Sewing With Nancy - Fitting Finesse (VHS, 1994)

hi I'm Nancy Zeeman it's time for sewing with Nancy today I start a new three-part series entitled fitting finesse working with a basic or classic style pattern and making it custom fit just for you there are basic tools to work with very simple tools we're going to work with tape measure pins patterns some paper and some marking pens that's all we need to make this fitting technique work well fitting isn't my favorite part of sewing but it's a very essential part that's what's coming up next on sewing with Nancy sewing with Nancy TV's how to sew in program with Nancy seaman is brought to you by far the largest European manufacturer of sewing machines look for fast line of creative sewing machines and hobby lock sergers you'll do your best sewing on a fob beginner a tradition of quality in scissors and shears for home classroom and industry ginyu scissors and shears are the choice of professionals and by Nancy's notions catalog the catalog developed by Nancy DeMuth featuring specialty sewing quilting and surging books notions and supplies [Music] I'd like to start our program on fitting finesse by getting the right pattern size you know sometimes this is the most difficult part traditionally we've been taught to measure the bus line and by the pattern according to the bus line measurement this works out great if we have a proportion figure but unfortunately many of us have maybe a broader back or a fuller figure in a bind the pattern according to the bus line measurement you may get what I call gap osis it gaps around the neckline maybe the shoulders a little bit too long and the arm holes too deep fits greater on the bus line but the other areas have a problem to eliminate that problem I prefer to have you purchase a pattern so it fits the shoulders first and then we can fit the ins and outs as we go along working to get the pattern to fit the shoulders requires kind of a different type of measurement it's called the front with measurement it's measured across the front of the figure above the crease in the arm across the front chest to the other crease this illustration shows where the front with measurement is taken ask a sewing buddy to help you measure above one crease across the front with to the other crease and then measure to the closest half of an inch now if you're st. Nancy this is a fine measurement but where do I find that on the back of the pattern envelope unfortunately you're not going to so we have a chart that will give you the guideline here's the guideline size 14 happens to be 14 inches it's a great correlation size 14 is 14 inches and it changes a half of an inch precise so if you're thirteen and a half inches that happens to be a twelve thirteen inches is a ten and twelve and a half would be an eight and the app was the direction fourteen and a half inches would be a size 16 15 inches an 18 and so forth that chart has given you now the basis for working with your pattern size you may find that you'll be using a smaller size and you've had in the past now if you're thinking what if I'm a junior size or half size we can use that same type of chart for example junior sizes are many times purchased size 1112 together or 1314 if you would measure for a size 12 it's like a size 11 and you can see this correlated on the chart if you measure for a size 14 it would be like a 13 14 together by a junior size 13 in the opposite direction for half sizes simply by the corresponding half size rather than a whole size 16 5 size 16 and a half and so forth that's the sizing that you need for working with a front width measurement to get get great fitting finesse now for patterns I have some examples of pattern styles we're going to work with a very classic style something basic without a lot of darts and fitting and pattern pieces but something that you can wear it not a fitting shell this dress or jacket is a perfect example of how to work with a classic style this blouse pattern too has some maybe style options but yet pretty basic and fitting so that you could get a classic fit this next pattern shows a couple of options a simple top a long or short sleeve jacket even pants something again classic style a vest is another great option this vest has princess styling which will be discussing through this series has some fashion options but yet you can check your fit with a basic style and we have just two more to show you just to reinforce that you're going to use a basic pattern like this blouse or the dress and yet you'll have a great looking garment when you're finished but not a lot of pattern pieces to put together the concept of working with a classic style pattern is if you can get this classic style to fit you can apply the same recipe of alterations that you used on this style to any other style the alterations are simple I hate to use the word alterations but that's exactly what it is they're changes in the pattern and they require basic fitting tools the fitting tools beside your pattern you'll need some paper some pattern paper wax paper would work fine - or tissue paper pins every story needs pins it will be moving the pattern with the use of a pin of course a tape measure and then two colors of marking tools marking pens I should say here I black and red one will be tracing the outline of the pattern and the second will show the change so this is what we made what we need for fitting tools for fitting finesse the first fitting finesse change I'd like to give you today is working with the bus line obviously you'll start by measuring around the fullest part of the bus line in this illustration shows how simple that is measure with a tape measure parallel to the floor and place of thumb or finger underneath the tape measure so that you are getting a very accurate measurement not too tight and not too loose if you would like enlist the help of a sewing buddy to help you take this measurement it'll go a lot faster record that measurement or make a note of that measurement whatever you haven't happened to be again taking it to the closest half of an inch not worrying about eighth of an inch and fourth of an inch width and then compare that measurement to the measurement given on the back of the pattern envelope I highlighted on this pattern a size 14 and the size 14 bus line measurement happens to be 36 inches so if you know that your bust measurement is 38 and the pattern is made for a 36 inch measurement you'd have to add two inches to the pattern now where does this measurement go two inches is going to be divided by four because there are two seams one on each side but two layers of fabric two on the front two in the back so you divided by four in this instance I'll be adding a half of an inch for each side seam or each cut edge I'll show you how to do this I mentioned earlier we'll be working with a work sheet tissue paper pattern paper whatever type of paper you'd like and two marking pins rather than cutting the pattern apart and slashing it what I'm going to recommend to do is to outline the pattern the cutting line right on your worksheet using one color of pin just trace following the pattern cutting line then measure out the needed increase in this instance I'm working with a half of an inch measuring out from the underarm area in place of mark measured from the cut line that half of an inch now to make the changes I'm going to use a pin and I'll make use a larger pin just so you can see a little bit more clearly the pin is placed at the shoulder right where the stitching lines cross where the shoulder and armhole lines meet I'm going to pivot or move the pattern to meet that increase mark so that the cutting line and the new half-inch increase are aligned together now trace the shape of the armhole and I'm following the identical shape that the pattern has given me and trace around the corner leave the pattern pivoted and move the pen to the underarm where the stitching lines cross it's always at that underarm area or where the seams cross and now pivot this it swings like a pendulum on a grandfather clock pivoted so that it meets the original pattern at the waistline we only change the bus line in this instance I'll place the pattern back on the original tracing or outline I would tape this to the pattern and here would be my change it's so smooth and simple and best of all let me show you this armhole it's the same size so that the sleeve will fit in here without any change and that will give you two inches if you add the same thing to the back as you did to the front it'll give you that two inches around the bustline now if you can increase you can decrease if your pattern measured 36 inches and you measured 34 it would be a little bit too large so in this instance to decrease we would measure in from the cutting line a half of an inch place a mark on the pattern and go through the same process of placing the pin at the shoulder where the stitching lines cross and pivot the pattern to meet the decrease mark again following the shape our outline of the pattern you get a decrease then move the pin to the underarm again with that stitching line crosses and then pivot to meet the waistline this is just changing the bustline not the waist well I'll show you some combinations of alterations as we go along but it's best is to kind of take it one by one now there you can see the change of making the width smaller and tapering it at the waistline when cutting this pattern out I would I'd like to do is to just fall back to pattern and tape the worksheet to my pattern and cut along the smaller line that way you have the grain line the other notches and darts mark for you and this is a simple way to change the pattern by either decreasing or increasing once you know how simple it is to pivot the pattern to make changes to increase or decrease you can easily change the waist and the hip line as well first of all start with a waistline to measure your waist bend to the side and the deepest wrinkle is your waistline it's kind of a quick way of finding the right placement then with the tape measure measure I got again around the smallest part of your figure your waistline placing a thumb or finger underneath the tape measures this illustration shows measuring to the closest half of an inch compare your measurement to the measurement given on the back of the pattern envelope I'm going to use an example of having a measurement of 31 inches for the waistline the pattern is made for 28 the difference between the two obviously three inches I like to use a simple fraction idea for making the changes or knowing how much to quickly add simply place the number of inches that you need to add or subtract over the number of cut edges now there are generally four cut edges two seams but two layers of fabric per seam so that's 3/4 of an inch is all that you need to add in this instance at the waistline on the pattern I've already outlined the basic pattern and it's simply measure 3/4 of an inch and place a mark right on my work sheet rather than the pin being placed at the shoulder we're simply going to move the pin in this instance to the underarm right again with that stitching lines crossed this is very gradual makes a lot of common sense to just pivot the pattern to meet the increase mark and follow the pattern outline to make this change simply makes a change a little bit wider at the side repeat on the back piece and you would easily add three inches to the pattern just by adding 3/4 of an inch on the pattern piece that if you can increase you can decrease rather than measuring out from the cut edge for decreasing let's measure inward keeping the pin at the underarm where the stitching lines cross and pivot to meet the smaller change very gradual rather than guesstimating when you're cutting out your pattern how much to take off this just gives you a nice line to follow pin back the pattern when you attach this tissue paper to your pattern so you get the right cutting line simple as that now the hip line the basic three width measurements what bust waist and hip you need to measure that hip have your sewing buddy measure around your fullest part of your figure wherever it may be again with a tape measure parallel to the floor then here's the second illustration or measurement you need with the free end of the tape measure measure the distance between your waist and your hip lines so that wherever your hip may be placed you'll get that right measurement right on the pattern here I'm going to use an example of measurement of 42 inches the pattern is made for a 38 now generally you may be buying a pet a little bit smaller than what you traditionally have used so adding 4 inches really isn't a lot of measurement to add you'll soon see you'll add 4 inches to 4 cut edges and some simple math tells you you'll be adding 1 inch on each side I have marked in my pattern where this hip line should be placed this is a kind of a short pattern so I've made the hip line higher than perhaps it has been allowed on the pattern just to show you wherever you have the fullest part is where I'd like you to make the measurement so that this red line coincides with the distance between your waist and hips measure out one inch from your hip line placement and then make that same one-inch measurement way at the hem line so that you have a nice tapered line going from hip to him here I'm going to place a pin at the underarm same place as the waist line where the stitching lines cross and for this sheath dress I'll simply taper or pivot the pattern to meet the increase mark at the hip line then at the hip so that the pattern doesn't flare out as it is right here I'll put the place the pin at the hip angle this down it's very logical as you can soon see and when I place this back to the original position presto there's my change and again repeat the same alteration on the back piece now if you're wondering well Nancy I may need to add a little bit to the hip and maybe a little bit to the bustline yes you can do it all in one worksheet I'm showing it to you individually first of all but then you can combine them simple very simple to do so let's add a half of an inch this instance will use the same pattern at the bustline and then that same 1-inch at the hip and also at the hemline well rather than pivoting for the hip line first of all we'll start at the top start at the shoulder where the stitching lines cross and pivot to meet the bust line increase then trace that armhole just as I showed you earlier in this program go around the corner and then move the pin to the underarm and pivot to the hip line and trace this increase all the way down and then from the hip to the hem and within a matter of minutes you have changed this pattern to increase the bust line and hip line earlier in this series I detailed working with pivot and slide techniques so far you've just seen the pivoting of changing the width for the bust waist and hip line now for the length I'm going to slide the pattern up and down as if it were a window and to change the length the first leg alteration in this series is to change the position of the dart you may want the dart higher or lower and first of all check to see if the pattern is right for you pin the front and back pattern pieces together as if they were sewing just at the shoulder seam place it on your figure then as this illustration shows align the center front with your center front and mark wherever you have the fullest part of your figure mark it right on the pattern I'm pin the pattern then we'll do some measuring on this particular pattern it was multiple size so I have three darts here I've highlighted the dart size I'm going to be working with and then measure the distance between the dart and your figure you always want the dart to end about one inch from the fullest part of your figure which this does in this instance and then the depth are the lengths between the dart and the your position is one inch so it will be a simple change just lower the dart by one inch traditionally we may be asked to cut out a section the pattern and drop it down you're cutting your pattern apart and I don't always like to do this the simple way of working it with it is on the work sheet to outline the hemline and the center front the center front is going to be used as a guide to slide the pattern up and down to keep it on grain the side seam of the pattern is or the side area the cutting line is not traced to lower this dart by one inch I'm simply going to measure down from the cut edge 1 inch and place a little mark just for my reference align it back up to the original tracing and then slide the pattern down following that Center front until the cutting line meets that 1 inch mark trace the side seam and nevado a couple of inches below the dart now at the dart area itself mark the dart lakes the lines that make up the dart and if possible use a tracing wheel and trace the dart lakes so that the perforated lines will be marked on the waxed paper or the worksheet then slide the pattern back up to the original position following that grain line again so everything's aligned and notice now how the Lord art section has been added to your pattern and continue tracing this is the time when you're going to be adding the work sheet on top of the pattern as opposed to underneath the pattern and I can see the perforation possibly you can't see it as well as I can but I'll just simply highlight the dart legs following that perfect rated line and there's my lord art now you might guess that if you'd like to raise that dart it's the reverse and I'm simply just going to show you on this sheet rather than sliding the pattern down slide the pattern up the amount that you'd like to change it trace around that side seam change again use the tracing wheel to perforate where that dart should be for the raised position and when you slide it back down on the underside I have a raised dart area rather than a lowered dart and that's how to slide the dart up or down in this first program of fitting finesse I detailed working with the basics of fitting getting the right pattern size and then some of the pivot and slide alterations the pattern size in my opinion is probably the most crucial getting it to fit your shoulder area rather than buying it to fit a width measurement that can easily change that front width measurement again is size measuring abroad the crease in one arm to the crease and the other and I gave you those sizing measurements just as a quick reminder all those sizing measurements are written in the companying book fitting finesse when working with a pattern choose a basic style classic styles I'd like to say something that doesn't have a lot of pattern pieces has fitted details but some straight lines not a lot of pieces to put together and use this kind of as your recipe something that you're going to start off with and once you find out what changes you need to make on this classic style that's what you can make on all stylize patterns from there on out so we're working with something very practical we can wear but then we can apply these alterations later next I'll give you some more detailed up items on working with fitting finesse before we go on to the next project I thought about one of the fine underwriters of sign with Nancy I'm sure you've noticed that I use five sign machines and surges exclusively in my television show and videotapes and there's a good reason for it five machines provide the reliable performance I need and they're very easy to use what's more five stitch quality is exceptional so whether I'm using a five creative model for a labyrinth sewing or a high would like serger for home deck work I know I can count on my father to help me do my best sewing every time and so can you your local fifty ler is there to help and can show you the entire fault line hi man sees even welcome to sawing with Nancy today I had the second program of our three-part series entitled fitting finesse working with classic style patterns and doing some specialty alterations to make some custom fit your figure today in the second program I'm going to specialize in working with the shoulder and the back areas of pants I just have a classic style back pattern I'm going to show you a length in the back make it shorter square slope narrower broad the shoulder it's all very simple and that's what's coming up next on slide with Nancy making the changes on the patterns a very simple process if you're with us during our first program this series I showed you how to pivot the pattern to make with changes slide it to make length changes and we're working on a worksheet a piece of paper tissue paper pattern paper wax paper whatever you'd like to use some pins and marking pens first of all we're going to work today with the back as I mentioned and shoulder alterations starting with a back length the back length measurement is measured as you can see from the base of the neck to the waist line a flat 1 to 1 ratio this is the measurement that's given on the back of the pattern envelope there four of them bust waist hip and back length so simply compare your measurement for the length to the patterns measurement now perhaps you may have what's commonly called a swayback there's too much length in the back and you'll have on your clothes and perhaps you've seen on someone else's clothes or wrinkles gathered like this at the back there's too much length crosswise fold wrinkles indicate too much length to get rid of that length if do you compare your measurement to the measurement that a pattern envelope we can take care of it just on the back piece obviously that's just where the alterations are needed I've already outlined the pattern and let's say for example that you would like to decrease one length one inch excuse me one inch from the length so I'm measured down from the cutting line one inch this is a combination of sliding the pattern and pivoting it sliding it down following the grain line will give us the pattern or keep it on grain and now I'm going to outline or trace the cutting line at the neck what's nice about this is that the collar facing or whatever shape is going to be applied here will fit perfectly because I followed the same shape as the pattern leave it in this position and then place a pin at the neckline where the stitching lines crossed the neck and the shoulders seam meet the pivot point is always placed at where the cross mark is or ends then pivot like a pendulum on a grandfather clock the pattern to meet the original tracing at the end of the shoulder and then outline the shoulder simple as that and there's the alteration to make the sway back to make it shorter the collar or neck line will fit fine the front and back shoulder seams will fit together because it's the same length but yet the length from the back piece has been taken away now you can attach this to your pattern by just folding down the extra pattern and cutting around in this instance the red mark or you could actually trim your pattern piece however you'd like to work it you've now made that change the opposite of taking away length is adding length maybe you have a curved back or you stand stooped this is alteration is solved in the same manner here you can see the stress wrinkles that often occur in a figure where there are wrinkles the length isn't long enough I should say at the back obviously not going to change at the front just on the back piece first step is always to kind of outline that basic pattern on the work sheet so you have a basis room to work from and I've worked on this already and we're going to add in this instance three-fourths evidence let's say your measurement was 3/4 of an inch longer than the patterns measurement or what was written on the pattern envelope now instead of sliding the pattern down following that center back I'll just slide it up to meet the longer length draw the longer center back and the neckline following the cutting line we always trace following the cutting line the pivot point remains the same I'll place the pin at the neckline where the stitching lines cross and pivot like a pendulum the pattern so that it meets the original tracing at the end of the shoulder and traced the shoulder line when I would meet this back to the original pattern the collar or interfacing would fit at the neckline and when you're adding a lot of length at the shoulder you may find that the back shoulder seam is just to touch longer well almost on every pattern like it says on mine it states to ease the back shoulder to meet the front he possibly will have to ease a little bit more length but it will give that extra length that you need in the pattern piece without slashing the pattern and it will also keep it on grain so those are two simple changes to make that back fit with finesse the next four alterations I'd like to show you how to do with changing the shape or the length of the shoulder first of all narrow and then broad shoulders measuring the shoulder length isn't a measurement that I'd like to take on a figure because a shoulder seam really is a style feature if you think style feature well I'd like to show you three patterns they're the same size and even though they're all a sized eight these patterns have various degrees of length of the shoulder and also depth so to measure the shoulder length is kind of a difficult measurement to take and then apply to the pattern so in making narrow shoulders or broad shoulders I like to use a fitting formula first of all I think you kind of know if your shoulder length is generally too long or too short on a length that's too short as you can see here the shoulder seam are your length is too short your shoulder seam falls off the end of your shoulder the fitting formula that I like to use is if you have very narrow shoulders take off a half of an inch slightly narrow just 1/4 of an inch generally I go in fourth of an inch increments shoulder seams on an average about 5 inches are so long so taking off a half of an inch is 10% of the length so that's why a fourth of an inch maybe just be the right amount for you as with before we're going to just trace the pattern shape on a worksheet and first of all for the narrow shoulders measure from the cutting line fourth or half of an inch and I've guesstimated about a half of an inch to remove length the traditional thing to do would be just to cut off the shape of a fourth of an inch or half of an inch but that increases the shape of the armhole so that the sleeve doesn't fit in as well so to make this work very effectively we'll just align the pattern to the outline slide it over following the traced line place a pin at the shoulder where the stitching lines crossed where the shoulder and armhole seam meet and then pivot the pattern so that the underarm and the original tracing are lined up and now trace the new cutting line there'll be a slight change at the underarm just a very slight change but it keeps that armhole the same shape when I place the pattern off the tissue you can see where the new cutting line is and then often when cutting this off I would just fold back the pattern and use the red line as my new line the next step obviously is to repeat this process on the front piece whatever you do to the back you must do to the front when changing the shoulders the broad shoulders reverse this illustration shows the common stressed wrinkles that occur if the shoulder length is too long often this is common in menswear many of these alterations can be applied to menswear as well as to seitan for children or sighing for gals to make the shoulder broader we're going to use that same fitting formula process a fourth of an inch or a half of an inch I was at a little bit at a time you can always maybe change it the next time around so we'll just add a small half of an inch added at the length of the shoulder the process is the same what's so nice about this if you can increase you can decrease or if you can add it add you can subtract and here we're just going to slide it again following the original trace line draw the longer shoulder seam and around the corner and I'm going to place a pin again at the shoulder with the stitching lines cross and I'll pivot the pattern to meet the same tracing that's at the underarm and when I trace this we'll just simply follow that underarm and there's the broader shoulder this time its extends out further just the way the body is shaped and it goes a little deeper at the underarm but the sleeve will fit in perfectly you will feel fine on your figure and you'll get rid of those stress wrinkles again tape the pattern and the worksheet together so that you can cut along the new line and that's how to work with narrow and broad shoulders sloping and square shoulders are the next to shoulder alterations I'd like to detail and again we're going to use the fitting formula idea there's really no way to measure whether you have how square your shoulders are all sloping there but the wrinkles enclose that you have probably indicate that first of all square shoulders you can see the illustration that there are wrinkles that radiate out from the neckline many times the collar or in this instance the neckline rides up at the neckline indicating the shoulders are just a little bit square at 1/4 of an inch or a half an inch depending upon the squareness of your shoulders on every pattern that I make I always alter four square shoulders and here's how I'm working with the front piece in the alteration would be the same for the front and back and I've outlined the pattern as we've done in all the other previous alterations Foursquare shoulders are measure up 1/2 of an inch from the cutting line push this down so that you can see measure up a half of an inch or fourth of an inch the pin is placed at the neckline and I'm going to pivot the pattern to meet the increased mark and obviously the shoulders seen has been placed higher just the way that the arm and shoulder are structured higher now the pin goes up the underarm excuse me at the shoulder where the stitching lines cross and will pivot to the underarm so that the cutting line and the pattern align at the underarm and trace the armhole the same steps would be accomplished on the back piece when I place this back to the original position you'll be able to see that everything has been raised just like a square shoulder repeat on the back piece and then all the positions will line up the sloping shoulder is next in sloping shoulders many times have occurred uncommon or uncomfortable wrinkles at the underarm this illustration shows how biased fold wrinkles form at the underarm many times when I give seminars and people say how do you make an armhole deeper generally they need to make sloping shoulders because their shoulders angle down at a slider greater slope and if this garment binds at the underarm here's how to solve that again I've traced the pattern on the worksheet and instead of measuring up four square shoulders we're just going to measure down measure down 1/4 or 1/2 of an inch and place the pin this time at the neckline where the stitching lines cross and pivot to meet the angle trace the shoulder and then from the shoulder seam to the underarm the armholes in the same position but it's just been angled downward to fit the shape of the body and then again repeat in the back peace simple changes they make logical sense when you see them positioned on the worksheet the last alteration for this segment of sewing with Nancy will be the broad back this instance you'll may times have wrinkles that are stressed wrinkles across the back with is on this illustration it's just too tight when you're driving a car giving somebody a hug or reaching into the top cover it you just don't have enough room in your clothes in the back and this is how you alter for this the back area requires a special measurement as you might guess we're going to measure across the back comparable to the way we measured the front with earlier in this three-part series this illustration shows that you measure above one crease in the back arm across the back width to the other crease it's just the reverse of what we use for the pattern sizing to this measurement we need a little ease this measurement is not given on the back of the pattern envelope only the bust waist hip and back length are given so we have to come to determine how much ease is in a pattern all patterns have ease in areas for comfort for style and the basic ease that is needed for a back width is an inch and a half let's say for example my back with measurement was 16 and a half inches I would place the end of my tape measure adding an inch and a half to 18 I have the tape measure folded in half because I have a half of a pattern and I'm simply going to place the tape measure down placing the fold of the tape measure at the stitching line and measuring across the center of the back this pattern measured two inches shorter than actually my measurement you can understand or see that it only shows one inch on my tape measure but this is half of a tape measure I'm going to add one inch to both the center the armhole and at the underarm because when adding to the back you need to add in those two places will grab my marking pen again and tape measure and measure out one inch from the center of the armhole and the same amount at the underarm this is one of those rare occasions that you add in two places the pin is going to be placed at the shoulder where the stitching lines cross where the seam is meet and pivot to meet the increase this will give quite a great width across the back this is adding a total of two inches width then place the pin at the center of the armhole and pivot to meet the increase at the underarm and now continue the shape of the arm hole from the underarm I'll simply go back to the original waistline when I put this back in the original position you can see the broader back a much wider pattern but yet the sleeve will fit in there without any change and that's how to make the back wider in today's program I've detailed many alterations for shoulder and back and perhaps you may have more than one alteration needed on your pattern and I'd like to show you how to combine them first of all the two-step method then the one step two step mean you do the alterations one by one I just finished showing you how to increase the back width for a broad back and I have cut out the worksheet and attached a pattern worksheet to my pattern where I have the changes and I added this is a little narrower back with change a half-inch both the sent at the back and at the end arm and we've shaded the change area so that you could see more clearly for example if you'd like to make a broad shoulder on this pattern then you would measure out 1/4 or 1/2 of an inch from the shoulder area and then I've already traced the worksheet following my new change following the red line that I had on my worksheet and now I would simply slide the pattern make the longer mark place a pin at the shoulder where the stitching lines cross and pivot back to read meet the outline on my original pattern and I'll be tracing it mr. section here I'd be tracing following the new pattern it gets a few more lines in here but you can see the change that you'd be doing and you tape the to pattern pieces together the one-step method is a little faster once you get more accustomed to this and feel comfortable you can certainly work with both at one time I would start at the top of the shoulder first and work your way down the side this pattern is noted for the same two changes a broader back notice I have a increased mark at the shoulder and then a wider back both at the center of the armhole and at the underarm so to do this one-step method I'll slide it over draw the longer shoulder seam then place the pin at the shoulder and pivot to meet the increased mark at the center of the armhole at the center of the armhole place the pin and pivot to meet the increased mark at the underarm trace the rest of the armhole and then from the underarm simply go back to the original waistline so this was accomplished with one sheet of a worksheet I have the same increase there's a little bit more streamlined let me show you this again how to make combinations for example on this one I'm going to make a sloping shoulder and also a little bit narrower of a shoulder the pin would go at the neckline where the stitching lines cross starting at the very first pivot point and I'll angel' down to meet the slope mark but now the shoulder is narrower so I'd slide it over and draw the shoulder seam which is shorter and also sloping the pin is placed at the shoulder where the stitching lines cross and I'll simply angle this back to the measurement or marking at the underarm and at home you can maybe trace a little bit straighter than I'm managing today but here you can see that we have a narrow shoulder in a sloping shoulder all on one worksheet using the one-step method [Music] in the second program of fitting finesse I detailed working with obviously the pivot and slide techniques I think you're getting the idea how simple these pattern changes can be in our to do one additional hint especially in the shoulder area you may have on your figure one shoulder higher than the other but I would recommend for example if you had one square shoulder and the other it was not needing of this alteration to cut out your pattern pieces both front and back with the square shoulder alteration then after cutting out your fabric for the higher side remember you can always take away fabric you can't add it back on then remove the alteration and here we'll just slip it down then cut out the opposite side that was not a square removing the extra fabric do the same on the back piece I couldn't like to do this after I've cut out the fabric remember you can take away fabric but you can't add it back on in our next segment of fitting finesse I'm going to work with stylized patterns we'll be right back after this short pause here's a message from ging er a national underwriter of my program ganger incorporated manufactures the finest shears and scissors used by sewing enthusiasts across the country get your products are valued for their tradition of excellence and quality I rely on your Sears and scissors for all my cutting needs Junior is recognized by sewing experts as a premier line of cutting tools and home sewing and needle arts look for ganger scissors and shears at your favorite sewing center or in the latest nancy's notions catalog I'm Nancy Zeeman welcome to sign with Nancy this is my third program of a three-part series entitled fitting finesse using a basic pattern and fitting it with pivot and slide techniques the first two programs of this series I detailed the pivot and slide techniques with as I mentioned classic styles but now it's time to advance to work with more stylized patterns that have multiple seams as you can see in this princess style dress and jacket are working with special patterns let's say with Raglan or Dolman style and that's what's coming up next on sewing with Nancy before I show you how to alter stylize patterns I'd like to do one more alteration on classic styles that's the sleeve if you've ever had your sleeve draw or be too tight around your arm chances are you need to increase the sleeve with it's simple first of all measurement this illustration shows to measure around the fullest part of your arm between the elbow and the shoulder again measuring to the closest half of an inch unfortunately on the back of the pattern envelope it's not given as far as the arm measurements for the corresponding sizes but you can simply check your measurement on the pattern after allowing ease eases the extra room the living room you'll need in patterns you'll need two inches of ease added to your arm measurement for example if your arm measured 14 inches you need a total of 16 inches for that sleeve to feel comfortable and you'd measure underneath the cap from stitching line to stitching line to see if this sleeve is the right size way over on this end it measures 14 and a half inches so this leave would be an inch and a half too tight if 16 inches was the measurement to add an inch and a half a 3/4 of an inch will be added on each side we're only going to divide the increase by two there's one seam or two cut edges so a simple way to do this is after tracing your pattern or outlining it on a worksheet to measure out from the cutting line a total of 3/4 of an inch on either side the pivoting in this instance starts at the large dot at the calf of the sleeve now place the pin in that area and pivot to meet the increase one side at a time and then trace the new cutting line from cap to the underarm just around the corner put it back on the original position pivot to the other side so that the increased mark and the pattern are aligned again trace the pattern just one half of it the sleeve will fit in here perfectly because this is the same cutting line then to get the remainder of the side seam slide the pattern over along the hem line and draw the straight side seam this is the way you accomplish the alteration for a short sleeve and repeat on the other side and there's your altered sleep this is the cutting line the red line that would be attached to your pattern to give you the right change now if you're working within long sleep you do not need that increase to go all the way down you simply need it to be added right at the underarm wherever you have the widest part of your sleeve so in this instance I'll just kind of guess out about 3/4 of an inch on either side I'd again place the pin at the large dot at the cap of the sleeve and pivot to meet the increase mark same first step as before outline that pattern and go around the corner then place the pin at the underarm where the seams cross where the armhole seam and the side seam meet place the pin in that area and angle the pattern back to the original mark at the hemline to the original tracing and you simply follow the pattern which gradually tapers this down to nothing at the hem you repeat repeat the process on the other side but if you just look on this area you'll see what a nice gradual change that gives you in the arm home this is really simple but very valuable the best thing to keep in mind is that this sleeve will fit perfectly because you now have not changed the size of the armhole like the jacket I'm wearing today has a two-piece sleeve and you'll find on those pattern pieces the patterns are a little bit differently shaped not to fear this technique works just as well on a two-piece sleeve as a dozen a one-piece sleeve I'm going to stack the two pattern pieces together the upper and under sleeve as if they were sewn meeting the stitching lines and I've already marked a horizontal line starting at the underarm of the under sleeve and marking across the upper sleeve we need to know where the increased mark should be on either side of the upper sleeve I'd like to show you how to do that now I already have my pattern traced and I'll just work with only the upper sleeve and you might get the idea that this is very simple and that is to pivot to meet the increased mark trace the pattern into the increase mark or the underarm area and at home you can trace a little straighter and then pivot from the underarm to the hem gradually taper them down to nothing after repeating it on the other side that's how that upper sleeve would be changed once you've mastered your fitting formula on a basic clap or classic style you can apply those same techniques to more stylize patterns for example we're going to start with a Raglan style this is a rather casual look of a pattern that has Raglan styling but the seam of the sleeve angles from the neckline to the underarm at a bias to get an increase at the bustline or change the sleeve requires a little bit different type of configuration again climb in the same pivot ideas that I detailed earlier if you have in the past increased your sleeve let's say by the 3/4 of an inch that I just showed you in a basic sleep you can apply those same three-fourths of an inch amounts on a Raglan sleeve now whenever I see a Raglan sleeve I think of a batwing it just really has an unusual shape this is one half of the sleeve this is the center back and this is where the increase would be in the underarm area to measure out your increase measure the increase from the cutting line in place a mark or hash on the paper now to do the pivoting we don't have a shoulder seam as you can see we just have this long angle the line the pin is placed at the intersection of the scene for the neckline and the Raglan seam and this is just to increase the sleeve if you had to do that just pivot the pattern so that the pattern cutting line meets the increase mark what we're doing is getting more width in the sleeve or the underarm area I have to be honest sometimes in a Raglan sleeve it's rather loosely fit so you don't have to do this too often but if the garment had a closer stylized wit this is how you would accomplish it then the pin is placed at the underarm it's really not the underarms but the side seam and we'll pivot the pattern back to meet the tracing at the sleeve now again this is only what you would accomplish if you had to increase the sleeve on a basic style pattern and here you can see that the width has been achieved through the whip through the pattern giving you extra fullness the next step is to look at the bodice now perhaps if you had to increase the bustline on a basic dress then you may want to apply that same technique to the Raglan sleeve just because you increase the sleeve doesn't mean you have to increase the bus line or vice versa just happens to be the way I'm showing it to you today this is pretty similar to what I just went over but again the increased mark would be measured out from the underarm area these patterns look so comparable that it's obvious where the changes would go at the loop stitching line at which is the neckline in the Raglan sleeve is where the pin is placed and the pattern then again is angled to meet that increased mark this will give you the whiff frankly I've done more alterations on Raglan to increase the bustline than the sleeve but I just wanted to show you that once you know what you need to add you can simply do that to almost any style using these simple ideas and then angle this down to nothing at the waist area the back or front would look very comparable to where the sleeve is altered so that's the simple Raglan style very comfortable style to wear you can add many inches in that area and again generally you may have an array going style enough style ease in it that you don't have to do these but this is just if it's a little closer fit this style that we're showing on this card illustrates a Dolman or perhaps a cap sleeve would be a version of this where the bodice and sleeve are cut in one piece one continuous piece this can be tripped a trick to fit if you don't know the right way to go about it if you are altering it for square shoulders as we did in our second program or sloping or increasing the bustline which I'll just show you today you have to determine where the pivot let me show you the Dolman sleeve this is a back piece of a Dolman where again the bodice and sleeve are cut into one now a drop shoulder you may have the pattern will end about in this area but regardless you don't have a shoulder line to work with take a basic or your classic style pattern and place it on top of the Dolman now many times you'll find that this pattern has more ease or fullness in the areas but align the center fronts or center backs in this instance and mark approximately where the stitching line would meet at the on the basic style transfer that to the Dolman pattern style and I've just placed a mark where I'd put my place my pivot pin on this particular pattern if I were going to increase the bustline and measure out from the underarm area the needed increase I've already traced the pattern place the pin at the dot and pivot to meet the increase here I'm going to betray tracing a better trace straight yeah there we go tracing around the whole sleeve shape and then at the underarm we place the pin and angle back to the waistline and this is how to work with a Dolman sleeve if you need to do the increase the next stylized pattern alight to details working with a princess style princess styling is very common it has two general types and I'd like to start by showing you those pattern shapes this is more of a traditional style of princess where there are many side seams first of all the seam comes in the middle of the figure around the bustline to the shoulder there are many pattern pieces actually for pattern pieces to make the front with making it perfect for full scale or full size figures you can add a lot of inches evenly this next illustration shows an another type of princess style where the seaming curves to the armhole both of these are considered princess styling they have slightly different pivot points and I'd like to detail that as I mentioned this is perfect for full-scale figures if you'd like to add many inches at the bustline and hip line of course you can do the other alterations for the shoulder and broad back I'm going to start with the bust and hip line just to give you the idea the pattern pieces the four pattern pieces there's a back piece a side back side front and the front piece I have them all pinned together at the underarm as if they were sewn together stitching line on top of stitching line and let me just get them lined up as if the seams were sewn and they were actually fabric so I hid then could find where the underarm was placed it's important to know where the underarm is on the pattern pieces so you know where to make the increase for the bust line is where I'm going to show you today so I simply marked that on all four pieces now before we show this to you on the pattern light to show you one more thing in these pattern pieces and that is look at all the seams there are actually six seems we have one two three and then double it by cutting the pattern twice would give you six or twelve cut edges if you needed to add a lot of inches you would divide your increase by 12 just a small increase you could do it just on the side seam but let's say for example you would needed to add six inches to the bustline could be a very common alteration divided by 12 we're also gonna add to the hip line just that same amount just to use it as an example starting off with the side panels since these are all side seams I can simply add to both pieces across from the increase both on the site the traditional side seam and then that angles seam that you see that I pointed out to you let's start with the side front the pivot pin is the intersection point and I'll simply pivot to meet the increased mark trace the underarm and that the underarm pivot out to meet the hip increase and I've added just a slight increase at the hip so you can see you can get adding a lot of inches very gradually in this manner you would do the same on the front piece pivot at the intersection to meet the increase mark and then from the increase mark to the hip line repeat the same on the side panel piece here's the change very gradual change on the underneath patterns I've increased the front and back pieces already four you would not add to the center front or center back just at the side areas it's always important to add at the sides that will keep the grain lines of the pattern straight without changing them let me line them up properly with the initial tracing line even though it's just a small little increase because we have so many side seams you can get that increase added very easily so if you need to add a lot of inches try working with the princess-style pattern the last part of fitting finesse and working with the patterns is what I call extra extensions it's an area and pattern changing where you can add many inches but you have to do kind of two steps I saved the most kind of challenging area and fitting to the last extra extensions are blocks of fabric or blocks of with added to the pattern after pivoting husband has been accomplished this example shows the red line with it pivoted to increase the pattern and here we've added an extension and you may say why do you want to do that well any bodice for the bust line the maximum you can increase by pivoting is four inches or one inch on each side if you simply do more than four inches or add more than four inches when you pivot the pattern and you start swinging it up it obviously gets way out of proportion the underarm gets way too high the one-inch mark which is pretty common to have one inch or less is the maximum and then after that just a little extension has to be added out I have to admit that many years ago in altering patterns I would just add a section right on to the pattern piece especially in the underarm the reason I recommend to pivot first of all is that if you just add extensions and you can see I have just a blue highlighted extension added out on the pattern in this area you don't have any room added in the underarm and it's very difficult to raise your arm it's constricting and the pattern will not feel comfortable so you need that pivoting amount to get some width and a movement added in here Plus that little extra extension on the sleeve the most width that you need or you can add is one inch on each side we've added that one inch and believe me that's a lot of inches but still you may have to add a few more inches you can see after one inch on each side that sleeve would just go right up to the top and that's obviously not where we need it so we're going to add extensions to the bustline and sleeve I want to make a point that this is where you this alteration is added if you need to increase both the sleeve and the arm first of all you start off with a sleeve and this chart gives us some guidelines for example if you needed to add four inches to the sleeve you can add one end on each side or two inches for the pivoting your extra extensions would be 2 inches or 1 inch on each side as you might guess that same 1-inch has to be added to the bustline so the second part of this chart shows on the bust line that you needed to add for example five inches well the bust increase would be added with the extra extensions of one inch on each side or a total of four inches remember there are two cut edges and that that would only leave a minimum or a maximum of 1/4 of an inch on each side for pivoting total of one inch it's a little mathematical just keep in mind you have to have the same extension on the sleeve as you do for the bustline let me just show you a little bit how to work with the extension on this sleeve we've already added the increase by pivoting and then simply slide the pattern out the amount added for the extension and draw this all the way down it's just a section added out on each side the same would be accomplished on the remaining side seam so that same one-inch has to be added on the bustline and I'll just straighten that out and you can see the great width added on the sleeve but this blue section is what we're going to add on to the dress or bodice on both front and back from that chart remember this is the only time you have to do a lot of math for fitting we pivoted one inch on each side and then we'll need to add 1/4 of an inch excuse me a total of 1 inch we'll add that one inch for the extra extension this way the front and back as well as sleeve will all have the same length and then we'll just pivot this down to the waistline so the width added in this area and the width added in the sleeve will all come together and your sleeve and bodice will fit together and that's how you work with the extra extensions [Music] it's time to wrap up this three-part series on fitting finesse I hope you're inspired to custom-fit some of your patterns using pivot and slide techniques it doesn't take a lot of know-how to work with this just kind of some common sense of changing that pattern pivoting it or sliding it wherever you need to fit all the techniques used in this three-part series are in my book fitting finesse weave deep will detail working with tops and stylize patterns skirts as well as pants and perhaps in the future sewing with Nancy program will work with pants but it's all the fitting information you need in one book well again thanks for joining me happy sewing bye for now this sewing with Nancy video has been brought to you in part by top you'll do your best sewing on a father by Guinness a tradition of quality and scissors and shears [Music] and by Nancy's notion sewing catalog featuring specialty sewing books and notions [Music]

Channel: PFAFF Talk

Views: 52,942

Keywords: nancy zieman, sewing with nancy, pfaff, sewing machines, sewing, creative 1475, 1475, lace, zippers, cuff, sleeve plackets, pleats, hobbylock serger, creative 7570, 7570, patterns, altering pattern, adjusting pattern

Id: mJnjA9Lj654

Length: 60min 6sec (3606 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 04 2019