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March 25, 2022
I have a student that has graciously volunteered to be a guinea pig for me while I fit her. What makes her particularly useful, is that her figure is completely different from mine, and therefore has completely different fitting problems with different solutions. I'm often fitting on myself, but I'll be honest, for you Apples and Rectangles out there, it's hard to see how some of these looks can be effective for you - particularly fitting my Hourglass shape.
We're working toward a woven core pattern for this student. The woven is a little harder to do cause it must have ease, which is often confused with bagginess. So there's a delicate balance between ease and bagginess.
We did a video the last time we did a fitting and it was full of useful information. Fitting techniques that I don't normally have to do on my figure, but do on hers. Not only that but we got a lot done in one fitting. She's going to come back until we get a good core pattern. Then we're going to do some variations.
The first fitting we started with that great silhouette I always look for on Apples and Rectangles. I know these figures have issues with your waist, and there is a way to solve this. This particular student is a grand mom and is still active, but she has a figure that has lived a good number of decades on this planet, so it's pretty normal.
 For you Apples, I know this looks pretty familiar. Even though we've added a number of darts to the front, we have some fitting issues. Here are some clues and solutions:
1. The bust has too much fabric in it. Solution: we're going to dart some of it out. Don't think that having a muslin too large (except through the shoulders), is bad, because you can always pinch it out.
2. The top back looks well fitted.
Solution: Actually not. There has to be ease through here particularly for Apples and Rectangles who are always having to fight too-tight fit through the shoulders and chest. I know this is a sensitive area for you Apples and Rectangles and am sensitive to make this eased correctly and yet not baggy looking.
3. The whole garment looks like it's tilted toward the back. BINGO! This is almost always a standard issue on just about every pattern I work with. No one has a perfectly hanging pattern right out of the envelope. This is why men's tailors talk about "the draaaaape" as if it's something exquisitely tasty and high-caloric! Well, it is! We're going to fix that drape/hang like this:
Solution: There's nothing wrong with correcting the tilt, but not how you suspect. The shirt sits correctly and comfortably on this student. I worked and shifted it forward and backward to make sure it was right. This is called the anchor point or the sit of the garment on the body. This is where the garment rests comfortably so that if you take it off and put it back on and off and on and off and on, it will "sit"
in the same place every time. But when we do that the front tilts back and the back tilts back. What we can do is release the front and add more fabric so that the fall of the front is more straight (vertical) and do the same thing in the back, by taking up a little in back. In this instance I decided I wanted to see how the hang would look without having to take up in the back, but I'll reserve judgement on the next fitting.
Solution 2: The additional solution is that the side seams now have a lot of fabric in them and that side seam needs to be corrected. It tilts toward the back too so we need to bring in a little fabric which will cause it to correct the tilt and make it more vertical.
That's a mouthful isn't it. But this is my mock-up of what I'm aiming for with this top.
This doesn't even look like the same lady - she looks like she's dropped 10 pounds. All we did was make it hang correctly - correct the tilt, and nip in at the waist.
Now we haven't gotten the sleeves on yet, but we needed to correct the tilt and the shape of the bodice first.
Next will be the sleeves, but we have to check that hang first at the next fitting.
Here's a video of us working on the fit on her body (draping) and then me working on the drafting table with her muslin making the corrections showing how I use the pin markings to make the dart markings that will be just like we pinned them.
This is a beginning guide on what to do with your core pattern after you have fitted and worked on it.
All the work that you have done in your core pattern contains all the information to make a garment that you will totally love. This means you really don't have to buy another pattern for making skirts, pants or leggings. Variations on your core pattern makes it possible for you to have the styles you see in a photo or on Pinterest without having to look for the pattern that looks like it might work. You can now simply trace it onto your core pattern and
you're done.
This resource also contains some other important resources at huge discount because they are so important to this creative process of varying your core pattern. It also contains some downloads that aren't available in the Resource Library at all, but are vital toward making good design.
In this world of crazy, illogical fashion, we sewists are having to turn into designers. That sounds really hard and foreboding, but it's not. Unlike designers, we simply haven't had all the experience they have, most of that experience they got when they went to design school. More than anything I wanted to make this process encouraging, empowering and enlightening without having to worry about whether or not you could vary your core pattern.
You can! It isn't that hard. It is knowing some guidelines and charging out into the unknown. That's what we sewists do and we do it very well most of the time.
This is the beginning of the series into variations on core patterns. I wanted to start with something basic, so that you wouldn't feel so intimidated. It takes a while to write these up, cause I'm an idea factory, and coordinating and organizing these ideas can be monumental with the sewing muse yacking in my ear 24/7.
The resource is available now at a discount so that you can enjoy it before spring starts in full force. Right now, I'm thinking happy, colorful and pretty. Those are all fresh looks for future clothes. When things seem upside down, it's great to have something to make us happy and often bright, springtime and summertime fabrics are just as much as drab, dark and somber fabrics. I'm ready to be beautiful, comfortable and look flattering in my clothes and
I'm dying to share that with you.
Skirts, Core Pattern Variations, Part 1 (but there's more than skirts in here)
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