Tutorial - Narrow Back Adjustment:

This tutorial is how I made the narrow back adjustment for B6199 dress.  The information was found in the "Fast Fit" book.  The book stated that this alteration was for someone with an erect posture.  I'm not sure that this actually describes my posture but it seemed to work.

This is a dress work page from the "Sew/Fit Manual".

On the dress back, I have drawn a line where the waist would be on the pattern.  This is the line that goes through the waist dart from left to right.  I have also drawn a line from the waist marking to the shoulder.  This line should be outside of the waist/hip dart.

Here I have drawn a second on the armhole side of the line that was previously drawn from the waist to the shoulder.  The instructions from Fast Fit stated that this should be started at 1/2" and if you need more you can make changes in 1/4" increments.  These two lines will form a tuck in the pattern.

Although it is a little hard to tell, in this picture I have cut the waist line to the waist-to-shoulder mark closest to the waist/hip dart.

Here I have folded the pattern on the first drawn line from the waist-to-shoulder.

I have matched to the drawn lines in this picture.  Note, the drop in the slight shoulder line.

Next, it is time to start truing up the seams.  I used a cop of the original dress to do this part.  Yes, it does add the full weight of the tuck back at the waist but I didn't want to remove any width from below the waist.

Then I trued up the shoulder seam.

Here's the finished mini pattern.  This alteration worked fairly well for me.  I'm very happy with the dress that I made.

One last thing, note that the shoulder seam on the back is now at least 1/2" shorter than the front. No, you do not need to make an alteration to the front pattern piece.  They will ease together without any problem.  Just remember to put the front part with the feed dogs.

Happy Stitching!

Butterick 6166 Finished......

What a great learning experience this has been!  When I saw the picture of how big the back of the dress was, I knew that there was some type of alternation that needed to done but it was something I had never done before.  First thought was a narrow back alteration.  So, I pulled most of my fitting books to see what needed to be done.  The first book I looked at “Every Sewer’s Guide to the Perfect Fit” mentioned the alteration but the information just didn't make sense to me.  The second book was “Fast Fit” and the information regarding the alternation made more sense.  The third book was “ Fit for Real People” and this information made sense.  I ended up following the information in “Fast Fit”.  The reason was that book had the alternation going all the way to the waistline and it seems more appropriate for the wrinkles I was seeing on my muslin.  So, I started with the smaller of the two amounts which is ½” tuck.  Here are the results:

The picture on the left is the dress with a minor alteration at the shoulder.  The dress on the right has an increased shoulder alteration and the ½” tuck from the waistline to the shoulder seam.  Isn’t that an amazing difference?  I can still see that this needs to be a wee bit of wrinkles going on and I will be increasing the tucks to ¾” on the final pattern.  So, the alterations on the final pattern are:

1.      Change the angle of the shoulder line by ½” at the shoulder line.

2.      Move the armhole down by ½” so that the sleeve will still match.

3.      Add the ¾” tuck on the back and true the seams.

4.      Add 1” to 2” of length.

Here are the results of my hard work:

I am happy with my new dress.  It is far better than what I can generally purchase.  If you're interested in my journey on this dress, here are the other two posts:

1.  Muslin Butterick 6166 Part 1

2.  Muslin Butterick 6166 Part 2

I didn't anticipate was that the dress would be a bit snugger because of the front band.  So, if you're thinking of making this dress be sure to add that to the muslin as it will affect the fit somewhat.

I'm going to write a little tutorial on how to alter the back like I did.  The information in Fit For Real People indicated that this type of alteration was generally only needed if you picked the wrong size due to a larger bust.  Maybe I did.  I do know that when I compared the altered back to the original, it actually matched a size 14.  Even though the dress indicates that maybe I should have made a small FBA, the narrow back adjust is far easier to accomplish that a FBA.   The back indicates that maybe I should have removed a little bit of length.

My next project will either be a yoga skirt or a yoga pants.  I haven't decided yet.  The stash has yielded fabric for both items.  Don't think for an instant that this really reducing the stash much because Fabric Mart had a great sale on knits a week or two ago and I had to indulged a little bit.  I need to remind myself that the next move does not need to have a huge stash to move.

Happy Stitching!

Muslin Butterick 6166 Part 2

Oh, I know I said the next time you heard from me regarding this pattern that I hoped it was finished but I still playing with the muslin. Here's a few pictures you haven't seen:

Here I have thread traced the waistline to see how it looked.  I was surprised to see that it doesn't look too bad. You can see there is a touch of upward movement in the front. I'm not 100% sure that it is enough to warrant a adding length.  We'll see what I decide. DH is my helper.  I did ask him to tell where the markings were in relation to my actual waist and it seems that it about an inch higher.  Now, I will decide whether I need a second muslin or if I can make additional modifications to think one.

Here's the back.  I modified it from Thursday by re-installing the zipper and redoing the back seam.  Don't you just love the little bit of black zipper showing itself at the bottom?  Just kidding.  The zipper I ordered was a bit short but I used it on the muslin so there is a tiny little gap.  Here, I have also hand basted the darts and not perfectly at that.  The dart on the left side looks much better than the dart on the right side.  Overall, the back above the waist looks too big.  The fit below the waist doesn't look too bad.

Here's a close up of the back after DH pinned those wrinkles out and the those pins go up to my shoulder blades.  Of course, he doesn't know what he is doing and was only listening to my explanation of what needed to be done.  I need to do some research into fitting this area.  I have seen this issue before.  If you know any resources, feel free to send me the information.  In the meantime, I will be reading through my various fitting books and seeing what they have to say.

Happy Sewing!

Muslin Butterick 6166 Part 1

Well, the dress has been started.  Here's the line drawings:

My thoughts were to do dress B with the sleeves from C at a 3/4 length.  After examining the pattern, I decided to start with a size 18 as a base dress.  I have never chosen to start with a dress in this size before but my thinking was that I should start closest to my bust/hip size.  I have a not so flattering knit it stash and decided that it would be a good muslin fabric.  So, I cut out the base dress which isn't shown as an option but it's there.  If you take away the gathered piece at the waist and the overlay, there's a very basic knit dress.  If I can get that part to fit the rest will be easy.  I'm also guessing that the dress will need a minimum of 3 inches to be correct length but that can be added later.  Here's the first effort on the muslin:

Not too bad for straight from the envelope with really quick and dirty sewing.  I didn't hem anything here.  My first thought was the the shoulder line fell too far off my shoulder but when I looked a picture of the dress, I'm not so sure.  Here's a picture of the sleeveless version:

I do think that the neckline is too wide on me when compared to the pattern picture.  Other changes that I see from the picture is that I need to change the angle of the shoulder line just a bit, maybe a 1/4".   So, here's my little list of things to do:

1.  Change the shoulder angel just a bit.  This I can do to the existing muslin.
2.  Change the shoulder length just a bit.  This I can do to the existing muslin.
3.  Remark the waist so I can see it in the pictures.  This I can do to the existing muslin.
4.  Double-check the neckline against the information provided on fit in the pattern.  I think it said that it was 5/8" before a jewel neckline.  This can be done on the existing.
5.  Check the back shaping.  This can be done on the existing muslin.  (I didn't provide pictures of this because my down and dirty sewing wasn't so good here, lol.)  --  do darts, check waistline.
6.  Double-check hem-line length.  It's hard to decide that looking at these pictures.  My son is almost a foot taller than me.
7.  Adjust sleeve length.

Hopefully, the next time you hear about this dress it will be finished and not tossed as a wadder.  I'm hoping that the overlay and the banding will be nice to my belly.

The subject for the March monthly get together has been decided.  We will be working on different techniques for binding.  This will mostly be for quilting or home-dec type items.  Specifically, we will be working with a binder that my friend purchase and has never been able to get it to work.  Have you ever been to a sewing show, saw a demo, purchased the item, and then couldn't get it to work?  I'm hoping that we can get this working for her as she spent a lot of money on this particular binding system.

Happy Stitching!