The Sewing Place

The Emporia => Sewing Professionally => Topic started by: Sandra on February 13, 2019, 08:52:02 AM

Title: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: Sandra on February 13, 2019, 08:52:02 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/XFNs02Rl.jpg)


I had these arrive this week. They're nicer in real life and don't look so plastic-y.

Six tops altogether with various body measurements, pinned to each one.

The main measurements for me was the bust size, and the shoulder to bust length.  Three tops needed to be let out, and one needed to be taken in a smidgen.
Nice, easy work. Indian clothing usually has enormous, generous seam allowances...like a big fat French seam, so it's easy to alter.  :)

(https://i.imgur.com/uP3OvASl.jpg)


The other two tops were too short, shoulder to bust, and one of these was much too small.  :S
Really, ever so small.  :|

The tops were all the same size, coming up at about 36 inch bust....but I needed to get one top to be more like  :o  45ish inch bust  :S

Yes. Really!  0_0

As I mentioned...there are generous seam allowances in these, so I could get an extra 5 inches there. It still left me with 4+ inches to find/add somehow.

Aaaah...Indian clothing sometimes comes with optional sleeves.  :)

Hurrah.  :D

(https://i.imgur.com/oU37iahl.jpg)


Just the right amount for me to use on these two tops, so I added the pieces in the sides.
(I know.  8) I put the piping back on too.)

(https://i.imgur.com/KdHGca7l.jpg)


Also, as I mentioned, both of these tops were too short, shoulder to bust, so I added a section at the shoulder. I also dropped the stiff bust cups a bit lower, hoping to gain a bit more there.  ><

(https://i.imgur.com/UxLH6Vzl.jpg)


For this top, clearly a larger busted lady, I also moved the cups further apart.

I'm hoping this is going to be wearable. I've done as I was asked as best as I think I can. No chance for a fitting. She lives on a different continent, so any tweaking will have to be done closer to her home.  -<

(https://i.imgur.com/0G1MiYal.jpg)

Sandra.
xxx
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: Renegade Sewist on February 13, 2019, 09:03:33 AM
A) you are so clever with your solutions.
B) you get some very interesting jobs, don't you?
C) you do a fabulous job.
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: b15erk on February 13, 2019, 09:08:33 AM
Sandra, as always your work is beautiful! 

What a lovely job!

 :flower: :toast:

Jessie
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: sewingj on February 13, 2019, 09:19:11 AM
@Sandra   Your really are amazing.  How did you learn how to do all of this?  Please don`t tell me you are self-taught
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: Sandra on February 13, 2019, 09:23:11 AM
I enjoy having such a variety of work. I'd hate to work in just a single type of clothing...like only shortening trousers...booooring!

I used to work with somebody who left when she married and moved away. She ended up working in a factory and her job was sewing the belt loop by a pocket on the front of some trousers on a production line.  :\
I was bored to death typing that down.
Imagine it being your job.  ><

@sewingj  After I left school, I got a job in an alterations shop in Wolverhampton on a six month YTS scheme. They taught me everything in the shop and kept me on after the six months was up. I stayed there for 8 years.  :)

Sandra.
xxx
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: wrenkins on February 13, 2019, 09:30:27 AM
You're like a magician @Sandra. You should teach. (ME!).
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: Greybird on February 13, 2019, 09:58:37 AM
I'm always impressed @Sandra . You leave me feeling quite inadequate! When I left school I worked in DH Evans, Oxford St as a trainee buyer (that should have been a joke - you didn't get to be a buyer until you were at least 50!). I spent a week working in the Alterations dept. I could have spent months there - it was so interesting. I wasn't allowed anywhere near the actual work in progress though - my job was to fold them in tissue, pack them in cardboard boxes tied up with string and sometimes deliver them!
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: supergran on February 13, 2019, 20:33:56 PM
Now that's the sort of alteration challenge they should be doing on the sewing bee! It would be far more interesting to watch than them making unwearable stuff from old denim and charity shop scarves. You are brilliant Sandra.
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: Acorn on February 13, 2019, 21:01:37 PM
Oh yes @supergran - that's an excellent idea!  Give them items that don't fit the model/dressform - either too big or too small - and tell them to make them fit.
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: toileandtrouble on February 13, 2019, 21:04:23 PM
@Sandra "I enjoy having such a variety of work. I'd hate to work in just a single type of clothing...like only shortening trousers...booooring!" With you all the way Sandra.  I love a challenge, trying to make it look as if it was meant to be.....nothing at all inspiring in trouser hems. (I would definitely not have tackled the fur though)
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: crafter on February 13, 2019, 21:23:08 PM
Very well done, @Sandra.  An excellent result.  :loveit:

Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: Lowena on February 14, 2019, 10:17:27 AM
Lovely work @Sandra you are clever.
3 of my cousins ( in the 1960s ) worked at the Double Two shirt factory in Wakefield. I can remember one of them spent a year just turning and attaching collars  :S I bet she could do it in her sleep  0_0
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: Ellabella on February 14, 2019, 10:19:52 AM
Lovely work @Sandra you are clever.
3 of my cousins ( in the 190s ) worked at the Double Two shirt factory in Wakefield.

Wow Low, didn't realise you were that old! :D 0_0
Title: Re: Indian Top Alterations
Post by: Lowena on February 14, 2019, 10:39:25 AM
 :P @Ellabella  I need a new keyboard  :D
I've altered it now  :angel: