I am attempting to draft a fitted shirt. I had my measurements taken. My sloper fit just fine. I came home and drafted fitted shirt with the following modifications: I put a single dart in the front of the shirt and I changed the width of the dart to 1.5. I changed the cap ease to .75 and increased the bicep ease to 3.

I am a large busted woman, 40 DD, with a short front armhole joint. When the pattern drafted it creates a sharp angle out from the bottom of the armhole and down to the bust and then goes back in to the waist. When I folded the dart down to true the side seam the angle was so great that I was unable to true it. Instead of getting a nice dart cap I ended up with a W shaped indentation. In addition the seam had such an angle that I was unable to sew it to the bodice back.

When I constructed my sloper it also had an angular side seam but the angle was not as great as the fitted shirt and I was able to smooth the seam out and true the dart. On the fitted shirt I attempted to straighten the side seam by laying a ruler at the bottom of the armhole and drawing a line down to where the waist indentation begins. This change resulted in a nice side seam that could be sewn to the bodice back but the garment ended up being too small in the bust. In fact, the garment was so small that I could not close it in the bust area.

Should the side seam be drafting in this manner? What can I do to correct it?

Lavonne
Dress Shop 6.2, Illusions, Fashion Designer 1 & 2, Princess Designer, Ultimate Outerwear, and the Dress Shop Fit tool.

I am a large busted woman, 40 DD, with a short front armhole joint. When the pattern drafted it creates a sharp angle out from the bottom of the armhole and down to the bust and then goes back in to the waist. When I folded the dart down to true the side seam the angle was so great that I was unable to true it. Instead of getting a nice dart cap I ended up with a W shaped indentation. In addition the seam had such an angle that I was unable to sew it to the bodice back.

ahhhhhhh the W..when yuou folded the dart out you need to

1 bring the bottom dart leg to sit on top of the top dart leg so the underside has the fold laying downards and then
2 you need to true away the excess paper cutting from underarm downwards.
this will true the cap and not give you that "cutaway W effect.
Kaaren

quote:

Originally posted by sewgood:
On the fitted shirt I attempted to straighten the side seam by laying a ruler at the bottom of the armhole and drawing a line down to where the waist indentation begins. This change resulted in a nice side seam that could be sewn to the bodice back but the garment ended up being too small in the bust. In fact, the garment was so small that I could not close it in the bust area.

Lavonne,

When you think about it, unless you want a wad of fabric under your arm, the sideseam has to draft on an angle from under the arm to the top of the bust dart. Commercial patterns don't draft to large bust sizes so we aren't used to seeing this in their patterns. I was pretty disconcerted when I first saw it also.

You are correct that putting a ruler from the underarm point to the waist will cut off too much bust room. You're basically recreating a standard pattern with B cup.

This is what has worked for me. After you have trued the dart cap per Karen's instructions, I "gentle" the angle at the sideseam. You'll have to experiment a little bit. I can pretty much eyeball it now. The sideseam will still be wider at the bust dart but you trim it to a more gentle curve starting several inches above the dart to several inches below.

For my fitted shirt with the ease level I chose, I can trim about 3/8's of an inch at the maximum point and have a garment that fits. Once the sideseam become a gentle curve you're able to sew the sideseam even if you have to do a little bit of easing.

The easiest way to find the amount that will work for you is to just true the dart cap. Then baste the fronts and backs together. Then you can pin the sideseam reducing the front sideseam angle to see the effect. The amount you have pinned out of the front sideseam is the amount you lose during the truing process.

No guarantees that this will work for you but so far it has for me and my bust is larger than yours.

Vicki

It's hard to know exactly what you are describing without a picture. I may be misunderstanding, so if I am, just skip what I have to say.

When you fold up the dart your side seam should be relatively straight. You may or may not have an indentation at the waist, but it should be straight at bust level.

Is your side seam straight at bust level?

I, too, have a large bust, and I have seen an angled side seam. I have been able to straighten it out by correcting some measurements. It may be the high bust or perhaps the back bust measurement that will straighten the seam.

You said your sloper was good. Did you not see the same type of angle in your sloper? Did the front side seam not fit the back? I don't see anything in what you described that would change the side dart.

quote:

Originally posted by Carolyn:
It's hard to know exactly what you are describing without a picture.

When you fold up the dart your side seam should be relatively straight. You may or may not have an indentation at the waist, but it should be straight at bust level.

I, too, have a large bust, and I have seen an angled side seam. I have been able to straighten it out by correcting some measurements. It may be the high bust or perhaps the back bust measurement that will straighten the seam.

Carolyn -

I uploaded a screen print of my default Fitted Shirt to the Photo Club. It's under Blouses & Tops under sewvicki. I think this is what Lavonne is describing. (She can correct me if I'm wrong.)

Could you explain further how you would try to change the measurements to generate a straight sideseam? If the High Bust is increased and the Back Bust decreased the amount I would need, I end up without a back underarm curve.

My body is wider at the Bust than at the High Bust area so it makes sense to me that the front pattern would need to be wider there. My sloper had an angled sideseam also. The biggest difference is that the sloper has a large waist dart also and it fits so snuggly that the sideseam is pulled into a straight line.

With ease in a normal garment the harsh angles cause the sideseam to hang in an unflattering manner. By "gentling" the sideseam I can achieve a sideseam drape that is more pleasing to the eye as well as to sew to the back sideseam.

I'd love to know if there is another way to tackle this problem.

Vicki

"In addition the seam had such an angle that I was unable to sew it to the bodice back. "

I don't know if this is the same problem I had or not, but here goes. I have a flat butt in addition to a large bust. Most of my "fluff" is just a few inches below the waist. Since that is the largest part, I called that the hip. I had a curved front side seam in the bodice that I couldn't sew to the back without straightening it.

Tessa said I had to call my "hip" 7 inches below my waist or it would never fit. I redid the measurements, changing all the others that no longer were accurate.

The side seam straightened out, my fitted shirt was now a proper length, and whoopie! my pants are nearly right now.

Fyfee

I have exactly the same issue with the big darts. I have learned to "shave" off some of the angle that the dart causes in the side seam. I leave it kind of rounded out. Then I ease it into the back side seam to sew them together. Hope this helps.

SD

Why did you change your dart width? What was it before you changed it?

I guess this is a question for the on-duty board administrator.

I sent a message in this thread yesterday (Saturday) before 6pm CST. I got the response that it needed to be reviewed.

It is now after 11:30am CST of the next day (Sunday)and the message still has not been posted.

When do I need to start worrying that the there is either a technical problem or the message has been rejected?

Vicki

Hi Vicki,

Not sure when to worry. I checked for the final time last night at about midnight PST (2am CST) and everything had been approved at that time.

I'm back at the computer at 10am PST (noon CST) and had 6 messages. Was your message in question one of them? If not, then repost it and I'll try to track down where it went.

Again, sorry if this moderation thing is causing anybody (besides me!) grief. I'm happy to say I've only had to hold back one message. It was such an obvious flame that it started with the sentence "You probably shouldn't post this..."

I'm really hoping that if it continues that people have packed away their poison pens we can turn moderation off. But for the moment I'm trying to cover the board from about 8am-11pm PST on weekdays and best I can with two teenage boys playing soccer on the weekends.

Thanks!
Greg

not yet anyway...

Weekends may be a bit slow till I figure out how to do my job.and get all my on line functions working as they should.

I can get the tower to function but not the laptop which as all the codes on it on line.My wireless system is functioning but the router needs to be remapped.and I need tech support to walk me through that. MONDAY

Kaaren

Have you tried changing the dart angle a little bit.

The standard sifde dart sits at about a 15 degree angle ( dart tool, adjust angle) this leaves the finished dart pointing straight on to the apex.

I much prefwer what we have called the elegant dart which is 20somethign degrees dependant on your chart.

The middle line of the dart is the finished "angle"

Kaaren

quote:

Originally posted by Vicki:
I uploaded a screen print of my default Fitted Shirt to the Photo Club. It's under Blouses & Tops under sewvicki.

With ease in a normal garment the harsh angles cause the sideseam to hang in an unflattering manner. By "gentling" the sideseam I can achieve a sideseam drape that is more pleasing to the eye as well as to sew to the back sideseam.

I'd love to know if there is another way to tackle this problem.

Try this: Cut pattern without seam allowance but with dart cap. Fold dart down, true side seam over dart cap only. Tape dart closed; tape side seam together from bottom to dart seam only; tape shoulder closed. Lay front over back with shoulder seam flat, and top 3-4" of center front together with center back. Notice a triangular wedge missing from the front side seam, from armhole to dart seam. Now pick up the taped pattern, place side seams together at armhole. Is your armhole really that small? Or would you prefer to true your pattern by adding that missing wedge and straighten your side seam, also giving you a larger armhole?

quote:

Originally posted by Board Administrator:
I'm back at the computer at 10am PST (noon CST) and had 6 messages. Was your message in question one of them? If not, then repost it and I'll try to track down where it went.

Hi, Greg -

It was one of the 6 messages so the lost is found.

No problem but the time stamps on the postings are confusing me. Are they the time zones that we each individually choose on our profiles or are they converted on the list to some magical standard time zone?

I was worried that my posting was lost in cyberspace since it looked like some messages were posted to the list after I had sent my yesterday.

Thanks, Vicki

quote:

Originally posted by Diane Day:
1Is your armhole really that small? Or would you prefer to true your pattern by adding that missing wedge and straighten your side seam, also giving you a larger armhole?

Sorry to say, Diane, my armhole is really that small. I've used other software and that is the problem since they don't have an upper bust measurement. I end up with these huge armholes and wads of extra fabric under my arms that bunches out all over creating a real bag lady look.

This works for me so far in just using the fitted shirt in a woven and a knit ... it just takes a little pattern prep to make it easier to sew and to help the sideseam drape. I'm hoping that some version of the steps I take will help Lavonne who made the initial post.

Vicki