Sew Distracted

Winter is a comin' in.

It seems winter has come finally to the NorthEast.

Although I was toasty warm in my fur coat, gloves and Miriam Carter felt hat standing outside waiting for the post office to open so I could ship a trunk-load of packages to family scattered far and wide, my cheeks reminded me that it was only 4 degrees.  

Was it worth it to beat the seemingly endless line of package mailing citizens?  Yes.  Coming home to a second cup of hot coffee and the remnants of the previous night's brownies was better yet.

Shift Left: Creating new pattern pieces for the princess shirt

It seems that I was rather unrealistic in my sewing plans.  I thought that it would be no problem to finish up my muslin and make two pairs of pants and a shirt before going off to Knoxville for the Christmas holiday.  At this point this looks completely unlikely.  I can recognize however that planning my re-entrance into sewing during the holidays was perhaps  a bit ambitious.  At least I am making progress, even if slow progress.

The second shirt muslin has been dismantled and altered and new pattern pieces have been created.

I started with the back pieces.  First I removed 3/4 inch at the center back, below the bra line but above the waist, tapering to nothing at the side seams.  I did not document this as it is a pretty standard alteration.  (click on all photos to enlarge)

 Then I cut my back muslin apart along the horizontal line drawn across the back and realigned the halves as indicated, shifting the top piece to the left and aligning  the vertical marks.

 The next step was to redraw the seam lines.  Here you can see the right back, still stitched together but with the new seam lines drawn in red. If you look closely at the drawing, you can see that the original seam where the side back met the center back is to the left of the new red seam line on the upper piece, and to the right of it on the lower piece.    The new seam splits the difference between the two.

The next photo shows the same alterations made to the left back piece.

 Looking at the entire back laid out flat, with the seam lines marked, suddenly it all made sense to me.  Of course these are not the final pieces, and there will be no slashing of the fabric.  See how there will be more room in the finished back on the right, room to accommodate the full shoulder blade on the right.  The left side will be smaller, and more closely shaped.  This will fit more closely over the hollow on that side, where no shoulder blade juts out and where often on purchased clothes there is a large fold of fabric.

Suddenly it all makes sense.  Rather than patching a pattern to fit, we have transformed this pattern into something that is designed to fit.

Here are the back pieces, cut apart, seam with all seam lines traced.  You can see how the new seams differ from the previous draft. 

First the back:

  

Then the front:

  

The new patterns have all been created from these pieces and I am ready to cut the third muslin and check the fit.

Princes Shirt Drafts: Front

I promised a recap of what has been done and what still needs to be accomplished with the front of the princess shirt.

 I mentioned in yesterday's post, about the back pieces that I added a little width at the side seam over the hips, but not as much as I added to the back side seam. No additional width was needed at the front princess seam over the tummy.  

However, as previously mentioned, I did need to make an FBA.

I needed to add 3/4 " in length over the bust.  And I needed a bit of width as well. 

Since this is  princess-seamed shirt, I lengthened the center front piece by the entire 3/4 inch.  And I added almost 1/2 inch at the seam over the bustline, tapering to the shoulder and waist.

 On the side front piece, I angled the lengthwise addition from 3/4" at the seam with the center front and tapered to nothing at the side seam.  I also added more width to the side front (7/8")  than I added to the center front pattern piece at the bust so that the seams would line up correctly.  If I had divided the increase evenly the seam would have fallen too far outside the bust points and this would have been matronly looking and less flattering.

I also added a tiny bit, 1/4 " at the shoulder seam, adding it in the center where the two front pieces met.

I'm sorry the photos aren't as clear as they should be, a problem with documenting things after the fact, and the ruler hides the paper that was added to provide length, but I did want to show the difference in the increases at the seam line.

 As for what is next, the front is pretty much set now except for that same twisting problem that I have in the back of the shirt.

I am going to cut the shirt in half along the black horizontal line and move the upper portion to the right about 3/4" and the lower portion to the left the same amount.  Then I am going to true up the seam lines and recut the pattern.

If you recall, I moved the back in a corresponding fashion.  The upper portion moved left, which balances the rightward move of the front, and the lower portion moved right, just as the lower front will move left.  

I know in my head that this is correct.  It corresponds perfectly to the twist in my torso caused by the scoliosis.  Even after corrective surgery I am not completely straight.  And I know that the s-shaped curve of my spine is such that the upper spine curved to my right and the lower spine curved to my left.

I haven't done it yet, Thursdays are always very busy, but I am just amazed by the simplicity of this approach.  I hope it works out as well as I think it will,  although I am in fact a little nervous about posting all this before I have actually done it and sewn it up to make sure it is right. But I have faith.

Princess Shirt drafts: Back

Last week was a non-starter as far as sewing was concerned.  Routines were interrupted and we no longer weather interruptions to the routines well.  

But I finally took a look at the princess shirt muslin.  I separated the back from the front and started looking at the changes to be made when I realized that never recorded, either here or in my little notebook the changes that had already been made.  I do want to reproduce what I have learned and although I have the final version of the pattern, understanding how I got there is also beneficial.

Generally, my initial choices with cutting the pattern were not a bad start, and the changes to be made were minor.  To re-iterate, I cut a size 16 at the neckline, a 12 at the shoulders and back armscye, and an 8 through the front upper chest and armsyce tapering back to a 12 at the shoulder and side seam.  I did not do an FBA even though I knew I would need it, and I did not add extra fabric at the hips although I needed that as well.

Next for the changes I have made, and those I need to make, beginning with the back.

 

The initial changes that Kenneth King made to my first muslin were pretty simple.

The neckline was too low in the back, so I raised it 3/4" at the center, tapering to nothing at the armscye seam.  I realize that all shirts, blouses, tees, and tops ride too low, and I guess I knew that in my head, just as I know that my neck is forward compared to the "ideal" but I never thought about adding the extra fabric.  Previous fitting seminars have had me lengthen the shoulder seam from the base of the neckline, but not raise the entire upper back and shoulders.  I think this may work better and be more accurate.  In order to do this I had to change the center back line which was to be cut on the fold to a seamline, which of course now has a curve in it.  We did flatten that curve somewhat as I didn't need quite as much curve as the 3/4" provided by I did need some to accommodate the forward neck.  The upper part of the back seam acts as a kind of dart, shaping the back to the body.

I also made the side back piece wider at the lower armscye, increasing it about 3/8 of an inch.  If you click on the photo above you can see the paper added below the pattern to increase the length to the neck, as well as the redrawn  armscye seam.  I am sorry that I did not take pictures of this as I went along, and these photos do not show great detail, but I think you get the idea.  I also added about 1/2" at the hip where the side back meets the center back piece (although not in the center back seam) and 1  1/4 inch at the side seam on the back piece. I did not widen the front side seam by the same amount, only 1/2 inch at the hips on the front side seam.   I needed the extra fabric in the rear, not the front.

 Now before I move to the front piece I will show you what I need to do next to the back.  I have not made these changes yet, they are still marked only on the muslin:

I've tried to explain these markings directly on the photo, and if you click on the picture it should enlarge enough for you to see the changes to be made.

First, I need to take 3/4" of length out at the center back tapering to the nothing at the sides.  Wait.  Didn't I just add 3/4"?

Ahh, but it is not in the same place.  I needed 3/4" at the neckline, in the upper back, to have the neckline fall at the proper place.  But I had excess fabric lower down, below the bra-line but above the waist.  This is not surprising, as I have learned to take this amount out of the back of my sweaters, using a short-row dart technique to remove extra length from the center back without changing the side seams.  So I am not actually adding length to the pattern, I am just repositioning its distribution.

Then the fun begins.  Please click on the photo as I think it will be much more clear.  My shirt twists on my torso.  I am going to cut the back on the black line, cutting all the way across.  Then I am going to move the upper piece to the left and the lower piece to the right by the amount marked by the two vertical lines with the arrows between them.  After everything is lined up I am going to redraw and true up my seam lines creating 4 new back pattern pieces.  

At the moment my pattern pieces are symmetrical and are cut double.  I will need to trace off two more pattern pieces before I do this, as the final result will yield pattern pieces that are no longer symmetrical on paper, but they will look symmetrical on me.

Tomorrow I will show you the front pattern pieces.