Continuing on my Colette Patterns love, I made the Jasmine Blouse this week using a lovely lightweight cotton voile (Spotlight, of course, the only fabric shop I have been able to get to in months).
Anyway, feeling confident after making the blue Peony I decided to ditch the muslin and go right ahead, and I made the following adjustments before cutting out the pattern:
- Small Bust Adjustment (lapped lines 3/8″/9mm)
- Moved bust darts, determined placement by holding up tissue pattern to front.
- Forward shoulder adjustment of 3/8″ (smidge under 1cm) for shoulder seams and then the sleeve.
- Narrow shoulder adjustment using the method from the Colette website.
- Cut a straight size 2. I usually grade out in the hips but didn’t need to do this for this pattern.
- Cut a size 6 sleeve cuff as it seemed a bit tight otherwise.
Once I had the pattern cut out I pinned together and based on that made the following further adjustments:
- Trimmed off a bit from both front and back centre seams at top to remove gape at front and back neck. I think I took off a good 1/2″/1cm, tapering down to nothing just past the bust darts.
- Added some back neck darts as well.
- Adjusted the curve at the back of the sleeve, shaving off a bit more (more forward shoulder stuff going on there). I seem to need the back curve of the sleeve to be quite “flat” to fit my shape.
- Recut a new sleeve cuff in a size 10 to get a more comfortable fit.
Whew, seems like alot of adjustments but all that is fairly typical for me.
I’m glad I left the cutting out of the neck facings and collar until after I had the body all sewn together so I could transfer the final adjustments to these pieces.
I now have a TNT blouse pattern that fits me great. I love the beautiful drape and bias cut of the blouse. The collar sits beautifully and I really liked the way the collar and facings are attached. Normally I am not a fan of facings but in this case they worked beautifully.
So the firsts for me for this pattern are:
- First time sewing a bias garment.
- First SBA (which resulted in a great fit)
Next up: Colette Juniper Pants, in a black cotton sateen (so far looking great), Simplicity 1872 (I’m really excited about that one, it’s my first chiffon project) and a New Look 6808 in cotton lace.
