flekka challenge: Week 4:: basic sleeveless top: fitting and pattern modifications

My plan was to do these 'fitting and pattern modifications' posts by Thursday so I would have Friday to finish up... But this time, completely unexpectedly, fitting and pattern modifications took long, very long. At one point, yesterday, I was completely stumped; I thought I would not be able to figure out what what going on...

Let's start from the beginning...

I cut out both Version 1 and Version 2, just for comparison... Just as a reminder - Version 1 had a wider bust dart, Version 2 was a little wider at the hem - these differences were due to different dart manipulations, see previous posts for details).

First surprise was that Version 1 actually fit better (without any modifications). I expected the dart to be too pointy. And both were too wide - even with that 1 cm I took in on the sides of both front and back. But one thing was good - the neckline lay flat, no gaping.

Version 1

Version 2

The biggest problem were those darts. May I remind you I have no experience drafting... except for these past few weeks... But I was expecting a smaller, shorter dart for have a better, smoother, flatter fit with no wierdness in draping. But I was very wrong, just look:

Version 1

Version 2

(At this point I will no longer talk about Version 1. I chose to go go with Version 2 and the following pics and text refer only to Version 2).

If you click on the Version 2 pic, you can see that the dart seems to be 'pointing' in the wrong direction, and the drape is all wrong which you can see in both the side and front view above.

At this point I took the muslin off, and started making changes - to the dart, taking more of side seam in... taking in at the shoulders... but nothing worked. Here is where I felt stumped. What is going on? Where is the problem?

The first problem I found was not a problem with the pattern, the problem was in how I was transferring the pattern onto fabric. I missed the tip of the dart. No wonder it was pointing away from the BP. But that still did not fix the problem. I tried making it even shorter. No. I tried making it a little longer. No.

Then I took out the bodice I made a few weeks back, and put the muslin over it. I thought it would help me see better where the problems were. And it did, especially with the dart since it was now easy to see where BP was. Then I sewed the dart all the way to BP, no shortening. And I added more on the sides. And finally I had something I liked. (there were so many steps, so many changes, I could not take pictures of all)

On your left is the side with the modifications I mentioned above. The right side is without modifications. Here are the closeups:

This one fits very nice, and even though the dart is closed all the way to BP, it is not too pointy, it actually makes the side of this top drape very nicely.

But the shortened dart... Even though I fixed it's position, and it was pointing the right way, the fit was all wrong. Can you see it? It seems it would better fit a bigger bust. I still don't know why this is?

Anyway... I was happy with the fit so I transferred the changes onto the paper pattern. The side seam - I took 1.5 cm at "high waist" about 10.5 cm down the side seam, then connected that to the top and bottom of side seam. It has more of an A-line than my original idea, but I liked the way it turned out, so that's the way I am going to leave it...