Fit Details: Slim fit but stretchy. Suggyl is 112 pounds/5'3 and wears XS. Inseam: 24.5" Fabric & Care: 100% Cotton. Light and breathable cotton fabric designed for ultra comfort and movability. Hand wash cold and steam only. Description: A collaborative capsule collection with the modern muse @suggyl - Made from structured fabric with self-adjusting strap for a flexible fit. Includes front pockets and elasticated back waistband.

This weaving kit includes all the yarns needed to weave this Hang Loose Top that was designed by Lois Weaver of ZoZo Fiber Arts. This unique top is quick and easy to make. It’s meant to fit loose and hang long on each side. The asymmetric design gives it distinction, keeping it from being a boring and ordinary top. This project is easy to weave with plain weave using either your 4-harness loom or a rigid heddle loom. Lois has offered this pattern in two sizes. The smaller version is most suited for small/medium petite sizes. The larger version works well for medium/large sizes. And the pattern gives suggestions for adjusting to larger sizes.  The kit includes enough yarn to weave either small/medium or medium/large size. The pattern/tutorial is sold separately from ZoZo Fiberarts on Etsy.  It walks you through each step from warping to weaving to cutting and sewing the fabric. The pattern includes color photos, step-by-step directions, charts, and diagrams. Note:  The colors with your finished top may vary slightly from the photos.  Some yarns in the original pattern are now discontinued but we've made close substitutions. Skill Level: Intermediate Weave Structure: plain weave Yarns: 3/2 Perle Cotton, 8/2 Cotton, Zig Zag Boucle. Choose from three color combinations. Use the drop-down menu to choose from Nebula, Mysteria, or Odyssey. Equipment needed: 4-shaft or Rigid Heddle Loom with 20-23" weaving width; 10-dent reed; 1 shuttle. Instructions needed: Pattern is sold separately and can be purchased from ZoZo Fiber Arts.  ZoZo Fiber Arts offers many weaving patterns with over 400 5 Star reviews!   Note:  This kit includes all yarns needed to weave this project.  The pattern can be found on Etsy at ZoZoFiberArts.  You will need to purchase this pattern separately from this kit.

This post explains how to adjust a weaving pattern to fit your loom. Resizing and adjusting a pattern to fit your loom’s width just takes a pencil, a bit of paper, and a calculator to help you successfully adapt the project.

Adjusting patterns - the importance of fitting the back and checking the overall balance of each adjustment.

How to do common shoulder fitting adjustments: sloped shoulders, straight shoulders, forward shoulder, narrow shoulder and broad shoulder

In a comment on my Muslin #3 – Pat mentioned another pants fitting system she’d tried successfully. I decided to give it a go – Fit for Art Patterns: Eureka! Pants That Fit. I wen…

Have you purchased or sewn a garment that doesn’t fit? Likely the answer is yes. Well, we can’t have that happen! So, in this featured Sewing With Nancy

Good Morning All! I received a question about how to adjust the fit of the Magic Bias Dress from Fashion In Harmony, and I was asked if there are side seams for adjusting. I decided to do a special post to answer the question as I thought an explanation might be helpful to many of you who are making the dress. Just as a review, there are 3 main pieces to the dress. 2 sleeve patterns are included, but of course the sleeves is optional, the 3 main pattern pieces of the dress are not. There are no side seams in the dress. Look closely at the picture below. The largest pattern piece is the main body of the dress. You see the armholes and the back neck which are angled to the side. The smaller pattern piece in the top right hand corner is the front inset and includes the front neckline. Then there is a long triangular pattern piece. The long triangular piece is your key piece for adjusting the fit of the pattern. A few notes on bias garments; Remember that the bias grainline has the most stretch of the 3 grainlines in a piece of fabric. Typically, when a garment hangs on the bias, due to the stretchy nature of the bias grainline, it is not necessary to adjust the fit. With that said, bias garments look best if there are 4" to 7" of ease at the hips, at the VERY minimum, 3" of ease. Remember, we want the garment to skim the body and not cling or appear tight. If your shoulders are quite narrow compared to your bust and hip measurements, then it would be best to adjust the pattern. If your shoulders are quite narrow, choose your pattern size based on your upper bust measurement and then make adjustments to the pattern. The key to adjusting the Magic Bias Dress is the triangular pattern piece. Simply draw a line down the center of the pattern piece. Cut down the center of the pattern piece. If you need to adjust for a larger bust measurement, spread the top portion of the pattern piece the amount needed to obtain the desired ease for the bust. Also spread for the hips. If you need to adjust for an even larger hip measurement, the spread may angle out at the hip area. If the bust is fine, but you need more in the hips, cut down the center of the pattern and then keep the top portion of the triangle pattern piece together but spread for the hips. So now you see more of the "magic" of this pattern. A bias garment that's cut on the straight of grain is revolutionary. The fact that you can adjust the pattern by simply spreading what seems like a rather non-important pattern piece is ingenious! If you have any other questions about the pattern, please ask and I will do my best to answer.

This photo-essay is intended to give you an overview of one way to drape fabric on a body to achieve a tight fit. Meet Sheree. My patient model who also happens to get two finished cottes out of this experiment. For this fitting, I decided to try something new. Rather than starting with 4 separate … A straight-front seam fitting method for a bust-supportive dress Read More »

A blog about sewing unique clothing from thrifted sheets, geeky crafts, and cats.

I've had quite a few emails asking for fitting help so I'm going to delve into some common fitting adjustments here on the blog. If you have a question that isn't covered, throw it into the comments so other people can benefit from the hive mind! It's clearly your lucky day as I turned pictures of me in my bathing suit into drawings for illustrative purposes. This shows my underbust line, high waist line, low waist line, and an entirely accurate belly button. Although I am slimmer towards my underbust, the intended seam line of the pattern (The Zone) falls around the high waist (if it was at the underbust it would become empire line which might indeed be cute but is not how I designed it). Like a lot of people that may or may not have had children, things become 'less streamlined' below my high waist so the seam falling above and the drape of the skirt should skim over that and be more flattering. How do you find your Zone? When drafting for grown-ups, there's no way to make a golden pattern that will fit everyone without adjustments. Not only are people different heights and sizes, but the distribution of their body parts varies wildly. The good news is that the Skater Dress only has one really important horizontal seam- the bodice / skirt seam. I am very short-waisted (that's actual me to the left), but I manipulated the pictures to show different torso builds for a proportional waist and a long waist. This is nothing to do with your overall height, but proportions. Although the busts are identical and the underbust lines even, the high waists and low waists shift incrementally. The standard pattern pieces for the Lady Skater are for the proportional waist in the middle, which means that even I have to make changes to my own pattern to fit me better! If you have experience of making adult clothes for yourself, you probably have a good idea of your body type but if you're new to this a really useful exercise is to do just as I have: take a photo of yourself in your bathing suit or tight fitting clothes and trace around it. Find your underbust, high waist, low waist, and hip lines and look at how they are distributed. If you're still having having trouble conceptionalising, here are some (fast and loose) indications that you might have to tinker with your bodice length: Your overall height. The pattern is graded for a 5'5" woman. If you are shorter than 5'5" or taller than 5'5" you will probably need to utilise the lengthen / shorten line on the bodice. Your torso proportions. Again, this takes some body awareness and experience, but if you are short or long waisted you will need to adjust the bodice piece to remove or add height. Bust size. This is the least important factor of the three but if you are of the small to average bust you might need to shorten your bodice as less of the fabric is being used to go up and over the breasts. Equally, very large busts might need to add length to the front bodice piece / remove length from the back bodice to have an evenly hanging hemline. Bodice length adjustments might be something that you're able to do to the pattern before sewing, but you might find that locating your Zone is only achievable after muslining the bodice. If you've made the bodice and tried it on, is it hitting you at your high (natural) waist? Is it too close to your underbust? Is it clinging or pooling somewhere closer to your low waist because it's too long? Lengthening your bodice This is probably the most straight-forward change to make! All you need to do is split the pattern all the way across the lengthen line, add height with a piece of paper underneath, and smooth your side seams. The grey section is what you've added. Make sure you do the same change to your front and back bodice. Shortening your bodice Split your bodice along the shorten line, pull the bottom section up so that it overlaps with the top section (keeping the fold line aligned), and then smooth out your side seam. The grey section shows the overlap. Make sure you do the same change to your front and back bodice. I'm happy with my front bodice length but my back bodice is hanging lower / I'm having pooling centre back: As per my tutorial instructions, I highly recommend that you muslin the bodice before cutting precious hoarded fabric. When you make the bodice to ascertain if the waistline is hitting 'The Zone', you might notice when turning sideways that the back bodice is hanging lower than the front. Or- you might not notice until your final dress is finished and you want to know how to fix it. Uneven hems can be very common, particularly if you're busty. Now, I did a sway back adjustment to every size of the master pattern to try to counteract this but your own proportions might mean that you need to make further adjustments. Like the lengthen and shorten instructions above, what you need to do is slash your pattern along the lengthen / shorten line but do not cut through your size line on the side seam, only cut very close to it. Swing the lower section upwards so that you are overlapping the upper section at the centre back. This probably won't need to be a huge overlap (3/4" to 1"), and tape in place. The centre edge of the lower section will swing over the vertical fold line. Return this line to vertical and (if required) add the same amount of width that you removed at the centre vertical to the side seam. The sway back adjustment is essentially taking a wedge out of centre back to reduce pooling, nothing else is changing in a major way. Depending on how much you removed, you might need to smooth your bottom seam line so it's convex rather than a harsh angle. If you only found this pooling after your entire dress was complete, try it on inside out and with the help of a friend pull the back bodice / skirt seam up until the hem is even and pin in place. Seam-rip along the centre back (the side seams should be unaffected), remove the excess to the back bodice piece and re-sew. If you find pooling both at the front and the back your bodice is too long. My high bust and waist aren't the same sizes: When you are measuring your high bust and high waist, you might find that your high bust corresponds to a different size than your waist. The above picture shows smoothing the side seam between smaller bust / larger waist and larger bust / smaller waist. When blending sizes, the majority of the extra room happens in the bust where its needed. Depending on your fabric choice and your cup size, you might find that you need more room in the bust only. Using a fabric with less stretch capacity like interlock or jersey without lycra might result in a drag line across the full bust. Fixing this is almost the same as blending a larger bust to smaller waist except you're doing it to the front bodice only. Adding extra width to the armhole and upper bodice means that you'll have to also add the same amount to the front sleeve so it fits. If the front bodice side seam becomes slightly longer than the back bodice side seam, ease the extra length into the top half of the seam where the bust is. **EDITED TO ADD ANOTHER ONE BASED ON COMMENTS** Shortening the shoulder height / Upper bust height: If you find that after making a bodice muslin that there is pooling above your bust towards the sleeve hole, or that the sleeve cap is sitting funky off your shoulder cap, you might need to shorten your shoulder height or shoulder width. With your bodice muslin on inside out, pinch the shoulder seam to bring it up and pin out the excess. On your paper pattern, match the amount you pinned out to the corresponding smaller size (for example, if you pinned 1/4" below the shoulder seam you would go down one size to both the front and back bodices, 1/2" goes down two sizes, etc). Use that armscye / sleeve hole but when you get to the side seam increase the width to your original size. In the picture above (as per Lyn's adjustments in the comments!), I'm showing how to use the upper bust and shoulder of a size 3 with the width of the size 6 in the lower bodice. Use the sleeve of the smaller size but add the extra width at the front and back corners to reflect the size of your lower bodice. I hope all of this helps! If you have a question about fitting that I haven't covered, chuck it in the comments. Pin It Tweet

Adapt patterns to accommodate your posture.

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Learn how to use a sloper to simplify altering commercial patterns.

Here's an on-the-body fitting method that is odd to execute but is uniquely helpful in showing you exactly what fitting adjustment is needed at the back-crotch seam.

Once again, the wonderful team of Artesane share the second part of the trousers adjustments with us! Thanks so much! ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Now that you can alter the legs of a…

The fit of the Morden Work Pants is very relaxed with a mid-rise. There are knee darts to help with mobility and comfort. We highly recommend making a muslin to test for fit and if you need to make any pattern adjustments. Some very common adjustments that people need to make to pants patterns are: Adjusting inseam

Location: Otakon 2024 - Marriott Marquee M3 Level, Chinatown Workshop Room Date: Friday, August 2nd, 2024 Time: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm EST Class Length: 2 hours Ever finished a garment from a pattern and it just didn't fit quite right? In this hands-on demonstration, the head pattern maker of CUT/SEW will walk students through the process of adjusting patterns at their most basic level for common fit issues. Learn how to take in, let out, lengthen, and shorten patterns, plus learn hacks and techniques for adding or removing bulk from pesky areas that cause common fit issues like the shoulders, bust, inseam, and more. In this workshop you'll learn: How to transfer a commercial pattern to paper to allow for adjustments Which areas of patterns correspond to common fit issues How to take in and let out patterns How to lengthen and shorten patterns How to add or remove bulk from the middle of patterns How to add or remove darts Prerequisite Skills: Familiarity with sewing patterns and how they're used Basic sewing skills/completion of at least one finished garment About the Instructor: Madison May, the head pattern maker at CUT/SEW, founded the company in 2016. With almost fifteen years of experience in the costume and fashion industry, Madison has provided patterns to both broadway & off-broadway productions, major US theme parks, international cruise lines, and television. Cosplay has been a hobby of hers since 2005 and she also is active in the cosplay photography community under the moniker of Final-Egirl. The Nitty Gritty: To participate in this class you must be at least 16 years of age Space is limited and all tickets are first come first serve Purchasing a ticket reserves one (1) seat at this class. For multiple tickets, please add more than one ticket to your cart All tickets are final sale. In the event of a no-show, no refunds will be available Tickets will be delivered digitally to the email address provided at checkout. This digital ticket will be needed to enter the event. All classes start promptly at the time they're scheduled for. In the event of tardiness, you may miss certain aspects of the class and may not be able to complete the scheduled project in full Our Sponsors for the 2024 Cosplay Sewing Gallery:             Be sure to take advantage of our sponsor Bernette's Sewing Gallery machine specials during this class, including: The Bernette Crafter at a discounted price of $249 The Bernette Academy bundle with two free CUT/SEW sewing patterns included The Bernette 77 discounted to $999 (normally $1,499) The Bernette 79's Yaya Han edition discounted to $2,199 (normally $2,499). The Bernette 70 embroidery machine and the Bernette 79 embroidery + sewing machine come with free Bernina Creator embroidery digitizing software through the end of August, valued at $1,299. These specials will be available at Bernette's pop up shop at Otakon in the Mount Vernon panel room (next door to the workshop room this class takes place in)

Fun fact about me: I love puzzles. Love ‘em. Sit a 1,000 piece puzzle down in front of me and I’ll be glued to the table until it’s complete! It turns out that jigsaw puzzles aren’t the only puzzles that I enjoy. I also love a good knitting puzzle, as I like to call them. Knitting patterns that I ad

Fitting a swayback. It's quite simple to get rid of the folds that are on the back of your dresses if you have a swayback. I'll show you how, step-by-step

Good morning, everyone! In light of the official start to the OAL2018, I wanted to share a little tutorial for a very common pants adjustment – adjusting crotch depth. Even if you are not par…

Today is the third installment in the Blackwood Cardigan Sewalong! In case you missed the first few posts, we have covered how to grade between sizes, how to do a quick ‘cheater’ full ... Read More

Guys, I’m not gonna lie, this was one project where I bit off more than I could chew. Every fit revisions has so much nuance that it’s going to be a lot to cover. Way back in January I wrote about how to determine the right bicep for your arm. Since it’s now many months later, I figured it would be a good thing to

Today will be the first post in a 2 part series on doing full bust adjustments on patterns without any darts. For the first post, we will be covering a quick ... Read More

ITEM DESCRIPTION: We have compiled a booklet. The BOOKLET is named: 'A Guide to Adjusting and Altering Vintage Sewing Patterns' ~ Condition: Brand New . We have compiled a booklet. Compiled by Lady Queenie Quinn. Over 87 pages of a scrapbook style, it is a comprehensive, informative booklet with full illustrations, which takes you through the first positive steps toward perfecting your fitting skills by adjusting and altering Vintage Sewing Patterns. Comes as an A4 Plastic bound booklet. You will learn a logical step-by-step Adjusting, Altering and fitting methods, that will guide you through difficult areas and reinforce what you already know. Understanding the principals and fundamentals of pattern tissue adjustments can be the beginning of a whole new wardrobe of personalized Vintage Fashion. It widens your range when purchasing Vintage Sewing Patterns therefore allowing you far more variety in your choice. You have widened your options! Over the years and from my days of studying ‘fashion Design and Pattern Cutting’ at the London College of Fashion, I have collected on the way from various sources some brilliant information, and have compiled my favourite and most useful bits in this informative booklet to facilitate with your Vintage Sewing Patterns. Sewing Pattern adjustments are neither difficult nor time consuming once you understand the procedure - and you need only to understand the ones you require. This booklet covers aspects of the body form where most common adjustments are required. See below for Contents list. Printed in English. Any Questions please ask PLEASE NOTE: This booklet is far more extensive than the booklet that accompanies each pattern that we sell. The booklet that you get with each pattern does have some information on Adjustments (2 pages), however does not go to the extent that this booklet involves. This is far more detailed, informative, technical, and more descriptive with lots of Diagrams ~ Any questions please do not hesitate but contact. Thank you for looking. CUSTOMER FEEDBACK RECEIVED "OMG, this book is FANTASTIC & totally IDIOT PROOF, WONDERFUL thank you so much". "Excellent waited a long time for something like this dressmakers dream AAAAAAAAA" “Informative & well-written.Nice accompaniment to pattern purchase.Thanks so much” “full of information on altering vintage patterns. cant wait to start thank you” "Excellent item and service! It helped me to resize my pattern to fit me!!!!" "Just what you need to help alter vintage patterns!" "The booklet is worth a read and represents good value". "Delighted with the Book!! - excellent service and comms. too = Thankyou" "What a brilliant booklet! Great idea from a great seller! Highly recommend!" "The book is wonderful! Very professionally put together.Highly recommended". "Brilliant booklet - full of useful info" "Fantastic book well worth the money x quickly dispatched x" "everyone should have this book. lovely" "A 'must have' if u r interested in retro sewing patterns.Great comms and del. A+" Very useful guide to working with vintage patterns! Fab product - fantastic service again! The one to use - gr8 quality. Thanks Great book! Excellent service. Very quick delivery & exactly as described. Thank you so much Excellent service, would recommend, will buy again Informative guide, well presented. Thank you This book is perfect! Will use it a lot Great ebayer. Very helpful. Highly recommended. Many thanks. great book - lots of handy hints – thanks Just received guide. Brilliant, will be invaluable. Many thanks Arrived promptly, brilliantly designed book, very very elpful, thank you x Please Note we have the following 3 pattern offers: OFFER 1 - Select 6 patterns, only pay for 5 = 1 FREE OFFER 2 - Select 13 patterns, only pay for 10 = 3 FREE OFFER 3 - Select 27 patterns, only pay for 20 = 7 FREE (FREE pattern/s are the lowest price of your selection).

Bonjour, my lovely otters! Earlier this week, we talked through altering a princess seamed bodice, when you've been blessed with, as my younger brother would say, bazoongas. We went from perfectly lovely pattern pieces to darling little monsters that can actually fit over our busts. Hooray! Now, the bad news: there's still work left to be done. The thing about princess seams is that they are much more fitted to your bust than a traditionally darted bodice. That's what makes them flattering, but that's also what makes them hard to fit. In light of that, today I'm going to share some guidelines for fitting and sewing a princess seamed bodice. Like my last post, they're specifically tailored for large busted sewists, because, well, that's what I am. Tip #1: Muslin, That Sucker! For a really long time, I was not a muslin maker. Sewing is something I do in my spare time, so consequently, I like it to be as fun as possible. Making a muslin is about as fun as eating a diet brownie: it feels like making a dress, but there's no "I can wear this!" joy. Nowadays, a great fit is as important to me as pretty fabric, so muslins are necessary evil. With princess seams, they're an imperative one. We now have two pattern pieces that will actually fit over our bosoms. This is a good start! What we now need is for those pattern pieces to actually fit our bosoms. Let's be honest, boobs are a magical mystery. People with the exact same bra size can have radically different bust shapes. As a result, your princess seams won't fit just like mine, nor should they. We've already come so far in fitting that we may as well get a perfectly individual bodice while we're at it. So: make a muslin. That way, you can take all the pattern adjustments you need, before cutting out that pretty floral silk. Tip #2: Pin From The Bottom You know how your side bodice curves all crazy like, but your center bodice is straight as a pin? We're going to put those two together. Such fun! In order to do this, you're going to "ease" the pieces together. All that means is gently pin your straight piece around the curves of your side piece, so that it also curves. So easy! My preferred method to do this is to pin the very top and very bottom together first, then pin from the bottom up. That way, your fabric is guaranteed to line up along the straight bits. Tip #3: Use a 1/2'' Seam! I cannot stress this enough, friends. When you sew up your fabric - whether it's your muslin or your fashion fabric - do not use a 5/8'' seam. Part of the whole problem with sewing princess seams is that they can fold and warp, as you sew around the curve. Sewing with a smaller seam allowance gives much more control over the fabric and prevents this from happening. I can't tell you how many seams I picked apart, before learning this trick! To do this, just trim a 1/8'' off of each seam allowance and sew as usual. If you'd like even more fitting wiggle room in the muslin-making stage, you can also just leave the original seam allowance in, but take this smaller seam size. This what I usually do, as inevitably the curve needs to come out a little bit on my upper bust anyway. It's entirely up to you! Just don't sew with a 5/8'' seam, I beg you. Tip #4: Don't Clip the Seam Allowances, Until After Fitting Invariably, every single princess seam tutorial has a part about clipping the seam allowances, in order to make the seams lay flat. This is fantastic advice, after you've properly fit the bodice. When you adjust the fit, you may need some of that room back, so clipping it away is a bad idea. Instead, press the seams toward the center. They'll be bubbly, but you'll fix that after fitting! So, this is my muslin of the Elisalex bodice we made on Monday! See how gaping and crazy my my lower bust and underbust are? This is why I don't clip seam allowances beforehand. There is some work to be done yet. The bubbly wrinkles on the seams, however, aren't actually a fit issue. That's just what princess seams do, until you clip them and open them. Those'll press out eventually, don't panic! Tip #5: Pin, pin, pin! When you're fitting princess seams, pins are your best friend. For each alteration you're planning on making, pin both sides of your bust line. Personally, I'm taking a 1/2 inch out of my lower bust on both sides, then a whole inch on each side of my under bust and waist. So, I pin where I plan to blend away from the seam allowance (top pin), where I want a full 1/2 inch out (middle pin), then where I want to transition into to taking an inch out (lower pin). Tip #6: Fit a Small Rib Cage! As you can tell from the pictures so far, I'm plagued by a relatively small rib cage. My breasts are generous, as are my hips, but the area between them is relatively small. (My waist is over 12 inches smaller than both of those measurements!) This is a great example of a fitting problem that only "plus sized" or "cross-sized" (fitting both size spectrums - sizes 12-16) women usually encounter. All too often, larger sizes on patterns assume we're large all over. I'm, as is obvious from the muslin, not. So, I've had to learn how to deal with it, when doing pattern adjustments. For traditional bust adjustments, I just make the darts wider over my waist and ribcage. Easy peasy! For princess seams, however, the fix is nontraditional. The side piece of the Elisalex bodice actually fits me really well. It's the center front that's too big - pooling into those unsightly wrinkles you see under my bustline. So...take more out of the center front! When I went back to this muslin, I unpicked all the way up to my lower pin. Then, I trimmed an inch off of each side of the center front bodice. Then, I matched it back up with the side bodice and resewed a 1/2 inch seam. This is my result, when I've done that and taken that extra bit out of the lower bust: So much better, right? As you can see, I've fixed the pooling under my bust and the too large curve around my lower bust. It's still a bit big over my rib cage, which I'll fix on the pattern itself, but not on this muslin. I'm just using this as a lining, in the end, so it doesn't have to be quite so fitted. Tip #7: Battling Bust Wrinkles! First off, we clip! Instead of going through that process, just hop over to the lovely and brilliant Gertie's blog. She gives a fabulous explanation of the best way do this. It's exactly my method, I just do it after I've sewn. Once you've clipped, grab your tailor's ham and a little cup of water. We're going to steam the heck out of these seams. Instead of just using the steam burst on my iron, I like to fully wet the seam. That way, I can really steam these pesky bubbles to death. I open the seams, put it over my tailor's ham, splash some water on them, then press press press! Once you've finished, try it on again! If you still have wrinkles, press again and again and again. If they're not fitting issues caused from a too-tight seam, they'll come out. Take a look at my final product: There are wrinkles caused by me crumpling my center fabric, but check out those bust seams! So much smoother. I still need to iron out some wrinkles on my top left, but they're infinitely better. Woohoo! Bonus Tip: Finding a new Bust Apex! What happens if you've put your new bodice pieces on and they can't be fixed by little tweaks? Your curves may not actually go over your bust center, for example. If that's the case, mark your actual bust apex on the center bust piece of your muslin and return to our original pattern. Is that apex lower or higher than our black side bust dot, when measuring up from the waist? Wherever it is, mark it on the original pattern pieces, then redo your FBA based on that spot, instead of the original apex. You probably won't have to do this, but it's a good trick to know, if you come across a pattern that's wildly out of sync with your body. There we go! Princess seams fully broken down. Would anybody like me to do a tutorial for a darted bodice FBA, as well? It's been fairly well-covered in the blogosphere, but if you want to see what those pattern pieces look like for a large bust, I'd be happy to document my process again.

Everyone can have jeans that fit. Learn how to get great fitting jeans by altering the pattern for a customized fit.

The common sense approach that I prefer takes the mystery out of the pattern-fitting puzzle. In Solving the Pattern Fitting Puzzle Part Two, I’ll continue

Your favorite off-the-rack fashions hold the secret to perfectly shaped sleeve caps and armholes.

Fit Details: Slim fit but stretchy. Suggyl is 112 pounds/5'3 and wears XS. Inseam: 24.5" Fabric & Care: 100% Cotton. Light and breathable cotton fabric designed for ultra comfort and movability. Hand wash cold and steam only. Description: A collaborative capsule collection with the modern muse @suggyl - Made from structured fabric with self-adjusting strap for a flexible fit. Includes front pockets and elasticated back waistband.

After finishing Version 1 of the Colette Moneta, I was totally in love with the dress except for one thing. I had a major case of armhole gape. This is not an uncommon problem for me. Armhole gape tends to afflict more cylindrical figures - meaning, narrow shoulders/ribcage but a fuller bust. If I gave my dress to another person that had the same bust measurement, but a wider ribcage and smaller bust [imagine a more oval cross-section than a round one], it might fit them perfectly. It is just a simple fact that different pattern brands fit various physiques differently. One of the joys of sewing is learning how to adapt them to fit your specific body shape. So what can we do about armhole gape? When working with wovens, it's not really a biggie at all. You can pinch out the excess at the armscye, then transfer it to a bust dart as detailed in this tutorial. After searching online, however, I couldn't really find much info about how to fix armhole gape without involving any darts, i.e., on knits. While I could have added a side dart, I really wanted to do it without. So below is a tutorial for how I got rid of my armhole gape without adding a dart. I'm sure there are multiple ways to do this. I'm not sure if this way is 'textbook' [probably not], or at all the best way to do it, but it's what my brain came up with. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions that are less convoluted, more logical or even just prettier, I'd love to hear in the comments! First, let's talk about the fit. Here's a picture of the finished dress again, without the text: You can see that there is a lot of extra fabric around the front of the armscye. [I failed to take a picture of the back, but the back fit very well.] The first thing to do is the pinch out the extra fabric at the front of the armscye. It will naturally want to form a little dart there. Pin that dart in place. My center neckline was also gaping in the front, so I pinched and pinned that a little as well. Ah! Already so much better. Now mark the pin placement with a marker and unpin. I'd highly recommend tracing your front bodice pattern piece off to do the alterations. It takes about a minute, and if you end up making a mistake or want to start over later, you'll thank yourself. You can get rolls of tracing paper at art supply stores. Using the pin marker dots, trace the dart onto your pattern piece. Remember to account for seam allowances when lining things up, and use your ruler to make the lines nice and straight. Now, draw a line from the apex of the dart to the bottom center front corner. Cut out your dart. Now cut along the line almost all the way to, but not through, the end. You want to leave a little uncut so you have a tiny hinge of paper: Now move the pattern hinges to overlap slightly so that the end of the dart at the armscye line up. Tape in place. [I know this is a little weird because ideally, you'd line up the dart legs, but we shall not worry about it now and will address it later.] Tape some paper under the armscye. Use a curved ruler to redraw the line smoothed out, averaging the jagged edges. Trim. Trace the original bodice pattern again, but don't cut it out yet. Place your altered pattern piece on top and line up the side seams. Trace around the armscye, shoulder and neckline. [For some reason my red sharpie was bleeding into the tracing paper like nobody's business. Please excuse.] Use your ruler and draw a new center front line from the end of your new neckline to the original bottom center front. Now, by this point we have decreased the ease across the bust - a little when we overlapped the dart legs, and a little just now when we redrew the center front line. I definitely did not want to do that, as it was quite fitted there already. So to add the ease back in, redraw the side seam. You can put the paper over the original pattern piece to see the width there to help you see about how much to add back in. Almost there. Now we just have to deal with the bottom edge. Use a ruler to draw a pencil line that is square [90 degrees] to the new center front line. Use a curved ruler to blend a new bottom line from the side seam to the squared line. Now cut out your new pattern piece [make sure you follow the new lines!] and label it. At this point to account for the neckline gape, I drew another new center front line that took some from the neckline edge and blended back to the original line down at the bottom. I didn't seem to get a picture, but it's pretty simple! You can see pictures of the dress finished with updated armscyes here. I hope this was clear enough and helped you out a little! A few things to note: - If you make version 2 and 3, remember that you must also alter the sleeve piece to reflect the changes you made the the front bodice. I haven't done that yet so as of now no tutorial [I'll update this post if I do one.] -If you change the neckline, you'll have to also change the collar piece to match. Again I'd love to hear any other suggestions, ideas or ways to do it differently [or better!], so please, comment away!

Make sure your dart hits in the right place by adjusting the bust apex on your sewing pattern

Hi Sewcialists! Have you ever seen a pattern where every single size on the tissue paper has a bigger and bigger neckline? Or noticed how a shirt in a store has an incredibly long sleeve and an ext…

I have picked up a handful of fitting hints I should not keep secret! Sewing should be FUN. That is why we buy and use Lutterloh. Why not master some great ways to fit your patterns? When you think about fitting a garment the first thing to consider is: "what does everything hang off of?" Starting at my head my next widest part is my shoulders. All my dresses and tops hang off my shoulders so why not get that part of the pattern correct every time with a this tool. My handy tool is a tracing of my neck and shoulders. I had my daughter trace me with a pencil. It took a couple of tries with a three year old about. This is the paper tracing. It was taped to the wall and needs some touch up Let's start with getting the shoulder correct. 1) Collect a piece of paper wide enough and long enough to capture a tracing of your shoulder and neck. 2) Make a straight line down the center of the paper. We just folded ours in half. 3) Tape the piece of paper on the wall at a level you can stand at and easily be traced from Stand so you are in the middle of the center line. Your helpful friend can make sure you are in the center. 4) Have someone trace you by holding the pencil straight up. Start at the neck below your ears, trace all the way down your shoulder and slightly onto your arm. Repeat for the other side. Don't move one more step...... Have your helper put a nice big dot at your neck just as it turns to your shoulder (where a neckless chain would rest) and then at the peak of your shoulder. To find that raise your arm and feel for the space where the shoulder bends. 5) Take down the paper and using a french curve tidy up and smooth out your shape. You can use a marker for this to make a nice dark outline. I put my Shoulder shape on a piece of cardboard. It gets used over and over again. Now each time you make a Lutterloh pattern you can lay it over your shoulder shape and see if it fits you properly. If it doesn't use the fix I show you in the photos below. This will also help you see if the garment is much too wide across the shoulder or too narrow. This is the tidied up shoulder that I traced on cardboard. I also added a red line to note the lowest I'd want a neck line to go. Might as well check that while I do the shoulder check. I'm going to use a commercial pattern so you can see it on the white cardboard background. My Lutterloh patterns are all made on White paper. White on White in photos? I think not. This is a princess line top I've made before. We only need the part of the pattern that will hang off our shoulder. Fold back any button bands, etc. We will lay the center line of the pattern on the center line of our shoulder drawing. Now for the fun. Lay the pattern on the center line and match the pattern to the shoulder. I never put seam allowances on my Lutterloh patterns. I add them on the fabric. This pattern however has 5/8 seam allowances so I have red penciled them so I can avoid using them. We want to do our measuring on the stitching line. The pattern is also a multi-size pattern and I am using one of the smaller sizes, so you will see that extra paper. Here's a nice close look, remember it's a multi-sized pattern so the paper above the neck mark is the larger sizes not in use. Hum looks like a lot of fabric I don't need. I've laid two rulers down. One on the shoulder of the pattern, one on my shoulder line. It was over 1 1/2 inches different. That extra fabric becomes a bubble of fabric above my bust. It makes my armscye too large also if this was a sleeveless top I'd have a loose arm hole. This can work both ways. Your shoulder could be higher than your pattern allows for and you may need to add fabric. One important note: If I was going to put in a 1 1/2 inch shoulder pad then I should NOT make this change! The shoulder pad will take that space. Maybe I will put in a low shoulder pad then make a small adjustment in the shoulder. Ready to correct this problem? 1) establish two cutting lines One line horizontal about 2 inches below the armscye. I use my cutting boards lines to get a nice straight line. Just mark it with a pen. 2) Make a 2nd pen line vertical from the shoulder (about 2 inches or so from the armscye) To the Horizontal line you just made Note: Before I go any further, because I know this pattern I have pinned out the extra width in the shoulder. I will have to add a large bust change but that's another issue. This pattern is much too far down my shoulder and would look like a drop shoulder which it is not. If your bodice hits your shoulder where you want it no change need be considered. 3) Here is the piece I marked in two directions and now cut free from the bodice pattern. It will help me correct that extra 1 1/2 inch shoulder problem. It looks shocking to cut up a pattern but we will put it back together soon! 4) Slide your loose piece to the point that it hits your shoulder at it's armscye end. Click on the photos to see this up close. Remember I have a seam allowance in the way. Be sure to match the sewing line to your shoulder with both pieces. I now have one pattern piece up high and one down where it should be on my shoulder. (Because I still need to loose some of the width of this shoulder I have overlapped the two pieces a little, You may not need this so slide the lower piece right next to the higher piece butt them together don't overlap them. When using a Lutterloh pattern I use a size that fits better than this commercial pattern does) 5) If this is was a larger amount to remove you would need some spare paper underneath to add to the missing spaces you encounter. Lay your ruler down on top of the shoulder line you see underneath the pattern. Now draw a nice line across the two pieces. It should connect the highest point with the lowest. Here is the finished shoulder. My top should hang on my shoulder perfectly now! It's a much better start to have the pattern hanging off the shoulders correctly before you do anything else. If you removed/added some from the neck edge (I didn't) then remove/add that amount from your collar. Don't remove it from the center back, remove it from the shoulder line. Photo to follow. Because this was a multi-sized pattern I just folded over the pattern pieces. With your Lutterloh pattern just cut off the un-needed area. DON'T FORGET TO REPEAT THIS ON THE BACK PIECE. Small adjustments may be needed on the sleeve. Walk it in the armscye and see if you need to adjust this. I'll show sleeve adjustment in my next posting. ************************************************ Did that hint give you some ideas? Well here are some more hints to help make every pattern fit you and your shape. ******************************************* Let's do some FRENCH CURVE work. Yes get that curve out and let's learn how to use it to get the fit we want. By comparing some of our best fitting garments we can transfer Our French curve shape to the Lutterloh patterns. Look at all the places you use the French curve in pattern making. Many of these locations can be checked in our favorite clothes and used on our Lutterloh pattern. Use the french curve to note your hip shape Save your favorite hip shape from your pants or your skirt and use it over and over Check the curve in your crotch to improve fit. CAUTION: The area without red in the crotch should be mostly straight. This is where the French curve shines. Note your favorite necklines Check your favorite sleeves Check your Cap and curve see why you never never like your garments sleeves by comparing the french curve lines with a favorite garment. The French curves have numbers all the way around and down the French curve. These are the numbers we will want to note. I am using my favorite curve in the photos below. HIPS: repeat your hip shape by noting the numbers on the curve that fit your hip shape. These are my favorite pants, most of my skirts are gathered but you can get this shape from a skirt also. I work from just below the waist band down to just past the widest part of my hip. REMEMBER: place the French curve on the seam line not the cut edge. As you can see in this photo my widest part of my hip is only 4 inches down from my waist. It hasn't mattered if I was skinny or thick, it's still just 4 inches. I used the straight edge of the French curve to show you that you only need to measure the curve area, once your leg is straight it is not a french curve area. If you need to see where the curve ends just lay a yard stick up the straight of your leg and note where it no longer touches the pant. Measure from there to the waist. Slide the French curve up and down until you find the perfect match to the shape. ****** 1) Find an outfit that fits as you like, a skirt or pair of pants work. Smooth it out on the table, wrong side out is sometimes a better way to see what the shape of the skirt is. Only measure along the stitching line. 2) A French curve will fit any curve but you must move it up and down until it perfectly fits the shape you want to take note of. 3) Write these important fitting numbers on a bright recipe card. At the waist band bottom what number is on the french curve? Write it as top #__. With out moving the french curve note the place were your body no longer curves but hangs straight. That would be Bottom #___. Now when you make a skirt or even a pair of pants you can take your french curve and check that the Lutterloh pattern fits your shape. Match the top number you wrote down to the pattern waist, and the bottom number to where the curve ends. Did your pattern match the French curve? If not trace around the French curve and use the new shape. This is a quick easy change to make. REMEMBER measure on the stitching line not the cutting line ******** This little trick works for your neck line also. I don't like surprises when I make a neckline. I don't like it to be too loose, or too low or not look perfect. Take a couple of necklines you really like and using the french curve do as you did for your hip. 1. Fold the top or dress in half so you only work with half the neck. 2. Move the french curve on the neck line until the shoulder seam and the bottom of the neckline match the french curve. You can see the direction I have placed the curve in the photo above. REMEMBER: you measure the sewing line not any facings or neck finishes. This is a V neck I really like, it isn't straight but curved a bit. Because it is a V neck I did not fold the top as the V was clearly the center. It is also a knit so I washed it first to make sure it wasn't stretched out from wearing it. 3. Note the number at the shoulder seam as Top #___ Note the bottom of the neck as Bottom #___ You can barely see the V in this busy top. But the numbers are Top 12 2/8 Bottom 22 I have only showed you the hips curve and the neckline. You can use this for the armscye and the crotch of your pants. I will address those in another posting as there are several issues to show you. So for now go measure some hips and necks in your favorite outfits. Write the top number on the curve and the bottom number on a master sheet and put them to use in your pattern making. Hope this improves all the patterns you make from here on! Here is where you can get more information on these techniques. Using the shoulder slant = Threads fitting DVD Series Torso Using your french curve=Peggy Sagers DVD Success from the start http://www.silhouettepatterns.com/html/media.htm This is a great video that will teach you how to compare all your patterns to the clothes you like to wear. If you struggle to understand sleeves this also answers the questions you didn't know you had. I love this video!

Tapering and widening pants involves more than just adjusting the leg seams. Learn how to make a custom fit when adjusting pants.

Okay guys, this post has turned into a pretty long and reasonably epic one and that's because there's not actually a lot of information out there on doing Full Bust Adjustments on fitted knit patterns. There are lots of tutorials for FBA's on wovens, but not knits - which I suppose comes down to the fact that knits are much more forgiving. That being said, I completely understand that for some of you, an FBA may be needed, even on a stretchy knit like Bronte. I would always do a muslin to check if you can get away without doing one first though, and one thing you may want to consider trying first is cheating the extra room you need in the front by grading up a size or two in the bust on the front pattern piece only, and then adding length at the 'Lengthen/shorten' line on both pattern pieces. If you don't think that this is going to work for you though, then please read on... Doing an FBA (Full Bust Adjustment) The goal of an FBA is to add width and length to the front pattern piece to accommodate a bust that is larger than a B or C cup (most often a B cup in commercial patterns), without messing with the neckline. To do this, you generally slash and spread your pattern. (Note - you will end up creating a bust dart with a standard FBA, but don't worry, we'll talk about that in a moment). I'm not going to go into detail about how to do a standard FBA, mostly because there are so many great tutorials out there already (I love how clear this one is, but as I said, there are lots of great ones). What I would like to point out though is that when you take your high bust measurement and bust measurement to get how much you should be adding to your bust line, remember that you are dealing with a fitted knit pattern that is meant to have some negative ease (i.e it's deliberately smaller than your measurements and that's where the stretch comes in, to skim and hug your body). For this reason, I wouldn't add in the normal amount you would on a woven. Perhaps try adding half your normal amount to Bronte first, and then see if you need more. For example, if you have a 1 inch difference, try adding in 1/2 an inch first. One other thing you'll need to consider is where your apex actually sits on the pattern. Due to the fact that Bronte is a knit with negative ease, you can't necessarily hold the pattern up to you to find it (as you would on a woven). I honestly don't really have any scientific way of finding this either. All I can suggest is that you try on some other similar tops, locate your apex on them, and then transfer this to your Bronte pattern piece. Alternatively, make up a muslin without the FBA and locate it once you've got it on, then do an FBA on the pattern piece. I can't think of an easier way, but if you have one, do let us know! What to do with that dart you've now created... Now that you've done your standard FBA, you're going to be left with a side bust dart, and that's because you've added length to the side seam of the front and not to the back. That dart takes care of the extra length you've added so that your front and back pattern pieces will match along the side seam. Below is my 'faux' FBA on my mini Bronte pattern piece - I've just guessed where the apex may be and then have slashed and spread my pattern piece to create the imaginary extra room needed and therefore the side dart... Do you see that pesky dart we created on the side seam underneath the arm pit? Bronte (and most knit t-shirts) are dart-less, so how do you deal with this extra side length in a knit t-shirt? Below are three options, but there are probably more, so do let us know if you have one. 1 - Ease the dart into the side seam If you don't want to sew in a side seam dart, then you could think about rounding out the dart and then easing the excess into your side seam. I would approach this in much the same way I would when easing a sleeve cap into a set-in sleeve. Put some basting stitches into the seam allowance, gather them lightly into a 'cup' and sew up the side seam. If you have a length-wise stretch in your fabric, you could also think about stretching your back piece down a little to help accommodate any excess side ease from the front. Be careful when doing this though as you don't want to stretch your fabric so much that you end up with wrinkles and ripples in the final garment. 2 - Dart Manipulation 1. Once you've performed your FBA, you'll be left with a pattern piece that looks something like the below. You'll have a 'dart' at the side bust that you might want to rotate that dart out, so... Does this picture look like half a Transformer to anyone else? 2. Transfer the straight line of your bottom left pattern piece (the red dashed line below) onto the paper below your pattern, you'll use this as a guide in the next few steps. 3. At the pivot point circled below, bring your bottom left bodice section back up and tape in place. Below is what that'll look like, with the grey dashed line indicating the line you drew in step 2. 4. Cut back along that old 'dart' leg indicated by the red dashed line (yes, the one you just joined back up in step 3) BUT leave a pivot point at the side seam (indicated by the circle below). Using your pivot point, bring your bottom left section back up and align it with your original, dashed line. 5. True up your bottom hem. And you're done!! The honey coloured outline below is the original piece - you can see that you've kept the additional length and width that came from doing the FBA, but you've eliminated the dart at the same time. So that, Ladies, is how it's done. Let me know if you have any questions or have any success with this method! I'd love to hear about it. 3 - Sew the dart in For some people, sewing the dart into the t-shirt might just be the best option, particularly if you have a large cup size. This might seem like a strange thing to have in a knit t-shirt, but it's only strange because it's uncommon, and uncommon doesn't mean it's a bad thing. It will mean you will have a beautifully fitting top, and if you have a busy print, you probably won't even notice that little dart line. Two issues you may come across with sewing a dart in however are - if you have a lightweight knit, the dart may move around underneath, and with a heavier knit, you may see the outline from the right side. To combat both of these issues, you could cut the dart out close to the seam once it's been sewn in. Do you have any tricks for doing an FBA with knits? xx J

Do you have full upper arms compared to your size? Then you might need to make a sleeve adjustment to your sewing pattern. See how to do it here:

Whether you’re hand drafting a sewing pattern from scratch, tracing off an existing pattern to preserve it, or making fitting or design alterations to a sewing pattern, it’s useful to have a stash of

How to do common shoulder fitting adjustments: sloped shoulders, straight shoulders, forward shoulder, narrow shoulder and broad shoulder

Pattern available in a 36" bust from ZipZapKap. You can re-size it to fit you! This is one of the topics I get the most e-mails and questions about, so I figured it was time for a post on the subject! Vintage patterns get a bad rap for being extremely difficult to fit, but they're really no worse than modern patterns, I think. The big differences are 1) patterns were not multi-sized (there's only one size per pattern envelope) so you can't grade between sizes, 2) lack of availability, especially on the larger end of the sizing spectrum, 3) and changes in fashion silhouette that affect ease. But don't let this discourage you from trying vintage patterns! Here's my low-down of tips to keep in mind: As with modern patterns, it's best to order based on your high bust measurement. This measurement is taken underneath your armpits, but above your breasts. The reasoning here is that this measurement is the best reflection of the size of your frame, while your bust measurement doesn't necessarily tell you much other than your bustiness factor. My high bust measurement is 36", but my full bust is 38". So my ideal pattern size is 36". BUT! Just because this pattern fits my high bust certainly does not mean it's going to fit the rest of my body. But I can be pretty much assured that I'll get a nice fit throughout the shoulders, and I can add more width where needed elsewhere. Another personal example: My waist measurement is currently 31". But a bust 36" pattern is meant to fit a 28" waist. This means I need an extra 3" around the waist. Divide that number by 4 (for each quadrant of your upper body) and you get 3/4". So I need to add 3/4" to each of my side seams, tapering down from the armpit. Make sense? This won't affect the fit of the armholes, sleeves, or the shoulders. Repeat the above process if needed for the hips. Just as with modern patterns, if you're bigger or smaller than a B cup, expect to have to make bust alterations. Learn how to do an FBA (full bust adjustment) or SBA (small bust adjustment) by reading a fitting book like Fit for Real People or Fast Fit. Because ease can vary on vintage patterns just like it does on contemporary ones, it's always a good idea to measure each pattern piece to figure out what the finished garment measurement will be. This will also help you decide how much width you need to add (or subtract). Because vintage patterns are available in limited sizes, you need to decide how much resizing you're willing to do. I personally feel comfortable going one size up or one size down from my high bust measurement - meaning that I'll order a 34", 36", or 38" bust pattern and feel confident that I can resize it fairly easily. For one size up or one size down from your high bust measurement, you can generally resize just by adding or subtracting width, as in my waistline example above. You might also need to move darts in or out, but this is easy to do in a muslin. Once you get more than one size away up or down from your high bust measurement, you're looking at a more complicated resizing process. I've had success slashing and spreading a pattern piece in equal increments to add my needed width in a balanced way. If you haven't read Sense & Sensibility's guide on this method, do so now! With vintage patterns, it's especially helpful to make a muslin. Even if you've addressed all your major fitting issues by working with the flat pattern, you may be in for some surprises in muslin. Silhouettes naturally change from decade to decade. For instance, I've found some 50s patterns to be incredibly long-waisted, perhaps due to longline bras of the era and bodices that were sometimes worn in a blousier way. A muslin will help you confront these issues head on! This is a big topic, so I'm sure there are things that I've missed. Any tips to add, dear readers?