pattern making

Fitted Sleeve Sloper: part 1

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Where’s a gusset for a set-in sleeve when you need one eh? So long story long, recent days? weeks? (I’ve lost track) have been lost to sleeve slopering. Remember my top / dress sloper that’s based on a Kenneth King moulage?

top-v-moulageTop/Dress sloper muslin

I needed a matching sleeve so I can start making practical tops for the typical London summer (too cold to go sleeveless).

The Starting Point…

fitted-sleeve-1 I started again with Mr King’s instruction for a basic fitted sleeve. First a few words from The Man himself (Thanks Mr King!) in case you have similar questions about the instruction as I did:

  1. Pg 20, Basic Sleeve Outline, Step 8: What are the pros & cons of the two methods for getting E’F’ distance [cap height]? Would the shallower cap height produced by method 1 be more comfortable to wear?
    Kenneth: The shallower cap height is indeed easier to wear, as it has more lift.  The trade-off with cap height and bicep width is one of appearance versus mobility.  A higher cap yields a shorter bicep, which looks well when the arms are down at the sides.  Suits look better with this situation.  But the higher cap height limits mobility somewhat—but you don’t do jumping jacks in a suit jacket, generally.  A shorter cap height gives more mobility, but you sacrifice some in appearance, as there is a rumple of fabric under the arm when the arm is down at the side.  Men’s dress shirts have the short cap height/long bicep situation.
  1. Pg 22, Basic Sleeve Outline, Step 9: If my half-bicep is less than 6″ (I have skinny arms), FF’ and FF’ would still be zero right?
    Kenneth: That’s correct.
    So when I get to step 11 my curve should stop at H and be horizontal from H to H’ to F right?
    Kenneth: That’s correct.
  1. Pg 25, Basic Sleeve Outline, Cap ease: Is there a minimum amount you would recommend? Can one get away with 0″ cap ease? Would that cause any sort of fitting or comfort problems?
    Kenneth: Cap ease is dependent on fabric.  If you are cutting for leather, then close to zero is good.  For dresses and blouses, where thin fabric is used, 1/2”, to a maximum of 3/4” is plenty.  I generally go with 1/2”.  For tailored garments, I go with 1”-1 1/2” maximum, depending on fabric.  If you’re working with a really spongy woolen, the cap can absorb much more, but gabardine or Super 120 will need much less (that 1/2”).
  1. Pg 53, Fitted Sleeve with Elbow Dart, Step 5: Once I folded on B’D’ and trace out the front B’F’JMD’ I find my bicep line is no longer perpendicular to EM. Is that suppose to happen or did I do something incorrectly? If it’s correct, what line do I use as the grainline – should it be the original EM line (ie the bicep will be slightly off the crossgrain)?
    Kenneth: Your bicep will tilt slightly because of this folding.  Generally I will draw a new bicep from the intersections of the armhole and the seam on the sleeve, and make the grain line perpendicular to the new bicep line—that’s the gold standard.
    However, the grain line can change—when I’m fitting a sleeve, if I have a situation where the pitch of the sleeve is markedly forward or back (this is dependent on the particular wearer’s anatomy), then, when I set the proper pitch of the sleeve, I’ll drop a plumb line from the top of the cap and re-establish the grain line so it’s perpendicular to the floor.  This isn’t so important if the garment is made from solid colored fabric, but any pattern, plaid, or stripe—it’ crucial that the sleeve rain lines be parallel to the grain lines on the body, which generally are perpendicular to the floor.  (the exception here is bias garments.)

OK, so the result was pretty good (sorry, forgot to take mug shots). But I had to make some minor adjustments because of quirks of my arm joint/posture…and vanity.

The Fitting Quirks…

Origin of the Big Bust Impersonator?

armhole-position-shape

FPA-09I used to think my problem was a Forward Shoulder Joint (Fitting & Pattern Alteration #9), but now I think maybe I have a combination of a Posterior Arm Joint (F&PA #10) + Forward Shoulder Joint. Sounds contradictory doesn’t it. What I mean is that my shoulder sits further back on my torso, but is tilted with the top of the shoulder pointing forward and my elbow further back. This may explain why my bodice side seam is more towards the front if I want it perpendicular to the floor. According to F&PA, Posterior Arm Joint may occur with #33 Prominent Bust (the common FBA by another name). I wonder if that’s why according to most instructions I’m a B-cup bodice, but in fact I need a FBA for the front to fit well.

FPA-10Anyway, so my moulage bodice looks more like the resulting bodice for Posterior Arm Joint adjustment (except my back side seam is straighter & back waist darts wider): I’ve allowed the top/dress sloper’s bodice side seam to tilt backward a little bit (1/2″) for better balance between front & back at armpit level, but there is still more of the armsyce on the back bodice (9″) than on the front bodice (6-7/8″). So I had to move my 1-piece sleeve’s underarm seam towards the back as well if I want this seam to match up with the bodice side seam and still get the right pitch / tilting of the sleeve to match the way my arm hangs. The sleeve adjustment is done as instructed for Posterior Arm Joint, moving the underarm seam (7/8″) only at the armpit, tapering back to original seam line at the wrist.

FPA-48I was getting closer, but the sleeve twist a little bit at the elbow with dragline from sleeve cap center towards front / inner elbow. I ended up moving the underarm seam towards the front (3/8″), a bit like #48 Inward Rotation of Elbow, but without increasing the elbow width. This makes the upper arm portion a bit twisted when flat, but feels straight when worn. The temptation to straighten it out is great, but maybe the body is just too wonky to obey?

fitting-probsTo Cap Ease or Not to Cap Ease

Lastly, on the can of worm that is sleeve cap ease…I ended up with about 3/4″ ease. I started out with almost 0″ ease. But I found that on very fitted sleeve like this one, where the shoulder seam isn’t extended out beyond the curve at the top of my arm, I get draglines pointing towards where the arm bulge out of the shoulder joint without this ease. The draglines disappears when I increase the cap height (to 5″). But this added the 3/4″ ease.

Now there’s a bit of debate online on whether sleeve cap ease is really needed. Some of the discussion implies that the reason ease was added originally was an attempt to improve arm mobility. This argument against sleeve ease is that if the armsyce is shaped correctly (mirrors the arms’ typical range of motion, which is more forward than backward), then sleeve cap ease is not needed. I have to admit I don’t know why ease are added by the various sewing professionals – the RTW pattern drafting, home sewing, couture, & tailoring books I own all mention some sleeve cap ease.

But when I shrink-wrapped my Duct Tape Double arm, then cut the wrap open to make it lay flat, I ended up with a series of little darts at the armsye that add up to about 2″ ease. So it would seem like the ease would be useful for accommodating this bulging out of the arm from the shoulder joint.

DTD-arm-07

I can see that if the shoulder seam is longer / extended out, covering some / all of this bulge, then the sleeve can drop straight down (like on men’s suits) and little / no ease would be needed. Alternatively, if the fabric is loosely woven & easy to stretch, maybe armsyce can be 0″ ease and the fabric in the cap area stretched out to accommodate the arm bulge (don’t know if this would pass the laundering / dry-cleaning test).

sleeve-cap-ease

The other argument against sleeve cap ease is that some fabrics are a pain to ease.  But if the arm bulge needs accommodating, then that need doesn’t go away, right? It would make more sense to me to use a different shoulder / sleeve design for these fabrics, eg extended shoulder seam; more casual shirt like sleeve with shallower cap and attendant excess fabric / folds at the armpit. Any of you experts out there manage to accommodate this arm bulge without any cap ease in difficult to ease / non-stretch / tightly-woven fabrics? Pictures proof please!

Next up, vanity tweaks. Here’s a sneak peak of the resulting pattern. But you’ll have to wait for the details!

fitted-sleeve-3

From MMM to SPS by way of Nettie!

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2015-04-27 update: I had to remove all the links in this post to the Web Archive version of Stretch Pattern School. Someone obviously bought the URL and is trying to make money from all the residual traffic for the site. It doesn’t seem right to let some greedy stranger profit from Mr Anderson’s benevolent effort.

As everyone know, it’s Me Made May. And I was tempted, but chickened out at the last minutes. If I were to wear every single me-made piece that I still own, then I might just about make it. But many are too summery for London at any time of the year, let alone this year’s unseasonably chilly May.

It did get me thinking about what I should make next / more of though. I have the woven top / dress & skirt blocks sorted, though I’m still missing sleeve block. But what I’ve been wearing more often are the knit Me Mades, especially the sleeved tops. And RTW jeans. Well there’s fat chance of me tackling the pants block any time soon. So I’m back to fiddling with my Fitted T-Shirt Block.

bs201209123mod1_4style_8Nope, the last version wasn’t perfect. The warts came out when I try to tinker with the design (from long to short sleeve). And that was like Take 5. (I obviously have infinite patience some things if not everything.) So at the moment I’m fiddling with Take 6. When I sort out Take 6 I’ll recap the attempts & hopefully include the result mug shots. (I find it quite frustrating to get fitting alteration advice that don’t come with photos of the results on real people. Drawings lie! Theories are not enough. I need proof that they work on at least some people if not every figure type out there.)

But in the meanwhile, Take 6 made me realize that I might have to live with the lower back puddle (also popularly known as ‘sway back’ wrinkles, though I’m not sure if I really have a sway back). Especially with a back that doesn’t have CB seam – which covers most T-shirt designs. Making the hip wider has no effect. Nor does shortening the CB in any fashion – the hem at CB just rides up. In fact, the only time the puddle temporarily goes away is if the hip is tighter and hem long enough to grab my hip / butt.

Nettie!

Nettie!

That got me thinking that maybe I should jump on the bodysuit craze started by Nettie.

(Actually, if my memory serves me, it was Donna Karan who first popularized bodysuit as normal wear in the 80s, and made them with crotch snaps so trips to the Ladies wasn’t a PITA. She also did hybrid blouson top with bodysuit bottom. How cool is that?)

Donna Karan 1980s bodysuitsDK Vogue Patterns 1961DK Vogue Pattern 2092

So, why bodysuit? The hypothesis being that adding the pants bit will pull the back down so it’s less likely to ride up and puddle. And this note on Stretch Pattern School kind of implies that, to me at least…

“…all tankinis will rise over time given the chance and there’s nothing you can do to stop it definitively…”

And speaking of Stretch Pattern School, I wonder if I should Nettie it or draft my own following the free instruction on Stretch Pattern School. I had initially dismissed the SPS patterns as they’re for swimwear & dancewear, neither of which I’d use often enough. Now I’m thinking maybe I should give it a go.

one-piece-patterns

Nettie would be more convenient – as I have relatively average figure, I think it might work without modification. But SPS would give me a Block + teach me how to make design & fitting changes properly. So I’m slightly more inclined towards SPS.

BTW, Stuart, the author / designer / patternmaker / teacher behind Stretch Pattern School seem to have retired & taken his website down. But you can still find a copy of most of the pages at Way Back Machine. The Lazy Person’s section probably doesn’t work anymore since the softwear generating the block for you probably is offline now. Also, Way Back Machine doesn’t seem to save complete version of the pages every time it checked the site. So if illustrations are missing (and Stuart does give step-by-step illustrated instruction for most patterns) use calendar back arrow at the top in the Way Back Machine box to go to an earlier version of the page. Usually you’ll eventually get to a version with the illustrations.

But the website was definitely worth a visit. There’s so much little gem of info there, some of which goes over my head at the moment – like all that jazz about tension lines! Other tidbits are fascinating, especially in light of complaints about ready-made stretch patterns not fitting. You’d think that they would be more forgiving. But Stuart points out that amount of horizontal negative ease in the pattern affects how many people the pattern will fit within each size. Also that as the size goes up, so does the variation in body shape. And that based on the data people entered into his website, he found more Australian size 6-10 B-cups getting breast implants than other sizes, which is an issue for pattern designers as implants affect the fit. And with C up and above, a dart, or at least some easing/gathering would be needed, even in stretch fabrics, because the fabric will try to stretch evenly / even out the tension. Otherwise you’d get ripples. There’s also a fascinating page on tweaking for larger sizes and/or different body shapes. Plus maternity block instruction for Mommies-In-Waiting!

It’s a shame Stuart didn’t consolidate his website into an Ebook before taking the site down. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d buy a copy!

Tentative Fitted Jacket Blocks

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Before I show you the matching reversible(ish) Burdastyle 11/2013 #117 moto jacket I suppose I should catch you up on my jacket block(s) experiment, since I used that as my fitting yard stick for this jacket.

moulage & knit sloperRemember my Kenneth King moulage from way back when? And the Top Block that I muslined backed in January? I never did show you the Jacket Block that’s derived from the Top Block did I? Well not properly anyway. You kind of saw it in my mess of a WIP block patterns. I never did muslin the Jacket & Coat Blocks.

Since this moto jacket is fitted & without internal structuring, I decided to make a few tweaks to my Jacket Block before using it to adjust the Burda pattern.

The revised Fitted Jacket Block is still mostly based on Kenneth King’s Moulage CD book. But I cross-checked against my two other pattern-making books that have instruction for converting basic bodice block to jacket block (Connie Crawford’s Patternmaking Made Easy. and Dennic Chunman Lo’s Patternmaking: Portfolio Skills). They all do it slightly differently. KK’s version seem to have the most ease. Dennic mentions the tighter fit of modern designs, so in the end I reduced the amount of ease to:

Shoulder out 1/2″ up 3/8″
Cross-front out 0″
Cross-back out 3/4″
Underarm out 7/8″ down 7/8″
Bust out 7/8″ (total ease: 3-1/2″)
Waist out 5/8″ (total ease: 2-1/2″)
High Hip out 5/8″
Hip out 7/8″ (total ease: 3-1/2″)
These are all relative to the skin-tight 0″ ease moulage.

The darts were shifted only 3/8″ width-wise. I didn’t bother lowering the waist for this Fitted Jacket Block, especially as this particular moto jacket will have no interfacing nor lining, so no extra layers accommodate.

Next, I had to pivot the horizontal bust dart into a shoulder dart to create a Fitted Shoulder Princess Jacket Block.

moulage-v-jsp

And as the Burda jacket won’t have shoulder pads, I had decrease the shoulder ease / extensions and account for my uneven shoulder.

j-princess

So my final block for checking the Burda jacket fit looks like this compared to the Moulage:

moulage-v-jnsp

 

 

 

More Piles

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A job that leaves one brain dead after work, how lucky am I! Then pick a project that calls for non-standard seam and hem decisions, how smart is that! Not very obviously. So to console myself for lack of progress on the sewing front I went on a sewing related book shopping spree – I can always dream about sewing even if I don’t actually manage to do it!

The first two were prompted by sleeve pattern alteration I was doing on the Burda Moto jacket. I decided to try tips from Jeffery Diduch’s article on tailored sleeve alterations in Threads July 2013 (he of Made by Hand blog, a professional tailor & patternmaker).

But there are a lot more reference points in his armscye diagram than on the Burda pattern, even more than the Big Four (which is just one more than Burda). (E is missing from this web illustration.)  So I thought I’d check The Cutter and Tailor for recommendation on pattern books that might illuminate how to locate these reference points. I settled on these supposedly oldies but goodies:

The Modern Tailor Outfitter And Clothier – Vol I
The Modern Tailor Outfitter And Clothier – Vol II

Maybe they’re not so aptly titled anymore as they are ‘1928 Modern’ rather than ‘2014 Modern’. But then menswear tailoring probably hasn’t changed as much as womenswear. The whole emphasis on fit as measure of quality over ostentation sounds promising. Volume I & II both have 3-4 chapters on womenswear tailoring including pattern drafting instruction. I haven’t read these in depth yet, but quick glance shows the instruction is the old fashion procedural type with little explanation of how to adapt to different measurements. Oh boy. Hopefully there’ll be gems buried in the other paragraphs.

And so far no references to these armscye reference points that set me on this wild goose chase yet. The hunt continues. Maybe a thorough troll through Mr Diduch’s blog is in order. (Actually, Nancy K had already asked Mr Diduch the very same question. His answer is on Threads website. Doh!)

Next up is another book on principles of pattern drafting.

How Patterns Work: The Fundamental Principles of Pattern Making and Sewing in Fashion Design

I briefly considered this book when I was looking for books on principles of how anatomy & human motions impact fit & pattern design. But the table of content didn’t seem promising. So I got Theory of Garment-Pattern Making instead on recommendation by Kathleen Fasanella. (That was another old fashion anemic book and sadly didn’t quite answer the enormity of my questions.) So when someone mentions this book again in response to Marina von Koenig‘s tutorials on pencil skirt drafting, I gave it a second chance. I’m still on the fence with this one, but that’s just from flipping through the book and reading the author / publisher ‘bio’: Too many illustrations of dress forms and too little evidence of credentials. Manifesto is all fine, but I feel more reassured if Assembil Books had listed where they got their experience and insights from. I will reassess when I’ve finally read the book cover to cover.

But not now. Because I have three more fun & inspirational books in my box!

I wanted to get some books on McQueen ever since I saw the Isabella Blow exhibit at Somerset House. (Wouldn’t have minded one on John Galliano either, but seems like now that he has fallen from grace there’s no book to be had. Not unless you fork out a fortune for rare second hand ones.)

Savage Beauty is as close as I’m going to get to examining McQueen garments without getting told off by museum guards. Lots of great pieces modeled by neutral mannequins if the theatrical fashion show presentations weren’t quite your cup of tea.

Vogue one has mostly editorial photos, many quite beautiful and not as aggressive as the runway presentations.

But at the moment I’m savoring the Life and Legacy bio. There are less inspiring photos here – mostly runway photos and only used to illustrate the collection summaries. Instead, the inspiration comes from the words. I love the details about McQueen’s Savile Row apprenticeship, the stints with various 80s designers as a cutter afterward (didn’t know he worked for Romeo Gigli – a 80s/90s Italian designer I also like), the Central St Martin training, the early struggles (so glamorous yet so impoverished). I’m inspired by how he turned out cutting edge collections on shoe-string budget while living off state benefits. (Galliano supposedly did the same when he first showed in Paris, having to resort to cheapo lining fabric for his geishaish collection.) I love that iconic garments can be created from seemingly uninspiring materials (where as sometimes the most expensive and exquisite fabrics get turned into frump).

Yes, some of his designs are a bit offish even to me – really not sure about the bumster trousers. No one’s perfect. But I love his mix of tailoring and gothic romantic cutting edge.

Here’s a quote from Savage Beauty worth considering:

“[I design from the side,] that way I get the worst angle of the body. You’ve got all the lumps and bumps, the S-bend of the back, the bum. That way I get a cut and proportion and silhouette that works all the way round the body.”

It really resonate with me because I find a few of my makes less than flattering from the side view. Love the front and back. But not the side.

While I have no ambition to be a designer (nor a professional tailor), sewing for myself (and styling the outfits) are about the only creative outlet I allowed myself. So these little gems of insights from the professionals are real threats. If only they all design for non-model bodies!

Pencil Skirt sloper quest

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If only it were the height of summer instead of chilly winter here…So even though my bodice slopers are done, I can’t really put them to good use. Boo. I haven’t got sleeve slopers to make them practical for winter. And sleeves sound like they’d be a royal pain to draft and fit.

So what do I do? Move on to a pencil skirt sloper of course. I mean, how difficult can they be to fit right? Well, maybe just a tiny bit if you’re fussy not only about the wrinkles, but also about any potential frump factor. I like my pencil skirts fashionlicious, not corporate teamaker ready.

Since I had fairly good success with Kenneth King’s bodice moulage, and saw the success Clio  had with her Kenneth King pencil skirt, I decided to start with Mr King’s Skirt draft instructions. Here are the results based on following the instruction strictly:

1-f1-sR1-b1-sL

Hmm…They may be the instruction taught by the Parisian couture pattern drafting system, but my result looks a tad frumpy to me. That’s the thing isn’t it, there are all sorts of experts and systems out there. But you just don’t know if their vision of loveliness is to your taste or not. And we also know that taste and trends change. So are the instructions from the various pattern-drafting camps up to date with current trends? Do all those couture dissecting books examine current couture and not just past examples?

Even if they are current, are they designing for the target market that you’re aspiring to?
Dennic Chunman Lo talks about a designer’s signature fit in his Patternmaking book, how clothing aimed at mass market may have a different cut to those at higher price designer end (and how nowadays jacket shoulders have a lot less ease / shoulder extension than before). Maybe some of the industry experts instruction are geared towards designs for a different audience than you.

Of course it could simply be that my figure isn’t suited to pencil skirts and no amount of tweaking is going to fix that. Maybe they only look fab on stick insect models or curvy goddesses. Also, have you notice a lot of these skirts are shown with legs crossed or slightly apart? Maybe at attention stance doesn’t show off these skirt well. (And I don’t know why some people call untapered skirts pencil skirts. To me they’re just straight skirts. I mean pencils have tapered points, right? You can’t write with them otherwise. Why call them pencil skirts if they’re not similarly tapered???)

Anyway, long story short, I tried tweaking the muslin to my taste. I want a more noticeable tapering at the hemline. And a bottom hugging back.

What can I say, I have booty envy. Mine are a bit flat. So I’m unable to fill out normal cuts like some of you can. I’m not sure how one would achieve this. Can you just taper more at the back side seams? Have anyone tried that? Does it cause weird twisting of the side seams or rippling in the stitching (due to difference in degrees of bias between the front side seam and the back side seam)?

I checked out a few high street shops and noticed some pencil skirts seem to taper on CB seam as well as the side seams. I’ve never seen this in commercial patterns and pattern-drafting book. Have you?

My last resort would be to add back princess lines and use them to add more tapering to the back. I’ve done this before with previous pencil skirts, some of which were perhaps a bit too tapered – making going to the bathroom a bit troublesome, especially in dresses with such over-tapered skirts!

That reminds me I need to be careful that I don’t over do the tapering so that it’s hard to walk / sit / climb the stairs in, or go to the loo! (Note to self: must test drive the final muslin like Clio does.) That’s another gripe I have with existing pattern-drafting / fitting instructions – they may tell you how to add ease, but not why that much or why add it there. Not knowing the principles makes it impossible to adjust the instruction to update or personalize the fit.


That’s why I’ve ordered the reprint of Theory of Garment-Pattern Making by W. H. Hulme from the 1950s. It supposedly covers things like the effect of anatomy, proportion, and movement on garment design and pattern drafting. I’m hoping it’ll answer my question about what ease is really necessary where. Here’s Fashion Incubator’s review of the book.

In the meanwhile I tried the following changes:

pencil-skirt-sloper-fit-pat-alt

  1. Increased the dart depths and made side curve above the hip shallower to match my bodice moulage.
  2. In the front I split the deeper dart depth into two darts per side. When I tried one deeper dart, it points right at the hollow between my tummy and my protruding thigh, so looked wrong. Splitting into two allows me to have one dart accommodate my tummy and the other my protruding hipbone.
  3. Moved almost all the hip ease to the front so that the back would hopefully hug my bottom better and the front accommodate my protruding thigh and forward limb movement (walking, sitting).
  4. 2-0alt-front-thigh Added the front ease for protruding thigh using the technique shown in Fitting and Pattern Alteration. The slight tilting up at the side seam seems like it might also push the ease forward rather than side-way and make the front view slimmer looking. I think the side-way expansion of the standard draft doesn’t skim my front-back body well, so makes the skirt look slightly too big and therefore frumpy.
  5. Straighten the side tapering (the original draft has slight curve) and made back side seam match the front side seam angle (for some reason, my original draft based on the calculation instruction came out with less tapering on the back vs the front).
  6. Tried tapering a little bit at CB below the hip as well. Above the hip I made the tapering less deep so it’d match my bodice moulage. Why? Oh, I don’t really know. Maybe “why mess with a moulage that seems to fit”?
  7. Shortened the skirt about 1″. I would never understand guidelines that recommend the same length for everyone.

Here’s the result:

2-f2-sR2-b2-sL

I hope I’m not deluding myself here. I think the changes does make the skirt look smarter, more like how pencil skirts look on all you gorgeous gals. Short of getting booty boosting Spanx I think this will be as close as I’m going to get to a practical yet flattering pencil skirt without the princess seams. I might still add princess seams occasionally for a even more tapered look on some skirts. But for dresses this will definitely be as tapered as I’m going to go unless the fabric has more stretch.

Now should I try this out in a bog standard corporate wool? Or should I go for variations in some funkier fabrics? I already have three fabrics lined up for this silhouette, if not exactly this bog standard boring darts+CB vent pattern.

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