Hi again, sewing friends. It has been a hot minute since I wrote something here. A lot of water has gone under my bridge in the last few months, but I’m back with fresh ideas and inspiration. My large project for this winter was to sew myself a fully lined winter coat with welt pockets and the whole nine yards. THIS is the pattern I used and I used a “buffalo check” heavy flannel/brushed coating in medium blue and ivory. I hope the finished product will be like the vision in my head. It has been so many years since I have had a coat, and buying one now in the sizes I am is nigh unto impossible. I did complete other small projects in between. I didn’t want to forget what The Joy of Completion feels like.
Back to the real reason you’re here…are any of you getting weary of the length of the fitting process? The truth is that to get a great fit you need to jump through all the hoops whether you like it or not. See THIS BLOG POST for my revelation that taking time is worth it. And I hope this coat proves it to me as well.
Most people do not fall into the same size all the way down a garment, so if you circled different sizes on your sheet, this is very normal. I must repeat, this is VERY NORMAL! We do something called grading to make those points line up. The super basic explanation is that you draw lines to connect the dots. In reality, there is a little bit more finesse to it than that. For the purposes of this blog post we will use a pre-printed, multi-sized for a regular waisted dress pattern with darts in the bodice and skirt, like the one pictured below.
And I just want to add that the method I teach in this blog post works best when the difference between sizes is 3 sizes or fewer. Once the size differences are more than 3 sizes the techniques are a bit different, but right now we will save that for a different post.
A few guidelines or suggestions before we get started: Please do not make these changes directly on your original pattern. Grading very rarely happens above the bust. I like to prep my pattern by cutting out the relevant pattern pieces on the largest size available. I greatly dislike extra paper and hassle. Patterns work best if the corners are as close to square as possible. This helps your seams to line up better. (Okay, the corners we will be dealing with in this sort of pattern. Vee necks and crossovers are different, but you get it.)
Deep breath. Dive in.
Armed with, at the very least, your original pattern, a pencil, and paper you can see through, let us begin. (A 2” by 18” clear ruler, French curve, and hip curve are handy, but not necessary.) Lay out your bodice front pattern and place a piece of tracing paper on top. Find the line that corresponds to the size you will be using for the bust. Trace the center front, neckline, shoulder, and armhole. Go down the side seam till the bust notch or the bottom leg of the bust dart.
Now find the size you need at the waist and trace the bottom of the bodice, including the darts, going out to the correct waist size at the side seam. Draw your side seam up from the waistline at least a seam width. Then, using a French curve (or freehand it), draw a curve or angle joining the two ends of your side seam. This may take a few tries to get it right, so this is why I recommend pencil instead of pen or marker.
You will then repeat this process on the back bodice. Yes, I know the back bodice doesn’t have side darts, so trace down the side seam until the notch to match with the bust dart. The rest of the process is the same as the front. This concludes the bodice grading.
Waist to hip grading follows the same theory: Trace the top of your skirt (and any darts) at the correct waist size.
Next you will locate the hip notch or marking and the correct size at this spot. Again, using your curved ruler or free hand, connect the dots. Continue down the skirt side seam and finish tracing the skirt at the hip size.
As you may have noticed, the whole armhole is in the same size, so use the sleeve that corresponds to that size. There are ways to “graft on” different sizes of armholes so as to use a different size of sleeve. I hope to address this in a future video or blog post. We shall see.
Thanks for your time today, and happy fitting and sewing to you!
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