Thursday, January 13, 2011

First toile. hmm - could be worse

Time to tackle my Aust Home Journal teenage frock !  - a reminder:
Its a very simple design and both front and back pieces are cut on the fold, with the zip in the side seam.

The pattern is for a 24inch waist, so I thought I'd measure the pieces with the darts 'darted' and the seam allowances marked.
They were both around the 7inch mark, so x 4  = 28 inches, which is my waist (without any ease of course)!.

Anyway, I figured I'd just make this up and see where to go from there.

Cue a cute print scored yesterday from the Salvos on the highway - 2.9 metres x 90cm wide for a measly $2.
Perfect for a toile.  Except maybe a but busy to see details in photos.  Fine for 'real life' though.
 It's a bit tight and the bust dart goes right up and over my boobs, and the side dart is too high.   So I plan to push those down the pattern about 1 to 2 inches.   But the neckline and sleeve hole seems to be ok !

I'm thinking for the back, I could place the pattern piece on the fold at the top of the piece, and pivot it so the bottom part is about 1centimetre in from the fold, thereby giving a bit of extra fabric across the back ?  Is that a plan ?   Its tightest across the shoulder blades, but fits ok at the top of my shoulders, so don't just want to make the whole piece bigger.  I could increase the dart suppression (new word to the vocab here - thanks Sherry!) at the base of the dart to take up the extra fabric?  Your views?

lore
x

6 comments:

  1. wow- great choice for your figure!
    I wouldn't put the back on the fold and pivot the bottom part - I tend to like a center back seam to allow for the curve of the back.
    As you say, you can adjust the darts to take up excess.

    Have you removed the seam allowances from the neck and armholes? The edge of the fabric looks like just the right place for the stitching line to be for the sleeves.

    nice!

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  2. The Slapdash Sewist does a "broad back" alteration to add width across the back but not at the shoulders that would be perfect for this, I think. Other than that, it looks amazing!

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  3. Do you know which post she covered this ? I used to follow her for a while as she had some interesting info but stopped because her outfits aren't my style (trying to be nice here!)
    xx
    lore

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  4. I mean really !

    http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5124/5259320417_cfeab05497.jpg

    x

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  5. I think you should do the dart adjustments to the front first and the width at the waist and then see how the back fits. Sometimes fixing the front will allow the back to fall into place, and I'm wondering if this is what's the matter with yours, considering the position (basically directly opposite of where your darts are misplaced on front?)

    In any case, most fitting books would say to only do one alteration/fitting thing at a time and monitor. Not that I usually follow that advice! ha!

    Cute pattern!

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  6. The link I posted is to a search of her blog for "wide back" that brings up most of the posts where she mentions the alteration. Many have pics of the alteration of the pattern. Good luck! :)

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