Tuesday 15 April 2014

Fitting Simplicity 1882

I have submitted my thesis - after 7 month. My boyfriend jokingly said it was almost like giving birth to a baby. After being scared for four days (because I might have forgotten something), I have started to feel relieved. And I have spent loads of time sewing (more Ladyskater dresses to come!).

Naturally, I couldn't totally abandon my sewing machine when writing up and thus I spend 3 month to fit and sew Simplicity 1882. When putting this post together, I realised that I have too many photos and details to put into one post. So today, I am going to show you my fitting progress and problems that I encountered.

No this was not muslin No 1, probably No 4 or 5? I just included it so you have an idea how the whole dress might look like.
I planned to make this dress already in autumn from a fabric that I had bought in Brighton (fabric stash: one down, yeah). But I was scared by the princess seams. This uneasy feeling about princess seams turned out to be justified, as it took me SEVEN (!) muslins to fit the bodice of this dress.

Fitting: As you might have guessed after so many muslins - a nightmare! It took me 3 month (with breaks) to fit and another 2 weeks to sew the dress. The main problems were:

my apex was 3 cm under the apex of the pattern: Can you see the red line on the photo below? That's were the apex is supposed to be, but because mine is so low there is far to much fabric (around 2"). I ended up fixing this problem with the help of the "Fit for real people" book - I shifted the apex 3 cm down and then actually had to do a full-bust adjustment. But it helped :) (it took me only 3 muslins to get it right)





I actually never realised that my bust is this low :( Are your apexes really are at the underarm seamline?
apparently I have square shoulders: Can you see the massive wrinkle on my left side and also the puckering neckline in the photo below? Although you can't see it here, but there were also little "suns" (loads of wrinkles) radiating from my shoulder bones. This meant that I have square shoulders. I was really surprised, because I didn't know.

But after several attempts I was able to minimize this fabric pulling by adding a strip of fabric at the shoulder seam: the dots show the middle of my shoulder and as you can see I added a big strip of fabric. This in turn meant I had to make my sleeve cap bigger, which I did with the help of this tutorial from the Threads magazine. (If you ever need to make your sleeve cap smaller, I also tried and liked this one from Sallioh.)


- prominent shoulder blades were also in the mix: Can you see the little sun on my shoulder blades? I tried to fix this by adding a strip of fabric that started in the dart and finished at the shoulder seam.





the sleeves were pulling: I fiddled a lot with the sleeves because I really wanted them to be perfect. I always have the problem that they are contorted because of my forward shoulder adjustment. I don't have a really good picture for that problem (although there are some diagonal wrinkles in the pictures below), but you can see it on my latest Ladyskater dress as well. Luckily I found this amazing tutorial by Heather and it helped to solve this problem.



I also realised that the bodice has to be fitted differently when wearing sleeves! Sleeveless, I would have been done much earlier, but the square shoulder problem only showed after setting in the sleeves. The fit is much better now, but my arm movement still feels a little bit restricted when I try to put the arms toward the front.

I actually only fitted the bodice and not the waist band or skirt. Although I had to make minor corrections to the top half of the waist band because of changes I made in the bodice. But luckily, I didn't need to make a muslin for that.

So I am just leaving you with this sneak peek preview and you have to be patient until you can see the whole dress (which will not be long)!



16 comments:

  1. Wow your actual fabric is so pretty, I'm sure the finished dress will look gorgeous!

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  2. Wow, 7 muslins?! That is quite some dedication, but it looks like your getting there :) That apex seems ridiculously high - I'm sure nobody has it up there! Good job for persevering, can't wait to see the final dress!

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    1. Oh, and congratulations on submitting your thesis!

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    2. I almost gave up, but then I would have the same problems with another princess seams dress - so that thought actually kept me going :)

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  3. If I were wearing a hat, I would take it off to you for persevering with this! But now that you have a princess seam bodice that fits, you can use it as a template on other patterns. I'll look forward to seeing your finished dress.

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    1. That's a great idea Lynne. I have another princess seams dress in my stash, so I will compare the patterns and maybe they are similar. Otherwise, I am not sure if I would want to fit another princess seams dress!

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  4. I've had this pattern in my stash for a few months but have been afraid to sew it because I think I'll have as many fitting issues as you did. Thanks for the detailed description of how you fixed them. Looking forward to seeing the finished dress. And congrats on finishing your thesis!

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    1. Thanks Andrea! I hope that you will encounter less problems than I had, otherwise just keep going :) and I am glad that my post might help you.

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  5. Oooh! it looks great! I'm excited for the big reveal. You did a great job on those alterations too!

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    1. Thanks Kristin. The big reveal will be on Friday - another lengthy post!

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  6. 7 muslins?! Well done for persevering through all the fitting issues, I think I'd have given up a long time before you did! I'm sure it was worth it though, the sneak peak of your finished dress looks great - looking forward to seeing it properly. And congratulations on handing your thesis in!

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    1. Thank you Ruth! I bought the fabric with this dress in mind so I really had to persist!and I am really pleased with the outcome :)

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  7. Wow, wow, wow! I really admire how patient you are with your fitting process! You're an perfectionist! An every muslin was totally worth it! Not you have a perfectly fitted princess seam pattern, isn't that great? Can't wait for the finished garment post! Happy Easter! x

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  8. Wow, seven muslins! You took a lot of care with that dress! I also often have to lower bust darts. I love the sneak peek of your finished dress, such a lovely and vibrant fabric!

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  9. Hello! I'm here AGES after you posted this, because I'm about to start sewing this dress and I wanted to hear lots about what others have found. I'll be lowering that apex - and just looking at what 'suns' are, and reading about the other lines, I've learned a lot about fitting. I'm trying to figure out FBAs and narrow shoulder adjustments - I feel like I'm learning a lot about my body (Narrow shoulders? Me?!) and it's kind of fun!
    Thank you for showing such details, they've really helped me out. Oh - and very belated congratulations on your thesis! :)

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