Yellow CB-Seam

Well, I tried another one, again yellow, this time creating a CB seam to see how much difference that makes in the look and hang of the back of my dartless garment.

Chart Changes

For this dartless test, I put my CBL back to ‘normal’ to restore the upper back length, as shortening that had obviously not helped with the ‘hanging on the backside’ issue!

I did continue to use the narrower shoulder widths of the Yellow #2…that is, both FSW and BSW were reduced by -.5” as compared to ‘regular’.

I further reduced the FSS…it is now a full 1” shorter than my ‘regular’ chart…to try to balance the sizes of the front and back armholes.



Also, I found that it didn’t matter WHICH cup size I chose to use…as once I choose the NO DART silhouette, the front length is based on the measurements, not the cup size…I tested cups A through E and got the same front length for all. The front length on my NO DART pattern IS still shorter than what my regular chart gives me (because the regular one DOES add for the bust cup size) so I continue to use the CF extension in the drafting choices to make up the lost length.


Drafting Choices


Chest Ease: 0.5
Waist Ease: 1
Hip Ease: 1

Armhole Depth: -0.5
Dart Override: 0

Side/Arm Point: -1
Side/Waist Point: 1
Side/Hip Point: -0.75*** this was a bad choice…see later comments

Cf/Extension: 1
Cb/Extension: 0

Shoulder Point: 0.25

Sleeve Cap Height Adj: -0.5
…and the CAP EASE was reduced as low as it would go…0.32


Pattern Changes

To create a shaped CB seam, I drew a horizontal line at the CB/waist, length = 1”. This is a bit much…usually the waist would indent only .75”, but HEY!, I always overdo it! :)
I redrew the back from waist to neck as a slanted curved line…but from waist to hip, instead of drawing straight down, I angled back out to the original CB line…which gives a bit of bum room in the pattern!

I SELECTED the back Armhole and the whole back sideseam and chose ROTATE BY UNITS tool. Pivot point was SHP…other end was SS/hem (which was hip level). Rotated CCW by .75”. Then I moved the hem line over to connect to the new SS/hip placement. This left a gap between the original CB line and this hem line…so I extended the hem line to meet the center back…giving me a wider back pattern at hipline.

I cut out this pattern and sewed it up, again, using the same neckline and sleeve hem shape as before to minimize variables.

I am getting tired of these same style yellow tops! But I only ended up with 2 of these…even though I have sewn 3…because I ripped one apart! So, all that remains is Yellow #2 and Yellow CB-Seam.



Although you can't see it in these pics (because of my arm), I should have chosen a more balanced Side/Hip placement…I used (-.75) as I had done on Yellow #2, which moved the sideseam at hip .75” forward. But since this time I was rotating the AH/SS and creating a shaped back seam, I should have probably used zero!!! Duh. So the lower sideseam angles too far forward.

As expected, the fit in the back is better with a seam, but there is just no getting around the awful fit in the armholes, both front and back! Each of the 3 tops I have sewn using the NO DART silhouette from PMB4 has the same problems, no matter how much I reduce the Front Shoulder Slope to pull up and out the excess front ah length!


The problem is in how the NO DART silhouette is created. Part of the bust dart is put into the front armhole, to be left unsewn…lowering the underarm. The remainder of the dart is left in the sideseam, to be unsewn. So, to make the back sideseam match the now-longer front sideseam, the back underarm level is raised, lengthening the back ss. This means the back armhole is now smaller and the front ah is now larger. Think about this…the front underarm went down and the back underarm went up…which creates an imbalance in both the bodice and the sleeve!

In the close-ups of each of these yellow tops, you can see the unsewn ‘dart’ that forms at the base of each front armhole because of the dart that was rotated there. But if you look back my original dartless top…the teal blue one that I created myself…you’ll see there IS a tiny dart near the ah, but not much. Well, for that one, I DID put some of the bust dart into the front armhole by using the DART OVERRIDE tool! But it is nowhere NEAR as bad as the NO DART silhouette, because the back underarm wasn’t raised upward on my draft.

So, long story short, I still don’t like PMB’s NO DART silhouette! It creates a top that is wearable but not fashionable.

I will do it my way instead.

But the good news is: I have thought up another thing to try…and it seems VERY promising!!! I can’t wait to try it…I’ll go print it out now…and let you know!