Have you ever tried adjusting a sewing pattern to improve the fit? Learning which adjustments will make a garment work for your body can elevate your handmade garments from an OK fit to a Wow! customised just for you fit. It's an incredibly empowering skill to have.
To demonstrate what a the fitting process looks like on a variety of bodies, we're sharing the real-life experiences of some of our
Plains Dress Sew + Show team members. We hope that seeing how other sewists approach the fitting process will help you feel more confident to give it a try yourself.
Remember how our patterns always advise sewing a muslin (toile) first? This is why: the fit might not come out quite right on the first try, and that's alright. With a muslin, you can experiment. You can draw on it to mark where adjustments need to be made, pin it, take seams in, rip seams open - all without wasting your good fabric.
It may take multiple iterations to get the fit just right, but we guarantee that you will learn a lot along the way, and will end up with a custom-fit pattern that you will feel confident using again and again.
Kristen's story - learning to be a fit detective
Kristen chose to sew the curved front, short sleeved version of the Plains Dress. She sewed her first version based on her upper bust measurement, as recommended in the pattern, grading for arm circumference and hip. Here's what she found: the shoulder seams slipped towards the back, the shoulders felt too wide, her arm movements felt restricted, and the bodice felt a bit too long. Here are some photos of her first muslin:
On her second try, Kristen did a forward shoulder adjustment and forward head adjustment, which helped to address the feeling that the dress was slipping backward (note - this is a very common adjustment these days, since many of us spend so much time hunched forward looking at a screen).
But there were still issues with the shoulders and fit across the back that required experimentation. She had a feeling that there was too much fabric in the front of the dress and not enough across the back, which was leading to the the restrictive feeling. So, she tried using a size E for the upper front and size F for the back, to give a bit of extra ease on the back only, and tried a
narrower shoulder width adjustment. Here are some photos of her second muslin (she focused on the bodice only, since that's where the fit issues were occurring). Note how she experimented with removing width from the front of the bodice:
Before cutting into her "good" fabric, Kristen made a third muslin. I mention this so that you know it is completely normal to make multiple muslins - sometimes it takes several tries to identify the cause of a fit issue and figure out how to fix it!
This time around, Kristen experimented with adding an extra centimetre of width to the back of the sleeve head, which improved the restrictive feeling without impacting the shoulder width or the fit of the front. She also noticed that the bust points weren't in quite the right position for her - the bust points on the pattern measured 8" apart, while her bust points measured 6" apart, so she changed the position of the darts. Here are photos of muslin number three:
With three muslins complete, and some of her fit issues solved, Kristin sewed the lovely rust-coloured dress pictured at the beginning of this email. She explained that she considers this dress a work in progress, and that there are some other changes she'd like to experiment with, but she feels like she is much closer to her perfect fit than she was when she started the process.
We love how she stuck with it, tried different approaches, and ultimately learned so much about how to fit a pattern to her body. Investing time in a thorough fitting process now means that moving forward, she will know what adjustments she needs to make right off the bat, and the process will become easier and quicker with more experience.
Thanks so much for sharing your story Kristin!
Rebecca's Story - sewing for post-mastectomy
Sew + Show team member Rebecca Buttermore chose to sew a classic, smooth front Plains Dress for her lovely mom, who has had a unilateral mastectomy and measures a D-cup on one side, and roughly a B-cup on her "flat" side.
The Plains pattern includes specially-adapted pieces for a flat front closure on either one or both sides, but Rebecca decided to do an experiment to see how she could get the best fit for her mom, since her "flat" side is not completely flat. Pictured below are the two muslins she sewed. The first used the adaptive flat pattern piece. The second used darts on both sides.
Rebecca decided that she preferred the fit with darts on both sides, and ended up doing a 1" SBA (Smaller Bust Adjustment) and moving the bust apex up by 1" on the "flat" side. The result is a beautiful, balanced fit. Her mom was so pleased to have a custom-tailored dress, and Rebecca said that thanks to the fitting alterations, you can't even tell that she has an uneven bust. That's the magic of a custom-fit garment!
Rebecca's (other) Story! - choosing a base size
We have one final story to share, about a
Plains Dress that Rebecca sewed for herself. She chose her size based on her full bust measurement, and while her initial muslin had a good fit in the front of the body, there was some extra fabric ballooning on the back of the dress. She contemplated a narrow shoulder or back adjustment, but it turned out the solution was even simpler. She sized down one size to fit her upper bust measurement, sewed up the dress, and it fit perfectly - no additional adjustments necessary!
So, while this isn't strictly a story about making pattern adjustments, it's a good reminder for all of us that starting with the correct size is so important. Choosing our size based on upper bust measurement, rather than full bust, will give us the best possible fit across the shoulders, which is fundamental to the fit of a dress or top. Once the upper bust is properly fit, other adjustments to the full bust can be made from there.
Thanks so much for sharing the stories of both Plains Dresses you sewed Rebecca!
Our bodies are all different shapes and sizes - there is no "standard" - so we hope that by reading these stories, you'll understand just how common it is for sewists to have to make some fitting adjustments in order to get a fit that is just right, and what the process of making a muslin/toile looks like. And, you'll also see just how doable it is to make those pattern alterations - you do not have to have advanced sewing skills - anyone can do it!
