Spring 2010 Quilt Market

Quilt Market is the largest trade show for people who own sewing, fabric and/or quilting shops in the US of A. It happens twice a year - Fall Market is in Houston and Spring Market travels around - this year it was in Minneapolis!

Pattern of the Month - May 2010

I love this bag! I made it for the Pattern of the Month and was going to put it on display at the shop, but it seems that I have kidnapped it and it's now my everyday bag. I can't tell you how much stuff I can cram in it - and that for me is a good bag. I even decided to make it into a kit to make it easier for everyone to get online (and we have them at the shop too)!

Adding to an Existing Dart

Part Deux of our Full Bust Adjustment festival, this tutorial will show you how to increase the size of an existing dart. I'll be using our Party Dress pattern (Kwik Sew #3521) as an example.

Most commercial patterns draft for a B cup, so many people have to alter up or down accordingly. On some patterns, you can fudge it a bit, or just get by - this is one of those patterns for me. It has always been a bit snug in the bust - but workable - now it's noticeably tight. My weight goes up and down a lot, and of course it all settles in the bust which means I have to alter almost everything I own. Hooray! Plenty of practice... Here's a picture where you can see that the existing dress squishes the bust a bit:

So, we'll be using the same slash-and-spread technique as we used previously in the Full Bust Adjustment aka FBA post along with the same supply list and cup size measurement chart. It might be a good idea to read through that post to refresh your memory - you can refer to it for all the step-by-step pictures I'll talk about below.

Here we go!

Full Bust Adjustment, aka FBA

Welcome to the second part of our Bust Adjustment extravaganza, a companion to the 3/22 Petite Bust Adjustment (sometimes called an SBA) where we featured the lovely Parfait Dress by Colette Patterns. Most commercial pattern companies out there draft for a B cup, so if you are not a B cup you'll need to make some changes in the pattern for it to fit your body better. This is really the essence of making your own clothes - you can be technically proficient but if things don't fit right it's not going to look good!

There are a couple of things you can do to make the bust area fit better - you can add a dart where there isn't one, you can increase an existing dart, or you can add more fabric to the gathers, tucks or pleats that shape the fabric like a dart. I'll be going through the steps to add a dart in this tutorial and follow up shortly with the other two methods. For the third method - gathers, pleats or tucks - I'll use the Parfait Dress again cause it's so pretty!

We'll start out using the same method for figuring out your cup size as we did previously - remember that your cup size for a pattern might be different from your bra cup size. First, measure around the fullest part of your bust:

Then measure your high bust - under the arms and over the bust across the ribcage:

The difference is what makes your cup size:

• 1" or less: A cup
• around 2": B cup
• around 3": C cup
• around 4": D cup
• around 5": DD cup
• etcetera!

I wear a DD bra but make a pattern adjustment for a D cup because I have a 4" difference.

We'll need the same patternmaking supplies:

• Extra paper - pattern paper or copy/printer paper
• a sharp pencil - a mechanical pencil is best
• 2 x 18" clear ruler
• clear tape - the matte kind you can write on
• push-pin type thumbtacks
• a vary form curve or hip curve ruler