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Community Blog | Fitting Fancy Fronts: Full Bust Adjustment for Midriff + Princess Seam Top – Tia Dress and Peplum with Karey

Published on November 2, 2021November 1, 2021 by KareyLeave a comment

Sew Busty has been doing an excellent introductory series on getting started on sewing for big busts, including introduction to doing Full Bust Adjustments (FBAs). While doing my two posts on doing an FBA on a wrap dress or top for Sew Busty, it occurred to me that because being able to do an FBA for various styles of garments is such an essential skill for busty sewers, it would be good for more experienced sewers who want to extend themselves, to do a series of posts on doing FBAs for less common or more challenging styles, for which standard FBAs won’t work.

Also, while Sew Busty has developed an extensive database of designers who provide patterns for a range of cup sizes, only a handful go up to my cup size. While of those that do have larger cup sizes, some only provide them for larger base sizes. In order to have a full choice of styles to sew, I had to develop skills in doing FBAs. Other members of the Sew Busty community are in the same boat, and learning to do a wider variety of FBAs will expand your sewing options.

This post includes the details of the tutorial for the FBA Laura Nash, Sew Chic Patterns, provided for the vintage inspired LN1312 Tia Dress (Figure 2a) in her Craftsy Class: Sew Vintage: The Flirty Day Dress. This dress has a princess seam bust section, and a separate midriff section attached to a skirt. To save fabric while testing the fit, I hacked the dress into a sleeveless peplum top – Figure 2b). I provide a simple skirt hack for drafting your own peplum below.

While this tutorial was developed specifically for the Tia dress, there are many dresses with similar bodices. The recently released TINAlisa jersey Vicky dress (Figure 2d) does not have the midriff section, but does have the princess seam bust section. This is one of the first designs TINAlisa has released with a large bust front, but the designer, Martina Blasius, also always includes an FBA instructions for the specific design (see Note* below), and all designs include seamlines that make large bust fitting easier.

Before I retired, I had planned to copy a Mix-It-Up hack by one of the Craftsy participants, which combined three of Sew Chic’s designs: the Tia bodice, the Beatrice sleeve and skirt, and the Phantom sleeve cuff (shown in Figure 2c)), but I don’t often have the need for such formal dresses anymore. Many other patterns have midriff panels, which may need to be adjusted if you do an FBA, and the Tia FBA instructions can also be used for any princess seam FBA. I think it is a much simpler adjustment than the one most tutorials provide.

Figure 2: Style examples of princess seam bust with midriff panel: a) Tia dress; b) Tia Midriff; c) Tia, Beatrice, & Phantom mix-up; e) TINAlisa Vicky

SewBusty has tutorials on the two main ways of determining the cup size you need, one is primarily used for sewing clothes, and the other used to be the main way to measure for bra cups, but some pattern companies mix it up, including Cashmerette.

While the Tia pattern doesn’t include cup sizes, the FBA tutorial specific to this style of bodice provides instructions for (sewing cup) A (cup reduction) to DD cup – calculated by subtracting high bust (HB) measurement from full bust (FB) measurement. Cashmerette, on the other hand. uses bra cup sizes.

Because the Craftsy class materials didn’t go up to my cup size, Laura of Sew Chic provided details for the adjustments I needed, and information for going up additional cup sizes. Unfortunately, that information was provided in the questions feature on a platform that got closed and sold on. So while the class is still available on the new platform, and the Sew Chic FBA tutorial is also available on their website, the information about doing a bigger FBA is only in my class notes, hence my wanting to share it here. Before making any adjustments to a pattern, follow the steps in Figures 4a) and b), and make changes to traced pattern, not original.

Figure 4: a) trace pattern pieces; and, b) mark every seam allowances (5/8″ for Tia) on each piece. I trace onto non-woven tracing Vilene, which is partly transparent, cheap, strong, flexible, and drapes like fabric, so is excellent for tissue fitting and adjusting the pattern..
*Note: all pattern adjustments are made from sewing lines not from cutting lines, hence the necessity to mark all the seam allowances (SA). It also allows for accurate pinning for tissue fitting.

Figure 5 shows the steps for making the FBA.
a) Mark a line through the bust apex at the point of greatest width on the pattern (a). You will need to adjust actual bust apex, and possibly find tune extension curve in tissue fit and muslin.
b) Spread the Side Front (SF), hinging at the side seam sewing line, and opening in a wedge at the bust apex, as per the amount specified in column 2 in Figure 6. Spread the Centre Front (CF) by the amount specified in column 4 in Figure 6. Note that as cup size increases, so does the amount the CF is spread increases by more than the SF increases per cup size.
c) Extend the curve of the apex on the SF by the amount specified in column 3 in Figure 6.

Figure 5: FBA illustrations

Figure 6 provides the amounts of spread and extending for SF and CF for a woven dress. The instructions for the FBA for the TINAlisa Vicky dress are almost identical, except amount of spread is for knit dress. See Note* below for details.

Figure 6: Bust adjustment guide: amount to spread and extend for each cup size
*Note: the amount the CF is spread/reduced is the same for the A cup, but for C to E the amount the CF is spread increases with each size. There is no B cup on the chart because the pattern was drafted for B cup.

Although the chart does not have any extension on the CF on the seam over the apex, I had to extend my CF apex seam by about the width of the seam allowance. This is just one of the things that tends not to extrapolate smoothly as you go beyond a DD cup. I have my suspicions that this is one of the reasons designers limit their cup sizes to DD because bigger than that creates distinct design and fitting issues. This is just one of the reasons for tissue fitting and making a muslin if you have to adjust for larger cup sizes, as we are getting in the realm of ‘honking great darts’.

Finally, you need to ‘walk’ the apex seamline of the SF along the apex seam of the CF. Threads Magazine has an excellent tutorial, if you don’t know how to do this, including a video. See ‘How to Walk the Seamline’. This ensures the princess seam on SF and CF match. If they are not the same size, adjust how much you spread the CF, then walk again to recheck and mark notches on both pieces.

Before I show you my fitting steps, I want to show you the scale test I did using my scale b-cup and FBA bodices, fitted over scale boobs. I found this test allowed me to distinguish the fitting adjustments that were specific to doing an FBA on this bodice, and additional adjustments due to specificity of my particular body proportions, separately from those due to my cup size.

Figure 7 shows how a facsimile of the Tia bodice (b) (namely princess seam and midriff section) can be obtained from a sloper transformation (a). c) juxtaposes my scale B-cup and FBA boobs, while d) shows the scale ‘Tia’ bodice looks folded over the scale boobs. This order reflects narrative convenience rather than construction order. I actually placed my unmarked B-cup and FBA slopers over the scale boobs in order to mark the UB and above bust seam locations, and then marked up and cut the seam lines.

Figure 7: drafting facsimile of Tia bodice from B-cup and FBA scale bodice slopers
a) bodice cup lines marked on B-cup sloper (left) & FBA sloper (right) b) Side & midriff darts closed, UB and princess seams opened & side darts transferred to them. c) scale B-cup boobs (left), FBA boobs (right) d) cut out B-cup & FBA bodice halves (from b) taped and placed over scale boobs in c).

What I discovered was that, apart from the FBA, adjustments I made to the pattern during tissue fit and muslin were not directly attributable to the FBA. Although some may be common for those needing an FBA. For example, I deliberately kept the apex of the large half scale boob at the same height, in order to minimise the number of variables I changed. But in terms of real boobs, while there are some high sitting large ones, they are more inclined to sit lower than smaller boobs, as gravity works its magic.

So although 7d) shows the height of the midriff the same for both B-cup and large boobs, that is more a product of the test set up design, than based on any reflection of reality.

Figure 8: tissue fit comparing size 8 B-cup bodice with adjusted bodice
a) size 8: back and waist too narrow; FBA bodice, with wide back adjustment & waist graded out
b) B-cup excess back length, UB seam too high on bust; FBA bodice, waist shortened

My tissue fit and muslin confirmed I needed to grade out at waist, do large back adjustment, shorten midriff, and lower bustline, as well as do FBA.

Whereas the midriff on the B-cup and large bust are the same height in 7d) of the half scale model, I had to drastically shorten the midriff as shown in the tissue fit in 8a).

Figure 9: a) fine tuning muslin; b) Front midriff, black size 8, blue adjusted midriff, graded out & shortened c)Tia size chart, with my sizes marked

While I traced size 8 and did an E cup FBA, I also needed to shorten the back and midriff, as I am 5’2”, rather than the 5’6” the Tia pattern is drafted for. My large bust and short stature meant the 1” to 1¼” neckline trim looked too large. A large FBA often means design lines and proportions on a garment no longer work, and need some adjustment. I trialled ¾” and ½” trim on the Sew Chic Facebook group, and I agreed with the consensus that the narrower trim looked better.

Figure 10: a) final dress; b) comparing ½” trim on left with ¾” trim on right

Bonus Peplum hack
Peplums are commonly drafted as a full or half circle, but my square hips don’t really suit either the circle skirt on this dress, or as a peplum. Instead I drafted my peplum from a straight skirt that fit. Folding out the darts and spreading along the hipline.

If you prefer a full peplum you can slash the skirt from hem to waistline and spread the hem more. If a peplum top comes with a more full skirt than you prefer, you can reverse the process, slash from ham to waist, and overlap at the hemline.

Figure 11 slash and spread peplum
a) straight skirt cut at peplum length b) darts folded out, and hem spread c) extra slashes opened out. Reverse to reduce peplum spread.

Note*: TINAlisa Vicky Pattern
TINAlisa patterns are in German and don’t have seam allowances included (common in European patterns), but don’t let that put you off. You can upload the instruction pdf file to this Free Online Translator site (screenshot shown in Figure 12a), which will translate the text to English (or whatever language you prefer) while preserving format and images (Figure 12b). For the large busted, it is easier to do an FBA without seam allowances, as they have to be removed from patterns that include them before you do the FBA anyway.

Figure 12: a) screenshot of document upload box (you may need to scroll down to find it);
b) sample translated document: Vicky FBA instructions

My next blogpost will feature a TINAlisa FBA for a more complex bodice.

Karey Harrison is a feminist philosopher of science and linguistics, environmentalist, retired academic, home baker, sewist, gardener. Karey also wrote the guest blogpost: #AllButtsWelcome: Unmentionables: Crotch Variation in Pantie Fitting. You can catch Karey on instagram @kareylea and see Karey’s academic profile here.

Community Blog | No Gape Roseclair with Karey

Published on July 28, 2021July 28, 2021 by Karey5 Comments

This post documents the lessons I applied from ‘Cross your heart woes’ to fitting the Cashmerette Roseclair peplum blouse.

Cashmerette Size Calculator recommends that I “start with a size 6 G/H with a 1″/2.5 cm full bust adjustment, size 10/12 waist and size 8 hip.”

What I did to start with was print sizes 6, 8, 10 and 12, and tissue fit my tracing of the pattern. I followed the Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting (PP) process to double check the size calculator recommendations and identify any other fitting issues.

I expected to have to do an FBA, and I usually need wide round back adjustment. PP shows how to use gap between pattern and body centre front (CF) to measure size of FBA required, and gap between pattern and body centre back (CB) to identify width of wide back adjustment needed. Placing the pattern on my dummy suggested I needed to raise dart, but my dummy has perkier bust than me. My shoulders are wider than pattern shoulder width, but looking at armscye height on pattern, and gathering at top of sleeve, I left that for muslin fit, as it looked like sleeve sat over shoulder.

Figure 1: tissue fit on dummy – green thread marks pattern seams, pink thread marks my seam locations (I got my colour code mixed up between dummy & body fit 🙂
Figure 2: tissue fit me – green thread marks seam locations, pink thread marks pattern seams

Once I had made these adjustments on the traced pattern I made up a muslin, to check fit and see whether the FBA had created gaping in the bodice front.

Figure 3: Muslin to check FBA, wide back adjustment, and sleeve fit
Figure 4: A little too much cleavage shows

Figure 4 shows the extra length over the center front created by the FBA did create gaping.

In the previous ‘Cross your heart woes’ blog post, I controlled the gaping by taking a wedge out from the apex to the cross over point on the CF:

Figure 5: high CF wedge
Figure 6: 1 – high CF wedge; 2 – mid CF wedge; 3 – low CF wedge. These correspond to the dart lines 1,2, & 3 drawn on Figure 7

What I discovered was that the high (1) and mid (2) CF wedges took length out of the vertical CF measurement as well as shortening the cross over length as required to reduce gaping. The low wedge, however, did not affect the vertical CF length, and did not go to the apex, so did not have to be rotated to other darts, simplifying the fitting of all the darts.

Figure 7: locations of wedges 1, 2, & 3
Figure 8: CF height and cross over length on B cup & large boobs

Figure 7 shows that the location of wedges 1 and 2 cuts through center front, so shortens center front as well as shortening cross over length. In order to remove them, these darts have to be rotated into another dart. Wedge 3, on the other hand, gets folded out through the waist line, so does not remove length from the CF but does remove length from the cross over.

Figure 8 shows that in order to fit around large boobs, the cross over needs to go lower before turning around bust and turn more sharply. The red tie drawn on Figure 7 shows where the tie end of the bodice was after the FBA adjustment as compared with the original black line. After wedge 3 was removed, the tie end moved up to where it is marked in blue on Figure 7, wrapping the tie better around the large boob, like in Figure 8.

Figure 9: final front
Figure 10: final side
Figure 11: final back

Once I was happy with fit, sewing up this top was one of the quickest and easiest I’ve made. I love how it feels and looks. See Figures 9, 10 and 11.

I left off the ties and replaced them with hat elastic button loops and buttons. Figures 12 and 13 show the outside and inside buttons. Figure 14 shows the elastic loop in place on what will be the outside of the binding; Figure 15 shows the bias folded with the button loop inside, and stitched through; and, figure 16 shows the button loop completed.

Figure 12: outside button
Figure 13: inside button
Figure 14: Inserting hat elastic loop
Figure 15: bias band folded out and stitched through button loop
Figure 16: button loop attached

The ¾” FBA I did on top of the Cashmerette G/H cup gave me a dart that measured 5” (12.5cm) along the side seam. This means that while the fold of the dart is almost on the straight of grain and, once the dart is stitched and folded up, the straight of grain fold of the dart lies under the bias of the outer layer. This means the outer fabric can stretch along the grain, but the dart edge cannot. If the leg of the dart is sewn to the side seam it will pull on the outer layer when you move. To stop this happening I trim dart leg to 5/8”. In this fine rayon I finish the dart edge as a faux French seam. With non-fraying fabrics I would just cut the edge.

Figure 17: Watch video to see how and why large dart pulls on outer layer, and how to fix it.

Figure 18: 5”dart
Figure 19: trimmed, edges folded in
Figure 20: pinned
Figure 21: top-stitched

Finally, no gape Roseclair:

Images: unless otherwise noted, images are by Karey Harrison (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Community Blog | Cross Your Heart Woes: Causes and Cures for Wrap Bodice Gaping with Karey

Published on July 15, 2021 by Karey8 Comments

Editor’s Note: Since we are sewing up Cashmerette Roseclair wrap dress/peplum for the July 2021 sew along, I’ve asked a couple community members who are ahead of the curve to write community posts on their experiences and their tips and tricks. If you’re a beginner and following the Roseclair Sew Along as part of our Beginners’ Sewing Series, I’d bookmark these posts for later use, and stick to making the pattern as-is for now. For all you adventurous or intermediate-to-advanced sewists, yesterday, Christy talked all about getting perfect bust darts, and today, Karey is chatting about curing wrap gape.

Many sewers struggle with getting a good fit on cross-over wrap bodice styles. This post will address the most commonly raised issue of neckline gaping. Because it is raised so often, I Google searched ‘FBA wrap dress’ or ‘gaping wrap dress’ for solutions, but while there are plenty of tutorials, none seem to address why wrap dresses gape, especially after a full bust adjustment (FBA) for larger boobs, and few wrap dress FBA tutorials provide specific advice for fixing neckline gape.

Figure 1: Gaping neckline
Figure 2: Excess Centre Front (CF) length

The wrap dress tutorial on Sew Over It is typical, with instructions for a regular full bust adjustment with no specific adjustment for wrap fronts.

Sure Fit Designs provides some advice for why a wrap crossover style bodice with a “dart width … correct for your body, … would … still gap? The simple answer is because that crossover in on the diagonal or bias of the fabric.”

The Cashmerette tutorial for their Roseclair wrap dress also identifies a risk of the bias edge of the neckline stretching and creating a gaping neckline. Cashmerette recommends staystitching the neckline edge before starting construction in order to avoid this happening. Both Cashmerette and Sure Fit Designs provide instructions for taking a dart out of the center front edge if there is gaping due to the neckline being too long, but don’t explain why that would happen in a bodice drafted for your cup size, or after you have done an FBA.

By Hand London also has a good tutorial on adding a dart from center front to apex and rotating it to bottom dart, it doesn’t explain what causes the gaping.

Figure 3 shows foam half scale boobs (b) that approximate Lily Fong’s examples (a) of standard root – standard projection; wide root – standard projection; and, narrow root high projection. I combined these with Sure Fit Designs free Half Scale Bodice Templates to create the bodice models I have used in this post.

Figure 3: a) breast shape types: image on the left from LilypaDesigns.
b) The foam domes I found on the right approximate her standard root – standard projection; wide root – standard projection; and, narrow root high projection

Figure 4 shows how the scaffolding of a standard B-cup bodice is like a tent with a ridge pole connecting the two bust apexes, with the side poles sloped down to the waist on one side, and to the neck on the other side of the ridge (a). In contrast, once the breasts are divided by a wrap bodice, you need more like a dome tent structure over each breast, connected to the CF seam in the canyon between the breasts (b).

Figure 4: a) Left: Ridge pole scaffolding on basic B-cup bodice
b) Right: Dome scaffolding on B-cup boobs

In order to examine wrap bodices on bigger boobs, I first needed to do FBAs on the half scale B-cup bodice to fit my projected and large, wide boobs.

Figure 5 shows a) left: the B-cup boobs and bodice; b) centre: the projected narrow boobs and Y-dart FBA; and, c) right: the wide large boobs and standard FBA, I constructed with the half scale boobs and bodice template. In Figure 4 b) and c) the Y-dart and standard FBAs have been spread to fit over the projected and wide boobs, but the gaps this creates have not been filled in yet. Note the extra length over the apex ridge poles required to reach the waist on the projected and wide boobs (Figure 4 b) and c), bottom).

Figure 5
Figure 6

Figure 5: a) left: B-cup boobs and bodice; b) centre: projected narrow boobs and Y-dart FBA; c) right: wide large boobs and standard FBA
Figure 6. a) left: projected boobs, regular FBA; b) right: projected boobs Y-dart FBA

I wasn’t intending to do a Y-dart FBA, but when I tried the standard FBA on projected boobs, I got armhole gaping. I had previously read the Curvy Sewing Collective post suggesting the Y-dart FBA as a cure for Honking Great Darts, however Figure 5 shows the result of my experiment, which found that the Y-dart (b) solved the arm gaping issue of the standard FBA for high projection boobs (a). Consequently, I then stuck with the Y-dart FBA for all my projected boobs examples.

Once I had bodices for B-cup, projected, and wide boobs, I created wrap fronts by joining a half front to its mirror, drawing a center front seam down the canyon between the boobs, then mirroring this wrap front to create left and right versions.

Figure 7 shows how even B-cups gape at the neckline, if the length of the center front is not reduced with a dart, to convert bodice from ridge pole structure (a) into dome structure (b). The same thing happens with the projected FBA bodice (Figure 8) and the large wide FBA bodice (Figure 9). This demonstrates the requirement to replace ridge pole scaffold on standard bodice, with dome tent structure for wrap bodices.

Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9

Figure 7. a) left: B-cup wrap front gape; b) right: adjusted B-cup front no gape
Figure 8. a) left: projected boob wrap front gape; b) right: adjusted projected front – no gape
Figure 9. a) left: wide boob wrap front gape; b) right: adjusted wide boob front – no gape

In order to show more clearly why the wrap bodice needs center front darts I measured the wide boob FBA wrap bodice over the ridge pole and through the canyon (Figure 10). The center front length over the half scale ridge pole was 28cm (11’) (a), while the length through the canyon created by the wrap front was only 26cm (10 ¼“) (b).

These half scale results are proportionate to the measurements I get on my petite height G cup front. When I measure myself from one shoulder, over the ridge pole to my waist under the opposite boob I am 22”. Through the canyon between my boobs I am 20”. This means a standard FBA on a wrap which creates ridge pole bodice, will be up to 2” too long for me on a wrap bodice.

Figure 10. Wide boobs CF length
a) left: over ridge pole 28cm (11”)
b) right: through canyon 26cm (10 ¼”)

Try taking these measurements on yourself and see if you get similar results, I’d love to see you post what you found in comments.

Given I found neckline gaping in wrap fronts for all bust shapes, you may be wondering why everyone doesn’t have problems with neckline gape. The main reason is that designers mostly correct their bodices so they don’t gape for the block they are designing for. This means people with B cups will mostly not have gaping problems. The same applies for designers that include cup sizes, they have probably corrected all their sizes to remove gape.

However, the larger your boobs, the more chance your boob shape does not match the block the designer uses, even if they provide cup sizes, increasing the chance of gaping. And if you have to do an FBA on a wrap front, you are adding length (as we saw in Figure 5), almost inevitably creating gaping issues. Removing that length from pattern by folding out a center front dart (or darts) creates the dome structure that wraps the fabric close to the bust.

11a)
11b)
11c)

Figure 11: a) left: B-cup wrap front with waist darts (top) and darts folded out (bottom)
b) left: projected wrap front with waist darts (top) and darts folded out (bottom)
c) left: wrap front for large wide boobs with waist darts (top) and darts folded out (bottom)

Figure 11 shows the center front and low front darts marked, then folded out. You then need mirror front for the other side. As I started with full front on which I did FBA, before I marked cross over center front seamline, my left and right bodices should match. However, when you are adjusting a wrap pattern for a smaller cup size than you need, doing an FBA on the half of the front that goes below the bust is tricky. The Sewing Divas have a helpful tutorial for how to check that side seams of left and right fronts align after you have done an FBA on a wrap bodice.