you win some; you lose some

Posted on December 16, 2009 by mariko

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There’s a reason you’re seeing that shirt-jacket on the dressform instead of on me. It is ill fitting! Blast those darts! I can’t fill them out! I even wore a somewhat padded bra, and still there was a lot of gaping fabric around the chest region. I think part of the problem is perhaps I got too aggressive with the vertical darts, because the thing is fitted around the waist but all billowy above? I swear I was just following the pattern.
Anyway, look how cute it’s SUPPOSED to be:
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Right? And it’s not like the model is chest-o-rama or anything. Maybe using corduroy was a bad call on my part. Not sure.
The pattern is from this book:
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It doesn’t seem to be available on Kinokuniya.com right now, but the ISBN is 978-4309280417. I am going to go console myself now by making some of those crunchy chow mein noodle haystack cookies.

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14 Responses to you win some; you lose some

  1. KelleBelle says:
    December 16, 2009 at 22:05

    How disappointing!! Can you pick out the darts and re-do them? Perhaps you could steam the fabric back to its original state? I hope the cookies are consolation enough 🙂

  2. Siew says:
    December 16, 2009 at 22:36

    Ohhh – chow mein noodle haystack dealies. Used to make them every Christmas with my best friend. I saw her mom recently and she reminded me of the recipe and they’re back in my life again. Yum.

  3. carolyn says:
    December 17, 2009 at 07:46

    it is so cute, i wish it would fit my big ass disgustingness.
    now give me another cookie.

  4. Christina (Apron Strings) says:
    December 17, 2009 at 09:21

    Drat! I hate when that happens. eeeeccckkkkk! Wish I could help.

  5. splatgirl says:
    December 17, 2009 at 09:26

    Mariko, darling. You sew apparel enough and well enough that it is HIGH TIME you got a real handle on pattern alteration to make stuff fit right. Take the time to make a good fitting sloper for yourself and you can use this same information for everything you make.
    That jacket just needs to be tweaked and it will be perfect…do you read Threads magazine? Back issues of that are absolutely the best pattern drafting/fitting advice you can get.
    If that dress form is at all like your actual size/shape, it looks like the whole jacket needs to be taken up at the top shoulder (the bustline looks too low compared to where the bust fullness is on the form). How do the armholes fit?

  6. Seanna Lea says:
    December 17, 2009 at 11:32

    Sadness! I am not sure I can make most of the patterns in these books without heavy alteration. Umm, yeah, because of chest-o-rama. Maybe there would be less chest if I liked cookies less.

  7. Karen Rae says:
    December 17, 2009 at 12:42

    Mariko, I agree with the Treads recommendation. their website is loaded with useful information, http://www.threadsmagazine.com/. One excellent article is “The Merits of a Basic Fitting Pattern” by Karen Howland. There are so many places on the Internet to get information about adjusting patterns to better fit, but truly solving the problem once and for all is the sloper. Believe me I’ve been sewing for over 40 years and it IS the answer.
    Hope you try it one day soon.
    Best holiday wishes.

  8. Lydia says:
    December 17, 2009 at 13:11

    That’s so frustrating, and after all that work! You know I don’t sew much, but, it looks to me like the darts are taken in too much, as you say; I’d try re-doing them. I wouldn’t always go with what the photo looks like, since they may have put clips on the model in back to make it look more fitted. Corduroy sounds pretty good to me. Cookies are in order, though.

  9. sil says:
    December 17, 2009 at 17:34

    Yeah, those darts aren’t sitting right even on the mannequin. If it’s too big in the boobage area, you may have needed to size the pattern down, but as I’ve not seen it in person it’s just idle speculation.
    I do like the idea that you could develop your own basic blocks as you do sew very well it may be more fun if start with a winning block. Maybe there’s a local class for that? How long could it take? The pattern book (it’s expensive) we used in school is this one:
    http://www.amazon.com/Patternmaking-Fashion-Design-Joseph-Armstrong/dp/0321034236/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261099972&sr=8-1
    There’s more in there that you’ll ever want.

  10. Lisa says:
    December 17, 2009 at 20:32

    Try tube socks in the bra.

  11. KelleBelle says:
    December 18, 2009 at 00:08

    I like Lisa’s suggestion about the tube socks in the bra.

  12. Charlotte says:
    December 18, 2009 at 15:55

    I’d suggest redoing the darts, letting them out a bit. Then if you want the waist more fitted, maybe take it in a little on the side seams. The way it sits on the mannequin, it looks almost deformed.

  13. Charlotte says:
    December 18, 2009 at 16:31

    I’d suggest redoing the darts, letting them out a bit. Then if you want the waist more fitted, maybe take it in a little on the side seams. The way it sits on the mannequin, it looks almost deformed.

  14. cara says:
    December 19, 2009 at 11:31

    You can have some of mine and the jacket will fit just right.

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