Mrs Mole's fit-a-long: Passable circumferences

Over the last week or so, I've settled on some measurements, and reluctantly traced the size 14 down to the armpit, based on underbust measurement.* 

On the front, used Mrs Mole's quick and dirty method to open up a bust dart, and match the ease I'm working with against a little less ease in the pattern. The good news is that it raises the armscye a smidge. While I was in the area, I chose the pivot point slightly below mid-shoulder, at a height that shortened the shoulder line to my measurements.

On the back, I kept the armscye, except for narrowing it in the top couple of inches to shorten the shoulder line, judging that 1/2" difference back and front would be too much to ease in. Actually 1/4" was easy, so I might reconsider that last step on the next tracing.

Plotted all the new circumference measurements, front and back. That is bust, waist, abdomen, and low-hip increased to abdomen. I curved in the underbust a little, but am not going to attempt shaping for the fit-a-long. 

Added a strip of fabric to each armscye before cutting the revised pattern. Chose a green pencil this time, and marked body measurements and seam lines on the fabric. With ease and extra seam allowance, I was only short of 1/8" fabric at the abdomen, and I'm confident I won't use that much extra seam allowance this time. Because this version is already showing its history, I decided to pin front and back along the marked lines, then stitch, rather than recut the sideseam area.

I think I'm close enough now on the circumferences - ease seems evenly distributed, front and back are roughly balanced. The shoulder points are good. The front yoke appears to have the right amount of ease. 

The back is capacious. Interesting, my fitting attempts earlier in the year increased width at back, mid armscye, and were still giving me little movement ease. I'm wondering if they were showing the effects of not enough height, relative to the front, rather than not enough width. Another explanation I'm considering for the July shell is not enough upper arm width, short arms and tiny wrists leading to an abrupt taper.

As expected with my body shape, there is loose fabric in the back shoulder region at this stage. And if I let the lapels close, they are tight against my throat. Shoulder pads (well, socks) help, but I'm hoping to fit me a little better.

I think I marked too low a back yoke line, using 4" which is half the armscye height. My remaining rtw shirt has 3" below the shoulder point, and the bone of my shoulder joint ends 2.5" below.  Reading the ruler, tied to my back in the fourth shot, it's about 1.5" above the faintly marked back yoke, so I think I'm converging on 2.5" below the shoulder for my yoke line

* The 35" underbust measurement is approximate. The tape measure wanted to slide either up or down from there because of my shoulder blades, an unstable local maximum. Reluctantly used the full armscye depth, because there's almost 3" between armpit and armscye. A dress with 2.5" difference starts to restrict me when reaching forwards - and petite people do a lot of that.