This post has been in draft for some time. Seriously….weeks.  Day to day life and family matters have been pretty hectic to say the least. In any case, FINALLY I have a toile that I can turn into a block with which to begin drafting some designs! Hurrah!! That aspect of things I will now have to put on hold until the new year, due to Christmas gift sewing. I’m guessing though that anyone who may be following these posts will be in the same position, so it seems to me that starting the drafting process fresh in January is the best option. So this will be the last Draftalong post until the New Year.
When I last posted, I had adapted my pattern to take out a big tuck as part 1 of a sway back alteration, but had yet to test the results on my final toile. Well, here it is….(I’m not quite sure why I look like I’m striking a body builder pose on the right,btw! Heurgh!!))

See the difference?! Excess fabric gone and the additional ease at the side seams is alowing it to fall comfortably over my hips. The image on the left shows the excess fabric pinned out in a horizontal tuck in the small of my back on the original toile, and the very slight snugness on my hips.  The one on the right is the final toile, cut using the newly altered pattern . No more fabric pooling…….

Apart from the tuck itself, there were a couple of other elements to finalising my toile. In my previous post, I incorrectly assumed that I needn’t square off the hem after I had taken the tuck out of the pattern. I assumed the “distorted” hem was all part of the “optical illusion”  to correct the sway back. Hmmmm. Not so apparently. I did indeed need to square off the hem from the CB to the side seam. You can see the distorting effect of the tuck on the hem in the left hand picture; and the “wedge” added on below the dotted line in the right hand picture….

In addition, I added a CB seam to this toile on the advice of my tutor. “Just in case” further alterations were needed. Good job too, because the tuck on it’s own wasn’t quite sufficient. In order to get the back to sit just right,  I ended up taking out a tapered vertical “tuck” along the CB seam of the toile,to remove the last bit of excess fabric. It tapers to nothing at the neckline, with it’s widest point at the hem. Essentially, taking in the CB seam at an angle. Were I being truly conscientious or aiming for a totally accurate fitted toile, then the new CB seam would be curved inward at the small of my back. But I was happy to keep it simple and opted for a straight tapered CB seam as opposed to a curved one.

The overall shape of this toile is exactly what I’d envisaged as a basis for future designs. I will never want to make a top more fitted than this. It just wouldn’t suit my shape. So for me, a simple, semi fitted, boxy shape that I can add some design details to, and manipulate shape wise, is just perfect.

One final tweak I’ll make is to lengthen the bust darts. I shortened them a bit tooooo much on this toile, trying to avoid the pointy bust look. But where they are now, they’re not providing quite the right amount of fullness. (Ohhhhh, NIPPLES to it!) I’m pretty sure just lengthening them will sort out any remaining drag lines on the bust….

Sooo, here is my block. Traced onto card from my final pattern. Without seam allowances. Ready to start playing with designs in the New Year. Here’s a round up of the main adjustments I’ve made to my toile to get it to this point:

• Assessing the initial fit issues
• Moved the bust dart
• Enlarging the bust dart Pt 1
• Enlarging the bust dart Pt 2 
• Sway Back Adjustment Part 1
• and finally this post….

I’ve been sketching out some ideas as well as perusing the ones in the book that got me started on this draftalong in the first place. (Epic journey that it has become! 32 posts so far! What planet was I on, thinking I could have this done and dusted withing a few weeks??!)
I fancy starting off with experimenting with collars (Peter Pan, Sailor?) and maybe some pintucks, pleats, gathers etc. How about you? What design details would you try first if you were drafting a pattern to your own design?
Px

Ok so here goes. This is a LONG post peops. I racked my brains trying to seperate this into more bitesize individual posts but each stage of this is so interlinked with the next that I decided to just keep it all together in one place. Recommend sorting yourself out a glass of wine/coffee/tea/beer (delete as appropriate) and put your feet up. Ready?
Okey dokey. Firstly I should mention that I have decided to ditch the block pattern from the book. (Eeeep! Yes the one that I’ve spent all that time on!) in favour of the Sorbetto from Colette patterns. The issue I’m addressing in this post was exactly the same on both patterns, but the Sorbetto just seems to suit me better overall and I just think for me it would make a better block/sloper pattern in the long run. You may recall the stage I was at here.  I had pinned out some excess fabric at the armhole and needed to transfer those markings on the toile to the paper pattern so that I could rotate this unsightly dart in the armhole and add it into the bust dart instead…(the first few photos were taken at night so apologies for the poor lighting)

Here’s my toile (I used no sew interfacing to make it. Top tip. It works brilliantly!) with the armhole dart marked out where I’d had it pinned…

I layed my tissue pattern on top…

and traced the armhole dart onto it…here’s the toile and the tissue pattern side by side…

I then extended a line through the centre of each dart until they crossed….

I cut along the lines at the centre of each dart, stopping just short of the crossover point to creat a hinge/pivot point…

I closed off the armhole dart by lining up the bottom dart leg on top of the top dart leg. This results in the bust dart enlarging by the exact same amount….

I then secured with masking tape (easier to reposition than sellotape and you can iron and draw over it too. Win win win!) I called it a night at this point and spent the night tossing and turning and muttering about armholes and bust darts in my sleep…apparently!

Next day (!) I secured a slip of paper with masking tape on the underside of the new dart…

This was a tricky one to do (and photograph) but I eventually managed to fold out the dart with the side seams above and below the dart lined up as they would be if I were constructing the dart on the garment (they are lined up honestly! It’s the camera angle in this photo that makes it look wonky)…

Then cut along the side seam…

and open the dart out again…ta dah!! New “boobalicious” bust dart…

Of course, now the armhole is all wonky! Closing up the armhole dart has raised the bottom of the armhole too high and at a funny angle. Place a piece of paper behind the armhole and tape in place as before…

I held the pattern piece against myself to get a rough idea of where the new armhole curve should start on the side seam and marked it on the pattern. Back on the cutting table I drew in the new armhole shape starting at the point I had marked on the side seam,(make sure the first 2-3mm of the armscye is at a right angle to the side seam or you’ll get a “peak” when the side seams are sewn together) drawing a smooth curve and blending it into the upper part of the armhole curve. You can use a French curve (visible in picture) but in the end I printed off a copy of the front armhole section of the original PDF pattern and used this as a template to get the curve just right

A quick snip later…armhole curve sorted. That looks better! 

Here’s my new pattern piece. Unsightly armhole dart rotated into bust dart and the armhole curve reshaped. So we’re done right?

Nope! One final adjustment. This is the original pattern lined up at the armhole. See how the front piece is marginally longer than the back? Well this is where my pattern cutting classes kicked in. Somewhere in the deep dark recesses of my befuddled brain, I remembered….

The width of the dart…

Is directly proportional to the “extra” length at the hem of the front pattern piece…because of course, when the dart is closed, this extra length is taken up…

Applying the same principle to my newly adjusted pattern….
I measured the width of the new dart…

and worked out how much extra to add to the hem to compensate for the extra length that would be taken up by the wider dart…(does this make any sense??)

So here is my new pattern….

I’m happy to report that everything lined up perfectly when I made my toile (that post to follow) so I was super chuffed with myself and this process has marked a bit of a Eureka moment for me. Both in fitting and the pattern manipulation process. It’s a case in point that “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”.  Each alteration will impact on another part of the pattern and generally require a compensatory alteration elsewhere to get everything to line up again. It’s this emerging awareness of the “bigger picture” that feeds the slight addiction I have to pattern drafting. It’s a bit of a love hate relationship because it has me swearing and tearing my hair out as much as it has  me jumping for joy at a new principle understood!

I tell you what though…I never thought I’d be referencing Newton and Archimedes to in a blog post about how to make a top that fits me!! Hilarious! Hmmm. Professor P…has a nice ring to it…;)
Px

Ahhh, finally! I am soooooo sorry if I’ve kept anyone waiting with these posts. But I have managed to squeeze some time out of the last few days to make some progress on the Top Draftalong. I have lot’s to share with you, but first things first. This is the last of the “mini posts” detailing the fitting issues covered in the book. Bust Adjustments. (Bleurgh!!) As luck would have it though,  there are a number of decent tutorials out there to reference for this particular area of fitting.; a roundup of which can be found at the end of this post.  Here’s what the book has to say on the subject of bust adjustments:

“With a larger than average bustline, your toile will appear very stretched across the bust and the darts will not be providing enough fullness. Mark your bust point with a dot on the toile then transfer this position to the paper pattern. Draw a line through the centre of the dart to the bust point. Draw another line beginning at the middle of the shoulder, down through the bust point to the hem, passing through the middle point of the waist. Cut through the dart, leaving a 3mm hinge at the bust point, then cut from the shoulder to the hem, leaving a hinge at each end. Place a piece of paper underneath the pattern, then spread out the vertical opening by the required amount at the bust point. The dart will automatically be enlarged. Pin in place and then reshape the side seam. (diagram far right of image)”

“A smaller than average bust forms folds of excess fabric over the bust which must be dispensed with. draw the lines and cut your pattern as before, but this time overlap the vertical opening at the bust point to remove the excess fabric. This of course, decreases the bust dart. Reshape the side seam”

Gertie has a roundup of great tutorials here. There’s an example of the FBA  in action here and here and a well illustrated example of the SBA here (in fact the first stages are applicable to the FBA too).
Px