Monday, December 16, 2013

Muslins - continued

First I”d like to thank those who commented on my previous posts for all their thoughts on the fitting of my jacket, suggestions and willingness to look things up for me. It’s so nice of you. I do have a few fitting books and will consider buying the Craftsy course mentioned, but will first finish watching the two classes I have on fitting for the bust and back area.

Carmen, I definitely would like to do the experiment and after Christmas suits me fine, it’s quite busy with me as well now.

For the next muslin I looked for a Burda pattern with a high neckline, as I thought that would give me a better idea of the fit in the neck/shoulder area.

image

It’s from an old issue, December 2006, no 116.

I did not sew the sleeve cuffs or waist band, which makes both the sleeves and body a bit short. That’s not important for the issue I’m working on though.

The real issue: what sizes did I use and what other changes did I make. My measurements are all over the size chart of Burda, no consistency there. I used a size 42 for the front, 36 for the back (thinking 34 would be very small) and used 36 in the neckline/shoulder area too. There I see a huge improvement, the neckline fits well.

For the front I tapered from 36 at the shoulder down to 42 at the side AND did an FBA of 1.5 cm. In this Marianne was right to observe that if the average size is 42 and the back is a small 34/36, the front needs more room. For the sleeves I traced 36 at the back and did the same tapering to size 42 at the front of the sleeve.

I lenghtened the body with 3 centimeters above the waist and the sleeves with 2 centimeter. These are changes that I already did with Burda patterns. The back is not perfect yet but gets closer to being a good fit. It all feels a bit snug. 

What I see is that I need a bit more length in the back. I’m afraid that if I take out more from the back width I can’t move my arms any more.

Next step? Tracing the moto jacket from January’s Burda that I bought last Saturday. I’m a little tired of making muslins but think it’s the only way to learn and tackle this fitting issue. This jacket will be sewn too I think, it’s nice as well and now I’ve muslined it already, it will/should be easier?

8 comments:

  1. Have you tried lifting the shoulders or putting in shoulder pads? It doesn't look like you have a sloping shoulder, but the wrinkles in back seem to point to that. I don't think that the back is too wide.
    The hip needs more room front and back I think to eliminate those wrinkles. The bust is good and I think that this will be quite flattering when you iron out the fitting issues.

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  2. Thank you! This answers quite a few of my fitting questions.

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  3. You've been putting a lot of work into this and it sure pays off with this version. I think the back looks great since you will need to move your arms forward. I love this jacket and can't wait to see the final result.

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  4. I don't think the back is wide either. Some wrinkles/width is needed to ensure movement. Sometimes we are so focused on fitting that we overdo it. I think you're on the right track.

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  5. Looking very good, indeed. A vast improvement over the last muslin and the fit around the neck and upper back are great; I second the use of some shoulder pads in there and also that it doesn't look too wide.

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  6. Yes, that does look good. I like the fit around the neck and upper back. Worth the muslins. Hope the latest Burda jacket plays along nicely :)

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  7. All I can say is - if I found a blouse or jacket that fit me like your muslin fits you, I would BUY it!
    Chris

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  8. Sigrid, the muslin looks good. Can't wait to see the final jacket. It'll be awesome.

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