The Pleated Dress, completed

As promised, here are some pictures of the completed pleated dress.




The fabric I used had an all-over print (feathers!), which made the pleating a bit hard to see in photos. Here is a close up, but it still doesn't show the details...I guess you had to be there!


After cutting out the front pattern and marking all the dart/pleats, I fused a piece of interfacing to the 'tab' area, to help give it a bit of support. I extended the interfacing to what would be the dart/pleat's center 'fold-line' on each side of the tab, so that when the pleats that create the tab are folded, the interfacing will fill the fold on each side of the pleat, to avoid a knife-sharp edge. However, pressing the pleat while it is basted created a pretty sharp fold there anyway!

Once the horizontal pleats are basted closed, I could then baste the 'dart' on each side of the tab. After basting the dart/pleat closed, I then sewed (permanent) again about .5" away from the basting, to close the dart/pleat permanently. You can see how the tab's dart legs on each side of the tab are now of equal length.

Since I decided to do an all-in-one facing, I block-fused some rough-cut interfacing to my fabric before cutting out the pattern pieces.




Here is the completed dress. So much for the lighting...

I really struggled with deciding what length to make this dress. I was encouraged to go shorter...so I did. I wasn't uncomfortable wearing it, but it is shorter than anything I have worn in a while. I don't generally wear high heels, as my DH is not much taller than I am and I don't want to tower over him.

Here is another close up...from the other side/angle.

You might have noticed that I did some contouring under the bust. Remember in my last post, when I did the muslin, I was aware of a bit of excess fabric under the bust and so, decided to move the Bust Points closer to the center? Well, as I said, that was not the solution...and it actually had a negative impact on the fit in the bust area! What I really needed to do was a bit of contouring under the bust.

Here is my front pattern. I have indicated where I made changes...in bold hot pink (although I DID shorten the dress 2"...that is not shown!)

Look closely at the front (vertical) waist darts.

Basically, first I located the level that was 5" below my Bust Point, then increased the width of the front waist dart between that 5" level and waist level...offsetting the dart leg on each side by .25". This removed an additional .5" on each side of the front... a full inch of fabric across the whole front. But, notice, the original waist dart was not a 'normal' dart to start with...it was not a '/\' shape. I had already drawn that dart straight up from the waist to a level that was 3" below the BP. This was done to provide some contouring, but apparently it was not enough.

In my design choices, I had selected a SIDE/WAIST POINT position of 1...which means I made the total width across the front pattern 1" larger at waist level than the total width across the back pattern at waist level. That turned out to be too much. Increasing the size of the front waist dart would be the equivalent of a SIDE/WAIST POINT position of .5...meaning the front pattern's waist measured .5" more than the back pattern's waist, instead of the 1" as before. Better.

For the lower end of the waist dart, I drew curve lines to blend with the original dart legs (full tummy).

On the full front pattern above, also notice the hot pink lines at the sideseams at hip level. I had to reshape those during fitting, removing about .25" on each side (front and back), which means I lost about 1" of hip ease. But THE POINT of the reshaping was to smooth the curves there. TAPERING the hem created a point on the sideseam that my body doesn't have! Perhaps the start of the tapering should begin at a level just below the hip...? I just used the TAPERED HEM choice...there is no HIP SHAPE adjustment available on the SHEATHS, as there is on the PANTS.

Using the Tapered Hem choice creates another problem...the tapering extends all the way to the hem, instead of stopping 2" ABOVE hem level and drawing straight side seams to the hem. The way it is drafted, when the hem is turned under, the cut/free edge of the hem is smaller than the circumference of the dress at that higher level... something I forgot to consider beforehand.

I drafted this dress at 40" long, but then decided to hem it 2" shorter...at 38".

Here is a back shot...not terribly flattering but you can see the kick pleat.

In both the front and the back necklines, there was a bit of gaping. This gaping was NOT there in the muslin, but I had not cut the neckline away (wider) on the muslin as I did on this 'real thing'. I forgot to compensate for the contouring of my shoulders, which are curved lower in the middle than on each end of the shoulder seam. While my books tell me that I should have lowered the shoulder end of the neck seam, I can't help but wonder if I should also have raised the arm end of the shoulder seam...like a see/saw! I know that makes no sense...but that is just how I think! :)

I did use the facing and lining patterns that I showed in my previous post. Here is the dress inside out on my paper-tape dress form:

Yes, it is wrinkled a bit from sitting/wear but not too badly. I LOVE wearing things that are lined in Bemberg Rayon!! It feels so luscious to the touch...my skin just loves it!

I *hope* my dress form has posture that is much worse than my own!?! Those shoulders are very uneven...I hope mine are not as bad NOW as they were then! But I suspect they are...

White roses

Stubbornly determined to get a decent sleeve from PMB, I have continued working on getting the armholes ‘right’. I am still *trying* to believe that if the sleeves are bad, that means the bodice/armholes are still wrong, too.

After several aborted attempts, sewing only darts, shoulders and sideseams, I was beginning to run out of this white fabric. I decided to take apart two of the aborted attempts to reuse the front of one with the back of another…recutting them both according to the newest pattern, of course!

But when I got them both ripped apart, I found that my back pattern would NOT fit on the fabric back…the fabric wasn’t long enough for the new pattern! So I had to use the last of the remaining uncut fabric to cut the back…which meant that if I wanted sleeves (which I did) I would have to cut them from the two fabric backs of the previous attempts…so I ripped apart two other previous attempts also, to salvage the backs to use for sleeves!

Well, these backs had had the waist darts marked…twice, actually, in two different colors! So the new sleeves have waist darts marked on the insides…and it shows through this white fabric!

I have enhanced this image so you can see the marks better, as they are much easier to see ‘in person’ than in a picture.






I mark my darts in the traditional way…using a tracing wheel and marking paper. This paper is very old…I don’t like the new stuff I can find. But these marks don’t wash out very easily!

This is how I mark my buttonholes. When I am drafting my PMB pattern, for the number of buttons I choose TWICE PLUS ONE…that way, I can use every other button and omit the bottom TWO button marks…getting a larger space between the last button and the hem than I have between the buttons. For example, I wanted 6 buttons, so I choose 13…twice plus one…then only use 6 of the marks. ALSO, I find that the first mark is slightly lower than I really want it…I don’t know why…so I mark my buttons about ¼” above each mark. I use a hole punch and punch a hole on the center line just above the button marking. Then I use a washaway marker to place a dot in the center of each hole. If it soaks through, I can mark both the buttonholes and the buttons at one time!


As soon as I put this blouse on to check the fit…before putting in sleeves…I could immediately feel the difference! This one felt good! I had made the back longer this time, and it helped a lot. So I decided I would finish this one, complete with collar and sleeves, even if it wasn’t “perfect’.

Since I had decided to put sleeves in this top, I wanted a collar, too…the Italian collar.

But I’ve used this one before, and am not crazy about the way it fits into the CURVED V neckline.

So I altered the pattern, slashing in two places forward of the shoulder mark.

I pivoted the slashes open and inserted paper, so that the slash width at outer edge was .25” at each slash…lengthening the outer edge of the collar by .5”.

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This made the collar’s neck edge better match the shape of the bodice’s front neck edge.

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*But then I decided that the point area was a bit wide, so I used my curved ruler to reshape it some…trimming away about .375” width at the front edge.

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After completing the collar, it was time to tackle the sleeves. The first sleeve I set was drafted with a (-.5) cap height. It had obvious pulls, so I ripped and removed to recut with a .25” cap height. There really wasn’t much change.

I released the sleeve cap and immediately, the cross grain hung much more level. Suddenly it occurred to me that what I REALLY needed to do was EXTEND THE SHOULDER of the bodice, as opposed to making the sleeve cap taller! Of course, I have only .375” seam allowance at the armhole, so that isn’t possible on this one…there isn’t much fabric there to steal! But just to see, I pinned the sleeve using only 1/8” seam allowance…as seen on the right…and it was much better! Of course, I couldn’t sew it that way…I needed to use .25” minimum, so I knew it wasn’t gonna end up as nice as it looked at pinning. Oh well! Next time…

The finished blouse *looks* nice enough!

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I am very pleased with the collar changes.

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But the sleeves are binding.

As usual.

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I am wondering if I should increase my Bust to Bust setting...to move the front waist darts outward slightly? Not to affect the sleeves, but just to make it look/fit better!

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The back still needs some more length over those protruding shoulder blades, especially that left one!

Hopefully, a bit more Center Back Length will help eliminate those diagonal wrinkles, too, by effectively giving the back pattern more shoulder angle.

I will also raise the back neck depth next time, as I lowered it too much…0.75”…on this one.
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The back REALLY strains with forward arm movement.

To try to figure this out, I turned to the wrinkle charts in Total Pattern Fit, Minott Method.

I have already raised the armhole depth, so that isn’t it. The cap is definitely NOT too long, so that isn’t it. I could use more width across the blades, although with the arms at my sides it looks ok. The sleeve IS too narrow. I am thinking that fixing the back width will also fix the sleeve.

See how she moves OUT the back underarm? That is NOT just moving the sideseam forward…that is a NET GAIN. To accomplish that with my PMB pattern, I must do two things…reduce the Bust Cup Size (again?) and increase the Bust Measurement.

Neither change alone will do it---

• Increasing the Bust Measurement will add to both front and back at underarm points…not just to the back.
• And reducing the Cup size will add to the back underarm point but will take from the front.

No, it will take BOTH of these changes to increase the width of the back pattern without changing the width of the front.

And once the back pattern has been increased at underarm point, I can use the ARMHOLE SHAPE TOOL to increase the width at the blade level…halfway height of the armhole.

And the sleeves should take care of themselves, once the armhole changes are in place!

Here is the pattern for this white blouse (pink) superimposed on the NEXT ONE.
For the next one, I increased the BUST CIRCUMFERENCE measurement by one inch, and reduced the Bust Cup Size by one letter (C to B, which meant I also had to INCREASE the Center Front Length and Front Shoulder Slope to compensate for the lost front length the larger cup size provides). I also had to increase the Bust Point Vertical setting, lowering it 0.25” (again, because the larger cup size would have done that for me).

On the front pattern, the next one will be wider through the shoulders (longer shoulder length). Notice the odd shape of the new upper front armhole…almost like that ‘arc’ is backwards. Actually, it is…I will redraw it to scoop inward instead of outward. I don’t know why PMB draws the upper armholes whacky sometimes. Trying to do a complex shape with too few components, I suspect.

The front armhole is lower and the bust dart is smaller…because of the reduced cup size (B for next one, this one was C). I have been getting fullness at the tip/release of the bust darts on many of these last few tops…indicating that perhaps the bust darts were actually too large. Also notice that the front shoulder is higher on the new one…since I extended it outward, I think it will also need a bit more height to go over the ‘roundness’ of the shoulder joint!

Also, since the upper sideseam was moved forward as a result of the cup change, I used the SS placement tool to move the lower sideseam forward also, to get mirrored sideseams.

The back is a little longer/taller through the center, but the back shoulders are not taller. The back neck depth has been raised .25” (although it looks like it is much higher when the patterns are aligned at the waist, instead of at the Neck Point!) The back shoulder dart will be slightly smaller next time, because I increased the Front Shoulder With MORE than I increased the Back Shoulder Width.

I am hopeful that these changes will produce a comfortable sleeve. I am hoping that adding that extra inch of BUST Circumference will not make the blouse fit too loosely.
People ask me why I need for the back pattern to be so wide. Since I have a full bust, they expect me to need a wider front pattern. But perhaps it is those protruding shoulder blades…perhaps the wide shoulders…perhaps the forwardly rolled shoulders? All I know is: there has GOT to be a way to get a well-fitting pattern with comfortable sleeves!

And I think this next one might be ‘it’!!!

Ladybug top

I recently finished sewing another top, but even before finishing it...it suddenly occurred to me what I might need to do (on the next one!) to get my armholes to be 'right'.


For this top, I sewed the pattern just as drafted in PMB, with no editting in PE...well, except for the facings, which don't match the pattern (arrgh!)...UNTIL my alterations during fitting, that is!

Now, on the last top, Peach#2, I had decided that those diagonal pulls in front meant I had to increase the front length. Well, I tried that and it was NOT good. I did NOT need the extra front length. I finally realized that what was causing the diagonal pulls was inadequate waist and hip ease at the sideseams…so I altered to sew the SS a bit smaller to provide some ease there at the waist/hip area. For some reason, I had drafted with 1” less hip ease than usual (trying to control the size of the waist darts, I suspect, as I had also used less waist ease which produces bigger waist darts).









I also tried lengthening the shoulder slope measurements, thinking UP was the only way to go (as mentioned in my last blog post). Well, UP was NOT the way to go! I got linebacker shoulders, with lots of room for pads! Trying to be thorough, though, I did go ahead and set in a sleeve, just to see what happens. It looked awful…that is what happened. The sleeve pushed all this excess fabric downward. So I restored the shoulders to their proper height and tried various alterations to the sleeve pattern to improve the pitch…still, the sleeves were bad. The armhole is not right yet.

In my research, I ran across something that made a light bulb light up over my head, and I *think* I will do better next time…well, not next time, as that one is already underway and nearly finished! But the NEXT 'next time'! :)

Here is a clue: Look at the front armhole depth compared to the back armhole. The back armhole is as high as I can get it…touching skin. But the front is lower…there is room to come up.

Now, you may remember, I have been TRYING to get that front armhole ‘scooped’ to provide adequate ease in the armhole for forward reaching…that was my goal, and I accomplished that by reducing the BUST CUP size I was using to draft with.

To illustrate, I put on this Ladybug top over the Peach#2 top, to show how the F-armholes compare. The Bcup (Ladybug) scoops the front ah a bit lower than the Ccup (Peach#2). And actually, I am now wondering if I might prefer the Ccup!

But when the ‘light bulb’ lit up, things just began to make sense. It seemed like this ‘solution’ would solve ALL my armhole and sleeve issues…and it is such an easy fix! Of course, I can’t tell you what it is until I test it…

Empire waist Blouse/dress

I'm still working on the Empire waist top I mentioned at the end of my last
post. I created the pattern using PMB, and have run into a few problems
that need to be corrected...specifically, the way the bust dart is 'trued'
when placed in the waist seam. The dart's fold line needs adequate length
so that when the dart is sewn and pressed to one side, the cut edge of the
fold line will reach the waist seam. This is not happening. No matter
whether I press the dart toward the side or toward the center, the fold line
area comes up short of reaching the seam.

I'll show you what I mean.


This is my PMB pattern as drafted. You can see there is not a large 'triangle' of fabric created below the dart at the waist seam.

The green line is the center fold line of the
dart. The dart legs are pink and blue.













If I rotate the side part of the pattern to superimpose the pink and blue
lines...as if sewing the dart...you can see that the green line does NOT
extend long enough to reach the lower, cut edge of the waist seam.























The green fold line is short by about an inch!
The numbers on this pattern represent the length of the dart's fold line (green) before I extended it to the cut edge and after extending.


But also, look at the SHAPE the waist seam takes after the dart is sewn.
It is like an inverted V...a ^ shape.
This is not right and is certainly not
desireable! That waist seam should be curved as a smooth line, more like the bold pink line I have added.








I pulled out one of my drafting books, Patternmaking for Fashion Design,
by Helen Joseph Armstrong. On page 429 of the Third Edition, she
shows how to 'true' the draft to prevent this problem.

I followed her directions for modifying the PMB draft.

Below is a 'before and after' view of this pattern...on the left-- as drafted,
and on the right-- after my corrections. Even if I planned to gather the
dart, instead of actually sewing it, the pattern would STILL need the extra
length at the dart legs to prevent the -^- shape, even though the fold-line
shortage becomes less of an issue.





Anyway, these changes should take care of the FRONT pattern.



But notice the changes HJA makes to the back pattern.

The upper back waist dart on my PMB Empire dress pattern (on the left here>>>) is always much shorter and narrower than the corresponding dart on my Torso/Blouse draft, and I have always wondered 'why'.

Also, the lower back dart...in the 'skirt' portion...on my PMB Empire dress is also much smaller than it would be on the Torso/Blouse draft. I sewed a muslin as drafted, but the back was loose and not very well fitted to my shape.

However, if I just pasted the darts from my Torso block onto this dress, there was a bit too much contouring back there, and it seemed....well, 'uneven'.

But once I saw this example in the Patternmaking book, I knew what the answer was!

I DID need to paste the larger TORSO dart onto the lower (skirt) portion of the PMB dress, but I did NOT want the larger Torso dart in the upper back part! No, I needed to keep the dart that drafts on the PMB back bodice, and then trim the side at waist (shown in PINK) to make the bodice seam match the width of the skirt portion! PMB doesn't do this (original side seam on bodice shown as bold green line)...it just makes the dart of the lower/skirt section as narrow as the dart in the back upper/bodice, so the seam lines will match in length.

I tested this on my septic-paper muslin and it seems to work nicely, so I am cutting 'real' fabric for a test Empire blouse!

Oh, you might be confused because I keep going back and forth between calling this an Empire blouse and an Empire DRESS. In PMB, if it has a waist seam, it is a DRESS, even if it is only blouse-length, so technically this is a 'dress' pattern. But I am making a blouse!

Mirrored sideseams

On the Patternmasterusers chat list on Yahoo, we've been discussing these undesireable wrinkles that frequently occur just behind and below the back armhole of PMB garments, especially on Princess styles. I mentioned that, on my patterns, the Princess style creates a 'gap' between the front and side front patterns at bust level and that this loss of bust width is compensated for by increasing the width of the back pattern at underarm. But this changes the shape of the back sideseam...I've talked about sideseams before.

But hours later, I'm still thinking about those wrinkles of fabric at the side/back armhole area. So I opened PMB and drafted and compared a few patterns...not even Princess ones, but just the basic Torso. I used my own measurement chart with ZERO ease at bust, waist and hip. I set the SS position to ZERO at bust, waist and hip. Below, you can see what I would get.

If I aligned the back to the front at the underarm points, you can see that the back pattern extends lower at the hem than the front pattern. But think of it (and look at it) this way: When I align the front and back at the hems, you can see that the back armhole level is HIGHER than the front armhole level. And this is because the sideseams are NOT mirror images.

























Now, I can imagine that because this back armhole is higher than the front armhole, once the sideseams are sewn and the sleeve is sewn in, it is likely that this higher back armhole will be 'forced' downward on the body, creating folds. The balance of the patterns is off.

With the sideseam positions set at ZERO as above, the HEIGHT of the back armhole is 8.471".
The HEIGHT of the front armhole is 7.743" (as measured straight up).




But look at what happens if the SS tools are used to 'force' the front and back sideseams to become mirror images: When the Front and Back patterns are aligned at the hem, there is only a tiny difference in the heights of the front and back armholes...and it is the FRONT that is higher, not the back!





To force the sideseams to become mirror images, I used a Side/Arm Position of (-1) and a Side/Hip Position of (+.5). As you can tell by the size of those waist darts, the S/W position is still in the ZERO position, but that setting only affects the size of the waist darts, not the placement of the waist at side seam.

With the sideseam in this position and the front and back sideseams having mirrored shapes, the HEIGHT of the back armhole is now 8.954" and the front armhole is now 7.326" tall.

This means that moving the sideseam as I have had changed the balance of my patterns...I have gained 0.483" in back armhole height, and lost 0.417" of front armhole height!

I am thinking that the taller back armholes combined with the shorter front one is less likely to result in the folds of excess fabric that are fequently seen on PMB garments in back. Not a scientific study or anything...purely conjecture!

Pattern Chat!

And now for some pattern chat…

This might be too long and boring, so if you're just after pretty pictures, scoll down to the previous posts! :)

I have been working on perfecting the fit of my bodice patterns using PMB for quite a while now. The solutions to my fitting issues have been elusive, but I AM making progress! As mentioned before the division of waist reduction has been a stumbling block for me. I knew I needed my back waist darts to be larger than the front ones, but HOW to accomplish that has eluded me. Well, not anymore!

The tool I am discussing is the Sideseam Placement Tool. In version 4, this is found on the Settings Tab.

Using my measurements, this is how the program drafts the basic Torso block (blouse) if I leave the sideseam placed at the zero position.

The Hip and Waist are divided equally, front to back, but the front pattern is over 2” wider than the back pattern at Bust level. This makes for an interestingly shaped pattern! There is hardly *any* indentation at the waist on the back pattern. Imagine trying to sew those F and B sideseams together!

The back armhole has very little width to it, while the front armhole is very large. This creates a sleeve that has a longer front cap seam and a shorter back cap seam…it looks backwards and restricts arm movement.

I don’t want my patterns to look like that! So the first thing I do is use the Sideseam Placement tool to move the Side/Arm Point toward the front (a negative setting). The maximum amount the SS can be moved is 1”…but remember, my front pattern is 2” wider than the back pattern at underarm level! Moving the Side/Arm point the maximum amount (-1 setting) reduces the difference in pattern widths (at underarm level) to 1”. That is the best I can do. This greatly improves the armhole shapes on both patterns and balances the shape of the sleeve.

And with the bust dart in the SIDESEAM position, the widths of the front and back patterns at underarm level are nearly equal!

This setting change alone makes sewing those sideseams a little more ‘doable’! However, both Front and Back sideseams slant toward the front at hip level. The angles of the Front and Back sideseams do not have the same relationship to the grain line…they are not ‘mirror images’. I prefer that my sideseams be mirror images…I think it improves the hang of the garment when the grain is identical on each side of the seam. Plus, I always felt like my back waist darts needed to be larger than my front ones…I have a belly at the front waist, but the back waist goes in quite a bit, just as, at hip level, the bum sticks out way farther in back than in front! So I had to figure out a way to achieve this balance with my patterns.

Enter the Sideseam Placement tool again! This time, it’s the Side/Hip Point.

Now, this one took a LONG TIME to figure out, because the required setting was NOT intuitive! Moving the S/H Point forward (negative setting) makes the back waist darts larger…which was part of my goal…but it also compromised the indentation at waist level on the back pattern. Boo hiss. Or, I could improve the waist indentation by moving the S/H Point the other way…backwards (a positive number)…but that made the back waist darts smaller and made the front waist darts become way too large! It seemed that I could never hit on just the right combination to achieve BOTH of these goals…they seemed at odds…and this flaw showed up in my garments as pulls from the sideseam or the waist darts at waist level.

The real clue came by analyzing my superimposed patterns with the bust dart placed in the SHOULDER position. Even though moving the S/Bust Point forward makes the patterns almost equal in width at underarm level when the bust dart is in the sideseam, they are NOT equal in width with the dart in the shoulder position.

I began to consider that since the front pattern was wider than the back pattern at underarm level, the only way to get mirrored sideseams was to make the front pattern wider than the back pattern ALL THE WAY DOWN. This means I HAD to change the hip!

So, in a nutshell, here is the deal...and this is for *ME*, not necessarily for all...

Because my bust is large, I need to use the maximum S/A movement to better divide the armholes, and this makes the front and back patterns almost *equal* in width at underarm level WHEN THE BUST DART IS IN THE SIDESEAM.

However, once the bust dart is rotated into the SHOULDER position, it is apparent that the patterns are NOT EQUAL in width at underarm level after all...the FRONT pattern is 1" wider than the back pattern.

So I move the S/H point, too (backwards), so that the front pattern is now 1" wider than the back pattern *all the way down the sideseam*...from underarm to hem (the front is wider and the F&B sideseams are mirrored/identical...same waist indent on both).

I *need* this extra width on my front pattern at bust level...but NOT at waist and hip level.

But-

1. I do need for the sideseams to be mirrored, and
2. I do need for the front and back to be equal in width at hip level.

These two things seemed at odds with each other. In order to get mirrored side seams, I HAD to move the S/H point backwards...but by doing so, that made the hip distribution *unequal*. So, my solution was to INCREASE THE HIP EASE until the back pattern was as wide at hip level as it was BEFORE I moved the hip point (which means adding 2" extra ease)...then, manually remove the excess ease from the front.

After much experimentation, this is the pattern I have arrived at!

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See how the sideseams, front and back, have the same relationship to the grainline, which is parallel to the center lines of the patterns?

You can see the relationship of my Torso Block to the red overlay (the Dress Sloper). Notice the relationship of the HIP LINES. The Dress Sloper is divided equally, front to back, at hip level. However, my Torso patterns are NOT equal at hip level. The front pattern is wider than the back at hip level and wider than the red overlay at hip level (see little circle and arrow)…and this is because I used the SIDESEAM PLACEMENT TOOL to move the Side/Hip point backward. I used the -0.5 setting, which makes the front hip 1” wider than the back.

Yes, that made the front waist darts much too large, and made the back waist dart not quite as large as it could be. So I used the SIDESEAM PLACEMENT TOOL to move the Side/Waist Point backwards, too, by 0.25” (half as much as I moved the Hip…again, a negative setting). This made the back waist dart just a little bit larger and made the front waist dart just a little smaller, yet had NO EFFECT on the indentation of the waist at sideseam (which is controlled by the relationship of bust to hip)…good! (The BACK waist dart size is what I was trying to control with this setting…the front dart is too wide no matter what, so I manipulate the size of the back dart with the S/W Point, and will deal with the front dart in a minute!)

Moving the Side/Hip Point backwards made the front pattern’s hip 1” wider than the back. Now, think of that in reverse: It made the BACK pattern 1” NARROWER than the front! I needed to regain some of that lost back hip width and prevent the back hip from being narrower than the hip width of the red overlay. So, I increased the HIP EASE by 2” (I added 2” because the pattern is only half the body…I needed 2” total…one inch additional hip ease for the left side of my body and one inch for the right side).

But adding this 2” Hip ease made the FRONT pattern’s hip larger, too…made it too large by one inch. And those front waist darts were still way too large. So the solution was to manually remove this added excess *at the front waist dart*! I offset the center line of the single front waist dart by 0.5” on both sides. I extended these lines to the HEM of the pattern (which in this example is at hip level).

Then I redrew the lower dart legs of the front waist darts from waist to HIP LEVEL…smoothing out the angle that is formed at the intersection of old dart leg/new line.

Basically, this is removing that extra 1” of front hip width that I added…but instead of removing it at the SIDE of the front pattern, as happens with ease reductions, it is removed from within the pattern…allowing the front sideseam shape to mirror the back sideseam!

The resulting front waist dart is much narrower below the waist than before, because now the dart is measured from the stitching line to the NEW center line(s), not the old one. The ‘effective’ dart width is reduced because the new lines removed a chunk of fabric all the way to the pattern’s lower edge, not just to a point within the pattern (see the diagonal pink lines).

The lower part of the new front waist dart is only 0.719” wide on each side of this new center line (blue lines)…for a total of 1.438” (much less than before, and still less than the width of the back waist dart!).

EVERY PMB Torso pattern will have to have this seam in front, whether a Princess seam or a waist dart that continues to the hem. But this makes the front and back pattern (after this alteration) be equal in width at hip/hem. However, any pattern with a waist seam will not have to have this seam/dart, as the gap can be eliminated by sliding the two pieces together.

These settings can also be found in Version 3…the difference is in the location of the SIDE/WAIST Point tool. In Version 3, this point cannot be changed on the TORSO blocks within the Drafter (blouses, jackets, sheaths, etc.). However, if you go to the SLOPER section, and navigate to the DEFAULTS, you can set the Side/Waist Point in the defaults for that measurement chart, and it WILL apply to the waist darts of the Torso drafts, too…for that measurement chart only.

Navy Dress part 3

After several days had passed since wearing the dress for the first time (to the wedding), I had been 'away' from the dress long enough to re-address the 'issues' I had with it before wearing it again the following weekend. I called my sister, who came right over to help me evaluate it. I put it on. Immediately, she could tell that it needed to be shorter. Bummer...but I kinda knew that it was too long. I even knew the back was longer than the front, but because of that vent/kick pleat and the number of times I had sewn and ripped it, I had been VERY reluctant to rip again to hem the dress shorter. But I knew that was what was needed, so I was willing.

She also thought the Vneck should be lower, and again, I agreed (hem up, neckline down!). Plus, she wanted me to tighten it up UNDER the bust...contouring the princess seam a bit. So I began working on the neckline and princess seam adjustments, planning to take the dress to her house afterwards so she could mark the desired hem length for me once the alterations were done.

I messed with taking that princess seam up and letting it out about a thousand times! I was adjusting the tiniest amounts...sometimes barely a thread's width! Eventually, I got it to suit me.

Lowering the neckline was no treat, either. I had understitched the facing and there was a lining involved, so 'internal access' was limited! I did have to rip out the thread chains I had used to tie the lining to the hem and that made it easier to get up inside the lining. Actually, I had ripped the stitching and understitching once before...when I first realized that the front was a little shorter than the back, I tried to let out the front shoulders. I ripped the neck facing (not fun...black and navy!) and did let out one side. But it made so little difference that I decided it was not worth the trouble, so I didn't bother with the other shoulder. So I was really looking forward to ripping the neck again, this time to lower it. Not. But I did it and it made a difference...and improvement!

So now I was ready to get the hem marked to shorten the dress...

When I took the dress to my sister's house so she could pin up the hem for me, we also decided it would look better if I reduced the hem circumference....tapered/pegged the hem a bit. So when I got home with it, I had to redo the sideseams (yet again!) to taper the hem before I could begin the actual hemming! But tapering made a WORLD of difference in the way the dress looked! Before, with the hem being as wide as the hip area, the hem actually looked WIDER because my body has less F to B depth at hem level, so the dress hung wider and less deep than at hip level where my body thickness forced it to be deeper and therefore, less wide. By tapering the hem, this reduced the visual width at hem level to be more similar to the visual width at hip level. To determine HOW MUCH to taper the sideseams, I opened PMB and compared the width of the hem using both the STRAIGHT and TAPERED Hemline Sweep. I decided that since the program reduced the hem at each side seam by .75", that is what I would also do...I tapered each sidedseam from hip level to a point = .75" inside at hem. Better!

Unenthusiastically, I struggled through shortening the dress, which entailed a lot of ripping at that back vent. And remember the interfacing that I had fused to the bottom of the dress, so my hem handstitching wouldn't show? Well, turns out, that hem showed anyway, despite the interfacing and my best efforts at hiding those stitches. It was just the nature of that fabric. Well, shortening the dress removed a lot of that interfacing. Since the original hem stitches showed anyway, I decided that THIS TIME, I would just hem the dress using the blindstitch of my sewing machine, rather than take the time to hand stitch it again. Turns out, it had about the same 'invisibility' as before and was much quicker!

After taking in the dress under the bust, my arm mobility was decreased somewhat as compared to the first time I wore the dress. It was still not too bad, but I was aware of the difference. I think I needed a higher armhole, especially as the dress became closer fitting.

I had originally envisioned this dress having beaded trim around the neck but had run out of time before the wedding. I had time now, though (or so I thought!). DSis suggested trim at the sleeve hems would also look nice. So together we went to our local Hancock Fabric store to see what they had. I found a black trim that I could sew beads to...I had plenty of beads at home that would work.

At home, I measured and cut the trim pieces to length, secured the ends to prevent ravelling, then began hand-beading them...ON THE DAY OF THE PARTY! Yep, it was the day of the paty by the time I got to this part. I was running way behind on this remodel! And I don't work fast!!! It was after 4:30 pm when finally got all the beads sewn onto the trim, but the trim was not yet sewn onto the dress! BTW, it was during these hours that DH decided to 'clear' the camera's memory card... sigh.

As it got later and later, my stitches got bigger and bigger...I was sewing as fast as I could to finish sewing the trim to the dress! Finally the trim was on. I made new thread chains to reattach the lining to the dress hem and I was DONE!

I actually finished the dress at 6:30...the party started at 7:00!

I flew to my room to touch up my makeup and comb my hair and we were outta there! And we arrived right on time! It was a good dress for the occasion...Une Grand Souire...a wine tasting and art auction. I looked as good as anyone else there (better than some!) yet didn't look over-dressed.

The pictures of me in the dress were taken after arriving home later that night. I hope my hair looked better earlier!