Facing refinements and edge corrections

A lot of times, commercial patterns' facing pieces seem narrow and skimpy. It saves fabric, I guess, but it doesn't look as nice in my opinion. On a skirt, it also doesn't give as firm-feeling an upper edge. Unless there's any reason I can't, I tend to make facings 2" wide at a minimum, often more, depending on the situation. 

You might find that when you seam facing pieces together and press the seams open, the edges of the seam allowance stick out below the edge of the facing. This isn't necessarily a huge tragedy if you are sewing a facing in the usual way, since the edge can just be trimmed off evenly—automatically, even, if you serge it. If you are sewing the side seams last, though, as in the previous post, it could be more of an issue. So here's a check and correction. Please excuse the slight paper curl and the rather embarrassing sketchy lines.

This is on pattern pieces to which I added my own seam allowance, plus some extra width to the bottom, but I find this sometimes happens even on commercial patterns. Fold under the seam allowances, butt the pattern pieces together, and trim off any protruding excess bits (red). The blue areas are where there is some seam allowance missing; this could be added on in theory, though it might get graded right back off later since it's on the upper seam edge. Any stitching lines, as well as the cut edge, should form a nice continuous curve (I marked the top sewing line and the original cutting line in yellow).

A couple of pattern paper options

In Germany, it seemed easy to get rolls of fairly inexpensive paper meant for tracing patterns, probably because it's more usual to trace patterns out of magazines in Europe. That paper is close to tissue-weight, but shiny, and it can be folded up easily and compactly. I didn't bring a substantial amount back with me — I pretty much ran out and didn't buy more before the move. It'd be nice if it were available here, but I don't think it is. The one downside I remember was that it was easy to tear it by erasing, if you weren't careful.

I know there's a wide variety of things people use for tracing and making patterns. The following are just types I found easily. I'm sure there are cheaper options if you're willing to order online, go to a hardware store, use something narrower, etc.

Newsprint can be found in large, wide rolls and is relatively inexpensive compared to other art-supply papers in similar widths. That's the main reason I bought this. It isn't transparent, of course, so it isn't great for tracing, but it's useful for big pattern pieces. It's a substantial weight and doesn't fold all that nicely, but what're you gonna do?

This paper works well for tracing. I've used both the white and the canary versions in the past. It's heavier and feels crunchier than the European pattern tracing paper. You can erase pretty carelessly with no problem. I bought the 24" width; that's already relatively expensive and the wider it gets, the pricier it is. I think half of your widest body circumference plus a few extra inches (for ease and seam allowance) is a good minimum width. That way you stand some chance of making complete pattern pieces without taping.

You can also find rolls of gridded drafting vellum, which can be really nice for drafting patterns from scratch, but that's a whole other price point. Incidentally, I did see alpha dot pattern paper for sale at Fabricana, but by that time I already had these two rolls and didn't feel the need for more.

A very short roundup on sleeves

One of these days I'd like to do a whole post on the problem of big biceps and small armholes. But until then, a couple of somewhat-related links:

New Vintage Lady on sleeve cap shapes and fit — this is partly about what type of sleeve cap (of the ones most popular in the 30s and 40s, but still relevant to modern sleeves) looks flattering, relating that to armhole diameter/torso shape/shoulder width

Ikatbag's kleenex box demo on (among other things) cap height vs. sleeve width given a fixed armhole size

As far as books, this is definitely not a comprehensive list, but off the top of my head Liechty et al.'s Fitting & Pattern Alteration: A Multi-Method Approach covers torso shape and how it affects armhole diameter in the flat pattern. So do the Müller & Sohn books (the relevant ones seem OOP at time of writing, except the English-translation Metric Patternmaking for Jackets & Coats).

Fitting shell vs. muslin vs. Neue Mode

I made one sleeve and put it on my muslin (which is not made of muslin at all — since I have a muslin shortage — but rather a weird fused fabric). It fit into the armhole quite well considering how unsuitable the fabric was, but I decided that I could stand to narrow the shoulder line by about 8mm and the upper chest about 2.2cm. So this might need to feed back into a future draft as a wider armhole diameter and narrower front width. As for the shoulder seam length, I'm not sure off the top of my head if Müller & Sohn have you use a shoulder line width measurement, or if they come up with it automatically from the back width (which is given more ease in their blouse draft example than in the base pattern).

Having considered all that, I had another look at Neue Mode 22957, which is what I'm now thinking of making next. Since it has puffed sleeve caps, I want a very neat fit in the shoulder width, so as not to build out the shoulder line even more. I decided to cut a 34 in the upper torso, blending into 38 under the arm. The 34 is somewhat shocking to me, but it seems to produce the right armhole depth and shoulder width, and combined with the 38 further down, makes it easy to get the sleeves wide enough (of course, the gathers help too). So apparently my torso might be quite cylindrical. Explains several things.

There are a couple of other alterations I've done, and I'm a little concerned about the shape of the back armhole in the Neue Mode (too much of a J rather than an L?) vs. my blouse draft, but I'm probably going to go ahead and cut in fabric soon. The combination of sizes also had the advantage that the 34's buttonholes are the only ones marked, and end up spaced just about right in spite of the reshaping.

Still muslining...

OK, I did decide to sew up the blouse fitting shell, and draft a sleeve for it. The torso fit seems decent so far, given that I didn't seriously try to address certain of my fit issues from the waist down. I've drafted a dartless sleeve that I hope to test in fabric tomorrow. So far, it looks reasonable and walks reasonably around the armhole. I like how Müller & Sohn state the cap ease (and yes, they do use cap ease) as a percentage and not just a set range of numbers.

Drafting, knitting...

I decided to try drafting the "blouse with bust dart" from Müller & Sohn as a possibly useful comparison to the more fitted base pattern. I have the upper parts finished, more or less, although I haven't dealt with the back shoulder dart (or lack thereof) yet.

M&S have you shift the shoulder seam forward 1cm on your base patterns; they say it looks better. I don't disagree, but I'm beginning to suspect that many pattern companies don't do this. For purposes of having an easy-to-use basis for comparison, maybe I should make my fitting shells without the shift (or at least with both lines present and marked). It does also explain part of why the shoulder notch looks so far forward on the sleeve I've drafted (not that it should be symmetric, of course).

I say this partly because I've been trying to compare a Neue Mode blouse pattern to my fitting shells and finding my front armholes disproportionately short. I might need to shorten the NM armhole regardless, but maybe I should try my blouse fitting shell in cloth, with sleeves, before rushing to judgment. Do I have the patience? We'll see.

Today I also was desperately looking for some hand work to do, so I tried to pick something to knit in a sport-weight wool I have (Spinning Flock Farm Wensleydale). So far I haven't really liked any of the swatches I've tried. I need to find some sort of stitch pattern and gauge that... looks like something. I might kick the can down the road and go back to sewing for the week, since the need for hand work has passed.

Hoodie, and blouse plans

I finally copied the last alterations onto my Schnittquelle hoodie tracing today, so I could get that put away. I'd changed the center back seam (original seamline in green, if you can see it) and the top front of the hood.

And here it is.

I'm now drafting a sleeve for my fitting shell. The elbow dart is looking a bit big to me, but I'd have to make a mockup to know if that's a custom fit feature or a problem.

I'm thinking if I do sew something for the blouse contest this month, it's probably not going to be a self draft. Given the required details, and the sorts of things I'd want to make with the stash fabrics I have, it would be such a departure from my fitting shell that it wouldn't make a very helpful initial test. Plus it'd be extra work. So I'm thinking I'll either use a commercial pattern, or skip it.

LWD pattern

Now that I have a bit of a fitting shell, I'm going to test it in some sort of real fabric.

I'd been thinking about doing the Little White Dress contest on PatternReview, mainly as an excuse for/side effect of all this fitting shell drafting. I have more white and ivory fabrics in my stash than I want anyway, and very little actual muslin. So the thought was to test the fitting shell in one of those fabrics, and ideally have it turn out at least presentable enough to wear, if not to become one of my favorite things in my closet. Hopefully it'll use up just the right amount of a silk/linen blend I have in stash.

I got sidetracked briefly and considered using the fitting shell specs to alter Butterick 5894, which is one of the few very basic, sleeveless, fitted, straight dress patterns I currently have. But then I reminded myself that that wouldn't accomplish my goal of testing my fitting shell; I'd just end up with a white dress that I probably wouldn't have made otherwise. Big whoop.

So I decided to apply that double-princess-seam idea to my fitting shell instead. Here's my modified pattern:

By making one seam go into the neckline and the other into the armhole, I'll have places to tighten those up as necessary, as well as being able to tweak the waist and hip fit easily. Also, this avoids darts, which I've found were a real pain to press out on the very firmly woven silk/linen blend fabric I have in mind. At the same time, it's close enough to the original fitting shell pattern that I think I'll still get a decent idea of how that fits in at least one "real" fabric.

Fitting the fitting shell

I've copied off separate bodice and skirt pieces from the fitting shell. Before I go further, here's how I adjusted the fit after drafting.

• The basic pattern is supposed to have a very long front waist dart, from (below) the bust, to the greatest intake at the waist, curving to a smaller intake at the hip, then continuing straight down to the hem. The book says that this continuation can be reduced or left off if necessary. I just turned this into a normal, hip-length fisheye dart, and also reduced the intake. The smallest part is now actually above the marked waistline.
• I made the hip curves at the side seams much flatter, and they actually continue almost straight for 2-3cm below the waistline, so it's more of an S-curve than a normal hip curve. If I compare my new fitting shell to my old one, I used to think my waistline was about that much lower than I have it on this pattern. Maybe it was. Now, I have bone structure and "other structure" that is keeping my waist higher up. Before, maybe that bone structure was obscured and/or I had more "other structure" going on higher up. Or maybe I just placed the waist too low before — I could definitely see that happening with the way I worked with the fitting shell pattern at the time.
• I lengthened the centermost back waist darts by about 2cm at the bottom.
• I dropped the front neckline by a little over 1cm, and widened it slightly at the sides.
• When tracing off the separate skirt pieces, I slid in 1cm of width, half centered on each dart (increasing the dart intake to keep the waist size the same). I haven't yet tested the fit to decide whether this was a good idea or whether I'd have do something to the side seams as a result.

I'm considering doing a (probably length-only) FBA, too, or at least making a version of the bodice pattern that has one. My paper supply is getting low, though, so I might not want to go nuts with different variants right now.

Comparing this to my old fitting shell, it's surprising how much narrower it looks, especially in the bodice and the width across the armhole. I don't know how much of this is an ease difference vs. a size difference.

Progress on the fitting shell

I've finished the torso of the fitting shell, more or less.

It might've been better if I'd added some to the back hip area, as it might be pulling in a little in front. That would've required either creating a back princess seam, or creating a hinge and swinging the side seam out toward the hem, if one does it according to the instructions. I didn't really want to do the former on the dress fitting shell; as for the latter, I don't really want flare but I could see possibly avoiding this by using a second hinge to make the side seam straight again below the full hip. In any case, it'll be very straightforward to add width right where it's needed when I copy off a version with a waist seam.

It's interesting to me that the Müller system starts without a waist seam; all of the American fitting shells I've seen have waist seams and you are then told to stick the pieces together (with different tradeoffs for the different ways to do this) if you want a sheath dress. I'm going to have a look at my books later and see which option might best correspond to the inverse of this process.

Fitting shell type 1: Müller/Hofenbitzer

I could use a new set of fitting shells. Last time (2007) I started with a Butterick fitting shell pattern which, in the size I used at the time, probably started off too big in the upper torso, and I was never convinced that I'd got the armholes, shoulders, and upper back quite right. They are now just too big overall and probably don't fit my posture anymore either. Likewise, I drafted trousers using the Minott method, but they are also now too big, and I'm not sure I placed the waist at its real height in that draft.

So I've been looking through these. (I should mention, the Armstrong was in this stack just for completeness because it does very briefly mention taking measurements from a real human, but that isn't anywhere near being the focus of that book. The duct-taped book is a used copy of Jan Minott's Fitting Commercial Patterns.)

What I spend the big bucks on.

In theory I'd like to have drafts from several or all of them to compare to each other. Really, I might be obsessed enough to try it. But for now I'm working on the one in Müller & Sohn's Kleider und Blusen.

I almost started with Guido Hofenbitzer's Maßschnitte und Passform (new late last year) instead. Both of these books create similar styles of basic patterns (with no waist seam to start, unlike the usual American style). They cover certain figure/posture variations and how you can draft a basic pattern differently from the start to address them.

M&P seems less densely written; for one thing, I think it tends to use less of the sentence-structure variation that can make German harder for a non-native speaker (such as myself) to read. It also covers trousers in the same volume, as well as a bigger selection of possible figure variations. This is where I ran into trouble: you have to compare your balance of front and back measurements to an ideal. Then, by using these comparisons and observing the person being measured, you decide what variations (or combinations thereof) are causing the differences from the ideal, and by what amounts different areas will need to be adjusted. I played around with these calculations for quite a while, but eventually felt like I was wandering off into the weeds; in any case, I didn't think I should necessarily trust my measurement set that far in the first place. So I decided to go back to K&B, just get a first draft done and see how well it worked. I hope to come back to M&P later and maybe at least reverse-engineer how my fit issues would have been classified.