Ì want to revisit fitting woven tops. However a tape measure isn't working well to model my pronounced sway back, curved upper back, and tilted hips. (For instance, my neck area gets in the way of a shoulder to shoulder measurement) Someone moving house donated a half roll of midweight plastic wrap... Let's try the cling film method of making a fitting shell. That way there are no preconceptions.
Mathematically, you'd get best results with a narrow strip and a continuous build over several hours. That is not going to happen in the heat, or without a sewing-savvy helper. What is possible is to build a sketch in sections, about the width of the roll.
Step 1, wrap the first section. With a little help from DH, wrapped ribs to thigh about 6 times. I could reach to mark centre front, tummy button height and most forward point of hip crest bones. DH roughly marked my spine.
No point being too precise, since the plastic has stretch and recovery. After cutting myself free, I estimate it recovered by 10%-15%, depending on the tension in each area.
Step 2, where should the seams be?
No preconceptions, I said. I want a flat pattern so need to snip into the areas of greatest curvature. Not surprisingly to me, the sideseam position was fairly flat, but there was a strongly curved area a thumb length towards back and front. I chose to follow my own anatomy, snipping long 'darts' above the most prominent point of hip crests, back and front. I also followed my own anatomy either side of centre front, cutting long 'darts' from the raised bone a fraction below empire line, not far above where my ribs divide, to the side of my tum at the height where it's pushed forward most.
Step 3, assessment
First, some words for the horizontals, all about a thumb length apart:
Empire line, my smallest circumference is underbust;
High waist, the bend point;
Low waist, the lowest point above hip bone, most recessed part of the spine.
High hip, at the most prominent bone at front, a ridge of bone at the back, and yes, some tummy flesh at centre front;
Low hip, the widest part of my bum, which sticks out at the back because of hip tilt, recessed at the front.
Because of rib tilt, my front is a part-cone from Empire line to low waist. The back in this region is closer to a conventional inverted part‐cone, more tilted than the standard.
At the empire line boundary, there's tissue above, a more prominent rib below and the next rib is even further forward. I can barely fit a thumb in the gap, so will model for fabric to fall about half an inch further forward.
The other empty space to consider is about a thumb length below my tummy button, where my hip tilt causes an underhang. Skirts look better if loosely fitted in this zone. Trousers likely need slash and spread above the knee - think pleated pants drafting. I want my model to reflect the more fitted shape.
My working hypothesis is that I should smooth over low waist in the side seam area for tops and dresses, but compress a little bit for skirt and trouser waistbands. Why? That height is the most forward part of my tum, and indeed the most forward part of my spine, so I have to take the fabric weight on the hip bone, not risk a garment sliding down the overhang.
At this point I have a mental model and a very rough physical model in plastic film - which deteriorates each time it is handled.
Step 4, transferring to paper
I used paper tablecloths for rough drafts
Added 1" at centre back and at centre front.
Using the plastic film as a guide, and remembering to add in the stretch/recovery factor, treated the slashes as vertical darts around my circumference. My piece of paper was long enough to reach almost up to Empire line, and down to low hip.
Folded, pinned, adjusted until it was close to my shape.
Step 5, transferring to scrap fabric, an old sheeting rectangle that reached from Empire line to thigh. I allowed extra at centre front. Since fabric drapes more naturally, there was a little bit of adjustment of dart length and intake. However it was pretty close to what I wanted.
I took a tiny fisheye dart in side seam area to mark low waist position.
Tapered the thigh portion to match my own shape. Not that mini skirts work for my lifestyle.
Put tactile markers (a few stitches) at centre back low waist, where (bridget jones big but comfy) knicker elastic crosses spine, and on tummy button. These fix height, tension and rotation.
Section 2 Underbust to overbust, and shoulder blades.
I managed this on my own, underarm to Empire line. Of course, a certain amount of compression went on. Nevertheless I got a good first approximation to mouse shape.
Followed the same steps as before, trace the wrap to a bit of paper tablecloth. Add width to compensate for compression. Make more symmetrical, and divide the darts. Fold and pin and try on. Then add a bit more width before tracing onto a worn out pillow slip. Keep pinning until fit is improved. The thing that surprised me was that, for this close fit, I couldn't back the darts away from the apex, the fabric chose to move so the point filled the corner.
I divided the dart intake into one small very near the armscye, and two large under the apex. A nice detail, keeping seams a couple of inches forward and back of the usual line. Could let that small dart form a mini princess line running into the low scye. In the same way as section 1, added an inch to the empire line rather than model unusable space.
Section 3, yoke and shoulders.
Poor DH agreed to wrap me again. This time from a line roughly 3" above my elbow to a high scoop neckline. The shape of the Mold* cape, though plastic film is a very poor substitute for prehistoric gold.
No surprises about cutting darts at back shoulder and back neck, compensates for vertical curve.
My shoulders are sloping and forward, so the ball is prominent here. The pattern angle can be adjusted by folding out a wedge at scye from collarbone to just below the ball of my shoulder. I'm also looking at the shapes and thinking a saddle shoulder, about 4" total, would give an even nicer fit at back shoulder and possibly be a low waste design on a fabric remnant.
Went through the same process as before: trace onto paper, pin fit, adjust, cut in waste fabric, fine tune...
* Mold is a small town in north Wales. The archaeology is amazing!
Step 6 merging the sections
Preserving the work done in fabric, transferred changes back to the paper. I chose to keep my model in two sections, boundary at Empire line. For the top, I lined up at centre front and centre back, and traced. It had been clear for some time that I didn't have a good model of the sleeve cap and armscye - though the cap/flap was useful to haul on while aligning everything yet again with my shoulder points. Dug out the flexible ruler and did the best I could, matching the dimple where yoke crosses armscye at the front. At the back* the scye was my best guess because the back/arm boundary moves around so much. I chose not to deal with a sleeve cap but to let this version of my model be sleeveless.
* I have debated for years how to get movement ease and excess fabric balanced, whilst shared between back and sleeve cap. It has to work whether standing up, reaching up and forward, or falling asleep on a long train journey.
From the tidied up tracings, I made one more physical model in worn out fabric. There were still a few challenges. With five darts and four seams around the torso I lost precision. Some user error, I'm reasonably competent with marking and stitching now, but not expert. And once I saw it, I realised the lower section, scrapped sheeting, had different turn of cloth than the upper, a scrapped pillow case.
Rather a shame that I have no use for a tennis dress. The final model fits me nicely. There's little ease, but I can sit, read, do housework. Not brave enough to show my legs on the balcony, however we have been closing our curtains against the unusual heat, so it's been OK to test wear inside.
This project has been time well spent.
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