Thursday 17 February 2011

The FASTEST and easiest fitting advice for garment sewing

Still on the sewers high after finishing my tartan dress I wanted to make another quick and easy project (the first was my boyfriends pjs) to keep up the sewing momentum. I have had a vintage pattern for a simple top in my stash for a while now, and thought it was time to give it a go. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the pattern (bad bad blogger!) but I'll get one and post it up soon. It's very basic, with two main pattern pieces (a front and a back) and then corresponding facings, and you have four different neck options.

My main worry was that it's a bust size 32. Now I'm not blessed with Christina Hendricks-esque assets (or anywhere near...in fact I would almost be inverted! lol) but I knew that if the bust size was small, the rest of the fit would be rater small too. So I whipped up a quick muslin to find out if I would even be able to get into this top (there are no fasteners in it). After trimming off the seams allowances from the neck and arm holes I was delighted to discover that I could indeed get myself into it....but it was pretty tight around the bust. Er...WHAT?! How?! Check out the pulling:


I stated tucking and pulling and pinning and this and that and other fitting options (after consulting my trusted Vogue Sewing book), but it just seemed like far too much work for a quick fix top. Then I realised I was wearing my old faithful bra which might perhaps have a little bit of extra oomph in it! So a quick bra change and:


Ta-da! Perhaps still a little tight over the bust, but much more acceptable! How easy was that?!

Here's the side view. The side bust dart (if you squint you can see it) is just ever slightly too high, but really not too far off for me to care at this point in time. Yes, I am a lazy sewer...but only at the moment. If I make this top again I may put in the effort to make it 'perfect'. There seem to be a few pulls on this view but I think that's because I am standing up ridiculously straight!

So there you have it....having fitting problems? Try a different bra!

1 comment:

  1. LOL. I know about the bra thing, a lady I met recently told me she went to a wedding and spent 30 dollars on the dress and 100 dollars on the underwear! Crazy, but true. Suzie, the shirt looks good. It sounds like you have some good options with necklines too. Vintage patterns surprise me too with how large a 32 can be. good luck on the next one!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments - they really do make my day!

Related Posts with Thumbnails