Sewing Can Be Such A Puzzle

In the examples below, I was testing two things. One was what Peggy of Silhouette Patterns said in one of her videos - to wrap the knit around your body to get the amount of ease you want, measure that distance, and sew the corresponding size. The other was to muslin Vogue 8691 to see what I thought of the pattern, hopefully ending up with a cute new top.

For this example, I sewed a straight size 8. After I'd cut out the garment, I thought perhaps I should have tapered out at the hips because I'd normally sew a 14-16-18 and an 8-10-12 would have been a better comparison and would have tested the flare of the style lines at the hips better. I thought about that too late so....

In the discussion that follows, you might get the mistaken impression that I didn't like the Vogue pattern and that I think it's poorly drafted. That would be wrong. I like the pattern a lot. I think it's very flattering to my figure type and I think it fit together incredibly well. It simply wasn't custom drafted to my exact figure. Every pattern is a starting point. Fit is fine tuned from there. And even after fine tuning a pattern, there's always the fabric factor. The next time you sew it, you need to fine tune some more. I plan to sew this again with adjustments.

 

If you look at the garment top right, you'll see that the shoulder is quite wide and sits off the shoulder point with a lot of fabric under the armhole. The garment bottom left has similar issues. The garments look far better on the mannequin than the model but in either case there could be a whole lot of pinning going on behind the scenes. The only way to know if something fits you is to fit you.

Two things have significantly impacted the success of my garments since my return to fashion sewing.

• One was reading Lynda Maynards book De-Mystifying Fit: Using the moulage to adjust commercial patterns. I learned how to sew a moulage that fits me like a second skin and then how to use it to adjust patterns for a higher possibility of success. The more you use this technique, the more often you see that you're making the same adjustments and then you start to make them automatically.
• The other was realizing that I am petite. My body is 1" shorter through the armhole. That's significant because when the armhole doesn't fit properly, all sorts of other issues happen with the garment that you might want to attribute differently but they're really the armhole. I'm also petite through the crotch depth which is just about as big of an ah ha.

When I tried the muslin on, the princess seams in the front did not cross over anywhere near the bust point. The garment was too wide in the front. I took a 3/4" tuck or 1 1/2" in total. You might think that was a pattern issue. Maybe not.

The pattern underneath is V8691. It has a princess shoulder seam. The pattern on top is my T & T t-shirt sewn repetitively with great success for years. A quick comparison shows that the Vogue pattern is slightly wider at the armhole, narrower in the shoulder width, and that the armhole depth and the angle of the shoulder seam are similar. Therefore, if the resulting Vogue garment is too wide through the front, it is most likely the amount of ease in the fabric. Isn't that strange considering that I sewed a much smaller size than normal? Sewing can be such a puzzle.

Another thing to check for follow-up testing of the Vogue pattern is the bust point to bust point width which should be twice the distance from center front to the princess seam at the bust level. That number needs to equal my BP - BP measurement. The level of the bust point was good on me.

Here's the back. If the front is too big most likely due to too much ease, you'd expect the back to be too big also but as you can see that's not the case. While the shoulder points look about right, there is obviously not enough ease. Why is there too much ease in the front and not enough in the back? Is this the pattern or the fabric? I know from experience that I am wider across the back than the front and that I typically sew one size smaller in the front and one size bigger in the back than the size my measurements equal. It's a good guess that the back pattern was not wide enough.

In this image, the T & T pattern is underneath and the Vogue pattern is on top. You can quickly see that the depth of the back armhole is similar but the shape is vastly different. Imagine what will happen to the Vogue pattern as the side seams are sewn. The side seam that is angled in the image above will be pulled to the right and vertical and a whole bunch of fabric will push out at the back bottom of the armhole at the same time as the shorter front armhole pulls the same fabric in at the underarm point. The results will look like this.

The armhole is not a pleasantly rounded shape from the shoulder point to the underarm. It's being pulled and distorted with too much fabric in some places and not enough in others. Underneath...

... the underarm seam is being pulled much further back than the center of my armpit and the side seam curves backward. This tells me that not only was the shape of the armhole incorrect, the back was too narrow at the underarm which we could tell from the comparison of the two pattern pieces.

Another thing that affects how the sleeve and armhole look is the height and shape of the sleeve cap. I spent - literally - months finding the best depth and shape for the front and back armhole and the best width, height, and shape for the sleeve cap in my T & T pattern including an adjustment for tipped shoulders. Comparing the two patterns with the T & T on top and the Vogue pattern underneath, for me the Vogue pattern has not enough bicep width, too much cap height, and a lot of excess sleeve cap especially to the back and that's exactly what happened with the muslin.

It's a completely different fabric and the fabric factor always matters BUT here's the back of my T & T pattern with the correct depth and shape of armhole, the correct shape of sleeve cap, and the correct width of back for me AND...

... here's the front in a wrap variation. Based on what I've learned with the muslin, what I'll do now is transfer the information from my T & T pattern to the Vogue pattern as learned in Lynda's book and then I'll chose another fabric and try again and adjust the side seams for whether or not the fabric is super or not so super stretchy. That's basically the concept that Peggy is teaching in her video because bust point to center has to stay consistent and adjustments are made through the side seam.

Comparing the patterns, the Vogue is very close to my T & T and since the T & T is already developed, I'll stop re-inventing the wheel and go with what I know EXCEPT that my T & T requires easing through the bust level. When I trace it this time, I'll eliminate that aspect and then - with my next version of Vogue 8691 - test the adjusted pattern, the style lines and the fabric factor of whatever I pick next.

In terms of Peggy's concept. I can see that it has validity but for me, it would be a lot more work than just transferring the adjustments I need to the pattern I want to sew and fine tuning the fit and fabric factor from there.  Has anyone tried her method? What did you think?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - for authors that write books to share amazing learning on their part that turns into amazing learning on my part and forever impacts my sewing for the better. Thanks Lynda.