Thank you for not being perky

I’m taking a garment construction 101 class right now. So far it’s been pretty good. Here is the dress I will be making:

I bought 3 yards of this cute Sevenberry Japanese fabric for it:

In class we first learned about fabrics and some basics for picking out a pattern. I had that fancy vintage vogue pattern all ready to go but I reconsidered and bought the above McCall’s pattern as it is simpler and something that I would wear everyday. I like the waitress-y style and it has pockets.

I’ve never looked in the back of a pattern book before. Have you? The back of the book has some more detailed measurements charts than the pattern packets do. My instructor says that the chest above the bust is often the hardest part to fit so she had us pick out a pattern based on our chest measurement. Now, I may have messed that part up when I picked my pattern but shhhhhhh. Don’t tell my teacher. We’ll just see how it turns out…

We moved on to how to adjust a pattern to fit.
My dress has darts so I measured my shoulder to nipple length and found that I need an extra .5 inch.
The finished garment waist is 30 inches but my waist is 32 inches. The waist needs 2 inches of ease. So I added .5 inch to both bodice and skirt pieces.
My arms never fit sleeves right. No matter how skinny I am my arms are always bigger than the standard and I’m not exactly in a skinny phase. I  decided that I wanted about 1 1/4 inches of ease in the arms.

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How to determine pattern ease and make the proper adjustments to your pattern:
Pattern envelope and individual pattern pieces list the finished garment width.

The Bust
Finished garment bust width is 42.5
Bust pattern size is 38
Subtract that and you get 4.5 inches of ease allowance.
My bust measurement is 38, add 4.5 of ease and you get 42.5.
So that means I do not need to make any bust measurement adjustments.

Shoulder to Nipple
Center of shoulder seam to dart point on pattern is 10 inches
My measurement is 10.5
Need to cut pattern above nipple line and add .5 inch, redraw from top should pivot point.
NOT adding .5 inches to length, redraw side line – armpit to bottom – armpit pivot point.

The Waist
Finished garment waist: 32.5
minus pattern size: 30
ease allowance 2.5
My measurement: 32
add ease: 2.5
Total: 34.5
An adjustment is needed.
I need to add .5 to each cut edge for skirt and bodice pieces.

The Sleeve
Finished sleeve width is 14.25 inches.
My measurement is 13.5 inches.
I decided on a 1.25 inch ease allowance with final measurement being 14.75
Added .25 inch to each side of sleeve and cuff pattern piece

The Skirt
Skirt needs .5 added to each cut edge.
Needs WAY to be shortened but I am not entirely sure how much to shorten it by. do I shorten it with the natural waist to knee measurement? But does the natural waist have anything to do with it since the style of the dress doesn’t necessarily stop at my natural waist?
Here is how I _think_ it should be done -
measure pattern piece from shoulder seam to bottom seam then hold up tape measure to my body to see where it lands (not quite at my natural waist). THEN from that point measure how long the skirt should be… Man I have short legs. Anyway, that makes sense right?!

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I’m kind of shocked at how hard I am finding all these adjustments. I woke up in a cold sweat last night with the realization that when I lengthened the shoulder to nipple I also lengthened the waist by the same amount *FAIL*. I had to go in and redo that this morning. Then I realized that I had miscalculated the waist adjustment AND the sleeve adjustment. *FAIL AGAIN* So It’s a good thing that I went back and looked at all my calculations. Of course now I am worried that I effed it up by over thinking it or making it more complicated than it had to be.

But fuck it. I’m cutting my fabric tonight and I refuse to be a wuss about it. If I go to class tomorrow and it’s wrong I will just go buy more fabric.

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Sleeve ease adjustment recap in pictures:
1. cut out pattern piece,
2. determine ease adjustment numbers
3. trace original piece onto pattern paper

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4. from bottom of piece measure out .25 inch
5. pivot pattern piece from seam guideline

6. redraw curve

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7. cut out new piece.

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P.S.
I do hereby promise to press my garment every step of the way

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