Catching Up

Catch up time. Here are a couple of items I made earlier this summer. My version of the Burda waistcoat 108 from the May 2009 issue. and a second version of the Simplicity 2633 blouse. The blouse is made from some silk blend fabric purchased during the PR Philadelphia weekend.

More recently my friend Tammy and and I decided to make Chanel type jackets. For reference we used the Nov 2005 Threads magazine article “ Inside a Chanel Jacket” by Susan Khalje, the “Chanelisms” section (page 183-185) of Couture Techniques by Clair Schaeffer , and Claire’s “Behind the Seams - Chanel” DVD. Also helpful was the Chanel Jacket blog http://www.chaneljacket.blogspot.com/

We thought making the jackets would be a good way to keep practicing the fitting and tailoring skills that we learned in our classes at G Street Fabrics this spring.

Tammy is using Vogue pattern 7975 for her jacket

Her fashion fabric is a a lovely soft blue and orange wool bouclé stripe with metallic weft threads. It is really pretty and looks great with her coloring. She plans to wear her jacket with jeans.
I originally planned to use Vogue 7890, View A for my jacket. I made a wearable muslin of it for the initial fitting. It fit great, but I decided I wanted a style without contrast bands. The wearable muslin is almost done. I had to order the lining fabric from Sawyer Brook. Here is a sneak peak showing the jacket fabric, fringe and contrasting denim trim.

I ended up blending two other patterns for my jacket. I morphed the front lapel, collar and pocket flaps of Vogue 7151, view A with the princess seams and two piece sleeve of Vogue 8260. The 8260 is actually a "V"neck with separate collar pieces attached just like 7151.

My fabric is a green/ pink/ lavender wool blend that is lined with lavender silk charmeuse.

We spent one Saturday fitting muslins of our jackets, having a lovely lunch, poring over the sources and discussing the techniques and next steps. Yesterday we got together again and quilted our fashion fabrics to the lining fabrics and cut out the quilted pieces using our patterns. The quilting was so boring for me when I was doing it on my own, It went much faster while chatting over the noise of two sewing machine with someone sitting at the other end of the table. My jacket shell and sleeves are sewn together and I am ready for all the hand stitching needed to sew the lining seams closed.

I am already playing around with ideas for trims; auditioning ribbons, fringed strips, and cords. I even dug this little gizmo out of my craft closet. It is called Embellish Knit.
It makes a a knitted yarn tube as you turn the handle. Sort of an automated version of a Knitting Nancy.
I had never used it before and was skeptical it would actually work. It does but only if everything is just so… the yarn feed loose and tangle free, the finished cord heavily weighted, and the wheel turning at a steady pace. Oh and you have to hold it in one hand while turning the wheel with the other. I caught myself biting my tongue and holding my breath while using it. Not a relaxing task.

It is so nice to have a sewing friend to work with on challenging projects like a Chanel jacket. Unfortunately, this project is going to stagnate while I am in Toronto, Ontario Canada on business next week, followed by a week of vacation at the Delaware shore. I hope to break away from the meetings next week and make a quick trip down to Queen Street, Toronto, which sounds like a fabric district similar to Philadelphia's Fabric Row on 4th Street. I am staying in the suburb of Oakville and I was told there was a good fabric store there too, though the person who told me that could not remember the name. Any readers' suggestion on good fabric stores in Toronto are welcome. Maybe I will find the ideal trim for my jacket in one of those locations.

Customized Software

I work in the IT department of a large consumer goods company The department has several off site meetings each year to celebrate our accomplishments. They are nice uplifting events with good food, recognition awards, prizes etc. Typically the dress code is business casual. We had one of these meetings last week. Someone on the event planning committee (I’ll bet they were male and under 25 years of age) decided it would be nice to have casual dress, and to distribute a "one size fits all" white T shirts to all department members, and require it be worn to the event. We were even given suggestions on what to wear with it:

 Shorts – Bermuda-style, golf shorts
 Pants – Khaki, capri, jeans
 Shoes – Loafers, deck shoes, canvas, athletic shoes, sandals




I wasn't the only female in the dept. that expressed dissatisfaction with the dress code. We had a lively lunch discussion on ways to make the T shirt more attractive; tuck it in, belt it, or tie it to one side. I really don’t like this style of T shirt even when it is free. It is unflattering. I won’t even sleep in T shirts like this. I will wear them for work related community service events. Activities like building houses with Habitat for Humanity or replanting city parks. But I donate the free shirts to charity after the event. It seems a bit wasteful. I decided I wasn’t going to wear a big white shapeless T shirt to the off site meeting. I would wear the T shirt, but it would be "refashioned". I also wanted to make a wearable muslin copy of a RTW T-shirt, so I decided to ”kill two birds with one stone”. Here is the RTW T shirt, bought for a few dollars at Walmart I believe.
The color was dreary, the knit fabric thin and cheap, but I liked the styling. So I took it apart, laid the fabric pieces on paper and traced around them to make a pattern. I used the pattern to cut the pieces out of the big white T shirt, making sure the motifs would be in relatively the same location on the refashioned T Shirt. I think the results is a lot more attractive than the original. When asked by my coworkers "What did you do to your shirt?" I replied that "I did some software customization." Most of them got the joke.




I was so pleased with the results of my software customization, I actually plan to wear it on weekends around the house.

And here is another, non logo, version of the same T shirt made of a rayon lycra knit from Fabric.com.

Kimono Reform to Burda Jacket

This jacket in the April issue of Burda Style caught my eye.

The style of this jacket, waist length with a band and shirt type sleeves is what I have always referred to as a “battle jacket”. At least that is what we called in back in the early 70’s when my mom made me one, and a matching skirt, out of purple velvet. It was my piano recital outfit. (I hated recitals!) Burda showed the jacket made in a snakeskin embossed fabric and the copy reads. “Our short blouson jacket with buckled band collar, hem band, and wide lapels is very daring indeed. You’ll be dangerously sexy in the shimmering, beige/brown reptile print.”
I didn’t particularly like the brown snakeskin fabric, but it got me thinking about the other colors in snake skins; greens, grays, yellows, and it reminded me of fabric I had in my stash. It was a jacquard weave of grayed greens and yellows in an abstract diamond pattern. And many snakes’ skins have diamond patterns. I also liked that the wide lapels of the jacket were sewn on, instead of cut on, because the fabric was very narrow. There’s an illustrated sewing course for this jacket in the supplement which was very helpful. I tried to use my bodice sloper to adjust the pattern for my unique shape, but I still ended up making a lot of fitting adjustments while sewing it together. In the mean time, based on Vicki's and Myrna's recommendations, (Thanks ladies!) I ordered the self-published book De-Mystifying Fit by Lynda Maynard (order info at Kenneth King’s website book). This book is the only one I am aware of on the subject of how to use a personal sloper/moulage to adjust commercials patterns. It is very good, with pictures and step by step descriptions of the process using many different patterns and the slopers of many different sized/shaped ladies. Reading it, I learned what mistakes I was making, so hopefully the next time I do this, I will be more successful.

The hardest part of making this jacket was finding the two matching buckles, one 2” and one 1”. I finally found them in a shop on Philadelphia’s “Fabric Row” on the PR weekend.


Actually the fabric I used for the jacket was originally a Japanese kimono.



One I had purchased specifically for refashioning. Refashioning old garments into new ones is currently very popular. One variation is to take kimonos apart and reuse the fabric to make western style garments. It is called Kimono reform/restyling. The Japanese pattern magazine Lady Boutique has an article in each issue titled "Restyling Kimono". They show the original kimono, the directions for drafting the pattern and the finished garment. These articles and the wonderfully unique prints and weaves of kimono fabrics inspired me to try my own version of kimono remake.



Kimonos are constructed of about 12 yards of 14 or 15 inch wide fabric. There is very little cutting into the actual yardage when the kimono is constructed. So when it is taken apart you will have several very long pieces of fabric (equivalent to approximately 3 yards of 56” wide fabric). The patterns for the western clothing in the reform books and articles are designed specifically for 14 inch fabric and often incorporate unique seaming to provide enough width for a garment section or to incorporate the wonderful large motifs printed on some kimonos into the finished garments. I also find the patterns and the seam lines useful as ideas for solving a problem when I do not having enough fabrics for a pattern I am making or when I accidentally cut or serge a hole in the main piece of a garment.


Kimono fabrics range from lovely printed silks, and shibori dyed cottons to wool, rayon and synthetic jacquard weaves. Prices for vintage collectable kimonos can be thousands of dollars, but recent ones of less expensive fabrics are much more affordable for kimono reform. Still the only ones that I could afford, and actually liked, were the wool blend, jacquard weaves found in recent vintage men’s everyday kimono. The colors are subtle and the patterns interesting. I bought a couple from an Etsy vendor for $20 - 35 a kimono. The fabric from this one is a synthetic blend in a jacquard pattern of grey green and yellow. The seller described it as being from the Showa Era, which is from 1926 -1989. Doing some research I found that “during the Showa period the Japanese government curtailed silk production by taxing it to support the military buildup. Kimono designs during that that time became less complex and material was conserved.” Interesting how war has affected textile production and clothing styles in all cultures. The original construction sewing of this kimono was impressive. It was all hand stitched and all raw edges were hand overcast.

This took so long to make, it is now too hot to wear it. It will go in the closet until cooler weather comes back. Now to do some warm weather sewing.

Pattern Review Weekend in Philadelphia

I just returned from a long weekend in Philadelphia, organized by http://www.patternreview.com/ and attended by over 40 other sewing enthusiasts. We shopped for fabric, had show and tell of garments we had sewn, took a workshop with Kenneth King and viewed couture garments in the Philadelphia Museum of Art collection. It was wonderful! We stayed at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel, located a short walk from streets lined with historic buildings, unique shops and restaurants. The weather was cool and dry. I took my camera, but ended up with only two pictures, neither very good. For pictures you will need to visit the blogs of other attendee such as LindsayT and Cidell Okay, part of the reason I don't have pictures is a bunch of us skipped the Museum activities to drive to the brick and morter location of our favorite on line fabric source http://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/ It was worth it. Not only did they have all the web site fabrics, there were others at very nice discount prices, like silk prints for $2.00 yard.

This was in addition to the whole day spent fabric shopping, riding about town in a yellow school bus that looked like it was decommissioned from daily school runs, and was being used as inexpensive group transportation. For the price it was a value.

First stop that day was “Fabric Row”; several blocks of small, family run, fabric stores along 4th Street.
There I bought boucle trims and elastic with beaded edges for $0.60/yard, belt buckle covering kits, which are not available anywhere around where I live, and a "curve square" by Solange Brien, This tool is part french curve and part square ruler. It has both metric and imperial measurements along straight and curved edges, with slots for marking buttonholes and seam allowances. It will be great for adding seam allowances to Burda patterns after I lay them out on the fashion fabric.

We returned to the bus and rode over the river to Cherry Hill, NJ where London Textiles was located. This is a fabric wholesaler that opened for a couple hours just for us and let us dig through refrigerator size boxes of remnants. The remnants were 2 to 9 yards long, nice quality fabrics for $5 to 6 dollars per yard depending on the fabric content. The only rule was you had to buy the full piece. I found some teal burgundy crosswoven silk/wool remnants of a fabric I had been coveting at Waechters Silk Shop web site last fall. Also several silk prints in the teal and grey color combos I love, and a burgundy wool tweed.
The last stop was Jomar and by this time I was getting tired. It is one of those cavernous warehouse places with what looks like manufacturers lots of un-salable or past season clothes, cheap shoes, small appliances, and fabric. Some of the clothes had Chadwicks and Metro labels. I get mail order catalogs for these brands. A voluptuous under clad woman trying on 4 inch high heel, bright pink patent leather stilettos asked my opinion of the shoes. I murmured something about “lovely bright color”. They were great street shoes, if you know what I mean. I found a couple of soft wool twill weaves in colors I use as basics; brown based cream, grey, and a mid hue greens, all for $6.00/yard. These wools have already been through the washer and dryer and are destined to be used for pants.



Some learning’s from my trip:

-Fabric is heavy
-The space under the seats in school buses does not hold much fabric.
- I am able to skip lunch for more fabric shopping time. Maybe I can develop a "Fabriholic Diet"
- Internet friends with similar fabric taste are horrible enablers when they are shopping with you in person.
- Stores don't always have public restrooms.
- Ben Franklin is over exposed in Philly – His face appears in signs, on top of building, in sculptures, and of course on money

I was feverishly working on this Burda jacket (March 2010 issue , pattern 120) before the trip, hoping to have it finished in time to wear with my second pair of Burda"carrot pants". But I ran into fitting issues. I was able to find coordinating belt buckles in the right sizes on "Fashion Row" so maybe it is just as well I didn't finish it before the trip.

I hope to get it done soon.

Pants Play

Sewing Classes really cut into sewing time. I just completed Pattern Drafting II class - skirt and pants. I now have a pants sloper that fits me wonderfully, especially in the waist, hip and “saddle” or crotch area. Using the waist and hip area of this pants sloper, I can draft skirts or I can combine my bodice sloper with a skirt draft to create fitted sheath type dresses. This class and the other pattern drafting class were taught by Annette Hickman, a mainstay on the G Street Fabric stores teaching staff, and an excellent teacher. Typically sewing class attendees are all women. One of the students in this class was a 13 year old Asian boy, “J” who is interested in fashion design and who sews clothing for his mother and sister. His presence caused a bit of scrambling on the part of the female attendees, especially those that had expected to have their muslin fit while wearing only underwear. The second class everyone showed up with close fitting exercise/yoga shorts which maintained modesty, but don't add bulk. The young man drafted a pants pattern based on his father’s measurements and we got to watch Annette fit the muslin on his father.

It was done very professionally and with respect for personal dignity. Annette is a great advocate for "reading the creases" of the fabric in areas like the crotch and underarm where is it difficult, and downright dangerous to be sticking pins to take up excess fabric or scissor to snip too tight seams. The body heat and moisture in those areas acts like a little steam iron. For example when fitting my drafted crotch curve, which was not deep enough, the muslin fabric bunched up in that area. After taking off the muslin we looked at where the fabric was creased because of the poor fit. Annette instructed me to sew the new crotch seam along the lowest crease line. In my situation and several of the other attendees, the new seam gave me a perfect fit. Thanks to J’s dad for participating in the fitting exercise. I don't know many men that would have pants fitted in front of an audience. I personally learned a lot seeing a man fitted. Especially from the discussion about their saddle area shape and the resulting pattern, versus those of a female. I live with three guys, including two very tall and slender teenagers that are hard to buy pants for, so this was especially useful for me. I am now reading anything I can find on using slopers to alter commercial patterns. Past blog posts by Jkaori and HongKongShopper were very helpful, as was this article from the Threads magazine. Using sloper on commercial pattern

To use my pants sloper for the first time with a commercial pattern, I chose to make a wearable muslin of this pair of "carrot" pants from the Aug 2009 Burda. Carrot pants are named so because of their carrot-like shape–wide at the hips and tapered at the ankles.

SSASYCHIC has some helpful guidelines on wearing pleated pants which includes carrot pants. Pleated Pant Types


These pants have a shaped yoke and a shaped waistband, with front pleats and tapering legs. I chose this particular pattern because it was fitted in the waist and hip area with the pleats starting below the hip. A better silhouette for me than one with pleats starting at the waist. The pattern is in tall sizes. My sloper matched the seam lines in the hip and crotch area closely for the size 88. Good thing my self image is not tied to a size, that number is big! Weirdly, my front crotch length was 2 inches longer than the pattern. The back crotch length matched exactly. I checked the pattern markings and all the descriptions to see if the front waist was supposed to be lower than the natural waist. No indication, so I compromised and added 1” to the front crotch tapering to nothing at the side seam. The fabric used was a medium weight, but drapey twill weave ?rayon? off the $2.95 table at G Street. If you read blogs or pattern reviews by sewists that live near the DC area, you may have heard of the G Street $2.95 table. It is a wonderful source for low cost fabric. According to Annette the fabric on this table is remnants and pieces from NY clothing manufacturers. It arrives weekly on Thursdays, stuffed in bags, via tractor trailer truck. It is dumped on the receiving area floor and employees fold or roll it up into neat bundles. By Saturday the new arrivals are on the table, which is at least 40 feet long at the Rockville store. I have found both beautiful and beastly fabric on the table, but I always enjoy pilfering through the pile.


I certainly don't look like the model wearing these pants, but they are comfortable and fun to wear. I didn't really have the other items of clothing to style them like Burda did, or the way the fashion magazines are showing them for spring; with a fitted tank top under a vest, but you get the idea. The final pair will be in a med. grayish blue drapey blend so hopefully they will look a little slimmer than the cream ones. Sorry about the headless pictures,I was taking my own photos with a timer. My photographers were busy, No. 1 - blowing leaves out of the gutter, No. 2 on his way to Hampton Roads for his girlfriend's Jr. Prom and No. 3 at friends.


It is a beautiful day today, so next on the agenda is planting oriental lily bulbs, Dahlia tubers and gladiola bulbs in my flower beds. Gardening in my yard is a war against critters. I have to plant most bulbs in wire baskets to prevent them from becoming mole/vole treats. The wire mesh Easter baskets from the Dollar Store work great for this purpose otherwise I make my own out of chicken wire. Thinking of some of the jewelry I have seen that is knitted using metal wire, I wonder if I could knit my own wire planting pouches. Something to think about while I dig.

Spring Break

This past week my classes had ended and it was ‘Spring Break’ for my DS’s. We redeemed all our frequent flyer miles for four tickets to the Caribbean island of Siint Maartin. I used the Dutch spelling because we were staying on the Dutch side. On our last visit we stayed on the French side or St. Martin. The two sides of the island is very different; currency, government, language, and the food in both restaurants and grocery stores. Amazingly, I found French language Burda, Elena, Mia Boutique, and Cadena magazines in one of the grocery stores. I was delighted. Here is the view from our bedroom balcony and the view from the back bedroom. I always get motivated to sew a wardrobe of resort clothes for these spring vacations, but in reality I wear a bathing suit most of the time, only putting on clothes to go to dinner. And though we go to nice restaurants, the dress code is still pretty casual. So I usually talk myself out of sewing anything for these trips. One less thing to stress out over. But a couple weeks before this trip, I saw this picture of a pair of Loeffler Randall shorts in InStyle magazine. They probably attracted me because they were a variation of the wrap shorts that were popular, and that I sewed and wore, when I was a teenager. Simplicity 4192 is a current pattern with wrap shorts. And I was tired of the Capri’s and Bermuda short that I have worn for the past few summers. I pulled up the shorts on the Bloomingdale web site to get a closer look (Zoom is wonderful!) and used the magazine picture to figure out the design scale and style details. Here is my sketch. I used the pants pattern from an old Donna Karan pattern, Vogue 2665,as a starting point because it had a narrow hip band. I made a copy of the front pattern piece and drew the lines for the pocket pieces. I made individual patterns for the pocket front and pocket back. The fabric of the inspiration shorts was a silk linen blend which is not available where I live. I settled for poly rayon fake linen with a soft drape, from Hancock’s, in a milk chocolate color. I couldn’t find a brown striped fabric for the piping, so I used a cotton print of turquoise flowers on a brown background. The scale of the print on the bias is similar to the strip used in the original shorts. I did not want to line the front pocket or front bottom leg opening to hide the piping raw edges. Instead I made piping with a 1 inch wide seam allowance on one side. I applied the piping so the wide allowance could be tacked like a hem allowance to the wrong side of the fashion fabric, hiding the seam allowances.

The shorts turned out more skirt like than the inspiration garment. The pockets tend to fly up in the air in the Caribbean beach winds, but back in hot humid ole Richmond, VA, they will hang demurely. When I make these again, I will move the pocket opening to hit higher on the hip. Though the current placement duplicates the the original shorts, I now realize the side seam of the original shorts are much “shorter” than mine.

We made a day trip to St Barth’s. It is definitely an upscale island and a fashion lovers treat; from the outfits that the fellow ferry passengers were wearing, to the garments displayed in the boutique windows, and the swimsuits and cover-ups on fellow diners in the resort beach restaurant where we ate lunch. For the ferry trip, I should have had on a semi transparent pair of wide legged white linen pants, which required a skin toned thong and/or a total wax job. Designers obviously don’t worry about show through on white pants. In fact they use it as a design element. The pants are worn with a halter top in a designer print with a low draped front so that glimpses of breast show with any movement. High heeled sandals on manicured feet. Lots of gold; rings, chains with pearls, dangly earrings, and to protect me from the sun, designer shades and a big hat. There were several versions of this on women of all ages, included one that was definitely at the 60 year mark. She was well maintained, but there are just some signs of aging that cannot be hidden, at least not by the outfit I just described. Window shopping in Gustavia was wonderful. I was traveling with 3 males, so window shopping was all I got to do. This was fine. It was cheap and gave me lots of ideas. A swimsuit “cover-up” is a misnomer on this island. It should be silky, flowy and semi transparent so your toned body and itsy bitsy bathing suit can be clearly seen through it. Needless to say, my opaque blue knit cover-up declared “middle class American” loud and clear, that and my DS’s swimsuit in a print of Corona beer bottles on a blue background. But I felt quite happy thinking of those Fabric Mart silk chiffon scarf prints I have in my stash. They would make a perfect St Barth’s cover-up. St. Barth was expensive, beautiful, clean, and a fun place to visit. We didn't see any famous people, but the rumor was that Jimmy Buffet was there a couple weeks ago. If we ever make a return trip, I will definitely sew up the most summery fashion forward patterns I can find, and wear them proudly.

Back to School

I am doing lots of sewing, but it is samples/homework for the three sewing related classes I am taking. Draping on the Dress Form, Pattern Drafting, and Tailoring. And yes I am still working full time. I love every minute of the classes, but I am definitely having trouble keeping up with the homework. The pattern drafting and tailoring classes are every Thursday afternoon at the Falls Church, VA location of G Street Fabrics. A sewing friend was signed up for the classes and they needed one more person to make the drafting class a go. The opportunity to be taught pattern drafting in English was too good to pass up. I have tried to teach myself to draft patterns using the Bunka method and the Japanese magazines Ms Stylebook and Lady Boutique. But I have always felt I was missing a lot of information because of language difference. I am using up leftover 2009 vacation days to get the Thursdays off. Class days are long and busy, but also invigorating and fun. What with the drive, a 4 hour round trip, absorbing all the class information, resisting the wonderful fabrics and notions at G Street (even with my 20% class discount) we are both physically tired and brain dead by the time we get home. Because our classes ends at the same time the southbound rush hour gridlock forms, we choose one of the authentic ethnic restaurants located near the store and have a leisurely dinner, pushing our departure time until after traffic thins out. So far we have had wonderful Vietnamese, Burmese and Afghani meals. Our husbands, left at home to eat leftovers, are very envious.

I though I would share some high level information and key learning from the classes – First the pattern drafting class

The instructor drafted patterns for the apparel industry, had her own retail store in New York City, and is an amazing fitter. The text is Pattern Making Made Easy, 2^nd edition by Connie Amaden -Crawford. We used the book measurement guide and basic pattern drafting instructions rather loosely. The book is a text book and therefore teaches industry drafting standards; certain amounts of ease, specific dart location, specific differences in the the front arm hole length versus the back arm hole length, etc. The instructor preferred that we draft a no ease sloper using the instructions plus some additional measurements. She then fit the sloper on our bodies. She recommended the book primarily for the sections describing how to draft garment patterns from a basic sloper.

Our first exercise was to take very accurate measurements of each other, and draft a front bodice, back bodice and sleeve pattern on paper. Once the instructor checked our drafts, we transferred the drafts to muslin and added wide seam allowances. The instructor pin fit the muslin pieces on our bodies. We revised our flat patterns to reflect the fitting changes and used them to cut out a new muslin pieces. We sewed version 2 together and the instructor did a final fitting. Any changes from the 2^nd fitting were transferred to the paper pattern and from it we made cardboard sloper.

Key Learning from this class- No matter how accurate your measurements and flat pattern drafting skills, the fitting will reveal changes that need to be made. Flat pattern are flat, but the body is curved. A measurement will not accurately reflect curvature along its length. For example, the center back to waist, and shoulder point to waist measurement. The draft distributes the length proportionally down the whole back length, but in reality a lot of that length for me is in the shoulder/upper back area because of round shoulders and prominent shoulder blades. Only fitting will identify fit difference due to body curvature. So there goes my dream of being able to draft perfect fitting patterns straight from measurements. Based on discussion with friends that use software to draft their patterns, like PMB, they go through the same process of fitting and tweaking each pattern drafted by the software. A comparison of the my draft pattern versus the fitted pattern are shown below. Green line is drafted pattern, Orange is fitted.

The remaining classes we will learn how to use the personal sloper to make fitting adjustment to commercial patterns. The pattern I am going to ask the instructor to help me with is this Patrones dress.

It was supposed to have been one of my Holiday 09 dresses. But I hit a fitting wall when I made the muslin. No, not the issue the girl in the photo has. My problem is the front is about 2 inches too long and a bit too wide. So I probably have to do a combination of a SBA and shortening the length. The back bodice is too short . My issue is how do I make the fitting changes and retain the integrity of the design especially the yoke and band shapes. I suspect the dart ease/bust shaping is incorporated in the seaming but I can’t figure out where.

Well, my ride to today's class will arrive shortly, so I have to get off the computer. More info on the classes next time