Mrs Mole's Fit-a-long Better back darts

After making heavy weather for the last week or so, today was fairly plain sailing. Maybe I'm straighter today (And it does help to wear the same bra each time).

Shortened the darts 1.5“ at the bottom, and half that at the top to the old bust line mark. Kept at their narrower than original intake of about 1/2“.

Then the saggy side 'panel'. My first estimate was take a wedge tapering from nothing at the yoke line to 1/4"at the bust line, and a steady 1/4" all the way down to the hem. And that's good enough. 

Next steps: Before doing the flat pattern manipulation to take out that very long narrow dart, I want to revisit the overfitted shoulder line. It works, but would be better with some smoothing.

And to revisit the armscyes. With repeated additions at the shoulder seam, they are even lower than the originals - a full hand width below the pit. I don't have a cardi, a jacket or a coat that would fit over such a low scye.

Sounds like a plan for next week. 

Mrs Mole's Fit-a-long : progress is slow

No pictures yet, or at least none worth straightening and cropping. 

Since the last post, I have been spending time most days tweaking the back dart. It's been various lengths and widths, but keeps coming back to somewhere near my original guess, taken from the horseshoe shaped stress lines when tissue fitting. Give or take change in the exact points, since I've added at the shoulders and yoke. 

Today for example I raised the hip curve at the side seams, which eased the tightness at the bony ridge/high hip. Makes sense, it will have dropped when fabric was added above.

Tomorrow I want to raise the lowest point by about an inch, for the same reason. And remember to wear the winter bra for fitting (Light clothing today for sunny autumn weather. The tide was in for my lunchtime walk, which brought the small waders close in to the shore)

The centre section now feels right, following the curves of the spine. However the oblique photos still show excess below shoulder blades at the sides and a little pulling at yoke and hh.

Try again tomorrow.

On a positive note, the secret knitting project just needs buttons and ends sewing in. The more public handbag- sized project, a set of hats for donation, has reached more than half the number I said I'd do, so I could send the completed ones off once they're photographed. And the decorating we said we would do in September has only one more step to go. 

Mrs Mole's fit-a-long: that wretched shoulder slope

Pressed seams and photographed.

Front is hugely improved now, when the shoulder seam is in place, though the padded straps on my winter bra show through. The seam stays fairly well, but still creeps backwards when I move both of my arms at once.

However, the shoulder seam is ropy on the slopiest bit of my neck, three finger widths, about 1.5". Does it need a wedge of fabric? Let's release the stitching a bit and see how big a wedge. Hmm, about 1/4" at the stitching line. Coincidentally, that's how much I gain if I straighten out the 'dome' that was on the original pattern, and has worried me from the beginning. The other glued-on strip is the extra 5/8" depth added a while ago.

 

And is it any better? Rather, I think, but not enough to write home about. It feels better, anyway.

Last night I had also tackled the oddly placed (my bad) waist dart. Moved it 3cm towards the centre (estimated from the stripes on the fabric) to its more usual place under the shoulder blades. Also shortened the lowest point by 4cm. Now the lower bodice has moved down, the dart needed adjusting to clear the bony ridge. 

This area could still do with some work - though I think the problems are just clearer rather than being oblique to the standard shots.

Once that's done, there is a chance of seeing where excess fabric can be pinned out, roughly shoulder blade to waist. At some stage the asymmetry of the prominent right shoulder blade could be dealt with, there's half an inch difference in waist-shoulder measurement. But one thing at a time.

Mrs Mole's fit-a-long: taking stock after fitting the front

After a lovely weekend, spent chatting drinking tea and eating cake, I now have a couple of days to catch up on things started before our surprise guest came.

So, I finally have a digital copy of the new measurements, taken 20220905. It looks like I might need two patterns, one for the winter bras which are supportive but not breathable, and one for the summer lightweight bras.

 Just a slight increase to the front yoke on the second chart.

On the first measurement chart, there is an extra row because my tum height has a bigger circumference than my hips, and another row because my rump sticks out most a few inches above the widest part of my hips.

I'd talked about adding wedges at overbust and underbust a couple of posts ago. Since then, the front pattern has gone through another round of revisions, after working out the right size wedge to take between waist and hem. I wouldn't have guessed 2.25" at the hem, but that's what makes the side seams straight. I think this is the first time since Before Children that the front hem hasn't flared out below bust and tum. 

I also added a bit more width and height at bust level since its a different bra. Note to self: I've marked the new cutting and stitching lines in red for the front.

Here are the thumbnails. Oops, I forgot to mirror the final image when I cropped it, but I wear my watch on my left arm. 

There is still some distortion above and below the bust. I'm not sure whether I actually need more length there, whether it's shoulder shape, or whether I need more fabric in the back yoke to stop the shoulder seam creeping backwards. The right shoulder particularly wants to settle at least half an inch behind where I expect the shoulder line to be.

The wide padded straps on the winter bra aren't helping me to see what's what. However, unlike many bras I've tried, the straps don't fall off the edge of my shoulders, so I would like to continue wearing this design. 

(A narrative fiction) Next step is to slash the back yoke to try stabilise the shoulder line, then I can see whether the problem is actually at the bust. (The truth) I had a quick try, and with the addition of 1.6" at centre back at yoke height, the creep backward was much less, around 1/4".  I want to play with how much to drop the back neck compared with the back yoke change. I'd undone the temporary change to drop the back neck by 5/8", but since the neckline is creeping into the horizontal area above the prominent vertebra, (most obvious on the left shoulder photo) I shall reimplement the drop.

EDIT 16/9/22, snuck half an hour's sewing time when I'd finished unpacking after a short trip away with DH. Dropped back shoulder seam by 5/8“ and adjusted insert upwards by the same amount. No photos yet, but certainly looks promising front and back in the mirror.

 

Mrs Mole's fit-a-long: What a difference wedges make

Since the last post, I've 

• Traced and tidied the pattern front.
• Cut out and transferred the markings to the new fabric.
• Stitched darts, shoulders and sideseams. (The lowered back shoulders are just a temporary hack to hold the front in the right place, until I start working on the back properly)

I can't believe how well the new front sits on my tum!

Still to do:

Take out a wedge from the hem near the sideseam. 

Last night I pinned out 2" going up to the abdomen mark - not enough in either direction. The two extra wedges at centre front add about 2.75" and .5" at the hem, so I guess it'll be some combination of these numbers, with the wedge angle probably at the waist. EDIT: 2.25" with the angle at the waist looks good.

Just a couple of snaps, full of pins at the side seams, the lower right pin  is skew - it fell out while I was setting up the camera. BTW, there is indeed a white stripe towards the outer edge of the front - using an old duvet cover.

And for comparison, though I've switched to a more supportive but less breathable bra now it's starting to feel autumnal here. Think I might need a tad more extra fabric as well as having raised the darts.

There'll be no sewing or blogging for a few days -  I have a friend arriving for the weekend, so there'll be lots of chatting and probably some knitting.

Mrs Mole's fit-a-long: raising the bust darts

 What has happened in the last few days?

• Lowered 5/8" front and back, neck more comfortable, but armscyes now seem very low. Come back to this.
• Added 1" strip at front yoke, tapering to nothing at armscyes. This has straightened overbust grain.
• Moved darts up (twice) and increased the depth. First attempt didn't take into account the extra fabric added at previous two steps.
• Added 1.75" strip at underbust, tapering to 1" at side seams. Compensates for increasing dart depth above, and straightens tum grain. Note to self: this is actually below waist, because the slash was cut at waist level before I moved the darts up. It serves its purpose though.
• Shortened to 26" all round. EDIT: after adding the various elements, it's come out at 29 1/8".  I plan the finished top at my usual 23"-24", but will learn more from a below-rump trial.

Still to polish

• Less ease at tum than elsewhere. (Because of lowering the slope between waist and hip?) 
• Keeps trying to creep up over the shoulders. That's why it's pinned to a tee in some pictures.  EDIT next day: pinning a 1/4" tuck (1/2" uptake) just below neckline keeps the shoulders in place. I'll lower front 1/8", neckline 1/2" more, back by 5/8" for now.
• Shoulders now too wide. Because I followed the curve of the neck and armscye upwards. Redraft shoulders so this doesn't happen

Next steps

• Get full remeasure in the winter bra, to plot actuals on next attempt. EDIT next day: done but not digital yet. Interestingly, the bra affects measurements as high as the yoke. Also, I must be straighter than usual today, the shoulder to waist measurements are the same, usually 1/2" different. 
• Retrace front pattern, adding wedges for the strips, and straightening the centre front.
• Cut a new front with less piecing. Mark landmark lines and retest

The warts and all thumbnails

Mrs Mole's fit-a-long: Extending the front

Mrs Mole very generously gave me some specific advice about the front of my trial top.

I've started at the shoulders, and worked down until the light became too poor for photos.

The summary, things done and next things to do is shown as notes on the photo. 

There's been a change in the plan as well, that instead of fitting for my summer 18-hour bra, the carp print one, I've decided to fit for my winter bra*, which is more supportive, though less breathable.  Since I'm trying to fit the best I can, let's fit the best-looking me. Note to self, how much do I care that those padded straps show? They are in a better place on my shoulders than too many that I've tried.

So tomorrow, take a smidge off the upper strip. And work on those bust darts, then the below-bust strip. Not sure if you can see on the photos, but the lower slash line crosses the waist. That'll need moving up a bit once the darts are reorganised. I'll need to think about that neck overlap - it appeared when I changed bras - is it because there is more projection in the supportive bra?

There are local photos, but I've taken them off the blog after realising the cropping was rubbish

* Not a single one for summer and one for winter - can't guarantee they'll dry overnight in our climate. Rather the same style and size in each 'season'.