Fitting Refinement: Dealing with the Skirt Dart

    I hear this all the time - 'How can I remove the dart?' Darts in fabric help to shape the flat fabric to our body curves and actually are very special since they can give you such great fit.  When someone asks how to eliminate the darts, I often suggest ways to move them or change them into pleats, tucks or gathers, but if you're very flat in the front and still want total removal, read on.

The Sure-Fit Designs skirt darts provided on the Dress Kit Master Patterns are straight, uni-positional darts.  Both the skirt front and back darts are intended to line either a one or two-piece dress in any number of variations.

When using the skirt pattern to sew just a skirt, you may want to re-evaluate the front and back hip darts to obtain your very best fit.  What is done with the dart will depend on your body shape and the style of skirt you want.  Darts can be stitched in straight or curved lines and dealt with in a number of different ways.

The relationship between two different circumferences will determine the dart width, length and shape is best for you.  For example, if your waist is 35" (90 cm) and your hips are 45" (115 cm), this 10" (25 cm) difference will be controlled and shaped by the darts in both front and back.  The greater the difference between the two circumferences, the wider the dart will be and the greater the resulting fabric bulge. The person who has heart or diamond-shaped hips will require wider darts than the straight-shaped boyish figure. 

Your front tummy fullness, front and back hip curvature and buttock curves will affect the width of each dart.  Just always keep in mind that the given Sure-Fit Designs darts can be re-shaped to your specific needs.

The rounder, fuller heart-shaped figure may want to stitch her darts in a concave curve (inward curve).  Also she may want to shorten the dart length.  A dart should not extend beyond your fullest point or bulge.  In fact, with skirts, the dart should stop about 1/2" (1.3 cm) back from your dominant fullness.  See page 29 - Dress Kit Instruction book. 

The diamond-shaped hip figure may need to stitch the dart longer than that given on the Master Pattern.  If it stops too short or abruptly, the resulting dart tip won't give correct shaping to your fuller lower hip.  Therefore extend the dart until it best conforms to your body.

If you happen to have prominent hip bones, you can also divide the dart in two.  Usually the dart closest to the side seam is slightly shorter and aimed toward the dominant bone. The resulting two narrower darts must equal the width of the original dart.  See page 29 - Dress Kit Instruction book.

The straighter-shaped figure type may need to reduce the width of the dart since the difference between the waist and hip circumference is smaller, or you are just simply flatter in the front of your body.  To reduce the dart width in half, follow these steps.

1.  The original Sure-Fit Designs skirt front dart is 1 1/2" (3.8 cm) wide.  Redraw so that the dart is now 3.4" (1.9 cm) wide.

2.  Then to maintain similar side seam shapes from front to back skirt patterns, remove 3.8" (1 cm) from both front and back side seams beginning at the waist point and tapering to nothing at the high hip.

Now, if you have an extremely flat front and there is next to no difference between your waist and hip circumference, you may want to remove the dart completely.  This particular technique will remove some of the existing hip ease as you close the waist dart, but since the Sure-Fit Designs Skirt pattern initially gives you 3" (7.6 cm) ease at the hip level, it still should fit adequately.

1.  Draw a line parallel to CF from the tip of the dart to the hem level.

2.  Draw 2 lines from the sides of the dart to the hem level.  Cut to remove this elongated dart.

3.  Close the dart space as shown.
True/blend the waist edge curve.

This tutorial simply gives you more options of how to deal with the darts in the skirt pattern.

Kindly,
Glenda...the Good Stitch!

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Adapting and Drawing the Pants Front Waist/Crotch Grid for a Thick Waist and a Relatively Short Front Crotch Length

If you have a fairly short front crotch length measurement and you have a relatively thick waist, when drawing the pants pattern, you may find that your numbers 'fall off the Master Pattern Grid lines'.  This situation may occur when you are establishing the intersecting point for your waist measurement and front crotch length measurement on the Pants Front Waist/Crotch Grid.  In other words, the grid lines stop before your two numbers of waist measurement and front crotch length measurement have a chance to intersect.  These photos show and example of the type of body shape where this may occur.

 If this occurs, simply extend your appropriate grid lines straight down.  The waist measurement line (attached to your waist measurement number) will be drawn straight down.  The front crotch length measurement number will be extended downward but continuing on in its current angle and slope.

See the example diagram below where the person's waist measurement is 46" (116.6cm) and the front crotch length is 11 1/2" (29.2 cm).  Note how these lines have been extended and shown in continuous RED lines.  The BLUE dot represents where the two lines intersect.  This is where you would mark your placement dot for your CF waist measurement.  This dot, of course, would then connect (in either a straight or curved line) to your front side waist measurement dot.  And you would then continue to proceed to mark in your Dart tip and then your Front Crotch Pt. #1 and Pt. #2.  These steps are found in your Pants Kit instruction book, page 9, steps 9 and 10.

 Fine Tuning Your Pattern's Crotch Lengths - if Necessary

Once you have drawn your Back and Front Crotch lengths, also make sure you measure the finished lengths.  Since you are measuring a curve, remember to stand the tape measure on edge and walk the tape around the stitching line to ensure accurate length measurements.  The instructions and illustrations for this step are found in your Pants Kit instruction book on page 10, #13 - Fine Tuning Crotch Lengths.

Glenda...the Good Stitch!

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Removing Horizontal Fold Under the Tummy

Some women experience horizontal fullness or bagging directly beneath their tummy and just before the crotch curve begins.  Once you've sewn your test muslin for your pants, if this is occurring, you will find one suggestion for a minor tune-up on page 12 (#1) of the Pants Kit Instruction Book.  This may be a satisfactory refinement for you.

Another alternative is to remove this fold of fabric at CF. Follow these directions:
1.  To determine how much you need to remove, pinch out the fabric in a tiny fold.  If you pinch out 1/4" (.6cm), this will mean that you will be totally removing 1/2" (1.3cm).

Close-Up of dart/tuck wedge from CF going to nothing at the side seams.

2.  Mark this level location of CF of the crotch seam.  Draw a perpendicular line (to the grainline) over to the side seam.  Mark point A and B.

3.  Cut from CF to side seam, leaving a small hinge of paper at the side seam. This will act as a pivot point.  Secure the pivot point with plastic tape.

4.  Overlap the CF seam the amount you require, thereby crating a small horizontal dart or tuck which begins at CF and goes to nothing at the side seam.

5.  True the CF crotch seam.

6.  The more you overlap at CF, the more the waist edge tilts down and angles the CF seam.  To maintain the original orientation of the upper CF seam, when you true the crotch seam, you will be crating a narrow wedge as indicated by the green arrow.  (The blue line indicates where CF at the waist edge originated).

7.  Cut/remove this narrow wedge and tape it back in place at the side seam waist edge.  This will maintain the correct waist circumference and true the side seam shape so that it will sew in the same curve to the back side seam.

8.  Redraw and reposition the front hip-fitting dart to best suit your body contours.

9.  Bring the straight of grain up from the leg.

This process will shorten the CF crotch length by the amount of the dart/tuck.  Be aware that you may need to add this amount on to the back crotch length so that you maintain your overall crotch length requirement.

Happy Sewing!

Glenda... The Good Stitch

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Dealing with an Asymmetrical Body

Do you have asymmetrical body issues?  Very few people are truly perfect and symmetrical from one side to the other of their bodies.  Often a leg is slightly longer, or a shoulder might be sloped more than the other.

Ask yourself these questions:
1. How severe is the asymmetry?
2. Does it affect the look of my clothes on my body?
3. Should I make the effort to change my pattern?

If there are just slight differences from one side to the other, generally we do nothing, as it's simply not enough difference to affect the hang of the garment on our body.

However, if your garments hang crooked or form obvious drag lines toward the high or low point, then you will likely want to make asymmetrical adjustments to your pattern.

This typically entails creating a right and left side pattern that reflect the height and width dimensions for that part of your body.  Once the change is done for both sides (if necessary), they will generally then need to meet in the middle - typically CF and/or CB.  Once you've created a right and left side for your pattern and you're happy with the muslin test fitting shell, then you can use this pattern for future style changes.

You will always need to mark which is right and left side, and which side is going to be cut 'right side up'.  It's definitely more effort, but well worth it when your clothes hang better on your body.

In some instances, like a high/low shoulder, sometimes you can get away with a temporary solution of adding a shoulder pad to the low side.  This then will give you a more balanced look, particularly in jacket construction, and offers and easy solution.  Always try to evaluate your options before doing major pattern adjustments.

You will find asymmetrical high/low hip adjustment directions on page 17 of the Dress Kit Instruction Book.  The same basic concept applies to the waist line level of your pants pattern.  If you'd like to see a short video regarding the asymmetrical hip heights, watch this video:

Often times, you will also need to make circumference tune-ups as well since one side can be wider as well as longer.  Then you definitely need to create a right and left side pattern - for both the front and back of your skirt or pants.

Here's and example of pants that are now hanging fairly well on a definite asymmetrical body.  The waist line is substantially tipped forward and the right buttock is definitely higher and fuller than the left.  With persistence, and the creation of right and left side patterns for both front and back, these pants are now hanging smoothly.

Here are the happy customer's comments:

I finally have a great fitting pair of pants, thanks to the Sure-Fit Design system and the incredible assistance I received from Glenda.  In my opinion, she is the star of the system!  My original draft was easy to develop and certainly fit me better than any " straight from the envelope" pattern I've ever tried.  But my "great fit" is entirely the result of endless patience and guidance from Glenda, addressing my severely tilted waist, uneven hips and various other figure issues.  Over the course of about three weeks, we exchanged many emails working through all of the problems.  Her service is exemplary, and I highly encourage anyone with problems fitting pants to give Sure-Fit Designs a try!
KK, Sew Fittingly You, Victor, NY 

Happy Sewing!

Glenda...The Good Stitch

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Pants - Curving the Center Front Seam for the Protruding Tummy

As we age, many women develop a fuller tummy/stomach pouch.  Sometimes this is primarily at CF and immediately underneath the waist.  For other women, this rounding/fullness is not only under the waist, but it also spreads horizontally.

When you have this little belly/pouch, you will often experience fullness in the CF seam right underneath the pouch.

However, sometimes it fits just fine under the pouch, but you'll see drag lines/wrinkles pointing up toward the center of the tummy fullness.  If this occurs, then consider this CF crotch seam refinement.

Rather than maintaining CF as a 'straight line', it can be slightly curved right where the tummy fullness is located.

The result is that:
1.  You wouldn't be able to put in a zipper fly at CF - since you need a straight seam for this application.  But a zipper front might not suit your body shape anyway because of the tummy pouch.

2.  With a curved CF seam, you wouldn't want to sew with a stripe or checked fabric, as you'd end up with a 'chevron' effect at CF which likely wouldn't be that flattering.  Choose solid colors.

This added curvature doesn't need to be a lot to make a substantial difference.  So even though this refinement might sound a little strange, it really does work.

Here's a photo of a happy seamstress, as these are the best fitting pants she's ever worn.  In this photo, her blouse is tucked in to show the excellent pattern fit, but typically she only ever wears her blouses out over top of her pants.  This refinement really does work well!

Happy Fitting & Sewing!

Glenda...The Good Stitch

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Best Pants Styles for your Body Shape

I've recommended InsideOutStyle blog to you a couple of times...and here is a good reason why.  When you're looking for information on what styles look best on your body shape, Imogene Lamport, from InsideOutStyle, is the lady to ask.

 Here's a great and very informative chart on how to recognize what your body shape is and what style of pants would suit you best.

If you'd like to read more about how to analyze your shape, please click through to this page.
And from there, you know how easy it is to get the best fit possible when drawing and designing it yourself from your SFD pants body blueprint.

Aren't you glad you don't have to rely on ready-to-wear to supply you with well-fitting clothing?

Kindly,
Glenda...the Good Stitch!

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Skirt Styles to Suit Just You!

In the survey from a couple of weeks ago where I asked what Sure-Fit Designs can do for you to help with your fitting and sewing, a number of ladies asked for information on how to choose the best style of garment for their body shape.

Enter in Inside Out Style and Imogene Lamport.  She does a remarkable job of teaching you what your body shape is and what styles will look best on your frame.  I wouldn't even try to duplicate her expertise when she does such a good job.  I actually introduced Imogene to you a number of months ago, but this is definitely worth repeating, particularly for all our newcomers.

A couple of days ago, her blog post was titled 'The Best Skirt for Your Body Shape'.  I'm going to encourage all of you to take a few minutes to scroll through her blog site...there's more where this came from.

This is an informative blog and as you get into her Body Shapes page, you'll discover all kinds of valuable information on analyzing your body shape and learning what styles look best on it.

She doesn't always talk about specific garment styles for body shapes, but I always find her blogs of value.  If this is a topic of interest to you, her blog is definitely worth following.

Thanks so much, Imogene, for sharing your vast knowledge on this topic.

Kindly,
Glenda...the Good Stitch!

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Think Beyond Size

Do you realize how irrelevant the term 'size' is when it comes to women's clothing?  In one store you might wear a 'size 8' and in the next store you might need a 'size 12'.  It all depends on the manufacturer and and the standards that they use for the expression of their clothing.  And if you have to choose the larger 'size', psychologically this could have a negative impact because you've had to choose the larger size.

It's a very provocative question isn't it when someone asks 'What size are you?'  This can mean many different things to different people.  So chuck those labels out the door and just be who you are!

Isn't it great that with the Sure-Fit Designs fitting system, size is totally a non-issue.  I've had many ladies email to tell me how wonderful it is to finally be liberated from even thinking about what size they might be.

Think 'measurement' not 'size'!  Many of you know that the Sure-Fit Designs master patterns offer measurement ranging from 28" (71 cm) to 62" (157.5 cm).  I know that in this photo you can't see all the measurement dots, but in every strategic location, there are a series of dots with the measurement numbers (both in imperial and metric) beside the dot.  All you do is mark in your unique measurement dots, then connect your dots together with the SFD Designing Stylus.  It's a great tool to use for drawing your personalized body blueprint with all the SFD master patterns.

Women have such unique shapes and Sure-Fit Designs provides such a great alternative to achieving the absolutely best fit for your body the way it is now.  Enjoy being who you are and the way you are right now.  Sewing well-fitting garments can only enhance how feel about yourself.  When your clothing fits...you simply feel better.  Enjoy this new-found freedom.

If you're new to Sure-Fit Designs and this blog, I'd encourage you to click on over to the SFD Learning Center Video Library to see the actual process of how to blueprint your body shape.

So as we say goodbye to 2014 and welcome in 2015 let's simply say 'adios' to all those stigmatizing labels and just be who we are.

Happy New Year,

Glenda...the Good Stitch!
(PS) Color blocking is coming!

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An Australian Wedding

I just love it when you send me photos of your SFD creations and now I have an Australian wedding to share with you.  And for a little history...many of you know (particularly our Aussy customers) that way back when, we traveled extensively in Australia introducing the Sure-Fit Designs fitting system to our friends and fellow seamstresses Down Under.  In one of those Queensland seminars, mum and daughter (Gayle) attended the event.  Gayle was then a teenager.  Mum and daughter loved using SFD.  As can happen, throughout the years their sewing activity ebbed and flowed.

Fast forward to 2014, with Gayle now being a mother whose daughter was getting married in November 2014.  Gayle decided she was going to sew her daughter's wedding gown as well as the dresses for the bridesmaids and junior bridesmaids.  As you all can guess, these young ladies were all different shapes and measurements.  Then she remembered the flexibility of sewing with Sure-Fit Designs.  Throughout the months preceding the wedding, I periodically gave advice to Gayle as she designed, tested and sewed the finished bridal party dresses.

Gayle has done a wonderful job and has so kindly shared her creations with me.  It's truly a delight to see the results of her efforts.  Here's the bridal photo story:

 

 

Even the men's ties where custom-sewn.

And here is Gayle - the Mother of the Bride.  Here dress was also custom sewn, actually by her neighbor who also uses Sure-Fit Designs.

Gayle, you must be extremely proud of yourself.  Many months of effort paid off handsomely in your custom creations.  What a beautiful wedding party!

Thanks so much for sharing!  I know everyone reading will appreciate seeing your stunning results.

Kindly,
Glenda...the Good Stitch!

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Choose for You!

...choosing the right design lines for your personal body shape is what I'm talking about.  I get asked so frequently to offer information on what styles look best on any given body shape.  As all of you know who read this blog, Sure-Fit Designs is all about getting the best fit possible for your unique body shape and that's very definitely achievable when using SFD.  Now, once you get your fit all worked out, which so many of you have accomplished in spades, what style of garment to sew that is most flattering to your figure is a whole other topic.  I'd love to be able to wear yet another 'business hat' so that I could offer you that information, but alas, there are simply not enough hours in my day.

Enter in Inside out Style blog...Easy Style Solutions for Every Woman, by Imogen Lamport (from Australia).

Imogen does a fantastic job of helping you to identify your body shape.  Whereas I often refer to body shapes as 'heart', 'diamond', 'rectangular', Imogen uses the letters of the alphabet, like A, H, I, O, V, & X.  And when you think about this, it makes sense.  Click on Body Shapes Explained.

Imogen offers information on just about every body part you can imagine - arms, shoulders, legs, hips and bottom, bust line, as well as for plus size, petites and generally creating an overall look for visually slimming.

Imogene writes about a wide variety of topics relating to style, body image, body shape, face shapes etc.  This blog is a wealth of information.

One of her recent blogs was on self-image and aging.  As I look in the mirror everyday and see a few more wrinkles and a little more of my scalp (yikes!), I have to remind myself that fortunately I'm above ground and still able to see these things.  And, hopefully, a little wiser too.  She's recently offered a short blog Don't Age, Evolve!

And on the topic of measuring, as you who are using Sure-Fit Designs know, when you measure, you're measuring your body so that you can apply those measurements to the SFD master patterns to achieve your best fit.  Imogene, on the other hand, shows how to measure to see what your body proportions are.  Your proportions from top to bottom are going to influence the style you choose for the most flattering effect.  See this short video -

For those of you looking to find information on what style best suits you, make sure you spend some time poking around the InsideOutStyle blog.

Thanks Imogene for sharing your wealth of knowledge and information.

Kindly,
Glenda...the Good Stitch!

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