Following on from a brief mention of a sloper I am trying to use – Connie Crawford’s Shoulder Princess seamed top, after months and months of messing about trying to get this right for my body, I think I have finally cracked it. Lost count of how many sheets of tissue paper and the amount of calico used. However imagine my elation last Thursday when I asked Twopence to just check my tissue fitting, it is looking so good, and I really am grateful to Twopence for coming and patiently pinning the back of my half tissue garment to my already marked with CF and CB ‘fitting T’. Where I have been going wrong in the past is to have I think the garment too loose, but this time I have followed Marta Alto’s instructions in Full Busted, and have this fitting much closer than I have ever done before and what a difference. So I am going to venture into my enormous stash and find some fabric, and get this ready for next Thursday when I see Twopence again when we go to hydrotherapy together.
I have my tissue pattern draped on my body double, that is already marked up with strings of curtain weights marking the CF and CB and side seam, and I can see clearly just how much weight I have put on since this body double was made. So another job of getting my box of wadding out of the loft and padding her out more to fit this tissue fit, and see where I go from there. It is also showing up the importance of the grain being in the right place and hanging straight down and not swinging to the right or left.
I have also ‘transplanted’ a self drafted armhole that I like and feel comfortable in onto this pattern as I found the armhole on the sloper pattern was far too low for me and also it did not come over enough to where the armhole should be on me, I cannot stand seeing an armhole coming part way over the bust area – it just looks horrible.
Once I have made this up in fabric, I am hoping then to be able to change details like adding collars, adding cuffs to the sleeves, or in fact making long sleeves, now I have the shoulders and neck in the right place I am hoping this will open up all sorts of opportunities for me to create different garments but keeping the shoulder princess line. Then I will turn my attention to the armhole princess line sloper that is waiting for me start working on this.
For those of you that are having fitting problems, especially if like me you have far too many lumps and bumps in places we wish we didn’t have, then do go looking at these Connie Crawford Slopers, I believe only available in the USA, but paper dress patterns seem to come through to the UK without attracting any Customs.
The details of these two patterns are Shoulder Princess CS1301 Miss sizes 8 – 20 in cup sizes as follows: A/B, C/D/DD(E), (DDF/G)& H/I.
Woman sizes 1X to 6X and the cup sizes listed above.
Armhole Princess CS1302 in the same categories as the pattern above.
Have a look on Connie’s website ‘Fashion Patterns by Coni.’
I already have the Fit for Real People book, and the Full Busted DVD by Marta Alto, and I must have nearly worn the DVD out the amount of times I have played this. Towards the end of the DVD Marta is tissue fitting two ladies that are rather amply built, she is using two different patterns, one is what Marta calls a side panel Mccalls Palmer Petsch pattern no, 5335, and she uses a ‘Y’ dart on the main front pattern piece, and the other is McCalls 5242 which has shoulder princess seam. Whilst both these patterns are now out of print, it is possible to find them in the USA in an uncut/factory folded condition. So I religiously followed Marta as she fitted the shoulder princess pattern, and seeing just how close fitting to the model she was going encouraged me to do likewise and this has really worked especially for my shaping. I really would encourage anyone who is well endowed and needing a FBA and having problems fitting, to buy this DVD, it really is worth every penny, you can stop and start as many times as you need, it really is like having a one to one with Marta in your own home, and I found that by following her step by step on the sloper pattern I was trying out has worked. I did trace off my original sloper pattern so that original is intact and it is just as well I did the amount of times I have started over.
I cannot put up any photos as I just do not know how to do this, perhaps one day Twopence will show me.
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