A Compelling Question

Why is it that we can run around in circles chasing a compelling question only to arrive at the answer and think duh, I should have known that? Sometimes, I'm so focused on the details that I miss the bigger picture. That's what happened with these pattern alterations. A few muslins and a pile of paper later, I'm there. Here's what happened and where I'm going.




I started by cutting out the muslin in a size 18 which fits me through the hips but is two sizes too big in the bust. From there, I pin fitted the garment, adjusted the seam allowances, and transferred those adjustments to the pattern for a second muslin.

Not only did I fit the garment too snug making the next muslin skin tight but one of the adjustments was to narrow the side seam removing 4 1/2" in total from the finished bust measurement. Narrowing the side seam and not the armhole created a lot of issues with the top edge of the garment. I kept trying to narrow the front width enough to bring the armhole into place which in turn created a lot of tucks and changes to each pattern pieces. Things got messy.




Wednesday night, I went to bed sure of the answer and then spent a whole day chasing the question. Last night, I went to bed sure of the answer. I was so excited about working on this that I woke up at 5:00 a.m and then my service provider was down so I started the day by adjusting the pattern, which was convenient since it gives me something more than a pile of paper to show you this morning.

The answer that was SO OBVIOUS to me after MORE THAN 24 HOURS of working on this problem was to simply cut out and move the armhole maintaining the armhole shape and the sleeve while narrowing both the side seam and the upper edge of the garment. All the other seams would be able to remain as is while the finished bust measurement would be decreased by 4" resulting in 2 1/2" of ease which is about right.




This is an adjustment that I make frequently with darted garments however, I don't have nearly as much experience making adjustments to a shoulder princess or armscye princess seam BUT... it works! They're a lot less scary now. I started by pinning the back pieces together along the top seam line.




When the pieces were correctly overlapped, I drew a square around the section that needed to be shifted. The solid lines are where I cut and the dotted line is the amount of the shift - 1" up and in toward center.




The section was cut out as one piece and moved into place. The back pieces could be taped together. The side back pieces needed an insert to hold them before I unpinned the seam line.




At this point, I needed to create new seam lines merging the top and bottom edges of each line and creating a new middle point. When you are truing a seam line, pay careful attention to what you do not want to lose. In this case, it was those very top corners where the dotted lines of the seam lines would be stitched together ending the seam.




Above, you can see the red line drawn to true the back piece and below, the one drawn to true the side back piece. If you look at the points of connection, you'll see that I have not lost my corners.




When you change the shape of a curved line, you change the length of the line. Matching this seam up, I needed to add 1 1/8" length to the back section BELOW the waist. As well - raising the armhole made the petite adjustment for me but now the distance from underarm to waist was too long so I removed an inch at the lengthen/shorten line on each pattern piece. These things become obvious as you're working along and if not, in the muslin stage. The adjustments to the front pieces were much easier as there were no seams to pin together because the front seam is a shoulder princess.




I laughed when I trued the side seam connecting the underarm to the waist and taking off a wedge of pattern tissue. THAT is exactly the wedge that started this whole problem after the first muslin. If I had removed it as shown, the process would have been virtually smooth sailing from there. Instead, by removing it from the side seam without adjusting the armhole and then taking that extra width out of the other seams, I created a lot of problems for myself. NOT a good idea.




Here are the two pieces after adjustments. You can see the wedge to the right. At top, there is an extra 1". That was later removed after I was sure that off the top was the correct choice. I confirmed that by...

... pinning the pattern pieces onto Millicent. The CB line is the first one in from the left and pinned along "her" center back. You can see that the width across the upper back is going to be just about perfect. All those adjustments I went through with the other versions will most likely not be necessary when I sew and try this on. What good learning!!!!!! - I'll definitely remember this - AND... so easy in the end! I can hardly wait to sew this muslin together. After that, the real thing.

First, I need to clean the bathrooms upstairs. Yesterday, I vacuumed and dusted but didn't get to the bathrooms because it took me forever to shred all that paper. One garbage bag of to be shredded became three garbage bags of shredded. Somehow, that feels like I did more harm than good. It's in the recycling box. Have a fabulous weekend. I am SO EXCITED to sew this and show you my results. Hopefully I'm cheering not tearing on Monday.

p.s. added at 12:52 p.m - YES YES YES YES YES YES YES !! It worked. Some fine tuning but the basic sizing is great. I'm tap dancing.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - the enjoyment of learning and the ability to problem solve.

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Personal Growth - While I worked yesterday, I thought about the verse - the best thing that you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale - and it made complete sense especially when I found myself thinking about my word for the 2010. At this time last year, the thing that I was doing was picking my word for 2009. It's connect. My goal this year has been to connect with many aspects including improved balance, health, relationships, and spirituality. I have made tremendous progress especially in the last few months since closing my business however, there is a LONG way to go. Connect will continue to be my word for 2010.