Friday, February 8, 2008

Fitting - part 3 - sloper (part b)

I had better luck today with the Vogue Patterns Professional Fitting Program.

First you take your measurements. Some of these are different from normal pattern measurements. Look at measurement 8 - from the back of the neck, around the shoulder and down to bust point. And measurement 9 - from bust point to centre of your waist.

Next you compare your measurements to the standard Vogue measurements. My variances were not surprising. I needed to marginally increase (.5cm) length above bust and then .8 out below the bust. In the back I took out .4 just under the arms and then a whole 2cms lower in the back.

The best fun (not) was the bust dart. As my upper chest is 82cms and my full bust is 83 cms according to Vogue I was an A cup. In my bras I am a C cup due to only being 71 cms under the bust. But who am I to argue with Vogue? So I did the small bust adjustment. And then centre front did not join and the side seams of the bodice had no hope of matching. Remember I took out .3 in the front but 2.4 in the back, and I reduced my dart for A cup. So the front side seam was way longer than the back side seam.



So all that work had to be undone. I adjusted the bodice back to a B cup. I then measured the extra front side length I had compared to the back and it was 2.1cm as you would expect (the back adjustment of 2.4 less the front of .3). So I increased the side dart by 2cms to make the sides agree. The kit does have C and D cup adjustment pieces but I thought I would just go with what my gut instinct told me to do. I should have listened to that earlier!

The blue lines are my adjustments

For the skirt, I needed to take out 3cm from the area between my waist and my hips. Then for the the hem to reach mid knee I added back 3cm to the length. I also needed to add 1cm to each side seam as my waist and hips are 4cms bigger than the size 10.



So the results so far? Bust, waist, hip and kneecap all hitting at the correct places. A slight problem about the waist circumference, but I will check that tomorrow.



See, it doesn't quite meet...oops! Oh and please excuse the bra!


I have to look at my shoulder point too tomorrow. I need to see which seam line is best. And to determine if I need a forward shoulder adjustment. It looks pretty good in this photo - what do you think? Move it forward a tad or leave as is?

And I am pleased to see the back neck comes up to the necklace and no round back adjustment is needed! Mmmm, but bust point looks a bit low side on - see the top dark line? I have a round flat bust rather than pointy so maybe I need the line to be higher? Check this and then the front on photo and feedback would be appreciated. Of course then I would need a bigger dart - so much for A cup!!

The armhole pooching should be fixed when the sleeve is fitted. I may need to raise the armhole too ( I am predicting that!).

Looking forward to hearing all your thoughts. And thankyou to everyone who has commented so far.

9 comments:

BCN - UNIQUE designer patterns said...

Vicky .- I received your e-mail and after making my last visit to your blog, I see that we need not comment. This test with VOGUE looks perfect. As you say, is only adjusted waist circumference, moreover looks good. You need to make your next test in a "muslin" and observe yourself if you need a small adjustment or correction. Thank you for your support in me. A big hug and greetings from Barcelona. Paco

Anonymous said...

Vicki, I'm replying to your Stitcher's Guild query here.

I think that part of the "problem" is the seam allowance on the armhole. This is causing binding in that area.
If you snip right down to the seam-line every inch or so you should find that the fit alters noticeably.
Your shoulder seam looks pretty OK; the bust point is perhaps a bit low, but releasing the armhole area may help.

Check again after you've done this, and if you make a fabric muslin remember to release both neck and armhole seam allowances.
Ann

Anonymous said...

Looks good. Is the "material" you used for the fitting part of the Vogue kit?

Sew-4-Fun said...

Hey Vicki, that is looking good. Very good. Lucky you! The sleeves will make a big difference so make your your next is in calico and includes the sleeves.

The good part is when you have worked out your standard adjustments, and there doesn't look to be many, you should be able to use them on all your Vogue patterns with confidence. That Vogue fitting kit it when you are finished on PR. I'd like to hear more about it.

As for the m'ments they are pretty standard for some drafting methods.

Sew-4-Fun said...

Part of my last comment got cut off. I wanted to say -

The Vogue fitting kit looks good. I hope you review it on PR when you are finished. I'd like to hear more about it.

Summerset said...

Wow! Not bad at all - the back looks perfect! I agree, clipping the s.a. on the armhole and turning under, will probably help. The bust point does look a bit low, but that's not too hard of a fix. Congrats!

Anonymous said...

This looks to be a winner! I agree with the others; make a muslin and clip the armhole SA to get a real view/ sense of the fit. Love following this- thank you so much for sharing.

Ann Made Studio said...

Vicki this one looks wonderful. Your efforts have paid off. Good for you. I'm so anxious to see your muslin. Thank you for sharing your progress with us..the pictures are great....and being able to follow along is even better.

Mariela Alethia said...

Vicki- you are doing a great job. I am also working on a basic bodice. I drafted my own pattern. It is a lot of work. You started the process by analizing your figure and that analyisis helped you figure out where you might need to make alterations. You need to add to the front waist. How about slashing the lower bodice and skirt and inserting a piece fabric where you need it. I read about slashing and adding fabrics when you are working on a muslin in Thread Magazines. Otherwise it looks great