Help with a bodice alteration?

As my name suggests, I knit better than I sew! However, since I also do some of that, my future daughter in law asked me to make her wedding dress for her. Yesterday I finished the first revision of my muslin practice gown, but I can already see one place that will need to be readjusted again. What I've been looking for this morning is some site that tells how to alter the bodice of a dress. A few months ago, I found great instructions for altering a pattern for slacks, so I think what I want is somewhere on the internet, but my searches aren't finding it.

The fitting challenge is the area of the bodice between the bustline and the shoulder; I need to decrease that without disturbing the fit of the sleeves. Any suggestions?! Any links?!

Thank you!

Reply to
OldKnitter
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Are the sleeves (both of them!) sewn in yet? If not, *do not fit without the sleeves*: this is exactly the area where you need a smidge more fabric with sleeves in.

Bestest and most useful fitting book I know of is Leichty, Pottberg and Rasband's Fitting and Pattern Alteration, a multi-method approach. Check your library for it.

Can you tell us more about the fit problem you see? Is it too long from shoulder to bustline? Or too wide?

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

This is a strange pattern, so I hope this format lets me include a link to the picture I've posted on Pixentral. Let's try:

formatting link
(I won't know if it worked until I complete the post, so I may have tocome up with a different bright idea.) Note the placement of the thin straps. They HAVE to be at the point at which the sleeves are joined to the bodice, but the first fitting indicates the straps will be too far to the outside and sit right on top of the shoulder, and then, naturally, they want to slide down onto the arm. The bodice front is done in three pieces, with seamline between the center piece and the two outer sections falling exactly where it should. I can't for the life of me think of the right term, but the bodice is fit using a contoured seam instead of darts. I need to reduce the size somewhere between that contoured seam and the underarm. That's about as clear as mud, huh? :(

The book you recommend isn't available through our library system, although I did find one other book that might have something useful. Or not. It'll be a couple of days before I can get there to check.

Thanks for try> > > The fitting challenge is the area of the bodice between the bustline

Reply to
OldKnitter

Yup, it's just a little small to let me see what's really going on in the bodice seam. However, I'll try to make some suggestions.

Princess seam.

I need

Ok, that wasn't the sort of sleeve I was expecting... I thought the issue might be with something with a more typical sleeve. Don't worry about setting in this sleeve before fitting... it's not going to need extra ease in the bodice!!

I can see a couple of ways to work on this. One is to simply move the strap over. Probably not my first choice, unless I had to do a quick and dirty alteration. However, with a slight design change, you could add a couple more straps farther in... three spaghetti straps can make an interesting detail; two just look awkward.

What happens if you deepen the princess seam -- just sew it a little wider at the neckline, tapering to nothing at the bust? Will that bring in the strap enough?

It looks to me like there's a drapery across the bodice front. If that's so, can you take a tiny dart at center front and move the straps in that way?

Personally, since I'm more of a draper than a flat patternmaker, I'd probably open the princess seams and refit those, paying attention to grain lines.

You may need to make a similar alteration in the back as the front if the cause of the too-much-width-in-upper-bodice is not postural.

Oh, and if she hasn't got whatever undergarments she's wearing under it bought yet, don't even try until they're bought. Different bras or bra substitutes make a great difference in how a garment fits and how much alteration is needed.

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

Dear Oldknitter (I'm one, too),

If you can't move the strap in the front, what about crossing them in the back. This would keep them from sliding down the arm if it's feasible.

Teri

Reply to
gjones2938

Thank you for reminding me of the term for that seam. I've been looking at it and wondering if that was where the change had to be made. I did a Google search (amazing what you can find once you know what to hunt for!) and found a couple of other references that provide good clues, too. The most promising was one where a bodice needed to be increased in size at the top, and the suggestion was to cut the pattern and spread the upper area a small amount. I'm going to make a copy of the pattern of the side bodice and try the reverse - pulling it in a touch, which may pull that corner in without disturbing the parts that do fit. I still have lots of muslin left to practice on.

I'm also really enamored of the suggestion to increase the number of straps, too! :)

And she got her bra a couple of days ago, so I'll make sure she has it available for the next fitting.

Thanks aga> > > This is a strange pattern, so I hope this format lets me include a link

Reply to
OldKnitter

Whoops... I didn't realize this was a muslin. Yes, by all means, take a bit out of the center panel, either at the seamline or by reversing your engineering method.

And I wouldn't try to make any changes before seeing the current muslin on her with the new bra. Many dressmakers confiscate the bra until the dress is done... it's always available for fittings that way, and it's not being worn and washed to a new fit during the actual dressmaking process.

One other thought... the sleeves on this may actually contribute to the too-wide-problem, so you may have some more fixin' to do once they're in, and probably a bit when you're making the real garment as the "real fabric" probably won't match muslin in weight.

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

We had a fitting today, and everything seems fine except the positioning of those straps. Now that I know I only have to worry about that one aspect of fitting, I'll play with the bodice some more. I have two different things in mind to try. It's looking good, which is kind of amazing to me, frankly.

She bought a new bra specifically to use with the dress (and she wore it for the fitt> > > in a touch, which may pull that corner in without disturbing the parts

Reply to
OldKnitter

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