Saturday, March 8, 2014

Eureka!

So I decided to try a simple fix that was suggested by a couple of people on sewing forums that I'd often thought of but never attempted and that was to take out the excess fabric in the neck area by pinching said amount out of the pattern piece and smooshing the resulting bubble flat...just mash it down.  When I was looking at this smooshed bit, I looked over at the armhole and though....why don't I slash and pivot and allow that bubble to escape into the armhole. It has seemed a bit small to me anyway, and I thought, why not...as someone said to me some designers made dozens of muslins before getting the fit they wanted...I'm just after a flat neckline!  So I did it and it looked fine...

,,,then I made bodice muslins out of them and do a comparison. Here's a side by side collage of  Opt #1-right side (smooshed pinch), and Opt #2-left side (pivoted neckline to underarm):

I remind myself that this is a  workdress and isn't supposed to fit without some bagging and excess fabric here and there, beside the fact that weight from the skirt will sort some of this out....but it does make me want to play with the pattern more....that's for the future. Right now, I'm really pleased with the flat neckline and the ease with which the dress seems to fit. I won't feel that I can't scrub some linens and sit and the spinning wheel doing some longdraw spinning and worrying about gaping necklines or a constrictive fit! Weeeee.

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2 comments:

  1. Jen3/9/14, 7:58 AM

    I am so impressed with your determination and experimentation to get the flat to fit a Perfect You. I can imagine most every Fine Seamstresses worked at this at one point in their lives, and then just took out (by slashing and adding?) the muslin as they widened with age. ((Wait, not much widening were done in the age of the Isobela dress probably, too busy working!)) I've sewn enough to understand how darts work, and so you're 'darting' before the fabric is cut, however, remember to factor in the strength of the grain perpendicular to shoulderline and all....right? Just guessing. So much of this is just plain good instincts. You got 'em hen ! :) Go girl !!!

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  2. Moz3/9/14, 11:14 AM

    Jen...the slash and pivot is not a dart, just redistributing the excess fabric from one place to another. My other option would have been to add a dart at the neckline to remove the excess fabric that was causing the gap.
    The pattern does have darts under the bust (darts in the lining and pleats in the fashion fabric).
    My first attempts were at taking the excess out of the neckline and placing them in the under-bust area..that wasn't as successful for a couple of reasons I'm still reasoning out...something about redrawing my neck and shoulder lines and defeating my initial purpose....still working that out in my wee heid.

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