Saturday, July 17, 2010

Once upon a time or back in the day

Once upon a time, and long, long time ago, I could take a size 10 pattern straight from the envelope and make garments without FBA's, upper round, forward shoulder adjustments.  Advance forward many, many years.  Now I take a multi-sized pattern and normally use a size 14 upper chest/shoulder then shift to 16 for bust and waist and then taper back to 14 on some patterns at hip to hemline.  Sometimes I just cut out the 16 from waist to hem and adjust the seams as necessary when basting and sewing garment during sewing process.

Today I pin fitted the Simplicity 2360 pattern and determined that I needed FBA of 1.5 inches which required adjusting the side front piece first, then adjust the front piece, which then required an adjustment to the front flounce piece.  No cheater FBA for this; I used the FFRP method that works well for me.  Once you adjust one piece you must remember all the other pieces that will be impacted.  Before doing all of those adjustments I lengthened the all of those pieces by 3/4 inch as I felt it was a little to short waisted.

That took over an hour to complete.  The front, side front, back and side back bodice pieces are pinned to the fabric ready to cut out.  The fabric I am using is a rayon/linen blend.  I had some matching yellow lining but unfortunately no where near enough.  I have some pale yellow lining that I will be using.

I am getting ready to watch a movie with DH.  Update tomorrow.

6 comments:

  1. LOL - I, too, remember the day I could cut a straight size 10----long ago and far away...........

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  2. Oh boy do I feel you on this one, I could cut a straight size 10 from any of the big 4 with no worries no so now, life does bring about a change.

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  3. Sometimes, it's hard to accept the way our bodies are changing. Discovering that we have to make new pattern adjustment throws the changes right into our faces.

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  4. I know what you mean about the olden days. I used to sew a size 10 and wear it. Since it fit sorta like RTW, it seemed OK to me :)
    Not only did our bodies change, we learned more about fitting.

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  5. I have never left a comment here before, but I do read your blog and this post spoke to me! Just yesterday, I was thinking EXACTLY about my body changes and aging, and how my sewing has been (somewhat adversely) affected. I truly understand how critical fit is in garment making now. Back when I could use a specific size and have a nearly perfect fit without alteration, I thought skillful sewing meant keeping straight grain, neat stitching and matching prints, LOL!!

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  6. I haven't sewn garments for long, however I questioned my adjustment techniques and no longer need to knowing that the way you use to adjust your patterns, is the way I do it now.. adjusting my seams as needed when basting and the during sewing process.

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