Thoughts on Pattern Alterations....

Do you ever get discouraged trying to figure out how to get a pattern to fit reasonably well?  I do.  This the spring I was determined to get the basic blouse pattern #600 from Silhouette Patterns to fit.  I didn't really accomplish my goal but I do have several muslins that I can still play with.  You can see my feeble attempts here: Muslin 1,  Muslin 2, and Muslin 3.  I was very discouraged after these attempts.  So, I decided to walk away for a while.

Next, I decided to just sit down and read all of the directions because sometimes you can miss something important when you skim the directions,  You know what I found, right?  I missed a little paragraph stating that if you're under a certain height to take xx amount out of the front, back, and sleeve.  So, after giving it a lot of thought, I went back to muslin #2 and carefully pinned out the noted amount all the way around.  Much to my surprise, some of the "needed" alterations disappeared.  The funkiness with the tightness across the back disappeared.   The shoulder slope and arm hole do not need altering.  Can you hear me jumping up and down for joy?  I pretty sure the muslin that I was playing with was the size 6w and I am thinking about making the same change to the 5w and seeing how it fits.

Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of changes that need to occur to the pattern.  Just not all the ones that I initially listed.  I need to make changes to the pattern before I make another muslin but as of this moment I am a little bit encouraged to move forward with the blouse pattern again.

Have you made the alteration shortening the area between the shoulder and the chest?  How did it work for you?  Hopefully, I will have another muslin soon but it may take a while as I have three projects running - a quilt, knitting, and the #600 blouse pattern.  It's hard to juggle it all sometimes.  The quilt has the highest priority of the three.

Happy Stitching!

Round 3 - Silhouette Classic Blouse...

There are no pictures this go around.  No one was available after I finished the muslin.  I didn't get a different fabric and I will definitely do that on the next try.

Alterations from Round 2:

1.  Dropped front neckline about 5/8".  This affected the following pattern pieces:

1. Front
2. Front Facing
3. Collar - added 1 1/4" to the length by folding pattern in half and placing on fold 5/8" down

2.  Added 1" to the length and 1/2" to the width at the hem.  This affected the following pattern pieces:

1. Front
2. Front Facing
3. Back

3.  Dropped angle of shoulder 3/8".  This affected the following pattern pieces:

1. Front
2. Front Facing
3. Back

4.  Trued Sleeve -  the seam edges were not the same length

5.  With the shoulder angle change, the sleeve opening needed to be lowered.  This affected the following pieces:

1. Front
2. Back

6.  I used the 6WC front and moved the dart point in toward the side seam an inch.  

Results of the changes:

1.  I liked the placement of the collar much better in this version.  This change will remain for all future versions.

2.  Length is still shorter than I prefer.  I would guess I would want 2 to 3 additional inches.  With the addition of the 1/2" at the seam line (this added a total of 2"), I pinned in darts in the front.  The darts looked good but I really needed additional width.

3.  This reduced the amount of extra fabric around the arms and looked much better.  Still had significant wrinkles under the arm.

4/5.  This was a good change.  Like the fit of the sleeve mostly.

6.  The C version of this pattern was a mistake.  Ended up pinning an addition 1/2" to get rid of the extra wrinkling under the arm.  This made me return to the D version and look at it a little closer.

Conclusion:

1.  I really need to place with a different fabric.  I continued with the pink the I used in round 2 and it is really too stiff.

2.  I decided that the D front version with a deeper dart will work better.  It will definitely need additional length and width.

3.  The top still feels a bit tight through the shoulders.  I need to compare my changes to the original pattern to make sure that I didn't accidentally narrow the back a bit.  I have discussed this with the designer and she said that I needed more circumference.  I did measure a blouse that I wear when I started.  Maybe I need to compare other measurement to verify the pattern with RTW. Maybe what I really need is a fabric with a bit of stretch.

The journey with this pattern is getting a little hard (discouraging).  I think it may be time to move on to something that can be called a good finish.  I have an apron panel that doesn't really require any fitting.  There is also a quilt that needs to be made.  It may be a while before another muslin is accomplished.

Happy Sewing!

Round 2 - Silhoutte Classic Blouse ...

Well, I have given the size 6W a try in the Classic Blouse.  I did not make any changes to the pattern with the exception of moving the dart point.  I felt that it was too close in.  Here are the results:

Overall, I would say the blouse is too big or maybe I should say there is too much circumference.  It seems to fit the tummy and hip area a little bit better which is what I thought would happen.  There still seems to be some funkiness with the sleeve.  The tightness that I feel through the back is still there when I move my arms.  Maybe I will send a message to the designer and see what she says.  

I'm going to give this another try with the following changes:

1.  Fix the neckline and the collar.  I mentioned the necessary changes on the last post.

2.  Change the shoulder slope and fix the armhole.

3.  Merge the sizes of the 5W top with the 6W bottom.   (I have changed my mind about this.  I will be using the 6W patterns and locating a fabric that isn't as stiff.)

I will say that this is a very quick blouse to make.  The hardest part is the pressing of the collar edge and attaching it to the blouse.  The designer makes this in an hour without the hem and buttonholes.  I can do that to.  

What are you thoughts?

Happy Stitching!

Silhouette Classic Blouse....

I had some time to start the fitting process of the Silhouette Classic Blouse pattern:

I traced the 5W size and added to the length of the blouse about 3 inches.  The pattern seemed very short to me.  Maybe I have a long torso.  I decided against making any additional changes to the pattern until I saw what it looked like.  I did pick the sizing by a blouse that I currently wear.  So here's my muslin:

Even though this is the muslin, I did stitch the entire blouse minus the hems, buttons and buttons.  In the picture above one shoulder is pinned up to match the shoulder slope.  That will be addressed on the pattern later.  Overall, I felt like the circumference at the bust was good until I started actually moving around a little bit.  Then, I realized for mobility I was going to need to move up to another size.  Although if a stretch fabric was used this size would probably work well.  Other issues:

1.  I didn't drape the bust darts and used the darts as drawn on the pattern. These darts will need to be shortened and lowered a little bit on the pattern.

2.  Neckline shaping is wrong for me. I know you can't tell by looking at the picture but it needs to be dropped by about an inch.  This will involved redrawing the neckline in the front and adding length at the center back of the collar.

3.  Circumference at hip - Remember I added 3 inches to the length?  I forgot to check the circumference to make sure it would go around my hip.  This is an easy fix.

Here's the back.  It's not too bad.  You can see the circumference issue at the hip line (mentioned in 3 above).  What I don't know is if wrinkling at center back is a sway back issue or if it is a circumference issue.  I don't know about the weird wrinkle on the sleeve.  I will need to go back to some of my fitting information and see if I can find it addressed somewhere.

Techniques in the pattern:

1. Collar - the information on stitching the collar together is a little bit different and worked well. The instructions have you edge stitch the collar onto the neckline.  This was my first attempt at this type of application.  Although not perfect, it turned out well.  This will be good with practice.
2. Facing - the facing on this pattern is the button/button hole band.  I will like this application,
3. Sleeves - the instruction want you not to use pins.  This was really hard for me as I wanted to use pins through out the sleeve.  I used one pin to mark the matching point at the shoulder.  With practice, this could be a good technique.  

Conclusion:

I am definitely going to do another muslin in the next size up.  It could be that what I need to a mix of sizes to get a good fit.  I liked the sleeve except for the funky wrinkle at the back.  Off to do another muslin and see how it does.

Have you tried this pattern?  How did it turn out?  I would love to hear.

Happy Stitching!