The Sewing Place

Fitting issues and how to fix them

Jo

Fitting issues and how to fix them
« on: July 10, 2017, 07:32:44 AM »
I thought it would be helpful to have a topic for fitting problems, for those of us that stumble into them.
For about a month now I've been struggling with an issue with my bodice sloper: gaping back armhole and a few diagonal wrinkles radiating from the side seam (that I now know are related).
Signs: back armhole gaping and/or diagonal wrinkles radiating from the side seam
Problem: side seam is unbalanced, back lenght is too long.
Here is an image describing the problem, from madalynne.com:

Fix: Depending on the fit of the front armhole (too high, too low or good), the solution is to either lower the front armhole, raise the back armhole or split the difference. You can find out the amount by slashing the side seam and brushing the back armhole down until it lies smooth.
This will leave you with a longer side seam in the back. If your waist is straight and there's no extra fabric pooling at the center back (like those of us with sway back get), just connect the new side seam point to the waist point at center back.

If you have a sway back, you can shave the extra lenght both at the side seam and at the center back, raising the waist entirely.