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Category: Fitting and Alterations

Learning

I haven't been quite as absent from the sewing studio as I have been from this blog, but I can't say that I've been making earth shattering progress either.

I finally got around to finishing up the sloper that my friend Liana helped me start the beginning of March, and which I transferred from film wrap to paper the beginning of April. It is what, the end of May now? I am certain that a little more timeliness would have helped the project, but at least I am slowly inching forward.

I used that first paper draft of my sloper to make a pattern draft for a cardigan I was knitting, a cardigan meant to be rather boxy and knit with positive ease. I wanted something a little less boxy, with better shape around the shoulders, so I plunged ahead, even though I had not yet made any attempt to fit that muslin. Yes, fools rush in. But there will be more about that on the knitting blog. There would be more already but I have suffered from a great failure to take photographs of progress along the way.

Anyway, although it seems incongruous, playing with shaping through knitting has been instructive mostly because of the scale. I don't have to cut an entire garment, I can play with shaping incrementally, ripping and reknitting as needed. It may sound painfully slow but it has also been an instrumental process in helping me clarify my thoughts.

Eventually I decided I needed to fit the muslin.

It went pretty well, and mostly was spot on. The seams ended up where they were supposed to be. The neck and the armscyes were mostly ok. The bust however was problematic. Whether we compressed my breast tissue too much with the plastic wrap, or I componed the problem by allowing the plastic to relax somewhat I will never know. You can see that I don't have enough width in the bust in the photo above, and the pulling is also pulling the armscye out of alignment — that pucker. It needed more work.

Actually, in this photo I have actually captured one of the few times in my life where I have felt busty, or accepted that I might actually need a full bust adjustment. Oh I knew it in my head, and although I gained volume post menopause, I also accepted retroactively that I had probably needed larger cups sizes when I was young and skinny and thought of myself as "dartless", a moniker coined by my mother and which I apparently struggled to outgrow, despite all evidence to the contrary. In all likelihood I simply needed a smaller band size, and bigger cup size than I could find in my local JC Penny. Add that to my own, also probably culturally-informed issues with my scoliosis, and let's just say that I wasn't helping myself in the fitting department.

But this is not the time root out the past; rather it is time to dress me, now.

It seems this meandering path toward fitting and sewing has been a process of reaching some understanding. My full bust is slightly over 5 inches larger than my high bust. Obviously then I need full bust adjustment and I need darts. I wear a fairly small band size, slightly larger since breast-cancer surgery for comfort reasons, but that is neither here nor there. I am also not only asymmetrical but tallish (5'9") and have a long torso, both of which serves deemphasize the bust, which can be to my benefit. Except when it is not, when it keeps me from fully realizing my own options.

Still I learned some things. I did need more width at the bust, but not a lot, and mostly on the right rather than on the left. There goes that old asymmetry thing again. And I needed more length on the left than on the right.

I didn't take another photo, post pattern-correction, and I was not absolutely meticulous about every little detail. My plan for this muslin was that it offer fitting help and give me an idea of how to work with patterns and my own three-dimensional shape, not be a perfect model for drafting future patterns. In fact, I am still having trouble wrapping my head around patterns, and how this muslin translates to other shapes. That is part of the process I am sure. Hopefully long forgotten muscle memory will be activated as I progress and I will not spend all my times floundering in the weeds.

Here are the front pieces. As you can see the asymmetrically is not is markedly noticeable here, at least not as much as in the back, see previous post for that. I haven't gone to the trouble to give you a photo that highlights scale or the actual differences or sizes of anything here. That is not the point for me at this moment. Right now, this exercise is as much conceptual as it is practical. My immediate sewing needs are for summer garments. Heat and humidity are not compatible with closely fitted garments in my experience. I could probably spend my life playing with perfecting something that is supposed to be an abstract guideline. And then I would have nothing to wear.

I don't think I want to think about any of it at all right now. But I will. I assume I will have to.

May 30, 2022
Tilt

I finished a sweater last weekend and although my knitting has its own blog, the finishing and photographing of the sweater has sent my mind wandering down the path of fitting and style and how I want clothes to appear, or not appear.

Hence it has wormed its way over here.

I shall show you the photo that prompted all these ruminations. I included it in my flickr album, not because it shows the sweater to any advantage because it does not. In fact it shows me and the sweater to disadvantage.

You can see the problem. It is not the sweater's fault. The sweater is perfect. Everything is the same length. The weight of the cables do not pull the sweater forward.

It is Matilda. You see she tilts forward as if she is bending forward from the hip, with her back held straight.

Oh how easy it is to blame the dressform. But the truth is that Matilda was made from a cast of me. And I too bend forward from the hips.

I would prefer not to be faced with this daily evidence of my own faults. In fact, when Matilda first moved in I would walk into the room, see her, turn around and exit. I couldn't bear it.

Do I really tilt forward like that? Does my left hip and butt really jut out like that, so much further than the right?

It was not pleasant. But Matilda has also been very helpful with some fitting issues, and many things that confounded me no end became much easier.

But I never really dealt with this tilt problem. It is easy to ignore. I generally avoid looking at the profile view, and take even greater pains not to see the rear-end view, excpet to make a specific check for particular flaws. But I avoid the big picture. And Matilda has not had legs for so long that I forgot how she stands relative to the floor.

Now I can't do that anymore. And I can't really fix the problem with my own stance. It is what it is, regardless of age or weight or fitness. The simple truth is that I have scoliosis, my back is fused from T1 to L4 and I stand the way I stand.

Matilda is a casting of me wearing flats. I lean forward. I suppose I need to lengthen the back of my jackets to accommodate this. Because I lean forward I suppose that the garments hang down from my bust making me look somewhat like W.C. Fields. I should probably deal with that too.

This photo tells me lots of things. It explains why my back hurts when I wear flats and stand or walk all day. To think I used to love hiking. Perhaps hiking is not so much in my future. This is something I have thought about. This explains why I like to go up hill. I am upright. It also explains why I hate to go downhill, because I am already leaning downward and the slope makes it worse. Too bad that I can't always go uphill.

Now, when I wear heels, the tilt is not as noticeable. That is because I have to compensate to stand up straight. Apparently I bend my knees, which tilts my back backwards so I look more straight. The sweater hangs properly then. But my shoulders are back behind my butt, and my tummy sticks out beyond my bustline even though it actually doesn't. I am beginning to see why I think fitting the back of a jacket is so important. It adds an illusion of slimness which I at least don't get from fitting the front. It also explains why I get away with not looking particularly busty.

G tells me I always bend my knees. I don't stand with straight knees ever. Apparently I would fall over if I did. If I am in heels I bend them more which makes my pants buckle at the knee. This is why wider pants are more attractive than very slim pants.

If I wear heels my back does not hurt. It is convenient that I live a suburban life dependent on cars. Wearing heels is not so terribly inconvenient. I occasionally think I would love to live in a city where I could walk. This would be more problematic. My back may prefer heels, but even at 50 I can say that my feet definitely do not. My feet hurt when I wear heels all day.

So there are decisions to make. The clothes and the alterations for me in heels are not going to be the same as the clothes and alterations for me in flats. So I have to think about how I am going to wear a garment when I make it. I can see that perhaps what works and looks good will be different depending on the shoes, depending on the tilt. I am not yet ready to give up heels. Am I ready to give up caring? Not quite.

I am not sure where I am going with this yet. I am still thinking. But it bears thinking about. As for that sweater, well I have enough yarn to lengthen it, but I don't think it needs lengthening at the bottom but further up at the upper back. That will make the shape look good. I don't think I will do it. I can just wear this jacket with a bit of a heel for now. That doesn't mean that I won't do it some day.

February 3, 2009
Sunday Update

After finishing the first version of my Burda tee yesterday (I attached the sleeves Saturday morning) I did very little toward working on the second draft.

I don’t have enough of the white fabric to make another identical top so I will use it to make something else. Instead I will move on to the top originally planned for this pattern, using this rayon/lycra knit from Lucy’s fabrics:

I had some qualms as to whether I would ruin it, but you know in the end I am not sure it matters. If I make the changes as marked, it should all be alright and if it doesn’t work, there will always be more fabric.

As I have thought about changes though I have also contemplated tweaking the pattern a little more than I originally intended and I am wondering how far I can go before I have overdone it and made too many changes.

All that has been done so far is to copy the front piece from the first pattern draft and create a full front piece from it. Then I transfered the changes I wanted to make to the white top to the new pattern piece with pencil. I still have to raise up the top edge of the piece, which will require a new tracing. Once I have finished the front piece, I will move on to correcting the sleeve pieces to match the changes that are being made to the underarm seams.

Meanwhile my back is a little sore today and I have been lying on the floor with my legs up over a hassock contemplating the ceiling. We have a post-and beam ceiling and I love looking at the patterns formed by the grain of the wood, the saw cuts, and occasionally the knots. Today I was looking at a knot that reminded me very strongly of a stylized chrysanthemum, something similar but not quite like either of these fabric photos:

In the case of the wooden beam, the parts I see as the petals of the chrysanthemum are raised up from the surface of the wood, almost puffy looking. Sorry there are no pictures, the light and my camera are not up to getting a photo without flattening the effect.

I actually imagine creating a monochromatic version of this (like the wood of the beam is monochromatic), perhaps using silk dupioni, and creating a puffy chrysanthemum using something like a trapunto technique.

Well, enough of dreams for now, and back to pattern alterations.

March 18, 2007
WHITE

Yesterday’s color was white. It snowed all day and the world outside my windows was white. We closed the office early and I rolled the phones over to the house so I needed to be nearby in case someone called. No one called. I think the entire Northeastern United States was closed or wished it was closed.

We got 18 inches of snow and I got to go out in the dusk and night-time plow runs because my eyes are better. Unfortunately I don’t turn well to the right, the direction the spotter in the passenger seat should be able to turn, so I kept having to climb out of the truck to spot where we were going when G had to back up. I would have been fine looking over my left shoulder from the driver’s seat, but I can’t (or won’t) drive the truck. It is an old old Suburban, manual transmission, and I have to practically stand on the clutch to get it all the way in and then I have trouble doing that and getting the D*^* shift to work. I am told it shifts like a dream, but having watched G attempting to shift the recalcitrant old thing several times last night and heard him cursing and grunting as he stalled out the truck over and over again, I am more inclined to believe that man and truck have grown older and more stubborn together and are just used to each other’s quirks.

Anyway, plowing looks like fun, and I would love to plow. But not using this truck. It made my sciatica worse 20 years ago, and I don’t think I could even do it today.

But back on track. While I was tied to the telephone, or at least waiting for the telephone, I had time to work on the Burda top I traced back at the beginning of the month, almost two weeks ago now. The first muslin shows a good bit of promise and I think this top is going to turn out well, after another draft, and will become a favorite.

The initial changes I made to the pattern were a good start. I lengthened the top about 2 inches below the bust and above the waist. That worked out well.

Then I made a guesstimate at how much extra to add at the bust. This FBA stuff is new to me, as is working with knits so I was not particularly confident, but I also knew I had to add something. I noticed that Burda did not mark the bust point so after lengthening the pattern I held the tissue up to my torso, positioning the waist in the proper place and put a dot where I thought the bust was supposed to be. It seems to have worked and I seem to have the basic sizing correct. Now I just need to fix those old asymmetricality issues, which, as you can see from the photo, are quite evident. The top is perfectly balanced. The model is not.

The left side fits pretty well, and no undergarments show. I tried it on with a couple of bras to be sure of the fit and they are all OK on the left. It is a little close, and I can probably move that underarm seam up just a little bit higher to give me a little extra coverage there.

On the right however, more work is obviously needed. The center piece is too low, and the armscye is too high up on the arm. You can see that the seam is too high up on my arm, and you can also see that I have excess fabric in the center piece as well as the fact that I need a longer underarm seam on that side in order for the top to fit the same way on my body as it does on the other side.

I knew that it was unlikely that a completely symmetrical piece would fit, but since I did not understand how to alter the pattern until I made it up, this seemed like the best path.

Next up: redrawing the pattern and making another top.

I am not sure if I have enough of this fabric for another muslin, but I will check. Or I might just go on to the fabric I planned on using for this top and hope for the best. I will find something. I have purchased a good collection of knits because I want to get these details worked out so I know I have something to play with.

March 17, 2007