge. (Sorry about the multiple dart, had to move that sucker up)

By adding a dart you've make the side seam smaller, so more length needs to be added. Split the amount of the dart intake (in my case 3/4") and put that amount at both the top and bottom of the side seam. True the armhole and hem so that you have a nice smooth line.

Wide Upper Back - My upper back is a bit wide through the arm scye so I always add a 1/2" extra ease for free arm movement.  Usually I slash through both the yoke and the back shirt and put a small dart in the back shoulder seam.  However Archer has a wrap around yoke and a dart would look very strange coming over the shoulder to the front.  Fortunately compared with my shirt block, Archer had about the right amount of width in the yoke.  So today I'm only going to be enlarging the main back piece.
First a slashing line was drawn on the back - measures in 2 1/2" from armhole edge on the yoke seam and 1 1/4" down from the armhole seam.

This line is cut and slid out 1/2"  Then the side seam is trued up and the size of the pleat increased so that the back will fit into the yoke.

Sway Back - Lots of extra fabric at your center back that pools up when the hem of your shirt hits your butt? I got that in spades. My usual sway back alteration is to pinch out 1".

The lengthen/shorten line is usually a good place to put the sway back alteration.  I put mine right above it.  Mark out the amount of fabric you want to remove, (in my case 1") pleat the pattern so that you take out the full amount at CB but none at the side seam. Tape that sucker down and you're done.

Huzzah, fitting changes are done!  Finger guns for everybody. Phew Phew Phew!  Now go make this wonderful pattern.

Archer button down - Fitting process

Back to button down March!  Both Archer and McCall's 5138 are making some progress on the old sewing machine. You won't see McCall's 5138 till it's done, it being a TNT there's nothing much to talk about.  But today I'm going to "lift the veil" on my half hazard fitting process.

When picking your size know that Archer is drafted to be roomy, so pick the size closest to your bust measurement.  This fact would have been clear to me had I measured that pattern.  But that would be a smart thing to do, so I naturally skipped over it and guessed what size to make.  I started off with a size 14 bust/shoulder and a 16 through waist/hip. (Blending two sizes together like this is pretty standard for me since I'm pear shaped)  On to the pics....

Muslin #1
A 14/16 size combo with the following adjustments - standard FBA that added a dart and 1" additional bust ease on the half (so 2" total), 1/2" extra width in the back on the half (1" total), 1/2" sway back adjustment and a 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment. 

Findings -  Shirt way to big every where. I like a lose shirt but not one that looks like a smock. I also forgot to move the notch for the sleeve head so the forward shoulder adjustment was not successful. 

Conclusion- Need to go down a size, add only a bust dart but not extra width, move shoulder notch, remove back width adjustment and slim sleeve down.

Muslin #2
A 12/14 size combo with the following adjustments - Bust dart added but without full FBA, 1/2" sway back adjustment and a 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment with sleeve head notch properly moved.

Findings -  Shirt much closer to the size I'd prefer.  Bust dart was properly pointed at the bust apex but visually looked too low on the side seam.  Decided that the back was too tight without my standard width adjustment.

Conclusion-Add 1/2" additional upper back width to the pattern again, pivot bust dart further up side seam, gently curve side seams for a trimmer look.

I'm currently sewing muslin #3, which will be in some navy cotton inherited from my grandmother's stash.  Felt like the fit was close enough in muslin #2 that I could risk some free to me fabric.   If the fit of that shirt is to my liking then archer will get an upgrade to some  fancy shmancy silk. Oh Boy!