Seams Enjoiable: 6945

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Winging It -- Kwik Sew 3617

I'm making slow, but steady progress on Kwik Sew 3617. I decided to add contour darts to help with the pool of fabric at my backside. I kept looking for clear directions on how to do the sway back adjustment, but I couldn't find any written and illustrated so that I could understand. I also have some serious concerns about adding a horizontal seam across the back. If anyone has pictures of how the finished technique looks, please share. **Update: found the technique illustrated here. Silly me thought that the seam would be visible in the garment like adding a dart**

Back to the contour darts. I took the path of least resistance. I went through my patterns to see which had back darts. I decided to go with New Look 6945. I simply traced the darts from that pattern onto the new pattern. How's that for winging it?

Here's a recap of what I've done so far:

When I trace my top patterns, I usually trace the side cutting lines for small-XL.

Then I tissue fit.

It's painfully clear why RTW never fits me! Next I add cutting and sewing lines.

Now, after some slicing and dicing (no-dart FBA). I end up with this:

After the FBA, I elected not to redraw the cutting and stitching lines. To make things easier, I included a 1" seam allowance when I finished the FBA.

Time for the darts. Since I was new to this, I ended up tracing all of them (and not too neatly).