Fittings with Julie

I have so many irons in the fire right now my head is spinning. We are working on a coat- a suit- and 3 dresses, all at various stages of the game. Yesterday was to be fit model day and I had concocted a plan to post photos of little snippets of the fittings for you, but alas, she had to cancel at the last minute. :-(

To stay within the same theme, I'm going to show you some photos of fittings I did with Julie, a former student. Julie does not have too many fitting worries, though she is larger busted, and has narrow shoulders. This is a common situation.

I suggested [when sewing with my patterns] that she use a smaller bodice size to get a narrow shoulder, and then do a full bust adjustment. She then made the Fantasia Pattern and came to visit me for a follow up fitting. I should have taken a photo full front but didn't think about that until too late. The fit isn't bad, but the shoulders are still too wide for her, and the bodice length is too long.

The wide shoulders are pretty clear in this back shoulder photo. She could go down one more size, and then the shoulder and length would fit better. She would have to add a bit more width into the full bust adjustment, which would give her the width that she needs for the bust measurement, and then transition to the larger size for the waist. Since she already made this alteration, there is another easier way to accomplish the goal, which I will get to at the end. For now, here's how the fitting went:

 When making alterations, I always start at the bust and work my way down, then up. Get the armhole right, then you can deal with the sleeve and shoulders. Though the sleeve is attached, in the order of operations I pinned the sleeve on last.


The armhole was a bit sloppy, so I took in about 1/4" to make everything a bit more snug. Here's a good close up.

 Then I pinned the skirt up to the waist where it belongs.

Last I pinned the sleeve on all the way around the arm where it looks the best. See that little ripple(s) in the back? I would have liked to take that back in just a little more narrow, but she likes the room back there. We'll call that "wearing ease".

If everything else looks and feels good, here is the way to reduce width at the shoulder without messing with the rest of the pattern: 

Draw a line to cut through the middle of the shoulder, squaring off ending at the armhole just above the notch. Cut the pattern apart along this line.

Slide the shoulder piece along the horizontal line, overlapping the vertical line until the shoulder is the correct measurement.












 True the jog in the two pieces, and your pattern is done.

It's always a good idea to "walk" your sleeve pattern to to the arm hole to make sure that it still fits. On Julie's dress, all is fine because the reduction at the princess seam was taken up in the longer reach of the shoulder line.

Here is the sleeve again from the front. If I remember right, that fold in the sleeve is from a fold in the fabric- needs pressing.  Looks good, doesn't it?

I cannot say it often enough, that fit is a matter of personal taste. If YOU like the fit, then it's perfect!