sleeve cap

I Just finished doing some major pattern alterations. The last one was that I added 1/2 inch to the back shoulder seam and took 1/2 inch from the front. My question is can I move the center dot forward 1/2 inch or do I have to raise the front of the sleeve cap the 1/2 inch. Juno

Reply to
Juno
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I am not understanding your alteration.

Do you mean that you added (made the pattern wider) to the back of the pattern (moving the back farther into the armscye), meaning you will have to ease the new wider back shoulder seam to the new narrower new front? If so, that should not alter the location of the dot marking the sleeve cap top, where it matches up to the shoulder seam.

And if you added 1/2 inch to the back along the top of the pattern piece, and deducted 1/2 inch from the front, shifting the entire shoulder seam toward the front, I still do not think it would require re-locating the marking on the

*sleeve cap*, but probably means creating a new dot 1" toward the back (from the new shoulder seam location) for the sleeve cap match.

Have you "walked" the sleeve around the new armscye?

Reply to
BEI Design

Not yet. I was just plan stymied and stopped before going any further.I haven't done anything to the sleeve pattern yet. I'll try walking the pattern before and after moving the dot. Thanks for the suggestion. I think I'm seeing everything a little clearer. Juno

Reply to
Juno

Depends. What's the difference between the front and back armhole length now, measured at the seamline? It should be 1/2" longer in back compared to the front. If it's there now, I'd try the sleeve as is.

If you want to be cautious about it, cut out a spare really short sleeve out of scrap or paper towel, and press in the grainline. Baste it in and try it on. If the grainline is perpendicular to the floor, you've got it right. If it's not perpendicular to the floor, see how you'd need to rotate it in the armscye and try again. If it doesn't feel right in the rotated position, open the seamline at the tight spot(s) and see what extra is needed.

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

. itis my hop>

Thanks Kay,I'll try it that way. Alterations drive me nuts and I Have to make so many of them. Every time I think I have it, I find another change I Have to make. Some day I'll get it all right. I hope to take a pattern drafting class this fall with my goal being that if I can draft my own blouse patterns all the fitting problems I have with the top half of my body can be rectified ahead of time. I also hope that a pattern drafting class will help me better understand how to do better alterations. Juno

Reply to
Juno

What's the problem this alteration to the armscye is supposed to solve? There may be an easier way.

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

I'm not much on altering or fitting unless we're talking very basic. Just wanted to toss in that this thread is very interesting and I'm thankful for the suggestions and eager to hear how it goes. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

I find draping better than drafting for odd bods, of which I have one. You might want to see if your library can get you:

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the "Custom Bodice" DVD. You can get a basic blouse pattern done in an hour and a half or so with this method.

Here's a video clip:

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she's working on a custom dressform here, you can do the same thing with someone in their undies or a *tight* t-shirt or a swimming suit.Just can't pin straight in -- gotta use some masking tape. Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

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I tried to find the video, but it seems the closest library to me is just a short trip of 700 miles.

To use that method I need someone who can help me with fitting. Just don't have anyone who can help.The one friend who might help, isn't around very often. DH is at a loss with that kind of thing. I can't get him to understand that"close enough" doesn't work. He keeps telling me that RTW doesn't fit the same way as I try to get. I keep saying that's the problem in a nut shell. RTW doesn't fit. All that aside, my question about the sleeve cap came about because when I do a round back alteration I find I come the closest to what I want by adding 1 inch to the back at the neckline, then 1 1/2 inch down a short distance to the roundest part of my back and then adding the half inch to the back shoulder seam and taking that distance away from the front. My thinking is that if I'm making that kind of change that I should also alter the sleeve cap to accommodate for it. My goal in taking a pattern drafting class is to get a good working model in a pattern to work from. Will it work,I just won't know until I try it. Juno

Reply to
Juno

Kay, I was wondering what you think of this pattern to help me with fitting issues.

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don't have problems fitting the front of a pattern for bust size. The problem is always my back and need to stop my tops from pulling back and choking me. Juno

Reply to
Juno

"Juno" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:ju42rc$ted$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me...

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I don't have problems fitting the front of a pattern for bust size. The > problem is always my back and need to stop my tops from pulling back and > choking me.

Juno, I hope you will forgive me, but what catches my eye in that pattern is not the back but the gathered part about the bust. Even on the slim model it gives the t...s a most unflattering droop from the angle the pics are taken from. Is there anything you can do about that? (That is, if you feel the need to...)

U.

Reply to
Ursula Schrader

Oh my goodness, I put up the wrong pattern. No way would I make something like that.Thanks for pointing that out. It should be this one

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Reply to
Juno

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Juno

Now that looks a lot better! ;-) Well, I have nothing constructive to add to this thread but, like Polly Esther, I'm following it with avid interest.

U.

Reply to
Ursula Schrader

I may have mentioned this to you all before - but recently we were at a restaurant and I noticed the blouse of the nice lady seated just behind DH. Because? I think, it was nicely pressed. ( Don't see that much anymore.) And - the sleeve was cutting into her upper arm as well as there was a hard pull across the part of her back sort of mid-way between shoulder and bottom of the armhole. Also - we used to have a dear friend who wore her pants backwards. She had a little 'pot' belly and no backside to speak of. Made sense to her. Fitting solutions interest me. So does bungee-jumping but I'm not going to try that either. =) Polly

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> Juno

Reply to
Polly Esther

I think I'm passed the bungee jumping age, but hot air balloons are more in my area of interest. I have little choice but to learn how to make something with a good fit. I get tired of wearing golf shirts because they don't choke me. I also hate clothing that binds any place or hikes up in the back because of a rounded back. When I was 27 and even 47 fit wasn't a problem. Then came my 50's and years of prednisone for asthma, weight gain and aging and the shape just ain't what it used to be.lol Now I'm 77 but still want my clothes to look really good. Especially when I get my balloon ride Juno

Reply to
Juno

That's why you take your interlibrary loan librarian some brownies.

I've even managed to teach my DH the rudiments of draping. He gets "grainlines perpendicular and parallel to the ground at this level." Even if he does want a plumb bob and a level to check his work.

Probably not. At least not in my experience, and watching Connie fit a heck of a lot of women with that designer blouse block you found. If you're over a DD, I'd suggest you buy the correct size range of that block. If you're in the lower end of the size range and the larger end of the cup range, you definitely want that block.

If you're DD or under cup size, and there's a Joann's around, pick up Butterick 5300 this week for $1. That's the barely disguised blouse block. Make up view B in something cheap and firm, leaving off the collar and ruffles and side vent, choosing the correct front for bust cup size. Give yourself pretty good seam allowances at the shoulder, probably a couple of inches, and if you're hippy, add some extra to the seam allowance at the lower side seam. Sew it up, regular length stitches on the shoulder seam, basting length for most of it. Staystitch the neckline. Put it on.

Your choice of fitting techniques:

1)Open the shoulder seams as needed and patch in new fabric to the back neck and shoulders, adding shoulder or neckline darts as needed to contour for roundness. What you're looking for is for the center front and center back grainlines to remain perpendicular to the floor at CF and CB, and the crossgrain to be parallel to the floor over your bust and just below the roundest part of the back. That should mean the hem is parallel to the floor. Check the sleeve to make sure the grain is perpendicular to the floor. Reshape side seams to suit. Amend your pattern and make a blouse.

OR

2) Slice across the back of the blouse, armscye to armscye, at the roundest point of your back. Pull the center back hem down until the hem is parallel with the floor. You've now opened a diamond shape -- a giant fisheye dart

-- across the back of the blouse. Measure the width of the fisheye in the middle and do the same thing to a copy pattern. There are several things you can do at that point: a) use a curved center back seam. b) make a back yoke c) rotate that fisheye dart into the back neckline or shoulders.

In neither case are we touching the armscye, which is one of the trickiest things to alter. Necks and shoulders are much easier.

The "necklines rising up in front" phenomenon is usually caused by the armscye being out of balance. The maternity top swing (or the other direction, the back porch swoop) is caused by the side seam grainlines not matching.

Ask before you take the class. One of the usual things they have you do is draft from textbook measurements, which is just going to give you a pattern that doesn't fit, again.

You aren't near Oregon, by any chance?

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

Thank you for all your input and time. I was just about to order the pattern when I decided to check alt.sewing first. I'll get the pattern now and work on that. Sorry to say I'm on the other side of the country NY State. There was a time in my life I made regular trips to Whidbey Island WA, but my daughter moved back east 12 years ago. I'll let you know how it's going Juno

Reply to
Juno

Kay, what would you think about using a 1" check for the trial/test mock-up? It should be helpful in staying 'on grain'. That's what the Bishop Method my sister studied suggested. ( She never learned to sew but that's another story.) I love the notion of your DH requiring a level and a plumb bob. Mine would probably include that funny tool that beeps and flashes a red light when a stud is located. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

Polly, I have often thought about using a gingham for muslins but most of the ones I see are so far off grain I would go crazy trying to get it back on grain. Not many made out of cotton these days and poly is a beast, No pun intended. Juno

Reply to
Juno

Holler if you think I can help. Connie isn't doing much traveling this summer, but she will be at the CreativFestival in Toronto in October. Most years, she seems to get someplace up in the NE states.

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Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

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