Complete Confusion

It's October, so a post about the girls is appropriate. Y'all, I gave myself a four-day weekend for my birthday. One of the things I wanted to tackle was a t-shirt. Well, I woke up Friday with a sore throat. I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in bed. Looks like I'll be back to 100% just in time for work tomorrow. *Sigh*

Anyhoo, between coughs last night, I looked through t-shirt patterns and read through various online size guides. You know what? I previously cheered Cashmerette and Colette for the expanded sizing. However, upon closer inspection, I'm not sure they're right for me. 

I emailed Cashmerette eons ago about the sizing. I was thankful for the response and filed it away for future reference. I read it again, since I had dreams of tissue fitting today. It seems I am the opposite of the Cashmerette body type. I hope the image posts below. The Blogger app is not really mobile friendly.

(I ended up going to the website  to get this to post.) Now for Colette. So, the rule is to choose your size by your upper bust measurement and work an FBA. That puts me at a 10. I don't get to enjoy the DD cup sizing, which starts at 18. Even if I went with my full bust, that gets me to a 16. Still no DD sizing.

What's a full-busted pear to do?

Go back to my own FBAs and honking darts. Ugh. I was hoping for a shortcut.😔
I'm still going to try on the Cashmerette tissue just to see.

All is not lost. I am looking forward to trying the Colette and Sewaholic expanded sizing on some skirts and eventually pants. The have an 11" and 12" waist-hip difference, respectively. Every little bit helps.

Questions. Questions That Need Answering.

My Blogger app is not very cooperative this morning. Did anybody get my Lord of the Rings reference? Yep. I am a nerd. Anyhoo. I'm temporarily stuck! This FBA puzzles me. Well first, thank God for tracing!

I was getting ready to mark my cutting lines and I got confused when it came to the one through the dart.

So, is the line through the side bust dart supposed to divide the dart evenly? Or, is it ok if the dart isn't divided evenly?

                       

The green lines show me lining up the center of the dart and my bust point. The dart is divided unevenly.

If I divide the dart evenly, I would have to raise the bust point to make the line go through both. That's the pink option.

Which is correct?

I thought that maybe my previous alts had affected the dart and bust point alignment. I went back to the unaltered pattern. See the folded line? The bust point is already lower than the dart in the original pattern.

                           

I need to add 1 1/4" of real estate for the girls. Which is supposed to look like this, right?

                           

This is certainly an unanticipated snag. I thought the FBA was going to be the easiest part of this. I keep hearing the end of It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night. The part where Prince shouts, "Confusion!"

The Surgery Continues

I am so excited about this weekend's progress on my bodice sloper!! Like really excited because I walked away after getting so frustrated with the back alterations.

It's amazing how much time I spent fiddling with the shoulder. My shoulder seams pitch forward about an inch below the top of my shoulder -- the entire seam. I also had a bubble at the back armhole. I wanted to work from the top down. I lost a lot of time fooling with a high round back alt I ended up not using.  I think I may have prominent shoulder blades, but I'm still not sure.

In the month-long hiatus, I toyed with starting another project. I kept reminding myself that I would get stuck at the same place as the sloper. I read. I scoured Craftsy. I revisited Pinterest and YouTube.

Finally, I had the courage to start again on Saturday. Time to tackle the front. At some point, when I taped something wrong three times in a row, I had to laugh. Anyhoo.

Here's what I've done

Back

• Altered shoulder dart
• • Width
  • • Added 1/2" width
    • Dart is now 1 1/8" wide
  • Length
  • • Added 1/2"
    • Dart is now 4 1/8" long -- is a shoulder dart supposed to be this long?
• 1/4" square shoulder adjustment

Front

• 3/4" Narrow shoulder adjustment
• 1/4" square shoulder adjustment 
• Redrew armscye to narrow armhole around bust
• Drew new bust point based on folded armhole dart
• Added 1/2" armhole dart and rotated it to waist dart
• Moved to waist dart to align with new bust point

In the past, I did an FBA only to find I still needed the armhole dart. I was trying to stick with starting at the top and working my way down, so I did the armhole dart first.

But wait there's more -- to do that is. The CF is 2 1/2" away from my center front. I also need more width at the side seams. I know the FBA will help. 

Are waist darts really supposed to be 1" from the bust? If so, mine needs to be lowered 1/4." I think I want it 2 1/4" lower, but we'll see. I'm not sure what's appropriate for a sloper vs a fashion pattern. 

I haven't tried this on with elastic around my waist, but I think it's a bit short. 

I really want this finished by the end of the month!! However, I have some house cleaning out and up to do; none of which happened this weekend!