Tag: Amelie Dress

Amelie Sew Along Week F | Finishing, Buttons & Hem

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For August and September at Sew Busty, we’re doing a button challenge! Post a make that features buttons on instagram with #sewbustychallenge by September 30 for a chance to win a prize!

As part of that challenge, we’re doing a sew along for the Untitled Thoughts Amelie Dress – a cute little number that features buttons down the back of the skirt, as well as an open (but bra-friendly!) back. (Check out the picture of the dress on today’s post, as I accidentally earlier shared a picture of the non-bra friendly! For the full sew along, including bonus content, click here!

I love this dress.

Let’s get this done, shall we?

Your dress should be nearly done! All we need to do this week is sew buttonholes, add buttons, and hem this baby.

Buttonholes

For the buttonholes, I would absolutely highly recommend you use a piece of scrap fabric to sew a tester buttonhole. Here’s my tester:

Make sure to test your tester buttonhole to make sure your chosen button goes through it with relative ease!

Different machines do buttonholes differently, so it’s tough to show a sew-along of how to do buttonholes. On my machine, I have a one-step buttonhole foot. I load the button into the foot, lower a lever, set my stitch to the buttonhole stitch, and voila! A perfect buttonhole.

Here’s my buttonhole foot, loaded with one of the vintage buttons I selected for my Amelie:

One thing I noticed while sewing the buttonholes: While the buttonhole markings on the Amelie pattern are horizontal, the buttons along the skirt should be vertical. If you put your buttonholes on horizontally, you’ll have your buttons pulling more.

At the bodice, though, a horizontal buttonhole is probably okay, as there’s more ease at the bust. Here’s my bodice buttonhole:

And my buttonholes along my skirt. I did the two waistband buttonholes horizontal, which is okay because of how close they are together. But then I switched to vertical buttonholes.

To open up your buttonholes, I like to use my seam ripper. I stick it in at one end and gently tear through the fabric to the other end of the buttonhole.

Buttons

If you’re a lucky duck and chose flat buttons and have a machine that will sew on buttons, you can do this step on your machine!

I, unfortunately, chose shank buttons, which means I had to hand-sew them.

Get your buttons lined up with your buttonholes by laying your buttonhole placket on top of your button placket and poking a marking tool through the middle of each buttonhole. This will show you where to sew your buttons!

Hem

Hang your dress for at least 24 hours before trying to hem!!!

If you recall, we let our dresses hang for 24 hours with the Roseclair sew along, and we’re doing the same here. This pivotal step prevents wobbly hems because it allows your skirt to stretch with gravity before you hem it instead of after.

Once you’ve hung your dress for at least a day, use a measuring tape to ensure it’s even all the way around:

Once you’ve done this, you’ll fold your hem up by about 1/4″ (0.6 cm) once, press, then fold up by another 1/2″ (1.3 cm) and press again. Sew, ensuring you capture both layers of folds under your stitch.

That’s it! Let’s talk fit and bra coverage.

This is my wearable muslin. I’m not a huge muslin-er when it comes to making clothing, so this dress does not fit 100% perfectly the first time, and that’s okay! My philosophy on making clothing is that, even without making a muslin, it’s going to fit better than ready-to-wear clothing would, so I’m alright with slight imperfections.

Things I need to change for next time include:

I need to shorten the back bodice. While the front bodice lays magnificently on me, the back bodice is a bit long, which you can see in how it wrinkles. (It might look tight, but I promise it’s not tight at the bust at all. The wrinkles disappear if I give a tug downward, which tells me it’s too long.)

I need to move where the back overlap is. I’m wearing a tank top in these pictures, so you can’t see it, but my bra does unfortunately show underneath the bra-friendly back. I wasn’t surprised by this, as bra bands land in different places on different people. Thankfully, Brittani from Untitled Thoughts has a brilliant tutorial on fixing this issue, and I’ll be sure to follow her instructions for next time.

I’d like maybe an inch more ease at the waist. This is probably because I drank too much wine on vacation, after I had cut and started sewing this dress 😂 Note to self: don’t start a garment before vacation … or if you do, add a bit of extra ease.

Overall, I’m super happy with this dress! I love the center front darts. They feel almost regal and very retro, and I’m here for it.

Amelie Sew Along Week E | Attaching the Skirt & Button Stand

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For August and September at Sew Busty, we’re doing a button challenge! Post a make that features buttons on instagram with #sewbustychallenge by September 30 for a chance to win a prize!

As part of that challenge, we’re doing a sew along for the Untitled Thoughts Amelie Dress – a cute little number that features buttons down the back of the skirt, as well as an open (but bra-friendly!) back. (Check out the picture of the dress on today’s post, as I accidentally earlier shared a picture of the non-bra friendly! For the full sew along, including bonus content, click here!

We’re going to sew the skirt to the bodice and almost have a dress today, folks!

gathering the skirt

I’m not going to lie, I always find gathering tricky, and this was almost doubly true for this dress. So let’s take it step by step.

You’re going to lengthen your straight stitch to the longest it will go. For me, that’s 5 mm. Stitch 1/4″ (0.6 cm) from the edge of the waistline of the skirt. Repeat, stitching 1/2″ (1.3 cm) from the waistline of the skirt (1/4″ (0.6 cm) from the first stitch line).

Make sure to leave a long tail of thread at the end of both stitch lines.

When you have finished stitching, gently pull the bobbin thread of one of the stitch lines to gather. (If this thread snaps, despite you pulling gently, you have the second stitch line as a backup!)

This is where the tricky part comes: You want to gather so that the skirt will be equal to the length of the bodice, minus the length of the button placket. This can be kind of tough to measure. I held my skirt up to the bodice to get an idea.

Sewing the Placket

Now that you have the waist of the skirt gathered an appropriate amount, it’s time to sew on the button placket!

With right sides together, pin a non-interfaced placket to the center front of one side of your skirt. Sew this using a 0.5″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance.

Press the seam allowance of the placket toward the placket.

Again with right sides together, pin the interfaced placket onto the non-interfaced placket (which has been sewn onto your skirt). Sew this with a 0.5″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance.

Fold down 0.5″ (1.3 cm) of the edge of the interfaced side of the placket and press.

With right sides together again and being careful to catch the seam allowance and 0.5″ (1.3 cm) part that is folded inward, sew horizontally a 1″ seam allowance along the bottom of the placket.

Trim the corner that results at the bottom of your placket and turn your placket right side out. Press your placket.

Time to topstitch! You probably already know this, but I topstitch by aligning the middle of my foot with the seam and setting my needle 2.5 mm or so to the right or left (whichever side I want the topstitching to appear).

You’ll topstitch all the way around your placket, taking care to catch the under layer as well as the outer layer.

Repeat these steps on the other side to attach the second button placket.

Attaching the skirt to the bodice

To attach the skirt to the bodice, we’re first going to attach the skirt to the main waistband (not the waistband lining).

With right sides together, pin the skirt to the waistband main. Sew this at a 0.5″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance. You’ll have to avoid the very ends, but we’ll clean this up when we do finishings next week.

Once that’s sewn, flip that inner waistband over the skirt, fold the raw edge of the waistband in by 0.5″ (1.3 cm) and pin!

Topstitch, baby!

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Gather your skirt
  • Sew on your button plackets
  • Attach your skirt to your bodice

Next week, September 27, we’ll do finishing touches — buttons and buttonholes, clean up, and hem!

Amelie Sew Along Week D | Sewing the Waist Band and Skirt

Published on by sewbustycommunityLeave a comment

For August and September at Sew Busty, we’re doing a button challenge! Post a make that features buttons on instagram with #sewbustychallenge by September 30 for a chance to win a prize!

As part of that challenge, we’re doing a sew along for the Untitled Thoughts Amelie Dress – a cute little number that features buttons down the back of the skirt, as well as an open (but bra-friendly!) back. (Check out the picture of the dress on today’s post, as I accidentally earlier shared a picture of the non-bra friendly! For the full sew along, including bonus content, click here!

I’m back!

Alright, y’all … I’ve been gone for a hot second, and we’re a bit off-schedule on the Amelie sew along. I’ll be honest: I was on the verge of burning out, and a week of vacation plus a week to catch up were just the ticket to put me back on track.

A lot of life happened for me in the last couple months. I’ve been busy at work (as a nonprofit lawyer!) and also dealing with some personal things, many of which I’m just not quite ready to talk about. I also hadn’t seen my family members in 2 years, so I really needed to slow down and take the week to enjoy my family. Thank you for your support and understanding while I took a pause!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming (though some info on changes coming soon!):

Let’s do this thing!

Here’s the new schedule for the sew along:

September 13: Sewing the skirt
September 20: Attaching the skirt and button stand
September 27: Finishing touches, including BUTTONS

This week is going to be the simplest and shortest week of the sew along, because skirts are easy-peasy!

Assembling the waistband

Your first step today is going to be to sew your main waistband and lining waistband together. I was exhausted (pre-vacation!) and forgot to take a picture of how these go together, but here, you’ll see with the pattern pieces how I laid the pieces together to sew:

The curves of your pieces should be going opposite one another.

Sew the waistband as shown with the pattern piece for your main and your interfaced lining.

Now, we need to attach your waistband (main and lining) to your bodice. For this step, with the right side of your waistband main facing the right side of your bodice main and the right side of your waistband lining facing the inside of your bodice lining (the part that faces your body), you’re going to create a sandwich. The bottom of your bodice (main and lining) should be the “filling,” lining up with the “bread” of your two waistband pieces.

Sew this with a 0.5″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance. When finished, it should look like this:

Now, we need to topstitch! So many people hate topstitching, but I honestly love it. I just align the seam I’m topstitching with the center of my foot, move my needle to the right by about 2 mm or so, and go!

Now for the skirt!

It’s time to conquer the skirt! We’ll start by sewing the center front seam. Lay the front skirt pieces together, right sides together, and sewing with a 0.5″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance.

Finish this seam the way you prefer. (I like to use a zigzag stitch over the edge, as seen below.)

Triangle skirt extensions

Now, we must attach the “skirt extension” (godet-ish) pieces. Right sides together and matching the darts as seen below, pin these triangles onto the skirt front and back pieces:

Sew with a 0.5″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance. Don’t worry if the godet-ish piece is a bit too long – this will work out when we sew the skirt seams. Finish this seam with your preferred method.

Sewing the side seam

The last step for the skirt is to sew the side seams. With right sides together, place back skirt pieces onto the front skirt piece along long seams. Pin and sew with a 0.5″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance.

Finish this seam with your preferred method, and get ready to make magic happen next week!

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Sew and attach your waistband
  • Sew your center front seam
  • Attach your “skirt extensions”
  • Sew your side seams

Next week, September 20, we’ll add the button stand and combine the skirt and bodice!

Amelie Sew Along Week C | Sewing the Bodice

Published on by sewbustycommunity2 Comments

For August and September at Sew Busty, we’re doing a button challenge! Post a make that features buttons on instagram with #sewbustychallenge by September 30 for a chance to win a prize!

As part of that challenge, we’re doing a sew along for the Untitled Thoughts Amelie Dress – a cute little number that features buttons down the back of the skirt, as well as an open (but bra-friendly!) back. (Check out the picture of the dress on today’s post, as I accidentally earlier shared a picture of the non-bra friendly! For the full sew along, including bonus content, click here!

Per last week’s posts (single underarm dart option here) (double underarm dart option here), you should have performed any necessary full bust adjustment for your Amelie dress. I did mine! And now, we’re ready to get sewing!

Applying the interfacing

The first step in sewing the bodice of the Amelie is to apply interfacing. I chose iron-on interfacing, but you can choose any type of interfacing you wish. Apply it to the pieces indicated on the pattern, including 2″ strips along the center back edge.

For quick iron-on interfacing, I like to use my Goddess Sheet. It’s basically a thin teflon sheet that makes things much quicker by avoiding any mess with damp towels or pressing cloths.

Stay stitching

Next, you need to stay stitch the neckline, the armholes, and the center back. This prevents stretching as we sew. I like to use a standard straight stitch, but only 1/4″ (0.6 cm) from the edge of the fabric.

Do this step on both your main fabric and your lining. Below, I’m showing you my lining (cotton muslin, because it’s cheap!), because my stitching shows better on the lining.

Sewing the darts

Your next step is to sew all of the darts. You will either have four darts – an underarm dart and a waist dart on each side – or you will have six darts – two underarm darts and a waist dart on each side.

I like to curve my darts inward a bit at the ends to prevent pointy boobies.

Repeat this step on both your main fabric and your lining. Press your darts using a tailor’s ham or a balled up t-shirt.

Sewing the side seam

Next, we’re going to match the front bodice with the two back bodice pieces along the side seams with right sides together. Pin and sew at a 1/2″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance.

Your finished side seam should look like this:

Combining the main and lining

With right sides together, line your main fabric and lining together. Pin along the center back, arm holes, and neck hole. You will leave your shoulders and waist unsewn. Sew with a 1/2″ (1.3 cm) seam allowance.

Your stitching should look something like this:

Clipping and turning

Now, with insides still facing out, you must clip all curved seams almost to but not through the stitching. Your center back points must also be clipped, as shown:

You may now turn your bodice right side out. It will look almost done! Yay!

Understitching

But now we need to understitch. Understitching is where you stitch your seam allowance to your lining, which discourages your lining from sneaking out from behind your main fabric.

I want to be clear here: You will not be able to understitch all the way through on most of the seams.

Instead, your goal is to understitch as far as you can.

I like to understitch by setting my needle to 2 mm to the left or right of center. I then line the center of my foot up with the seam, so that the needle is 2 mm over the lining side. I stitch carefully, ensuring to catch the seam allowance in my stitching. I continually lift my fabric to double check that my seam allowance has been caught by the stitching.

Sewing the Shoulders

The shoulders are tricky! With the bodice right side out, you must reach into one side of the shoulder with your hand, grab the other side of the shoulder, then – while kind of flipping the first side of the shoulder inside out – line the two up right sides together.

This is even harder to explain in words than it is to actually do, so hopefully the below pictures will demonstrate what I mean! (This is a slideshow, so be sure to click through for all 6 images!)

Pin the shoulder together, being careful to match the seams where your lining and main meet on each shoulder. Sew this with a 1/2″ (0.6 cm) seam allowance.

Once it is sewn, flip it right side out and press. You should have a nice shoulder seam now, with all seam allowances enclosed.

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Staystitch and sew your darts
  • Sew your side seams
  • Combine main and lining
  • Sew your shoulders

Next week, on August 30, we’ll get into sewing the skirt!

FBA Guide + Amelie Dress Sew Along Week B | Full Bust Adjustment on Non-Traditional Darts (Double Underarm Dart Version)

Published on by sewbustycommunity2 Comments

For August and September at Sew Busty, we’re doing a button challenge! Post a make that features buttons on instagram with #sewbustychallenge by September 30 for a chance to win a prize!

As part of that challenge, we’re doing a sew along for the Untitled Thoughts Amelie Dress – a cute little number that features buttons down the back of the skirt, as well as an open (but bra-friendly!) back. (Check out the picture of the dress on today’s post, as I accidentally earlier shared a picture of the non-bra friendly! For the full sew along, including bonus content, click here!

This week, I’m pleased to welcome Brittani of Untitled Thoughts back to the blog to talk us through doing a full-bust adjustment on the Amelie! Without further ado, here’s Brittani:

Hello Sew Busty Community! Brittani here from Untitled Thoughts. I am so excited to be writing up this guest blog post for the Sew Busty blog, especially seeing as I have been meaning to whip up a tutorial on this very subject: Performing an FBA on the Amelie!

Performing a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) on a garment can already feel intimidating. Throw a Center Front waist dart into the mix and it can feel downright paralyzing! 

Have no fear! Adjusting your Center Front Darted pattern to fit your unique and beautiful shape is relatively simple and utilizes many of the same techniques as working on a normal FBA.This post will be fully dedicated to the act of making your alterations on a Center Front Dart specific pattern, in this case, the Amelie Dress. 

Let’s Get Started!

You will want to begin this process by first tracing off your front bodice pattern along with any important markings on your pattern such as:

  • Grainline
  • Darts
  • Apex Point
  • Notches
  • Lengthen/Shorten Lines
  • Size + View

I will be dividing this tutorial up into two groups: Single Dart and  Double Dart. Depending on what size you are making of the Amelie + which Cup option you have chosen, you will notice that there is either a single under arm dart or a double underarm dart. Each of these needs to be worked on slightly differently, which is why I have divided this tutorial into two parts! If you’re looking for the double underarm dart version, click here!

Double Dart FBA

To start, you will draw the following lines on your front bodice pattern piece:

  1. Directly through the center of your Center Front Dart to your Apex
  2. Perpendicularly from the Apex down through the Waist
  3. From your apex to your armhole (You will want to draw your line roughly ⅓ of the way from the under arm seam to prevent distortion in the armscye)
  4. From your Apex horizontally through the Center Front
  5. Directly through the center of your Upper Underarm Dart to your Apex
  6. Directly through the center of your Lower Underarm Dart to your Apex

Now that all your lines are in place, let’s get to cutting and hinging our pattern out! There are a few places we will be cutting. It’s important NOT to cut through our entire pattern piece. We want to leave a smidgen of the pattern intact so that we can hinge the pieces around and not accidentally distort the outer pattern edges too much!

The first set of lines you will want to cut through are lines 1 + 3. 

I forgot to mention, we need to mark out our seam allowance right at our armscye where line 3 passes through. This is the point where we will stop cutting to create a hinge!

To create a little hinge in your pattern (which allows you to shift your pattern open), snip from your armscye to — not through — the seam allowance mark you just made.

Next, cut line 2, starting from the center of your dart and ending right at the apex point. Be sure you don’t cut your piece completely off – you need to leave the tiniest bit of paper so that you are able to hinge your pattern, rather than having it come apart in puzzle-like pieces.  

Finally, cut through Line 5 + 6 ending right at the Apex. 

See how I am able to lightly pull my pattern piece and it opens up, yet all the pieces are still intact? This is what we are going for! Don’t worry if you accidentally cut through your pieces (as I have done many times!) Simply tape your pieces back together at the “hinge” point, and try cutting it again. It gets easier with practice!

For this next part, you will need some tape, scrap paper, a pen, and the measurement you plan to increase your pattern piece by. I am going to be doing an imaginary FBA of ½” (1,3 cm) for my sample. 

With your supplies in hand (and possibly a large cup of tea at the ready!), it’s time to adjust!

Gently pull the bottom edge of your pattern pieces until they start to spread apart. I like to place my ruler right at my apex point so that when I am sliding my pattern out, I can stop as soon as it reaches the measurement I am aiming for. In this case, ½”  (1,3 cm).

You may have noticed that I didn’t open up my CF dart and instead hinged it near the apex. The reason for this is because when performing an FBA, it is common to wind up with a new dart that becomes too wide compared to its length. When a dart is too wide for its respective length, this drastic change can cause the bust points to be rather… pointy. For some, this is a non-issue, but for many, avoiding a point at the end of our darts is paramount. This is actually why there are two underarm darts in this pattern – they were added to help redistribute the excess fabric after my testers informed me that the bust points were just too pointy. 

But what is the right width to length ratio for your dart?

Honestly, the answer to this question depends. It depends on your cup size, the location of the dart, the fabric you are using, and your own personal preferences. I wish that I had a sure fire answer that would work 100% for everyone, but I don’t. (If you know of a general guideline, feel free to share! A quick internet search yields next to nothing regarding the proper ratio to maintain.)

For myself, I go based on gut instinct for the most part. I’ve made a fair share of garments with darts that were too wide (as was the case with the Amelie at first!) and wound up with a dart point that was quite pointy. As my own personal rule, I try to keep all my bust darts less than 4” (10 cm) wide by 6” (15 cm) long.   

When in doubt about your bust width to length ratio, the easiest solution is to simply transfer the excess width of your dart into a second dart which you can easily do with the under arm darts if you’d like. 

All of that to say, I didn’t widen the CF dart because I know that it is already around 4” (10 cm) wide by 6” (15 cm) long and I don’t want to push those limits further. 

But now there is some excess right at the waist seam that we don’t want there. It’s time to transfer it! To start, make sure that you have taped the bottom of line 1 shut so that it doesn’t try to move on you. Then, gently close line 2 and tape it shut as well. 

Now all that excess from line 1 + 2 has been transferred into your underarm darts – yay! This is where the fun begins! You can now play around with altering your darts to see what works best for you. You can try eliminating a dart or even transferring one of those darts to a new location – the possibilities are endless!

For this tutorial, I am going to stick with simply dispersing the excess evenly between the two darts. 

Place a piece of scrap paper under your altered underarm darts and go ahead and tape everything you currently see in front of you down to prevent anything from shifting out of place!

I know that was a LOT of work! You are nearly there, but now would probably be a great time to take a mini break. Feel free to stretch, take a quick walk around your neighborhood, or drink a cool glass of water! When you come back, we will finish this tutorial by truing up your pattern!

Feeling refreshed? Then let’s dive back in and finish this alteration up!

Usually, it is at this point that you would typically be cutting through line 4 and shifting that piece down to match your altered bodice. However, since we have relocated all of the added space normally added to the CF dart into the existing under arm darts, you won’t need to adjust that pattern piece. 

To start, you need to draw out your new underarm darts. To do this, first mark your new Apex point. It will be exactly ½ way between where you split your apex in half. 

Now, measure out a point approximately  2” (5,1 cm) from your apex point along the centerline of your underarm darts. These are your new dart points. 

Next, connect your new dart point to the dart legs i.e. where you slashed and spread your paper on your side seam.

Repeat these same steps with your CF dart, but this time, mark 1” (2,5 cm) from your apex point before connecting your dart legs. 

Finally, one-by-one, close your darts temporarily. Cut off the excess paper under your side seam and then open your darts back up. 

Hooray! You now have a fully completed Center Front Dart bodice with an FBA perfectly suited to your body! It was a long process but I hope that you found it enjoyable and are excited to have a pattern that more closely fits you!

FBA Guide + Amelie Sew Along Week B | Full Bust Adjustment on Non-Traditional Darts (Single Underarm Dart Version)

Published on by sewbustycommunity2 Comments

For August and September at Sew Busty, we’re doing a button challenge! Post a make that features buttons on instagram with #sewbustychallenge by September 30 for a chance to win a prize!

As part of that challenge, we’re doing a sew along for the Untitled Thoughts Amelie Dress – a cute little number that features buttons down the back of the skirt, as well as an open (but bra-friendly!) back. (Check out the picture of the dress on today’s post, as I accidentally earlier shared a picture of the non-bra friendly! For the full sew along, including bonus content, click here!

This week, I’m pleased to welcome Brittani of Untitled Thoughts back to the blog to talk us through doing a full-bust adjustment on the Amelie! Without further ado, here’s Brittani:

Hello Sew Busty Community! Brittani here from Untitled Thoughts. I am so excited to be writing up this guest blog post for the Sew Busty blog, especially seeing as I have been meaning to whip up a tutorial on this very subject: Performing an FBA on the Amelie!

Performing a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) on a garment can already feel intimidating. Throw a Center Front waist dart into the mix and it can feel downright paralyzing! 

Have no fear! Adjusting your Center Front Darted pattern to fit your unique and beautiful shape is relatively simple and utilizes many of the same techniques as working on a normal FBA.This post will be fully dedicated to the act of making your alterations on a Center Front Dart specific pattern, in this case, the Amelie Dress. 

Let’s Get Started!

You will want to begin this process by first tracing off your front bodice pattern along with any important markings on your pattern such as:

  • Grainline
  • Darts
  • Apex Point
  • Notches
  • Lengthen/Shorten Lines
  • Size + View

I will be dividing this tutorial up into two groups: Single Dart and  Double Dart. Depending on what size you are making of the Amelie + which Cup option you have chosen, you will notice that there is either a single under arm dart or a double underarm dart. Each of these needs to be worked on slightly differently, which is why I have divided this tutorial into two parts! If you’re looking for the double underarm dart version, click here!

Single Dart FBA

To start, you will draw the following lines on your front bodice pattern piece:

  1. Directly through the center of your Center Front Dart to your Apex
  2. Directly through the center of your Under Arm Dart to your Apex
  3. From your apex to your armhole (You will want to draw your line roughly ⅓ of the way from the under arm seam to prevent distortion in the armsyce)
  4. From your Apex horizontally through the Center Front

I know that generally when you are doing an FBA on a bodice pattern, you have a line that is drawn from the Apex perpendicularly down through the waist seam. For this particular bodice, though, I found that the line was too close to the CF dart, plus the same outcome is possible by working with only the CF waist dart. So that’s what we will be doing here!

Now that all your lines are in place, let’s get to cutting and hinging our pattern out! There are a few places we will be cutting. It’s important NOT to cut through our entire pattern piece. We want to leave a smidgen of the pattern intact so that we can hinge the pieces around and not accidentally distort the outer pattern edges too much!

The first set of lines you will want to cut through are lines 1 + 3. 

I forgot to mention, we need to mark out our seam allowance right at our armscye where line 3 passes through. This is the point where we will stop cutting to create a hinge!

To create a little hinge in your pattern (which allows you to shift your pattern open), snip from your armscye to — not through — the seam allowance mark you just made.

Next, cut line 2, starting from the center of your dart and ending right at the apex point. Be sure you don’t cut your piece completely off – you need to leave the tiniest bit of paper so that you are able to hinge your pattern, rather than having it come apart in puzzle-like pieces.  

See how I am able to lightly pull my pattern piece and it opens up, yet all the pieces are still intact? This is what we are going for! Don’t worry if you accidentally cut through your pieces (as I have done many times!) Simply tape your pieces back together at the “hinge” point, and try cutting it again. It gets easier with practice!

For this next part, you will need some tape, scrap paper, a pen, and the measurement you plan to increase your pattern piece by. I am going to be doing an imaginary FBA of ½” (1,3 cm) for my sample. 

With your supplies in hand (and possibly a large cup of tea at the ready!), it’s time to adjust!

Gently pull the bottom edge of your pattern pieces until they start to spread apart. I like to place my ruler right at my apex point so that when I am sliding my pattern out, I can stop as soon as it reaches the measurement I am aiming for. In this case, ½”  (1,3 cm).

Slide a scrap piece of paper under your pattern and tape the apex side of your garment to your scrap piece of paper to help keep it from sliding all over the place. Don’t tape the dart side down just yet as we might need to take a look at some things first!

When performing an FBA, it is common to wind up with a new dart that becomes too wide compared to its length. When a dart is too wide for its respective length, this drastic change can cause the bust points to be rather… pointy. For some, this is a non-issue, but for many, avoiding a point at the end of our darts is paramount. This is actually why the certain sizes of the Amelie DD-Cup option has two additional side darts! They were added to help redistribute the excess fabric after my testers informed me that the bust points were just too pointy. 

But what is the right width to length ratio for your dart?

Honestly, the answer to this question depends. It depends on your cup size, the location of the dart, the fabric you are using, and your own personal preferences. I wish that I had a sure fire answer that would work 100% for everyone, but I don’t. (If you know of a general guideline, feel free to share! A quick internet search yields next to nothing regarding the proper ratio to maintain.)

For myself, I go based on gut instinct for the most part. I’ve made a fair share of garments with darts that were too wide (as was the case with the Amelie at first!) and wound up with a dart point that was quite pointy. As my own personal rule, I try to keep all my bust darts less than 4” (10 cm) wide by 6” (15 cm) long.   

When in doubt about your bust width to length ratio, the easiest solution is to simply transfer the excess width of your dart into a second dart which you can easily do with the under arm dart if you so choose. For my particular FBA, it looks like the CF dart is exactly  4” (10 cm) wide by 6” (15 cm) long, so I won’t need to adjust the underarm dart at all!

I also went ahead and checked my under arm dart width and length and they both looked good to me! If anything, I bet I could get away with making the dart a bit shorter in length. 

Once your two darts are looking good to you, tape them down to the scrap paper underneath and give yourself a high five!

I know that was a LOT of work! You are nearly there, but now would probably be a great time to take a mini break. Feel free to stretch, take a quick walk around your neighborhood, or drink a cool glass of water! When you come back, we will finish this tutorial by making some final adjustments and truing up your pattern!

Feeling refreshed? Then let’s dive back in and finish this alteration up!

The final step before truing your pattern is to shift the right bottom bit of your bodice down so that your waist lines line up again. This will also give ample room for your garment bodice to fall over your bust without riding up in the waist area.

To do this, cut completely through line 4.

Then shift your pattern piece down until the waist line is about even. Make sure that you keep your grainline in the same place as you move your pattern piece down (you want it to remain a straight line). Tape your pattern piece in place. 

Now come the finishing touches! To start, you need to draw out your new underarm dart. To do this, first mark your new Apex point. It will be exactly ½ way between where you split your apex in half. 

Now, measure out a point approximately 1” (2,5 cm) from your apex point along the centerline of your CF dart. This is your new dart point. 

Next, connect your new dart point to the dart legs i.e. where you slashed and spread your paper on your side seam.

Repeat these same steps with your underarm dart, but this time, mark 2” (5,1 cm) from your apex point before connecting your dart legs. 

Finally, one-by-one, close your darts temporarily. Cut off the excess paper under your side seam and then open your darts back up. 

Hooray! You now have a fully completed Center Front Dart bodice with an FBA perfectly suited to your body! It was a long process but I hope that you found it enjoyable and are excited to have a pattern that more closely fits you!

Amelie Sew Along Week A | Choosing a Size & Materials

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For August and September at Sew Busty, we’re doing a button challenge! Post a make that features buttons on instagram with #sewbustychallenge by September 30 for a chance to win a prize!

As part of that challenge, we’re doing a sew along for the Untitled Thoughts Amelie Dress – a cute little number that features buttons down the back of the skirt, as well as an open (but bra-friendly!) back. (Check out the picture of the dress on today’s post, as I accidentally earlier shared a picture of the non-bra friendly! For the full sew along, including bonus content, click here!

The Untitled Thoughts Amelie has been on my to-make list for a while, so I’m really looking forward to sewing this up!

This dress has a couple options: You can choose sleeves or sleeveless, knee length or tea length, and fully open back or bra friendly-back. For this sew along, I’m going to be sewing the sleeveless, tea length, and bra-friendly back! But you could easily sew along with any of the options, the instructions might just be a bit different.

This is an intermediate sew, so we’re going to take things a bit slower this time. Sew along installments will be released weekly over the next 5 weeks, but you’ll have until the end of September to finish up before we start the next sew along in October! The schedule for this sew along will be:

  • August 9: Choosing a Size and Materials
  • August 16: Preparing Your Pattern: Doing a Full Bust Adjustment on the Amelie
  • August 23: Sewing the Bodice and Waistband
  • August 30: Sewing the Skirt and Attaching the Bodice
  • September 6: Finishing Touches (including BUTTONS!)

Choosing a Size

This dress comes with a bunch of options. First, it’s available in US sizes 0-30, which corresponds to a waist measurement of 24-50″ (60.9-127 cm). Second, it comes with both garment B cup and garment DD cup options. (Remember these are not the same as bra cup sizes! For more info, check out our guide here.) Third, the pattern comes with two sleeve options – slender bicep and full bicep!

So many options! So how does one choose?!

Using your high bust measurement + 2″ (5 cm)

When choosing a size, we always start at the top and work our way down. So we need to choose based on our high bust measurement. (Not sure how to take your high bust measurement? Check out our guide and free measurements printable here!)

We don’t use our full bust because the size chart “bust” listed is for a B cup. And we, my friend, are not B cups.

A lot of full bust adjustment tutorials will tell you to directly substitute your high bust measurement for the full bust line on the size chart. This is also wrong. Like I just mentioned, the “bust” line on size charts is generally for a garment B cup – 2″ (5 cm) between full bust and high bust. So if we directly substitute our high bust for the “bust” line on the size chart, we’ll be choosing too small a size.

So, what’s a busty person to do? Add 2″ (5 cm) to your high bust!

For example, my high bust is 35″ (89 cm). When I add 2″ (5 cm), I end up with 37″ (94 cm). I call this my pre-FBA measure, and this is what I’ll choose my pattern size based on.

Now, let’s look at the size chart! (Slide for metric!)

You’ll see I’ve circled the bust line on size 5, which corresponds to my pre-FBA measure of 37″ (94 cm). This means I’ll start with a size 5.

do I need a full bust adjustment?

Now, if you’re not a B or DD cup (and maybe even if you are … more on this below), you’ll need a full bust adjustment. Next week, Brittani – the designer behind the Amelie – will be on the blog to show us how to do an FBA to this pattern. But, for now, let’s explore how to determine if you need an FBA.

The reason I say you may need an FBA even if you’re a garment DD cup is because the DD cup on this pattern isn’t exactly 5″ (12.7 cm) at all sizes, which is what we’d expect from a DD cup. So how do we figure this out? Look at the finished garment measurements, of course! (Slide for metric!)

My full bust is 40.5″ (103 cm), so normally, I can wear a DD garment cup without change, as that extra 1/2″ (1.3 cm) gets accounted for in ease. But on the Amelie, that’s not the case. The 5DD only gives a finished bust of 40.25″ (101 cm), so that leaves me needing some extra room. This means, if I made the 5DD as drafted, it wouldn’t quite zip, as there’d only be 40.25″ of fabric around me! You also want a bit of ease.

I find this chart from Something Delightful helpful in determining how much ease you want. A lot of drafting methods will say the minimum ease you want at the bust is 3″ (7.6 cm), but I know I tend to like less ease at the bust, so I break that “rule.” I like somewhere around 1.5-2″ (3.8-5 cm) of ease at the bust, personally. So I need the finished measurement at the bust to be at least 42″ (106.7 cm) to include enough ease. (For reference, the Eden Jumpsuit I made recently has a finished full bust of 42.5″ (108 cm).)

I’ll probably add about 2″ (5 cm) to give me a finished measurement of 42.25″ (107.3 cm), offering 1.75″ (2 cm) of ease. Again, next week’s post will cover the full bust adjustment and preparing your pattern, so just keep this in mind for now!

What if you’re between the B and the DD cup? It sort of depends on how close you are to either measurement. I’d say you want at least 1.75″ (5 cm) of ease at the bust, and up to 4″ (10 cm) of ease. So if your full bust is between 1.75-4″ (5-10 cm) less than the DD cup, I’d cut a straight DD. This will probably cover most busty people who fall below the DD cup finished measurement!

Looking at the waist

Back to the size chart we go! (Slide for metric.)

Alrighty! For me, this is going to be easy. My waist is somewhere between 29-29.5″ (73.7-75 cm), depending on how much ice cream I’ve been eating 😂😂 I know I like about 1-1.5″ (2.5-3.8 cm) of ease at the waist, so the finished waist measurement at size 5 of 30.5″ (77.5 cm) is perfect.

Technically, my waist falls between sizes 5 and 6, as you can see at the body measurements chart on the top. The pattern is designed for slightly more ease at the waist. But I’m not going to sweat it, because I know I like less ease.

If your waist measurement falls into another size, don’t fear! You just have to blend sizes. For example, if my waist was 30″, I’d probably want to choose a size 6 at the waist. Then I’d just blend the 5DD (with FBA) at the shoulders and bust into the size 6 at the waist down.

I like this tutorial on Cashmerette for blending sizes. You’ll just need to print two sizes on top of each other: your bust size (which for me, is a size 5) and your waist size (which, in the hypothetical where my waist is 30″, would be a size 6).

Finally, the hips

The hips are pretty easy on this pattern, because the skirt is a gathered, full skirt with plenty of ease. So most people will be able to keep the same size for the waist and hips.

For hips on skirts like this, I like to totally ignore the body measurement chart and look only at the finished measurement chart. Why? Because the ease makes it so looking at the body measurements doesn’t much matter. For example, my hips are actually 38″ (96.5 cm), but the finished hip measurement on this is 65-69″ (165-175.3 cm) at size 5. In other words, even if my hips were, say, 44″ (106.7 cm), which technically would fall into a size 8, there’d still be plenty of room for my hips at a size 5.

What does this mean? Well, for most people, you’re not going to need to grade or blend sizes for the hips. Just keep the same size at the hips as you have at the waist.

Choosing Materials

This pattern suggests different fabrics can achieve different looks. You can go drapey or structured! For drapey, the pattern suggests chambray, silk noil, linen, cotton voile, or rayon challis. For structure, canvas, cotton, and denim are suggested.

I want a slightly structured look, but not too much. So I’m going for this lovely burnt orange cotton I got at a thrift shop! (Yes, that $4.25 price tag for 4 yards is accurate!)

This chart gives you yardage requirements for this pattern. For me, I’m making the sleeveless long skirt, so I’ll need 3-1/3 yards (3 meters).

You’ll also need a few other materials:

  • 1 yard/meter of lining (I’m going to live dangerously and hope to get away with 4 total yards of this cotton, buuuut I’ll use muslin for lining if I need more)
  • 1/2 yard/meter of interfacing of choice
  • 15 buttons, 1/2″ (13 mm) (or 13 buttons for the knee-length skirt)
  • Matching thread
  • A set of needles appropriate for your fabric of choice

As usual, you’ll need your normal sewing tools, listed in this post.

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Purchase, print, and assemble your Amelie pattern. Print in layers the sizes mentioned in this post – one size for your bust, and, if it’s different, one size for your waist and hips.
  • Gather your materials

Next week, on August 16, we’ll talk about doing a full bust adjustment for those of us who need a bit more room at the bust!