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March 6, 2022
We're on about week six with the woven core pattern fitting. I'm doing these sessions to show you as much the process more than the exact steps. To be honest the exact steps will vary from person to person. They will all be different. It's more important for you to learn the process than the exact steps. OK, there's going to be some general steps that will start you out, but the steps toward fitting an hourglass figure are different than
those for fitting an apple figure.
Here are some general places to start.
- First make the garment large enough to pinch out any fitting. But fit to the shoulder as best you can. Granted that may mean you have to do some fitting with the shoulder, but hopefully not too much.
I've noticed of late that commercial as well as independent designed patterns don't include that much in the sleeve head, which is a shame. They are probably doing this because the fitting ease measurements have been slowly decreasing in the last three decades. That's probably due to the preponderance of knit and stretch fabrics, and people getting ease and bagginess
confused.
The part to remember here about the sleeve head is that you can add to it, and it's not the end of the world if your sleeve head is skimpy and you have to add "ease" to it.
- Next anchor the garment - this means making sure that the garment is situated so it's hanging well - with no wrinkles. That may mean that it's fuller in front or back or that it's splaying (tilting out) or bowing (tilting in), but that's OK - we can correct that. We're basically anchoring this around the shoulder and upper chest area.
- Now that you have it anchored, it's time to deal with the tilting or the hang or drape of the garment. If you have to correct the front by realigning the center front - that's OK. YOU get to decide where center front is and sometimes tilting it is what works. You may also have to correct any bowing or splaying, and that's OK too - it doesn't mean anything's wrong - it
simply means the tilting, splaying or bowing has to be remedied before you go on. You've seen me do that in previous episodes of this fitting.
- OK - now you have it anchored and tilted correctly, you may need to make sure that the sleeves aren't splaying, bowing or they may have to be tilted more forward or backward. Also you'll want to check that the set-in location on the bodice is correct - it may need to shift forward or backward a little. For the sleeves, the progression works like this:
- Once you get the bodice hanging correctly (and that means that the armhole is positioned correctly at the top), it's time to check to see if the armhole needs to be more forward or backward. That's not that hard to do - simply add or subtract to the front or the back. So that means if the armhole has to move forward, you add more in back and take away in front. Vice versa works for
moving the armhole a little to the back, so that means adding more in front and taking it away in back. Most of the time, your adjustment here will be forward just a little.
- After you have the armhole placement correct it's time to set in the sleeve. The perfect way to do this is on a mannequin that has your shape, and starting at the top of the sleeve, start pinning it in. You'll want to put a lot of ease at the top of the sleeve and about 1/4 the way down on both sides (so this will equal the top half of the sleeve) start making the seam
smooth. You can adjust this a little, but not much. If you need to take away some of the sleeve, that's OK. if you need to take away part of the bodice armhole, that's OK too. Don't make this too low, but make it comfortable.
- Now all that's left to do is do the tweaking of the fitting in front - making sure that you have a nice dip under the bust, making sure that you are sucking in under any apex points (hip, fanny, stomach), and that you're maintaining that magnificent hang that you've worked so hard to get at the beginning. Most
often this requires a very gentle
This is what we've been doing here for about 6 weeks. I know that sounds like a long time, but we had decided up front that to make sure that we could meet at a specific time each week. She has a busy schedule and so do I. Then I had the mad rush of April when the entire world decided that the pandemic was over and they
could fly to weddings and do parties again. That's nice, but played havoc with my schedule!
The truth is that this student spent her biggest time at the beginning cutting out and making up the muslin. When we finish, we will make up a blouse to make all the little tweaking tests which shouldn't amount to too much.
SUMMARY:
- Make the Garment Large Enough To Pinch Out - don't add sleeves.
- Next Anchor the Garment.
- Correct the Hang of the Garment.
- Splaying/Bowing,
- Tilting Forward or Backward.
- Check the armhole location.
- Pin on the Sleeves making sure there's a nice sleeve head.
- Tweak the fit of the bodice and correct center front if needed.
From the video - here's the link for this cool tool:
THE PIN MAGNET BROOM - is from Home Depot. This looks like a great find. They also have ones that have wheels on them, but I like this one better cause you can get close to the floor or carpet! Click here to get more info.
THEN - the fun starts when we start some alterations and variations. This is where these patterns really get to be fun.
The first video here starts with the fitting and working through some sleeve issues. We are very close to a finished muslin, but just a little more tweaking
Week 6 - click here
Making the alterations on the pattern also using my technique to transfer the fitting pins to a marked seam to sew.
On the Draft Table - click here
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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