Category Archives: Pattern Fitting

The Blue Plaid Shacket, Part 3: Lining and Styling

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Between personal life, the holidays, and other hobbies, work on my Shacket project has progressed at a rather stately pace. But I have made a new muslin that represents some real forward progress on the project.

Muslin B

With Muslin B, I wanted to check and validate the fitting changes from the first shacket draft, this time with linings and interlinings in place so I can take into accout the volume they add to the finished garment. But this muslin was equally useful to practice lining insertion, and to help make style decisions.

I am using fuschia bull denim for the outer fabric, black polyester fleece for interlining, and yellow polyester charmeuese for the lining as described in my previous article in the series. To me, the colors look garish, but others at the sewing studio commented the fuschia denim and yellow lining actually went together. Who knew!

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The Blue Plaid Shacket, Part 2: Fitting

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In the first installment of this series, I drafted a pattern block for the shacket based upon a dress-shirt pattern I had fit to myself.  I enlarged the garment and drafted a new sleeve based on a draft from a textbook.

I stitched up a trial garment from actual muslin fabric and posed for these high-fashion fitting photos. The grainlines are marked by vertical lines, and cross-grain lines (used to evaluate horizontal balance) are also marked.  I got this technique from Sarah Veblen’s fitting courses, but it’s also basically the same thing that Don McCunn’s pattern-drafting book does with gingham fabric for his trial muslins.  It gives you visual cues so you can see how the grainline of the fabric hangs on the body.

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The Chevron Latte Shirt, Part 1

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The journey to the Pink Shirt (I haven’t forgotten about it) has so far spawned not one, but two side projects that have surprised me with the results.

The first was the Peppermint Stick Shirt, and the second is what I’m calling the Chevron Latte Shirt.

I’m presenting the Chevron Latte Shirt in three blog posts. Today’s is the first, covering the pattern work to address the fitting issues. The second will cover construction details, and the third will show the finished shirt. (Impatient readers can see work-in-progress photos on my Instagram feed).

Fitting, Again

When I finished the Peppermint Stick Shirt, I noticed the pattern still had some minor fitting issues.

  1. When fully buttoned, the front of the collar felt a little tight, as if it were cutting into me. (The back of the collar felt fine).
  2. The front band, right below the collar, buckled a bit between the collar and the first button when the collar was fully buttoned.
  3. With the collar unbuttoned, two drag lines ran from the shoulder tips to the second button of the shirt.
  4. The shirt felt a bit tight across the upper chest at shoulder level in front.

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Let’s Talk About Fitting Some More

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Do you like fitting?  Me, I can’t get enough of it!  So let’s talk about fitting some more.

Following completion of the Tuxedo Shirts, I have turned back to the task of fitting a dress shirt muslin to myself.  I really want a dress shirt block that I can use for projects to come.

In a way, it was good to take some time away from this fitting project, because I was able to revisit this muslin with fresh eyes. Also, I enlisted some help from Tammy at Sips N Sews as a reviewer and fitting consultant. With several decades of sewing experience, she has an uncanny eye for spotting fitting issues and offering suggestions for solving them, and I am grateful for her help. Continue reading →