waistcoat fitting

Here are the photos of the waistcoat toile from the fitting.

As you can see, he is a tall slim young man, and I thought my rather quickly drafted pattern made up well.

I also have to say that taking photos to look at later is such a great fitting tool. Often, when we are doing fittings at work, there is such a time constraint and when you are in the moment, you can sometimes be too close to things to see either the overall picture or to see some of the small details really well. Looking at a fitting later in a photo can sometimes point these out.

One more thing when making your toile- it is helpful to mark a horizontal matching point along the closure edge- this helps you to pin it closed properly. I have pinned this waistcoat just a tidge crooked because I forgot the matching mark.

So here's the process I go through in general.

Help the client put the garment on. I am standing behind the person so I can then make sure that it is sitting cleanly at the back neck area.

Go to the front, smooth the garment in place as needed.

Pin the garment closed at the front- if it will not close on your CF line -which should be marked- pin it where it sits and think about why it won't close on the line.

Tighten and pin the back belt in place.

Stand back and have a look.

So what I saw was the right shoulder is slightly lower- totally normal- you will rarely find people with symmetrical shoulder slopes. This causes a slight collapsing of the front on his right side. This, by the way, was hardly noticeable under normal lighting- it is the flash on the camera that has picked it up and made it more noticeable. Another plus for the camera.

The CF didn't pin exactly line to line CF- it was just off the line (not closing enough) at the waist level.

The back waist seemed a bit short in length and there was an excess of fabric being drawn in by the belt at the waist. This is consistent with what I noticed when measuring -he has a full upper back. I could see a bit of tension in the fabric on his upper left side. I like to actually circle the full areas in pencil right on the muslin.

Stylewise, we liked the overall silhouette- we decided to lessen the angle of the front hem from the side to the points by lengthening the sides by 1/4" but keeping the level of the front points as is. The armhole line looked good and the shoulder width was fine. I marked that right on the muslin as well.

After I have all the info I need, (including photos) I mark the way it is pinned closed, then unpin and remove the garment.

One important thing to remember is that a toile is not the be all and end all. It is a tool to help you get closer to a better fitting garment in the real fabric. It will save you from making major changes in the expensive fashion fabric. You will probably still need to make minor adjustments in the real fabric as it will behave differently from the toile fabric.

Next thing to do is alter the pattern before cutting it out in the fabric.