I actually made two muslins/toiles (I never know what to call them! Since muslin is a US term, I guess I should use toile- but I never hear anyone say toile, so it sounds weird! Muslin it is). Please excuse the ugly fitting pics!
Well, Colette Patterns drafts for a C cup and I'm an A cup. So naturally the first muslin came out rather baggy in front. I probably should have adjusted the bust before even making the first muslin, but I'm quite unsure of myself, and cautious about making changes too soon. Maybe next time though!
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| Very baggy bust |
It seemed especially wide in the back. See the diagonal wrinkles on the left here? I tried pinning (on the right) and it seemed to make it better:
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| However, I had no clue what I was doing... |
I decided to adjust the neckline and armholes. I'm not sure tinkering with the armholes was the right thing to do, but I thought I'd give it a go. I appreciate how the relaxed fit of the top made fitting less stressful! Here are the adjusted pattern pieces.
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| You can see I've added to the neckline, and marked lines to shave off the armholes. |
Maybe I should have done a narrow shoulder adjustment instead? That way the armholes and therefore sleeves wouldn't be affected. I dunno. Secret time- I didn't adjust the sleeves since I was scared to (did I mention I have no idea what I'm doing? lol). This meant I had to overlap the seam allowances when sewing it up, to get the curves to match without puckers. Not a good way to go!
Anyway, on to the bust! I couldn't figure out how to tell how much to take out. I tried pinning various places, and scouring the internet. I still don't know to be honest! I found one site suggesting to take out an inch for each cup size. So C cup to B cup= 2 inches out (1 inch each boob!). So I tried doing a Small Bust Adjustment on my pattern piece of 1 inch.
I used this to make the small bust adjustment on the french dart.
Then I sewed up a second muslin! No sleeves this time! This somewhat crummy picture shows the improvements:
But it was still a bit big in the bust! In the end I decided to take out a further 3/4 inches each side from the bust.
After my aggressive overlapping, the dart ended up so tiny that it freaked me out! But I decided to go ahead with it anyway.
So all up, I took out 1 3/4 inches (4.5cm) out of each side- that's 3.5 inches (9cm) all up!
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| I made this comparison for you :) |
I made one more alteration before the final thing too. I decided to add width around the backside like I did for New Look 6808, because it seemed a bit tight; it was tending to ride up in the back.
And here are the final pattern pieces!
Ummm, does anyone find these fitting posts interesting besides me? I put a lot of effort into them because I am trying to learn fitting. I love to see other people's processes too...It's not about just about the finished object, it's about the journey to get to there!
PSST- Hey, any Wellington sewing enthusiasts out there? Me and Emily at Calico Stretch have been plotting some kind of Wellington meet-up. You don't have to be a blogger, just let us know if you're interested!