Fitting and pattern progress

I fit this muslin this week. I was fairly pleased with how it turned out, all things considered.

The trousers needed a few changes- mostly in the back as you can see by the pins from the fitting.

I cut the back with a bit too much seat angle and the back fork/crotch extension was too long. Easy enough to fix.

As you can see, I pinned out the excess of fabric which had collapsed below the seat as well as a small amount of excess length just below her waist. I pinned out about an inch of length in the back fork extension which you cannot see here.

The resulting changes mean that the seat angle is straighter now, the excess length has been removed so the back waist is lower, and removing some fork length means the overall thigh size is slightly reduced as well. I narrowed the hem a bit, but I was afraid that tapering the leg too much was only going to accentuate her pear shape.

I also fit the jacket from my previous posts and I was pleased with it. They were happy and really didn't want me to fuss with it. I think it could still use a bit more out of the hem below the belly, which opens up the dart into the pocket even more, which is quite large already.

I wasn't really happy with the sleeves so I will do a bit of tweaking to the pattern.

I have to be aware of his limitations in movement because of his shoulder problems. I cannot fit the body and armhole as closely as I would like to- he is in discomfort if not outright pain just by the actions of putting the jacket on, so I cannot make it more difficult for him.

I can however suggest different styles- hmmm, maybe something with a waist seam! Perfect for the figure with a belly, maybe just a bit out of style though.

Pictures may be forthcoming with permission.

ladies trouser draft

I don't usually do women's patterns but here I was agreeing to do make a trouser draft for a woman I know. She also has a difficult time buying off the rack, as many of us do, no matter our size and shape.

Her waist is around a size 12 but her hips are in the size 18 range.

Here are her measurements just for the record.

Height approx 5 feet tall

waist 27 1/2 "

Upper hip 37 1/2"

Lower hip 43 1/2"

rise to natural waist 12"

girth from CF waist to CB waist 33 1/2"

I took photos of her from the front, side and back which I find helps a great deal when looking at the numbers, then I made a little sketch to outline her shape and the areas of disproportion.

I am going to make a pattern that fits her to her natural waist - which is much higher than the usual trouser waistline- just to allow the greatest leeway when we talk styling.

Obviously the pattern must be big enough to go around her at the fullest area- which is her lower hip- then the issue becomes how and where to reduce that hip size to the size of her waist. In her case she is very pear shaped so there can be a fair bit of shaping on the side seams and the centre back, and they need to be augmented with adequate shaping at the centre front and with darts in the front and back waist. There is also the issue of how much shaping in the outseam of the leg will be required but I didn't make it too shaped at this time.

I didn't really have a specific draft that I wanted to follow, although I did have Metric Pattern Cutting for Womenswear sitting around so I referred to that off and on. I have found that those systems of drafting rarely translate well for disproportion so I am just as well off doing my own thing, so I just proceeded in what I think was a logical matter. The only area that I was wondering about was how long to make the back crotch extension. The draft in the book was really short so I lengthened it. Better too long than too short- better slightly too large than too small- it is so much easier to pin out excess than guess at how much more you need.

As you can see below, I often start my pattern and write notes to myself as I am proceeding.

In this case I went away and had lunch, came back and looked at the notes and pattern again with fresh eyes, and changed it, reducing the shaping on the side seams and increasing the darting into the waist.

I cut a toile in muslin and sent it off to be made up and I will fit her on Tuesday. I will be fitting the jacket on Tuesday as well, so it will be a busy and informative day. It is good to get as close as you can with the pattern but I think that it is during the fitting that it all comes together.

deadlines

The deadline has been met.

We're finished.

Everything is boxed and on its way to its final destination. The project that I have been negotiating since May has been completed and after 8 weeks of intense work it is over.

Six cutters, 4 stitchers and 30,000m of thread.

I'm not sure if I feel relieved or shell shocked!

Sometimes I wish the work I do was not as deadline oriented - but it is.

When this project is released to the public I will be able to share what I have been up to, so until then, I better get on with some of the other things on my list.

This week I will speak at my daughter's school for career day. One the one hand, I want to let people know that this job and all the supporting jobs exist, but on the other hand- will they be interested in jobs that don't fit into the usual slots?

What about training? I have trained one apprentice cutter so far - most of the skills are learned on the job- but businesses are hard pressed to fund training. Fashion degrees don't quite cover what you need and costume studies programmes don't really cover it either. The time that I spent with my apprentice still isn't enough to cover all that we need to know.

Everything changes, so I don't know if the path I followed will be relevant to them.

Who knows?

All I can do is let them know and they will have to take it from there. Better get ready.

Hey, that's another deadline!!

corrected jacket pattern

I took a day off from my other project in order to proceed with correcting the jacket pattern from the toile fitting.

I usually put the toile on a stand- sometimes padding it up if needed to be able to see it hanging as it did in the fitting.

I measured and transferred the alterations to the pattern. (Sorry I forgot to take a picture of that)

In this case, I then made a clean pattern from the rough one I created for the toile. Checking and rechecking, to make sure the resulting shapes look good, grainlines are indicated, and that the seams will sew together correctly resulting in smooth flowing lines.

At this point I can cut a jacket in their choice of fabric- which I have and yesterday delivered it back to Silvia for construction. There will still be minor changes as every fabric behaves differently and a shell fitting doesn't exactly replicate what the final jacket will be, but it hopefully will have fewer alterations to deal with now.

They want something soft for this first jacket, so I was given a dark charcoal wool- a bit too light weight I thought, but it was something they could afford and it will give him a jacket to wear before Christmas.

Now I return to the other project which is coming along on, and needs to be delivered in two weeks or so.

In the meantime, my to do list:

Speak with a couple of other people who were interested in having suits made

Try to get a trouser pattern made for a lady client

Prepare for a career day talk at the local high school

Look at some fabrics for work next year

Deal with my landlord and a leaking roof at my studio space

Fit the jacket I've posted about

Gather my remaining wits about me

Relax?

and finish painting my kitchen!

jacket toile

I cut a toile (mock-up) of the jacket in an inexpensive wool blend fabric I found at a local shop. It needed a bit of support so I interfaced the fronts with some leftover suit fuse that I had in stock.

Silvia put it together ready to fit. It's only a few hours to put a shell like this together- which I feel is time well spent when dealing with more difficult body shapes.

The front edges were just turned back, the collar was literally just a bias cut collar of the same fabric with the suit fuse for some stability. The sleeves were made up from a stock pattern that I already had in the approximate armhole size, but not basted in. Very thin shoulder pads were tacked in place.

The purpose for this was to just get a shape together to fit and make pattern adjustments. The clients hadn't even looked at fabrics, or thought much about the styling they were after except that it be single breasted and have a vent in the CB. I like to be able to pin on a pair of sleeves after I fit the body- just to give the client an idea of what it will look like- many people find it disconcerting to try to envision a final product without sleeves.

Obviously from the pinning you can see that I had to pin out at the shoulders(sloping).

I had a bit too much length through the front( as I suspected).

I needed to pin out a dart of about an inch of excess width at the front hem that terminated just below the chest. The back of the jacket seemed to sit well although I had to reduce the cross back width that I had allowed for. I will reshape the armhole all round.

The only other issue was his regarding his left shoulder. Due to a deteriorating shoulder, the ball of his shoulder was protruding in front and I will have to make allowances for that to be accommodated.

Next stage: pattern corrections from the fitting.

custom jacket pattern

OK, I wish I had more time.

Ten weeks of kitchen renovations and cooking outdoors takes a toll on time to blog.

A big project that involves administration, buying, cutting and sewing at the same time takes a toll on the time to blog.

What else? well how about sewing tests - I do the sewing tests for prospective employees which involves cutting bodices and then guiding the candidates through an afternoon of sewing, instructing, correcting, taking notes and rating their performance for management. More time.

Add in a private client and I have barely time to function.

Oh well,

I have had the pattern made for a while and have had a fitting in a mock-up and I am at the point of correcting the pattern and cutting in the real fabric, but I still haven't had time to sit down and write something intelligent to explain the pattern making process for this gent. It is generally so much easier to do than describe how to do things! but I am going to try with the few lucid thoughts I have available right now.

The back is a fairly standard shape-FYI: this version of the pattern doesn't have any seam allowance on the shoulders or armhole-I'll explain later.

There are many ways of approaching the front to accommodate this man's shape- I know- and this is just one way of thinking about it.

I have drafted the front, raising the neck point and shoulder equally above where they normally would be. How much? Well, I use the nape to CF waist measurement I took on the client. I rough in the normal front shoulder line in the draft to start.

The natural waist on my pattern is about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches below the drafted waist line. I measure the back neck, then place that amount on the natural waist at CF and measure up the full amount to the position of the neck point. This gives the extra length in the front which is needed. I construct the new shoulder line in parallel to the "normal". I continue with the gorge line and lapel from there.

I don't however, need all the extra armhole size, and I can remove some of the excess now in the armhole by darting into the gorge line, as well as down through the body as I close out the excess in the armhole.

I measured the waist of the pattern and decided that I still needed to add width for his belly, so I cut open the pattern from hem to mid lapel and added more.

The problem with dealing with a belly is, as you add width where you need it, you gain an excess of fabric below the belly which needs to be reduced- hence the dart into the pocket. I cut into the pattern at the pocket line, then took out the excess (determined by eye) at the hem, thus opening up the pocket line into a rather large dart. (Plaids would not be good here)

I knew from fitting one of his own jackets on him, that I could pin out a good inch at the pocket to correct the hang of the jacket, and I have at least that in the pattern above. It may prove to be too big a dart for its length, but I will leave it for now.

I think I may have been a bit generous with the front length, (and I was proved correct in the fitting) but I went forward into the toile thinking that it is much easier to pin out excess, rather than either guessing how much more is needed or undoing the shoulders to drop them at the fitting.

Next, the toile.

jacket pattern

I will start by giving you the information that I have to make a pattern for this client.

Firstly, he is of retirement age.

Height 4' 11",

neck 14 1/2"

chest 36 1/2"

waist 37 3/4"

hip 38 3/4"

XB 13 3/4"

nape to CF waist 22"

back length 15"

nape to wrist 30 1/2"

So, as you can see, he is not of average proportions, he has a belly by virtue of a health issue- nothing more- he has had serious shoulder surgeries.

He has a difficult time buying anything that fits. He had a suit "custom made" not long ago in Toronto, which sort of swamped him, and did not have enough correction for his belly.

To begin with, I drew a little sketch of what need to be changed from the "average" suit draft.

(I have to post photos because I can't hook up my scanner to this computer.)

One: most modern styled drafts will produce a wide back and shoulders. I measured his custom suit which had a cross back measurement of 17 1/2" yikes- no wonder he looked a bit swamped in it.

Two: his waist measurement- he has a belly that is bigger than his chest measure. The suit jacket he tried on billowed below the belly- I could pin up at least an inch of body length at the back of his hip pockets.

Length: I like to get a measurement from the nape of the neck to the CF waist on the person. I use it when drafting to ascertain the placement of the front neck point above the back neckline- this affects the balance of the coat.

People are three dimensional- whenever you encounter increased size around the body it corresponds with an increase in length. Period. You have to allow for it otherwise you will have a problem with the balance of the garment.

I am going to work through this and you may think that I am going about it in a strange way- but it is the way I am going to approach it. I like to understand why things are the way they are, so I confess that I tend to alter and adapt systems that tell you what to do but don't explain the reasons for doing it.