(Text)Process of Fitting the

Bodice with Shoulder Princess line

1 The bodice front. Although the garment does not close over the bust, the shoulders fit well. rather than assuming that the client needs a larger size, first assess how the rest of the garment fits.

2 When viewing the garment from the side, note the excess fabric in the back above the Hbl. Also note the drag lines emanating from the bust and pointing toward the waist and hip. The combination of these issues suggests that a full bust is the reason the bodice did not close at center front.

3 viewed from the back, the bodice looks snug across the upper back but otherwise not tight. note the low left shoulder.

4 release the front princess seams over the bust. The princess seams spread, allowing the center fronts to match. Clip the neckline and front armholes to eliminate tightness.

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9 9 D e v e l o p i n g Y o u r   A b i l i t Y

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5 releasing the front princess seams allows the bodice back to relax.

6 note the excess fabric below the shoulder.

7 pin out this excess fabric in a wedge. begin to pin the princess seam working from the top downward. note the bagginess on the side front panels.

8 release the remainder of the front princess seams. The difference in length between the front panel and the side front panel is typical when making a full bust adjustment.

For more information on full bust adjustments, see page 129.

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1 0 0 T h e C o m p l e T e p h o T o G u i d e T o p e R F e C T F i T T i N G

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9 Slash the front panel above the Hbl, and add a piece of fabric to lengthen the upper portion of the bodice, bringing the Hbl into position so that it matches the Hbl on the side front.

10 in order to pin the front princess seam over the bust, assess where the extra front girth needs to be added. The side seam is straight and there is no strain. This indicates that all of the extra fabric needs to be added at the bust.

11 Add extra fabric and pin the princess seams to it, smoothing the mock-up fabric so that it is neither tight nor loose over the bust. Slip in a small shoulder pad on the low shoulder. This could have been done during an earlier step, but i chose to wait until the garment had really begun to settle on the client.

12 once the extra girth for the bust is added, establish the new front princess seam placement. using a narrow piece of soutache or other trim lets you experiment with the seam placement. in order to get a flattering princess seam placement on the figure, both the front and the side front will need to be adjusted.

in your pattern work, use the new princess seam placement to guide you in determining how much to add to each pattern piece.

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1 0 1 D e v e l o p i n g Y o u r   A b i l i t Y

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13 viewed from the side, the back Hbl is low in comparison to the front. When the extra fabric was added to lengthen the bodice front (step 9), more length could have been added. However, because the garment is a bit snug over the buttocks, i chose to raise the back Hbl a small amount.

14 The back Hbl raised. note the drag line emanating from under the bust going to the side seam at elbow level.

15 The drag line identified in the previous step can be eliminated by either increasing the dart intake (pinned on the client’s right) or by adding a waist-fitting dart (pinned on the client’s left).

16 if the client prefers a snug fit through the back, take in the back princess seams.

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1 0 2 T h e C o m p l e T e p h o T o G u i d e T o p e R F e C T F i T T i N G

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Jacket patterns are often designed with side panels, a style element that eliminates the need for a side seam.

The seams connecting the side panel to the jacket front and jacket back are about 2" to 3" (5.1 to 7.6 cm) to either side of the underarm where a side seam is usually located. because these seams are not true princess seams due to their location on the body, the approach to obtaining a good fit is different from fitting a garment with a princess seam.

Process of Fitting the Jacket with Side Panel

1 The garment front. note the excess fabric in the front armhole. Also note the drag lines emanating from the bust to just below the waist at the side, as well as the tightness over the bust.

2 viewed from the side, the front side panel seam is quite a distance from the bust apex. note the drag lines identified above and the excess length in the back.

3 The garment back. note the tightness across the upper back and at the hemline across the buttock and hip area. Also note the excess fabric in the back armhole and the excess length.

4 To eliminate the excess in the front and back armhole, pinch and raise the shoulder seam and pin along the As your eye becomes better trained to recognize fitting issues, try not to let yourself become hypercritical. You don’t need to figure out how to get rid of each and every little fold or bump of cloth on a test muslin. in fact, once you make up a garment in fashion fabric, some of those small imperfections disappear due to using “real” fabric, and many others are far less obvious. While having a high standard is good, feeling compelled to get clothing to look absolutely

flawless is unreasonable. unfortunately, an unrealistic view of picture-perfect clothing is presented to us every day by the advertising industry and the technological advancements in photography. Also, remember that during waking hours, we’re moving in our clothes most of the time and are rarely motionless for more than a few seconds. being able to move comfortably in our clothes is an important factor to consider when conducting a fitting.