Front Crotch Length just a little too Long?

You may have missed this article in the SFD Learning Center on refining the front crotch length.  In general, the crotch both front and back feel pretty good, but you may have some slight fullness directly under your tummy.  Here's what to do to alleviate that situation.

Some women experience horizontal fullness or bagging directly beneath their tummy and just before the crotch curve begins.  Once you’ve sewn your test muslin for your pants, if this is occurring, you will find one suggestion for a minor tune-up on page 12 (#1) of the Pants Kit Instruction Book.  This may be a satisfactory refinement for you. 

Another alternative is to remove this fold of fabric at CF.  Follow these directions:

1.  To determine how much you need to remove, pinch out the fabric in a tiny fold.  If you pinch out ¼” (.6cm), this will mean that you will be totally removing ½” (1.3cm).

 Close-up of dart/tuck wedge from CF going to nothing at the side seams.


2.  Mark this level location on CF of the crotch seam.  Draw a perpendicular line (to the grainline) over to the side seam.  Mark point A and B.

3.  Cut from CF to side seam, leaving a small hinge of paper at the side seam.  This will act as a pivot point.  Secure the pivot point with plastic tape.

4.  Overlap the CF seam the amount you require, thereby creating a small horizontal dart or tuck which begins at CF and goes to nothing at the side seam.

5.  True the CF crotch seam.

 6. The more you overlap at CF, the more the waist edge tilts down and angles the CF seam.  To maintain the original orientation of the upper CF seam, when you true the crotch seam, you will be creating a narrow wedge as indicated by the green arrow.  (The blue line indicates where CF at the waist edge originated).

7.  Cut/remove this narrow wedge and tape it back in place at the side seam waist edge.  This will maintain the correct waist circumference and true the side seam shape so that it will sew in the same curve to the back side seam.

8.  Redraw and reposition the front hip-fitting dart to best suit your body contours.

9.  Bring the straight of grain up from the leg.

This process will shorten the CF crotch length by the amount of the dart/tuck.   Be aware that you may need to add this amount on to the back crotch length so that you maintain your overall crotch length requirement.

Happy Sewing!

Darts & Color Blocking

Sometimes you might wonder what else you can do with the darts to make them kind of well...disappear.  Most of you know, you really can't do that since you need them for shaping your curves.  But you certainly can camouflage them by turning them into gathers or pleats.  Or...you can incorporate them into a color-blocking design as Joy has done (Joyful Expressions). 

Joy was copying a Burda pattern with her SFD dress blueprint and has done such a good job of explaining how to do this that I thought you should just see her video.
This is the Burda pattern that Joy copied.  Keep in mind, she did not have this pattern - she only saw the design lines and thought she would transform her SFD blueprint into this shift-style dress.

This is her completed accomplishment.

And, here's the video showing you how she did it.  (This is really Video #1)

Basically, your pattern would look like this illustration.

This is very definitely a great way to incorporate the dart for good fit as expressed in Joy's Color Blocking creation.  (Joyful Expressions)   Thanks for sharing and well done!

Highlights: August Fit & Sew Retreat

Yes this blog is not only dedicated to the lovely ladies who attended the SFD Fit & Sew Retreat this past August (it's hard to believe we're already in September and nearing the last quarter of this year), but also to the princess seam - in the pants leg, that is.

Why the princess seam?  Well when you introduce it into your pants pattern, it simply offer the option of refining the fit of the pant leg even more.  If you have a particularly flat butt, or very thin legs, or thin legs with a thick waist/torso, this seam is in the perfect location to truly shape that pant leg to your body curves.  In some of the following photos, you'll see the difference it can make.  So try not to negate or resist this concept, because once you've improved your pants fit to your satisfaction, you'll never go back.

Once again, ladies came from far and wide to attend this Sure-Fit Designs Fit & Sew Retreat. 

And then the fitting.  Notice the use of the princess line seam.

And if a princess line seam wasn't needed, the pants looked equally as good - in fact great on this diamond shaped hip student.

Just in case you are interested in how to add in a princess seam to the SFD pants leg, watch this short video - P.6.5 - How to draw a Fish-Eye Dart in Pants Back.  And though you may not be adding the Fish-Eye dart, the process to add the center leg seam is clearly explained in this video.

If you'd like to see a few more photos both of the fit results and the fashion garment projects, please just click through to Sure-Fit Designs Fit & Sew Retreat August 2013.

And even though the October 2013 class has long been full, soon I will be posting the 2014 dates, so please stay tuned.  Good fun and lots of learning is had by all.
Kindly,
Glenda

Beyond the Dromedary Hump

I hope you read last week's blog on my husband's dromedary-humped back neck.  There I showed you a simple remedy for this high, rounded upper neck.

Now it's time to discuss other areas of rounding in our backs.  Depending on the shape of your back, how erect you are - how curved you are - how prominent your back shoulder blades are, you may need a shoulder dart.  Sometimes it doesn't always appear that obvious when looking at your back...not that you generally look at your back unless you've got a 3-way mirror...and then again, sometimes it is more obvious.

In taking a look at this photo, you'll see diagonal folds in the back bodice going from the underarm up toward the shoulder blades.  This is saying that she's rounded across her upper back and that back shoulder darts would help to eliminate them.

Here is what the bodice back looks like with the simple addition of a shoulder dart.

There is a marked improvement in the back fit.  It still might be a little too wide under the arms, but remember that some of this is necessary wearing ease.  If you remove it all, you've now got a moulage and won't be able to move in it.  This center back seam is there for final fitting refinements and so it could be curved slightly, but in this sample bodice that CB seam is perfectly straight.

Here's what a pattern looks like during the process of adding the shoulder dart.

 For complete step-by-step instructions to add the shoulder dart, click on this link - Adding A Shoulder Dart.

And for those of you who prefer to watch this process, here is the detailed video: