A Bust-Fit Tutorial (Of Sorts)

I considered entitling this post "My Short Waist Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to My Big Boobs (When It Comes to Wearing Clothes)" but I sensed it was a bit cumbersome. Mind you, this post isn't exactly a light read.

I don't know what's more questionable: that I'm about to recommend a sewing FBA (of sorts) or that I'm doing any sort of tutorial on fit at all (given my level of experience) - and this without so much as a photo series to accompany it.

Let's start with the requisite proviso: Reader beware. I am not expert on: sewing, fitting, alterations or tutorials. Hell, until recently I hadn't sewn much in 2 months. I am an expert on certain other things in my universe - let's not be all down on me - but you see where I'm coming from. Furthermore, as I learn more about alterations as my skills improve, I reserve the right to advise you all that this was a crude and/or crazy idea.

I'm calling the alteration, for want of a better term (please tell me if there's one that already exists): The Narrow Frame / Deep Bust Adjustment (NFDBA "for short"). In fact, if you can tell me anything about this method - someone else already made it up, you've tried it and it works on you (or doesn't), you think it's stupid etc., I'm happy to hear your feedback. In large measure, I've written this post in the interests of discovering someone else who may know more, different or better. And, natch, I'd love if it were to have some actual merit or to help someone.

Background: You know that S and I have worked on bodice fitting for quite some time (though we have been on a bit of a hiatus due to life responsibilities of late). It sounds trite to say that I have learned a vast amount from S and the experience. Truly, it's changed my perspective on practically everything three-dimensional. Additionally, I have read a number of useful fit resources, amongst them (and just to name a few):

• Fit For Real People (FFRP)
• The Complete Guide to Perfect Fitting
• The Singer Fashion Tailoring Book

We know, from many a sewing post on this blog, that I have struggled with the standard (FFRP) version of the FBA, generally applied to a darted top. I've struggled with all kinds of FBAs but let's focus primarily on this one. Every time I've given it a go, though I've been quite restrained, I get a baggy garment under the breasts and a weird one over and above them.

I did work out a very useful FBA method on princess seam garments (in which Taran and the Singer book were instrumental).  But what about all those other tops in the world I want to make and wear??

Who's the NFDBA For?

• A woman with a proportionately large bust on a proportionately narrow, small- to medium-boned frame
• The size you'd make to fit your full bust should probably not be more than one size larger than that which you'd make to fit your high bust i.e. if you're a 12 in full bust but a 10 in high bust, that's fine. If you're a 12 in full bust but an 8 in high bust, that might be problematic. I can't say with certainty - I've only had the chance to try this on my own body.
• The bust should be DEEP, not wide, and breasts should not splay excessively to sides (see why below)
• A short waist is preferable
• An hourglass shape is also preferable i.e. a waist that indents, though it doesn't need to indent a tremendous amount

As you can see, it's a bit of a niche market - but I'm sure there are enoug of you out there who fit this description.

What Kind of Garment Does this Work On?

• A bodice with bust darts in a woven.
• A bodice with bust darts (or without them i.e. T shirt) in a knit 
• In addition to the above, it's best to work with a pattern that highlights the waist
• It's easier (as are all things) on a pattern that has no sleeves, but you can do it with sleeves, you just have to note if the shape or size of the armscye changes
• It's also easier to work this on a knit

This isn't, as far as I can tell, a useful "method" for princess seams or other sorts of bodice shaping.

What Else Do I Need to Know?

You'll start by making your muslin in the size that fits your full bust. Oh, I know - this is HERESY. You're supposed to fit the upper chest and then FBA and make other required alterations. But seriously peeps (and I'm having a blog-writing deja vu!) I'd rather make everything else smaller, if that's what it takes, and get a garment that fits in the end, than do an FBA that ends up wrecking the line of the garment.

Pls. note: I suspect that many of you are feeling queasy right now. I respect that. I, too, feel queasy. But stay the course. I'm going somewhere with this and, really, in the end, it all comes down to whether this will work for you, if other FBAs have not.

I'm positing that, for the small framed-large busted woman, it's actually easier to adjust from the larger size than the smaller. Of course, I could be out of my mind.

OK, What The Hell Is This Adjustment And How Do You Make It Happen?

The adjustment is a way to allow for extra room in the bust  without adding extra width in the bodice. The reason you need a narrow frame, deep breasts and short waist is that the depth of your breasts will be compensated for by the length of the front bodice. If your torso is not narrow, you won't be able to maximize length in the front bodice. If your torso is long, you can still do this (I suppose) but it may be more complicated.

What's the salient construct of the alteration? You shorten the back bodice above the waist and below the bust.

I'll use my latest project as an example: When I constructed muslin 1 (unaltered bodice) in the size that fits my full bust (apparently, 38" when measured recently), I found the following:

• It fit nicely in the bust BUT
• The shoulders were a bit too wide
• I needed a symmetrically wider seam allowance in the side seams (it's slightly to big around the true waist to high hip) - this means I'll need to take about 1/2" symmetrically out of each side seam, pretty easy and the line of the top is retained...
• This it the thing I noticed most of all - a scant inch of fabric pooled at my lower back!

That fabric is the excess (given my short waist) that's taken up by the profile of my breasts on the front bodice. It's like I get a free pass in the boob area because my waist is short. But there's nothing to uptake that length on the back.

Seems pretty reasonable that I should simply hack out that amount of fabric from the back bodice and go. But, it's not entirely that simple. 

When one removes length on one side of the pattern only, it screws with the alignment of the side seam. Now, there are various ways one can deal with this, I imagine. But since this seems to work for me, I'll suggest that you add back the length just below the armscye. Walking your pattern will tell you how much you need to add (or at least act as a guide); there's a certain amount of intuition in this alteration - which is to say, at this point, I don't know how to explain why I go off-road when I do.

What's walking the pattern? This is simply aligning the edges of the seam allowances (on the paper pattern) of adjoining pattern pieces. For example, your side seams on your actual garment, will need to line up when you sew that seam. Perhaps you take it for granted that this should automatically occur. You did pay for your pattern, after all. However, some patterns are inaccurately drafted. Also remember, once you start to make alterations on a bodice, those alterations are likely to impact the length of one or both side seams, rendering them unequal. 

So, I walk the pattern from the hem, see where it stops at the underarm, note the discrepancy between the lengths of front and back, and add on to the back piece / sometimes take away a bit from the front piece. It's 2 parts engineering, 1 part intuition. Sometimes it doesn't work on the first try.

Big Time Note: Once you start screwing with the armscye, if your garment has sleeves, you're going to have to factor this in and adjust them to fit. Also: For good fit, most sleeves and armscyes already, and independently of other alterations, need to be adjusted - so I see this as part of the process, not an extra alteration. And I promise not to write a tutorial on that!

Other Big Time Note: Before you walk the side seams, always close your dart. Darts impact the length of the side and they're closed in the garment, so you'll need to close them for measuring the pattern length.

Order of Operations Recap:

• Walk side seams on unaltered pattern to make sure they align (optional). If they don't, alter the pattern so that they do.

• Make an unaltered muslin in the size that correlates with full bust - as long as it's not more than 1 size larger than your high bust size would be. (You might still try this if these ratios are more extreme, I just don't know what the outcome will be.)

• Try on the garment and review. You probably need to make a small shoulder adjustment, take in the side seams a bit, and symmetrically i.e. just increase the width of your side seam allowance, and remove pooling from the back waist. If this isn't the case, email me. I really want to talk about it.

• Reflect the required adjustments on paper (as indicated above). Note that I haven't talked about marking up the muslin and pulling it apart in the interests of altering the paper pattern. That's cuz you might want to wear your existing "muslin" i.e. that top you've been making for a while. This allows you to make an altered new version without deconstructing the original one. According to whom you ask, it's a good plan or a less good plan. I vacillate between the two perspectives. Right now I'm into wearing things for a while till I have a better fitted version. Unless, of course, the muslin is a disaster.

• Try it on again. If the alterations didn't quite get you there, refine them.

So, I'm putting this out there for your consideration. I would welcome any feedback - positive or negative (but friendly, of course!). Have you ever tried this? Did it work?

Pattern designers and Experienced Pattern Alterers: Are there flaws in this reasoning we should discuss? I mean, does it just work on me - or should it work on others?

Let's talk!

FBA Continued...

Today has been an interesting day. I was derailed by all the things I meant to do by lots of things I imagined I might do someday - namely the construction of a croquis.

This sketch of oneself is becoming quite popular, all of a sudden, it would seem. In the last couple of weeks I've read no fewer than 5 accounts of how to, and why and what. In truth, my husband has been doing the heavy lifting on the project. He's already spent a few hours trying to create a vector diagram from a photo of me, using Inkscape. The reason our aim is to do this, rather than hand sketching a close-cropped picture, is that the end result will be scalable. (Also, it's kind of cool to create an image the likes of which one sees assembled on high-tech computers in action films; you know, like when they're trying to create a composite of the bad guy.)

Why spend the time and effort? Really, why not? At the end, I'll have a customized me-shaped sketch onto which I can draw fun designs that will suit my particular shape. Why should I consider my next outfit in relation to a figure that's 5'8", long-waisted and boob-free? I hope that this will be the next step on my journey of self-taught fashion design.

If the dress form fiasco hadn't already cured me of vanity, lord knows, this little project would achieve that objective in a flash. I have become so comfortable with body as an object, it's bizarre. More and more, I am pointedly aware of my every asymmetry, of convexity and concavity as it applies to me. Now I just find it all technically interesting. Sort of like doing an FBA...

Apropos of that, I've completed the Sherry-prescribed version of the Ruby Slip FBA and compared it to the one I attempted last week. Both versions add 1.5 inches to the original pattern bust dimensions. The one I "developed", for whatever reason, feels like the right one to cut first. (Fortunately I have enough fabric to try both versions, if required.)

Both FBA-altered paper pattern pieces are very similar in the side back piece. However, my version of the front piece is, intriguingly, wider all over, and specifically by 1 inch at the under bust vs. Sherry's. I didn't realize that till I compared the two of them today. So glad that Sherry reminds sew-alongers to increase the under bust dimensions an equivalent amount to any increase in bust width.

As such, I added 1 inch to either side of the front skirt and tapered to the waist notches. (I didn't defray the total 2-inch amount over the entire size of the skirt i.e. front and back, because I really do want the increase at the front.) The front bust piece is longer in Sherry's FBA version, and overall it is quite a bit slimmer. I have a full upper bust so I sense I need more width at the top of the piece. It just doesn't look like the Sherry-version, as it stands currently, is going to provide the volume I need, despite the addition of width at the side of the front piece where it meets the side back piece.

Man, if you don't sew - hell, if you don't adjust for a full bust - that paragraph must have been totally painful.

I really have no idea of how this is all going to play out. That's the fun and anxiety of sewing. This may be the best thing I've ever figured out on my own, or it might be a mere stepping stone to the next version. Potentially a frustrating one.

Nonetheless, I will keep on.

Today I've also cut the Ginger skirt, version 2 and pulled out the pattern and fabric to make another pair of Clovers. I'm so tempted to alter them into culottes, I just don't know if I'll be able to stop myself.

Any thoughts on croquis? Have you done one? Has anyone done an FBA on the Ruby Slip yet? Thoughts about Clovers or Gingers you haven't had a chance to chat about yet? Please let's talk!

Saturday Morning Experiment

Oh, Friends, where are those Cinderella mice when you need them?

As I can't wait to read the upcoming tutorial on how to FBA the Ruby Slip - I've given it a few hours of, um, mega pattern alteration brain cells. In a strange twist, I've actually managed to use my dress form for its intended purpose, as opposed to its general function as "nice clothes hanger for photos". Disclaimer: I have no actual training, so today's hard-thinking might all be an interesting experiment.

Here's what you need to know. I'm not cutting anything until I see Sherry's methodology. My version retains a) the original size 12 pattern under bust circumference (though the side back and back pieces are now 1/2 an inch higher i.e. vertically longer) and b) v neck shape - but it does introduce a dart I cannot seem to get rid of by moving it out to the side. Maybe my imagination is simply failing me after hours of work. I suppose having attended fashion school has its benefits. :-)

At this moment, I am actually unable to articulate the scope of what I'm thinking and what I want to do. I wish I could plug you all into my brain for a few seconds like they do in scary scifi movies. It stresses me out, sometimes, to have so many things to say and do and to be incapable of making it all happen instantaneously.

But enough of my intriguing neuro-chemical landscape...

My sewing room is such a tip after 3 hours of doing practically nothing tangible that I find it hard to believe:


My altered pieces look rather different, and considerably larger, than the original size 12 pieces that I cut:

This is the side back. The one on the left is the altered version...

And here's the front piece, larger, altered version on the bottom. See how much smaller the unaltered piece is - admittedly, it doesn't have a dart, but still!

Side by side shot of the pieces..

Finally, here are a couple of shots of the fabric combos I intend to use to make 2 slips. I'm seriously counting on it that the FBA thing will work - mine or Sherry's! - or I'm sitting on some pretty expensive lace. That blue stuff cost 30 bucks a yard on sale. It's also quite heavy. I have no idea how I will dart or gather it. I intend to use lingerie straps with slides because I happen to have them and I like the look.

Note: I have underlining options for both the pink and blue lace, if extra structure is required.


Whatcha think?

FBA*: First Time's A Bust

I am following the rulez. Swear! This is what the instructions tell you to do.

I can see I may have to stop posting about sewing for a while because every fucking new thing that involves boobs and catering to their voluptuousness seems to be failing. I mean, everything seems to be providing me with a great learning opportunity.

I mean, totally fuck that. What am I, a grade 1 teacher??

Thing is, I'm happy to bitch about this ad nauseum. It strikes me, however, that you may be vaguely irritated by my constant irritation.

Here are my questions du jour - aimed at the sewists but pls, anyone and everyone must provide feedback:

• Have you done an FBA? Did it work the first time?
  
• Was it the Y variety rather than just the normal one?
  
• How big a centre gap do you think you can you accomodate with the regular FBA (not the Y version)? I think I have to add 2.5 inches - is that too much with the regular version?
• Have you struggled with the apex going too low once you make the adjustment?
• Have you struggled with the back being shorter than the front at the end?
• With a narrow back and large chest, do you find that the number of inches you need to increase the pattern by is actually smaller?
  

*FBA = Full Bust Adjustment. It's designed to make woven and, to some extent knit, patterns (which are cut in general for a 34B chest) perfectly fitting for any woman, regardless of chest size. It's a fairly common - but not insignificant - technical alteration.