Toxic Relationships

Have you ever found yourself in a painful relationship? One that you really want to work, but becomes detrimental to living a productive life? Maybe it causes you to question your abilities, or perhaps lose confidence in yourself altogether?  Maybe you even have a poor body image because of it?  No matter what you do, how hard you try, you don't think you can ever work things out?  No, I'm not airing my dirty laundry, this blog is still about sewing...this is where I found myself with Vogue 8766 late last week.

Vogue 8766, View E.

Now that my tweed jacket is finished, I don't have any UFOs and I'm not one to throw in the towel, especially with an "easy" pattern.  Especially not one that was reviewed so well by so many people all over the internet.  But I just could not fit the muslin to look flattering on me.  The darts didn't work on me, my back appeared as if I had an extreme case of scoliosis, and if that wasn't enough, the waistline appeared to be the same circumference as the bust and hips. A sack of potatoes may have looked better.  Moving the darts didn't help, making them larger didn't help, everything I did seemed to make it look worse.

Starting from scratch with muslin #2 would surely make a difference...NOT!  I went to bed on Thursday night wishing that I could just have a good cry and feel better.  My confidence was completely shot -- I kept telling myself: "You have sewn Advanced Vogue patterns without a muslin that came out lovely, and this is an EASY pattern."  "It can't be THAT hard."  "You are a nice person, and people like you." Well, not the last sentence, but I probably should have tried it.

Friday afternoon I decided that I just could not -- would not -- work with THAT pattern.  Actually, the skirt was okay, it was just the bodice that looked awful.  I toyed with starting over with a new pattern, but decided that the answer was to re-draft the bodice with princess seams that are (hopefully) easier to fit.

Saturday morning, I broke out my "Perfect Fitting" book by Sarah Veblen.  Finally, on Sunday night, I accepted my fourth muslin as the final and declared that I would move forward with that version.  I still don't love it, but I'm running out of time.  I know it sounds like a marriage of convenience.

If I didn't have a hard deadline of a week from yesterday, I would definitely have started over -- new pattern, new fabric, new attitude -- but it must be finished by this Sunday, before I leave for a week long business trip.  AND I still have to dye the fabric.  [That will be another can of worms all by itself.]

I still haven't figured out why this was such a difficult chore to fit this for myself.  Is it because I bought a smaller size and tried to increase the waist (by the way, I ended up taking more than half the increased circumference out of the final version and I still have room to move), or is it just that this style does not work for my body type?

It's not that I haven't been sewing...

...I've just had really b-o-r-i-n-g projects.  You know the type: mending, altering, etc.  Not interesting enough to blog about.  Most boring among the long list of forgettable projects: outdoor curtains.  My husband has wanted some for several years, and demanded hinted that I should put them on my docket for this summer.  Unfortunately, summer will probably be over before I finish them.  All white fabric and so many straight seams!  I've only completed one (I think the plan is for 6 or 8), but I need a break -- something fun!

Dresses are normally not my thing, but we have an event later this month for which I really should wear a dress.  So, I'm making one: Vogue 8766, view E. It is well reviewed on Pattern Review and billed as "easy".  This particular event has a color theme every year -- 2013 is the year of Tangerine -- so while awaiting the arrival of my tangerine dye from Dharma Trading, I started fitting a muslin.

My shoulders have recently become narrower in proportion to my waist.   My usual method for handling my disproportionately large waistline is to get a pattern that fits me in the waist, and reduce the shoulder width.  That hasn't always given me the best results, and I understand that I should do the opposite -- buy a size to fit my shoulders, and expand everything else.  It sounded so simple.

Threads #101 has an interesting article about grading patterns, which was helpful for me to figure out where to slash and spread the tissue.  It involved a little bit of math -- which always makes the project more fun, and gives me the peace of mind that I'm using a scientific process.

In a nutshell, you figure out the difference between the pattern measurement and the body measurement, which is the "overall grade." Divide that by 4 to get the "allocated grade" (AG, allocated between four pieces).  The allocated grade is then further allocated between three lines (hash marks, below) per body quadrant.  For the body measurement, I allowed for ease, by assuming the same ease built into the pattern (so if drawn for a 25" waist, and the finished waist measurement is 27", waist ease = 2", so I added 2" to my waist measurement).

The Threads methodology drawn on my pattern.

Changes to bodice patterns

In this particular project, I needed an extra SIX inches in the waist (hard to believe that I've lost a couple inches there in recent weeks), so that six inches in overall grade became 1.5 inches in AG, divided into 3/8" or 3/4" spreads at the waistline, detailed in the table above.

The bust (apex) and hip lines required only about 1/2" additional, which worked out fine for a wedge slashed into the pattern: wide at the waist and tapered toward the top and bottom edges.  After all the wedges were in place so that the tissue was flat, I re-drew the grain lines and blended any other lines.

Muslin #1 neglected to take into account the additional required for bodice length (duh), so it was a bit too short in the front (not as much in the back due to my sway back).  Unfortunately, I ignored this great tool from Threads and I only increased bodice length along lines #5 (front) and #10 (back) where the patterns had markings for "lengthen/shorten here."  It would have really been better to use line #4 also -- at least in the front -- because I ended up lowering the bust darts and armscye, anyway. By the way, the Threads table didn't seem to allocate enough in the vertical direction to meet the overall grade -- my table is adjusted to reflect the increase.

In the process of fitting, my husband learned how to pin out excess fabric for me!  He did well on his portion -- the back looks pretty smooth.  I'm still not all that happy with how the bodice fits me along the side seams, but I'm saving that for later, since it should be an easy fix that I can pin out myself.  The skirt seems perfect, though.

I'm still not sold on the new process -- I do feel like I'm making many more changes than I would have using my old method.  However, if it results in a better end product, it's worth the trouble.  After working on this over the weekend, I realized that Linda Maynard teaches a Craftsy class on fitting that uses this exact pattern.  Seems like that may have made it easier for me.

So, how do those of you experienced in the art of fitting usually buy your patterns and fit them?  Am I the only one who has been doing it wrong?!