SewLibra:
My muslin from this shower curtain (bargain bin at Cost Plus World Market) showed I needed to a full bust adjustment (FBA). No, I wasn't trying to center that print, I was trying to save fabric! It's ugly but I bought it for muslins. Lol.
SewLibra:
I sewed the sleeves in flat and they were perfect on the muslin, but not on the fashion fabric. I thought I could get away with not reducing the sleeve cap but I will for the next one. Typical of Big 4 patterns to have too much ease in the cap.
SewLibra:
I recently got this book to learn more pivot and slide methods of alterations. The only pivot and slide I am accustomed to is for the FBA. I used Nancy Zieman's method from this book for the swayback adjustment, due to my short waist.
SewLibra:
For the pivot and slide swayback adjustment, the wrinkles above the back waist are taken from the shoulder area. For this pattern that meant I only had to use the back yoke. Top is the regular pattern piece and bottom is after the adjustment.
SewLibra:
I did a 1.5" FBA, lowered the dart 1.25", changed the dart position to straight instead of pointing up, and added 3" in length to the front and back.
SewLibra:
The back piece has two pleats, one near each armscye coming down from the yoke. I didn't like the way they looked on my muslin so I changed mine to one pleat in the middle, like on a man's dress shirt.
SewLibra:
Here are my completed pattern pieces with alterations. By the way, this pattern paper from Nancy's Notions is great stuff! I got two rolls on sale for $14.99.
SewLibra:
For the back pleat, make sure you end up the same width as the yoke. Actually you should lay the yoke right side to right side of the back and measure at the stitching line. I should have taken that pic...duh.
SewLibra:
They want you to interface the entire placket, but I only used one strip of Knit-N-Stable, which is very soft, at the foldline of each placket. My fabric is stiff enough and I only needed a little stabilization for the snaps.
SewLibra:
The placket pieces (front bands) are pinned and ready to sew. By using only the stabilzer strip, my seams will be less bulky because the stitching goes to the edge of the strip and not over it.
SewLibra:
The instructions call for hand stitching the inside of the front bands. Heck no! Use an edge foot on the machine making sure you catch the underside. However on the curved collar it wasn't as easy and I ended up hand sewing the inside of that.
SewLibra:
On the inside of the front band, I trimmed the end and used an overcast foot on the raw edge.
SewLibra:
The instructions tell you to hand sew the inside yoke edge to the SA. You can avoid that and get a better looking and easier to sew yoke by using the burrito method. Instructions are online in many blogs and Youtubes.
SewLibra:
Inside yoke using burrito method. Hmm..It looks like I pressed in some wrinkles. Argh! This fabric is hard to press and the little dots are getting fuzzy! It won't last. :(
SewLibra:
This Henley collar is super curved! When you press up the edge 5/8", be sure that the very ends are 5/8" as well. It's important to match those ends up to the front placket.
SewLibra:
The instructions forget to tell you to trim and clip the inner curve of your collar after you sew the two pieces together. You need to though, so when you turn the collar right side out it will have a smooth curved seam.
SewLibra:
This is how the collar looks when it's ready to be sewn to the neckline. Note the 5/8" SA at the ends as I talked about previously.
SewLibra:
I used a Dritz Snap Fastener Pliers to attach the pearl snaps instead of buttons and buttonholes. Check out my tutorial for the pliers in a separate album here on Flickr.
SewLibra:
Side dart changed to straight across instead of the sharp angle pointing up in the pattern.