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December 11. 2020
So having so much fun with all of you on the Zoom calls and thought I would feature one of the thing we talked about over there cause I think it's something that works for a lot of people.
The Sway Back
As we grow older, this can be a more of an issue than you think. There's nothing wrong with that, but fitting this can be baffling and doesn't need to be.
This all starts in the dressing room when you're trying on a RTW garment, and everything fits OK and nothing is really that tight - even around the hips, but there's this pesky little wrinkle in back and it won't go away. Sometimes it occurs in the front too (it's the same problem, but not necessarily labeled "sway back").
This is what that looks like.
This wrinkle can be anything from a little bubble to a downright convention of wrinkles around the back waist. This can happen on the front too, but most often it's on the back.
The best way to understand this is to see what's going on.
This is real easy to understand. The far left is a straight regular posture (you know, the one we all had when we were 20 years old?!!!)
The middle figure shows the tummy tilting forward and the fanny tilting back. Now, the measurement around the hips is the same in both postures, but the one in the middle causes those pesky back waist wrinkles reappear. So what's going on?
The real culprit is the curve in the back and that's a deep and very curvy, curve. You can glaze over it with fabric, but to be honest that's not a very flattering look. That back sway back curve is divine - once you fit it. It can be totally flattering and really very sexy ....yes I said sexy. We just gotta fit it.
 The tendency is to take up this waist. And this looks like it will work. But the problem is that when you take this up, you have to have someplace to put that, so that means that you have to have a waistline seam to put that extra fabric in.
But if you don't want a waist line or it makes your back hem so short, that shortening your front hem to make the hem level, makes the garment not practical, then this alteration doesn't work.
Actually this is the wrong alteration for this, cause there's an option here that you can do that's not that hard, and you don't have to have a waist to do it.
 So let's think about this a little differently. What's really going on here is that there is more fanny in back and less tummy in front because of the tilt that happening. So what happens when you release those seams just below the wrinkles and this allows that fabric around the waist to fall down where it should and not ride up.
The wrinkles are really caused by the lack of fabric right below the waist and that makes the fabric ride up. When you do this, then sudden there is enough space for gravity to naturally weight the garment so that it falls naturally, smoothly and still flatters that beautiful sway back. Sometimes it doesn't take that much. But this works best when you can spread this release of the seams across 3 or more seams.
Of course if you're making your garment, this is a cinch. With some back shoulder/waist/hip darts, you can govern just how much fabric is in back while you take up the extra volumes of fabric in front. Even if the front simply hangs straight from just under the bust, this sway back looks dreamy!
 So here's how the fix looks. But there is one more thing that makes this work.
You will naturally have more fabric from the waist to the hem in back than in the front. This is the tilt causing this. That's OK. I remember my Mother having this when she was older, and I took all her dresses and hemmed them correctly so that they were level with the ground. In her closet the hems looked like a mess. On her body, they looked fabulous and made her look great. So make your hem level with the ground.
The other of course is to dome down straight from the tummy and the fanny - don't mess with this. Notice how the front falls in just a little? That's the til again, and use it. As long as the front doesn't fall closely to the stomach, but falls straight from the stomach this works.
So this sway back isn't a big deal. It's actually a quicker fix than you think. And of course if you sew - it's a piece of cake to add that extra fabric in right below the waist when you're doing your darts and back seam. And once you do this with your core pattern, boom - it's done forever!
So when the site gets working and back up, I'll put that here, but in the meantime, I've been thinking of some fun things to do while the site is under construction.
On the Blog
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PS - I do a lot of posting on Facebook as SewingArtistry - like my page to see more goodies!
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