A Fitting Outcome

Today I spent the afternoon reviewing a couple of things I made last fall and evaluating the fit (and patterns) and deciding what I would change in the future.  I need small changes in the PMK arena…but LARGE changes in the PMB one! 

In September I sewed a sheath (partially sewn, anyway!) and I had basted the waist line on it to evaluate the fit.  That was a good idea!  I had the waist too low by 1.5”!  I knew I had gradually lengthened my CBL/CFL, etc, but I really overdid it! 

In this picture, I have a narrow elastic band around my waist, too.  It *is* level...too bad the camera angle is not!  Look at the walls/corners... But you can see the basted wasitline below the elastic band.

I also had gobs too much waist ease in this sheath!  I had used 5"...what?  Who knows...  But I had to redo that, too.

 

But back to that waist level...

The interesting thing to me was that although the back waist was 1.5” too low, it was only 1” too low in the front.  This tells me I also need to increase the CUP SIZE that I draft with.  That way, when I raise the waist by 1.5” (and the front waist level becomes too high) the increased bust cup will lower the front waist to make it level with the back. 

This dress was drafted with a D cup.  In my new/subsequent measurement chart, to correct for this I had actually gone up to an F cup, but I think that might be a bit excessive…an E is probably close enough.  See, in order to 'level' the waist, I need an additional .5” of bodice length in front….an E cup will add .375” (which is just a tiny bit less than needed) but an F cup adds .75” (which is a little more than needed!).

I could go either way...

And really, I guess this cup thing can be variable, according to how I want the garment to fit…depending on whether I want the front to be 'contoured' under the bust or not!  For an 'easier' fit, an E cup is fine…but for a closer, contoured fit, the F is what I should use! 

 

Just fyi, I had to rip and redo the shoulders on this sheath to take up  0.5" at the back SHP.  This meant I needed to reduce the BSS in my chart by 0.5"...which is a lot to be 'off'.  Again, tinkering over time was involved...forgetting to check what was done last time before proceeding this time!  That is what happens when one only works at this in spurts!   I had corrected the shoulders in my PMK chart, but forgot to do it in PMB.

 

In PMK, I learned (or re-learned!) a few things that I will document here so I can hopefully remember them!  These findings apply to the KNITS program.

 

1. Cup size does NOT affect the size of the front armhole.  If you need to affect the balance of the front and back armhole sizes, you must use the Dart Override tool.  (This differs from the way it works in PMB, where larger cup sizes produce smaller front armholes.)
2. Increasing the cup size lowers the bust point.  If you KNOW the bust point should be at a certain level and the increased cup size lowers it, then you should CHANGE the number in the BUST POINT/VERTICAL setting to raise it up to the correct distance from the NP/shoulder.  For example, if your BP measurement is 10.75" and increasing from a D to an E cup puts it lower on the pattern, then you should use 10.5 or even 10.25 as your BP/Vertical setting so that the BP on the pattern will be 10.75" from the np/shoulder on the pattern.  Measure!!!
3. Raising the BP/Vertical setting also raises the underarm level!
4. When lowering the armhole depth, remember to raise the underarm of the sleeve!  (lower cap height)
5. Sleeve underarm length is based on a 'zero' cap height.  If you RAISE the cap height, the sleeve will be too long!  ...so remember to also adjust the sleeve length...

Ok, now that I have written this here, I wonder if it is safe to throw away the scraps and notes cluttering my desk...?