It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me. One thing keeping me busy is a new shirt dress I’m creating. You can follow our progress in this Facebook album.
For the longest time I put this project off because the product development details overwhelmed me. But life is short, and I want a shirt dress! So instead of beginning with a professional pattern maker and a fit model and worrying about getting everything Just Right for production, I’m beginning with a prototype just for me. If my tailor and I can create something that I want to wear, then we’ll develop the production pattern and grade it for clients. If not, I’ll have a closet full of imperfect shirt dress samples to wear–not a bad outcome!
Speaking of imperfect, I actually really like our first prototype for a lot of reasons, but you can see where I’m stuck in this video. I know a lot of you sew and are familiar with full bust adjustments. How would YOU address this issue? I got a good suggestion when I posted this on Facebook, and I’m curious to see what you guys have to say–don’t look at the Facebook answer first!
Update May 17, 2021: THANK YOU for your feedback. I took it with me to my tailor on Saturday, and she pinned and marked me up as you see below. Fingers crossed the next samples is better. I’m also posting a closeup of the pattern because I think it’s so intriguing that the side panels look straight, but the actual pieces are curved for the bust.
The front princess-seam darts are too far towards the side seams. They should be centered on the breast apex. There is also too much fabric in the front armscye, which may require placing a small dart in the shaper there to remove extra fabric. You may need to recut the front armhole.
Thank you, Leorah. Will definitely center the front waist dart. I was also wondering if widening the side panel would help take in the extra fabric. I REALLY don’t want to recut the armhole, but you gotta do what you gotta do!
Agreed on both of these points. Move the vertical darts forward. I also would recut the front armhole – deeper toward center front – and allow the whole sleeve to come forward a little.
We adjusted the armhole in the front a bit, hopefully enough.
Lower the bust dart and maybe make it a touch deeper.
Interestingly, we had it much lower the first time around. This time we lowered it halfway between this point and our original point, but we made the dart steeper to end in the same place.
First of all Brava for attempting all you are doing :-). I sew alot and have for years. The first thing I noticed is that your darts are a tad off and that determines exactly where the fullness in the bust lies. The darts should point directly to the apex of each breast. And it appears that there isn’t enough fullness in the FBA that you likely needed to do for the dress. I don’t know what pattern you began with, but I’ve learned it really matters what their ‘normal’ is that they begin their drafting purposes for larger sizes, etc. You’ve likely done all that. Most commercial pattern sizes are for a B cup. Like another planet for a sewist like me who is a 34J lol. I finally found some success using companies like bootstrap which use your measurements and draft the pattern for you. But the best and most success I’ve recently found during the pandemic sewing blitz I’ve been on lol- is Cashmerette. AND Jenny just added smaller sizes to her range for patterns. She began as a curvy larger woman pattern designer sizes 16 – 32. She made all kinds of adjustments and changes in the typical drafting process to make the garment more flattering to women with curves. I ‘think’ it’s UK sizing both in dress size and cup size. She now has a calculator. This taught me ALOT about drafting, etc. and I studied it in college for costume design. Now she offer sizes 0 – 32 – still for curvy women, and she’s always offered cup sizes C – H. I still make a 1″ FBA on my size 12 or 14UK G/H cup pattern. But the fit is unbelievable.
Brava for your dreams and your work. I’m rooting for you because while I can make alot of my clothes, the market out there is expensive and hard to find anything beyond basics. We need you 🙂
This is a WEALTH of information. Thank you!