Regarding Comments on White Roses

In response to recent comments...

Laura asked:
>>>Are you sure your sleeve cap height is right? I can't help but think your sleeve looks like it doesn't have enough width in the cap, causing it to pull both in the front and back. The seams at back and front LOOK like they are properly placed, so it must be the sleeve cap right?<<<

Hi Laura! I tried a lower cap height first, which does produce a wider sleeve. That one had pulls 'out the wazoo'...even worse! So I redrafted and recut the sleeve to have a HIGHER cap, even knowing I would get a narrower sleeve. It was better, pull-wise...but narrower! THAT was my dilemna...how to get a cap that was tall enough and still wide enough without increasing the sleeve's cap ease. My solution was to:

• a) MOVE THE SHOULDER POINTS outward, by increasing both FSW and BSW (and ShL) measurements so the sleeve won't have to reach up so high...the garment's shoulder will reach out to the sleeve! This way, I can use a lower cap height which produces a wider sleeve, and
• b) use the ARMHOLE SHAPE TOOL to make the front between this wider shoulder area and the bust more narrow like it was before widening the shoulders, and
• c) increase the bust circumference measurement/reduce the cup size, to move the back armhole point outward a bit, which produces a larger back-half of the sleeve AND widens the back bodice area so the sleeve will not need to reach so far toward the back to meet the bodice. I am hopeful.

I also found that on both the front and the back bodice, reshaping the upper AHs helped. I'm talking about the area between the Shoulder Point and the notch on front and back. Making these arcs a bit more scooped creates a more pleasing 'hang' of the sleeve (on me). Instead of the sleeve seeming like a ^ at the top, it became more rounded when a tiny bit was removed from the bodice ah. This is a manual change...no tool in the STYLE EDITOR will do it for you (although you CAN use PATTERN EDITOR to redraw it)...and the amount was very small, like 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

>>> the only thing that has even made the shirts wearable was to lower the cap height--like to about a -1 or -1.25. I have been less concerned about some wrinkles from the "casual-ness" of the sleeve cap height than having that annoying pull across the back!<<<

Yes...thanks...I hear ya! I am just going to have to be more accepting of wrinkles in back to get mobility!

>>>Say just a thought...have you ever used Nancy Zieman's slide and pivot methods? The diagram you have in your post makes me think of that....and doing it that way. (Then the question is HOW to get PMB to draft it like that!!)<<<

I have toyed with her methods, but have usually done like I am doing here...figure out the effect her alteration would have on the pattern, then adjust the measurements and settings to 'force' PMB to give me that draft/shape.

Debbie wrote:
>>>My oh my you sure are demanding of your wovens at low ease levels!!:)) <<<

Yep, I am! I actually used 3" of bust ease, which I consider totally doable. I think I should be able to adequately move my arms at even 2" ease ...maybe even at 1"!

>>>Turning to Minott's wrinkle charts I noticed that she also says "or move section 2 out on slv. pattern".<<

Yep...section 2 is the underarm point, which DOES move outward (also) with the addition of bust circumference. If I made that change on the sleeve without changing the bodice, it would add more cap ease. I do know that using more cap ease would give me a wider, more comfortable sleeve, but that is not the kinda of sleeve I am after here.

>>> In her illustration the arm is bent, your's are straight out. When you move your arms as in your pic using low ease I consider the slv. wrinkles and the back strain normal. What else can it do with such little fabric during body movement?<<

Sure, I would expect SOME strain. But that degree of strain suggests to me that the fit is not right. As I said, I am adding 1" more bust circumference for the next one and will still use 3" ease...plus, using a smaller bust CUP SIZE will cause that entire 1" extra to be added to the BACK pattern. A few outward clicks on the AH SHAPE TOOL will make the mid-back/blade ah area slightly wider, too. BTW, I still get strain when the arms are postioned as in Minott's example...of course, not nearly as much!

>>>Do you think your armhole seamlines (both frt/bck) are too far out on arm?<<<

I totally do in the front, but not in back. In BACK, the armhole actually seems to need to be even FARTHER out at its lower part! To illustrate, I watched my back view (in mirror) as I moved my arms around. There is a 'valley' that is forming on my body about .5" outside where the ah seam is located, and that valley is probably where my arm really meets my body...where the ah seam SHOULD be! You can see the vertical wrinkle that forms over that valley in this picture, there on the sleeve, just outside the ah seam.>>>>>

However, in the front, the lower F-armhole seems to be too high up/out on my arm, but using the reduced cup size lowers this for next time. Cross your fingers! XXXXX

>>>Where do you start your slv. easing when setting slvs.? From the frontal pic it looks like there's too much in front cap..yes/no?..and that the easing started too low vs. just on either side of shoulder notch.<<<

Very observant! Yes, as a result of some of my recent sleeve tests, I found my sleeve actually hung better when I spread the ease over a longer distance. In front, I can't spread it as much as in back, but yes, I am easing more than just right at the top of the sleeve cap. That sleeve has 1.5" of cap ease, so must have a decent amount of space to put that into! Now, one must consider that I was trying to make the sleeve I was using hang better....but each time I change a measurement or setting, the armhole changes, and so does the sleeve draft. So the changes I make to cause one sleeve to hang better will not necessarily be necessary for subsequent sleeves, as long as I am still making changes. Put another way, I might not need to spread the ease over a longer area on a different sleeve draft...who knows!

>>>At that low bust ease level there is still alot of excess at back bust area, and those darn wrinkles are still there at base of back armholes..darnit! It's almost like I want to make the whole upper back more narrow and then work on the slv.<<<

See, I am wanting to do the opposite!!! I am wanting to make the upper back wider!!! Or, at least, the 'mid-back', the lower-blade area. With movement, there is NOT enough width across the back! I am almost resigned to the fact that I will HAVE to put up with some excess fabric across the back when my arms are at my sides so that I will have enough fabric across the back to allow me to move my arms up and forward!

>>>Maybe using the side/arm pt. negative is doing that along with too wide widths?..yes/no? But if you don't use side/arm neg. then the pmb slv. will be all screwed up because of how it puts too much in the front cap. Why doesn't pmb evenly distribute cap ease...WHY?:)))) <<<

I am finding that PMB puts nearly 2/3 of the ease into the front sleeve cap and only 1/3 into the back sleeve cap...but I hadn't considered that it might be diferent with different sideseam postions. Sure enough, though, moving the SS forward DOES put MORE of the cap ease into the front half of the sleeve than using a more backwardly-placed sideseam does! Who'dda thunk? I wonder if this is a bug in the program or an intentional drafting choice(?)...and if so, why?

>>>nice alteration on that collar. And that is a cute blouse!<<<

Thanks! I drafted with 3" width at CB for the Italian collar, then modified as shown to flatten it some.

>>>Oh and might I introduce you to a wonderful new fabric blend called cotton with lycra!<<<

I know...and I have some in my stash, waiting to be used! But I don't want to rely on Lycra to solve fit issues. I want to get my fit to the 'as good as it gets' point, then use Lycra for increased comfort!

Ya know, I don't watch a lot of QVC...but occasionally, I will linger on that channel for a few minutes. As you say...pushing up sleeves to compensate for them being too short? Are you kidding me? I have had to do that all my life...that is why I sew!!!

A hot mess, aka green and aqua tops

I had previously mentioned that I had an epiphany regarding the fit of my armholes. As you may remember, I have been trying to ‘scoop’ the F-AH for quite some time, and for a couple of reasons. One is because I always feel a ‘tightness’ there at the F-ah with arm movement, but two, is because of the way the PMB back armhole flows into the front. It seemed to suddenly change direction at the sideseam, and I was trying to create a smoother flow from downward in back…across…to upward in front.


I have long been plagued by diagonal wrinkles in the back of my garments. It suddenly occurred to me that if I scooped out the lower BACK AH a bit, it would help with those wrinkles. AND, if I scooped out the BACK AH, then there would be no need to scoop out the FRONT ah!



Well, this was a whole new way of thinking for me. But I already had the next top cut out…this green one.

This one was very similar to the previous Ladybug Top with a few minor measurement tweaks, including a slightly increased BACK SHOULDER WIDTH. Again, I used a Bcup, but this time, I had used a little negative DART OVERRIDE to loosen up the front ah, to see if that improved the sleeve. My CFL was equal to my CBL.

(BTW, the reason I used the D.O. was to see if it made the armhole better for a sleeve...I knew it wouldn't be great for sleeveless.)

The sleeves are probably better than previous ones, but are still not just right. In all fairness, this is NOT the sleeve pattern that I should be testing with! I should use a straight sleeve with straight hem…not a tapered sleeve! The narrow hem circumference makes it hard to see the relationship of my arm to the sleeve’s fullness. The too-short cap height isn’t helping much either! But the FEEL of the sleeve was still wrong…they were constricting with movement…so I assume the armholes still aren’t right. I didn’t plan to leave the sleeves in this top anyway, so I ripped and finished as sleeveless.

And FYI, I have realized that ALL these recent tops are too long in front and too short in back! I evaluate in front of a mirror and probably stand too erect...getting a false sense of what fits and what is level with what. *

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This next one, aqua, was also a B cup, but I had increased the CBL and BSS by 0.375”.

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When I got the facings attached and tried this on, the front swung open, as if the Center Front Length was too long (I had increased the back length, not the front!).

On the left is the original...on the right, I have pinned tucks in both front neck edges, to shorten the front length. It seemed to make the front hang better.

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So, what the heck, I cut off the front shoulder at neck point to reduced the front length by .5”…this made the front shoulder more ‘square’.

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Well, it also pulled the Bust Point up too high!

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And, it changed the balance of the garment…so now the BACK SHOULDER SLOPE seems long (see how the back shoulder has excess ‘ease’).

*I should NOT have adjusted the front shoulder...what needed to be done was to reduce the dart size and take the excess front length off at hem…as if slicing the pattern across the whole front through the dart and overlapping to remove 0.5”.

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Oh well.

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Since I had already messed this one up, I decided to play with it.

I had read some info on neck widths, which is the FIRST area on a fitting garment to correct. The back neck (on the pattern) should be 3" wide, and the front will usually be 1/8 to 1/4" narrower than the back.

I wanted to see what effect this would have on the F-AH.

I decided to simulate what would happen if I drafted a pattern where the front neck width was a full ½” narrower than the back neck width. So I ripped the shoulders and realigned them by moving the front shoulder OUTWARD. I had to cut off ¼” shoulder length at the back neck point…making the back neck ¼” wider on each side. I also had to unsew the back shoulder dart and sew it smaller to make the front and back shoulder seams match at the armhole ends. As you can see, this created a ‘gap’ in the front armhole. It felt awful, and didn’t provide ease in the ah.

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This is the left image...where I am holding up ONE finger.

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So I ripped it again and realigned the shoulders as intended…this meant I had to trim away ¼” from the front shoulder length at neck point…so now both front and back necks are 1/4” wider than they started with, but they have the same relationship as drafted…front neck is again 1/8” to ¼” narrower than back neck.

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On the right, holding TWO fingers, is after realignment.

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You’d think I had lots of time to waste!

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After sewing these tops, I have decided that there is NO ADVANTAGE to using the reduced cup size…well, at least, not a Bcup. The smaller cup sizes have a lower, more scooped front armhole….but as I discovered, if the back armhole has the right shape, the front doesn’t need to be ‘scooped’. Plus, if the back shoulder width is adequate, the pulling on the front armhole is minimized.

You can’t fit armholes in a vacuum!

So this week I have been sewing and testing again…to determine WHICH cup size I should use. I tried an E again, and it was crazy wrong! I also tried a D, and it was better, but just looked so matronly…finally I figured out that it was because it was too large! I could take a .5” tuck from shoulder to hem over each bust…like a princess seam! BTW, I have used the same bust measurement and the same bust ease for all these tops. The B cups were a little tight-ish and the D and E cups were a little large. So like Goldilocks, I have decided that the Ccup is ‘just right’! Now if only I could get those sleeves to be ‘just right’…

Speaking of Goldilocks…OMG, I have cut my hair.

And it is bad.

Seeing my hair in the pictures of that green top helped me realize it was time for a trim, but I got carried away. I cut that bangs…it looked a little better! So I cut some more. And then some more. This went on over about a week.

Then I decided I better GO get the back trimmed to match the now-shorter front (don’t want a mullet!).

Well, she cut the back VERY SHORT…stacked it….and left the sides longer like I had them…creating an inverted sort of look.

Well, the sides looked like lambchops on my face! I *had* to cut the front to match the now-shorter back…so now it is ALL short! (All the images shown on this post have the 'before cut' or 'during cut' hair.)

Yuk.

I am trying to focus on the fact that it will no longer be a HOT MESS.

Maybe.

Peach Eyelet #2

Here is the second of the two tops I have recently sewn…Peach #2.

Yes, it is the exact same fabric as the first one…same buttons, too! I decided to use up the remaining fabric, and if this was the more comfortable top, I would donate the first one. Yep, that is what will happen, as this one is WAY better! Not perfect, but better.





























The first top used a D-cup to draft…for this one, I used a C-cup (and lengthened the CFL/FSS measurements to compensate for the reduced cup size). This makes the waistline of the red sloper-overlay even MORE scooped upward!



















The garment is still showing some strain over my prominent shoulder blades…especially the left one.

I think I want a tiny bit more width across the back between the arm creases…I KNOW I want the shoulder points (both front and back) to be located a little farther outward next time.

These are easy fixes…increase the shoulder width measurements!


















I thought the first top could use another half to three-quarters of an inch all the way down the pattern…so I manipulated measurements and settings to give me that, while only minimally changing the front pattern.







This makes Peach #2 much more comfortable to wear than #1. I got compliments on #1 when I wore it, even though it felt tight to me. When I wore #2, no one could see the fitting flaws that I mentioned. It is the way these garments FEEL that is key here, not so much how they look. And the comfort level is not quite ‘there’ yet…but it’s getting closer.


When my arms are forward, there is strain across the back, yet there is all this excess fabric in front over the bust. The front armhole cuts into my arm…but as you can see, I can’t really make the front any narrower across the high bust area…THAT is NOT the answer!


I need a longer front armhole, but I cannot ‘scoop’ it inward.


The only way to go is UP!

Ok, maybe I look like I am trying to do ballet...and failing miserably! But no, the point is to show the excess fabric over the bust that accompanies the strain across the back with forward arm movement. The overall bust ease/circumference is ok, but it needs to be forced to stay where it belongs!

I DID put a sleeve in this, temporarily. I wanted to test the armhole with a sleeve, just as I had done on the first top.



Let’s just say, I will NOT be BRINGING SEXY BACK with this one!!!



Look at the star-burst effect of pulls around the bust with the sleeve in (you don’t get that without the sleeve).



Once again, I would consider this sleeve a failure!
But once again, it is the armhole that is at fault.


Look at the side view:



See how the front hem is so much higher than the back hem? And how the back of the sleeve lays against my arm, yet the front hangs free? This sleeve is telling me to change the armholes. I think I hear it saying it wants the front armhole to be longer/taller! This jives with what the front armhole is saying when I put my arms forward…it digs into my arm, saying, “Make me longer!”




As mentioned before, I always have to manually scoop the F-AH to get the right shape. I just haven’t been able to ‘force’ the program to give me a good F-AH.

Of course, I’ve been trying to make the F-AH longer by scooping the lower part…but I am now seeing that the only way to go is UP! To make the F-ah longer, I must add at its upper end…the shoulder end.






There are STILL some drag lines from the bust, indicating inadequate front length. Really? How can that be? This CFL measurement is only .375” shorter than the CBL measurement, and when I reduce the cup size to B (for my next top) I will be increasing the CFL by .375” to compensate, making them EQUAL!!! Nobody uses EQUAL front and back lengths!!! But this shirt is telling me that I must make my CFL even LONGER than the CBL, to eliminate those drag lines! Really?



But think about it…

The front armhole is saying, “Make me longer/taller so I won’t cut in.”

And the sleeve is saying, “Make the F-ah longer/taller so I can hang level.”

And the drag lines are saying, “Make the CFL longer so I can hang level.”


So for the NEXT ONE, I will make the front even longer! For the next one, using a Bcup, the CFL will be longer than the CBL! That is crazy…and I can’t wait to see how it works out!

Empire Crinkle Rayon, the pattern

To make the pattern for my Blue crinkle Rayon Empire top, I started with:

• the PMB DRESS,
• Empire Waist (raised setting 3),
• Double-breasted closure (button size 0.5),
• Curved V-neck with a depth of 11.5”.

In retrospect, that neckline depth was probably a tad low for this neck shape, but I was trying to make the neckline seam meet the Empire seam. If I had chosen the STRAIGHT V-neck instead of the curved one, this depth would probably have been fine, but when you add in the curve,...well....I had to 'tack' the fronts together at the overlap to prevent exposure…and where I tacked them is probably ABOVE where the pattern was designed to overlap! I put on the top and overlapped the fronts as low as I could and still keep my bra covered and tacked it in that position. This DID pull on the fronts a bit…they were telling me they didn’t want to cross that high!...but I forced them to!

I did as before…I divided the single under-bust dart into 2 released tucks. To do this, I first rotated the dart out of the way. Then I placed a point on each side of the bust point, distance away equals .75”. I drew lines from each point to the waist seam. Then I rotated HALF of the bust dart to EACH of these lines.

Next I drew a circle around the bust point, r=-2.5”, then drew another one .25” away. This is because if I cut both lines off at the SAME circle, the lengths of the tuck’s legs don’t match. Making the medial leg longer compensates for the angle of the tucks.

I had just about finished when I realized I might want to shorten the front neck a bit and transfer that to the bust darts, so I did that last...you can barely see the difference in the last two patterns, but look at the empire seam near the CF...it angles upward slightly (you probably can't tell that the dart/tucks are slightly larger.

Oh, gosh! I forgot to explain that front armhole!

Well, as you may remember, I have been trying to discover my perfect armhole shape. I have found that by deliberately MISSHAPING the armhole with the AH SHAPE TOOL during drafting, then reshaping it manually, in PE, gives a better ah shape and sleeve.

I am doing 17 clicks down and 2 clicks to the Right….each click is 1/10th inch, and the tool is moving the F-notch.

Basically, I am creating an armhole with a LONGER seam length by making it more square, so that when I manually scoop the lower front, the sleeve will have adequate length to fit the new armhole.

Ok, to redraw the F-AH
I locate a point 1” ABOVE the F-notch, then draw an arc from there to the underarm point…this arc will scoop 0.375” below the original lower armhole curve.

Then I draw an arc from new point to the shoulder point, again, curving slightly inward…but this time, only 0.125”.

This creates a really good armhole shape. When you align the front and back patterns at shoulder seam, this armhole shape flows smoothly from back to front.

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Ok, so that sounds like a lot of changes….really, it isn’t all that much. Reshaping the F-armhole is critical, but the dart-to-tucks is just a design thing.

Of course, as mentioned before, I must add length below the bust dart….I did report this problem, but was told it couldn’t be fixed. However, PMB’s MIDRIFF style does appear to have the needed dart length…I don’t know why the EMPIRE style can’t (?). But I don’t write code…

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Ok, for the LOWER FRONT area, I eliminated the closure part (shown in pink) as I planned to cut this on the fold.

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And remember, I draft with 2” MORE hip ease than I need in order to get the sideseams correctly shaped, then I eliminate this extra from the front patterns.

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Because of this, I need to remove 1” of width from this lower front pattern.

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I selected the outer part (shown in aqua) and moved it over 1”…basically making the front dart much smaller. I decided that tiny dart wasn’t worth sewing, so I just rotated the front sideseam just a little to close that dart over…yes, this made the sideseams no longer EXACTLY identical F to B, but I figured it was close enough for this crinkle fabric which ‘gives’ so much.

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For the BACK, I compared the size of the waist dart in the lower part to the size of the darts in my TORSO/Blouse pattern, and again, this Empire dart is smaller.

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Because of this, I enlarged the dart by .25” on each side.

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Then, to make the waistline seam of the BODICE back match this now-shorter lower seam, I ROTATED the lower ah and SS (pink area) CW to remove 0.5” at the waist seam.

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The upper dart was sewn as drafted.

Now about those sleeves… I have read where people join the front and back at the underarm seam and cut this as one pattern piece. Sounds ok, right? Well… Notice that when you align the front and back at underarm points, there is a GAP created at the hem edge. Obviously you can’t rotate the pieces to align that underarm seam, as the hem would form a inverted V there…and that would not be good to sew.

So I tried it as shown…with the GAP in the pattern.

The sleeves were awful.

They were large…like circle sleeves, hunging flat against my side under the arm with no shape. The inside of the sleeve was VERY visible.

Yuk.

So I sewed a dart there where the underarm seam SHOULD be…this corrected the problem. In the future, I will NOT join my petal sleeve patterns!

Ok, that’s about it.