Replies

1. 
   scrubble4 | Feb 22, 2008 01:11am | #1

   Hi blessedtosew:  Welcome!  You will love this site and learn tons.  There are some very wise sewers here who will always take the time to help the rest of us.  We are so fortunate.  I have one site, from right here on Threads that may begin to help you answer your question:

   http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00228.asp

   Also Fashion Incubator is another great internet site which has very helpful information on fitting sleeves and bodices.  I am including a pathway for understanding sleeve ease. 

   http://www.fashion-incubator.com/mt/archives/sleeve_cap_ease_is_bogus_pt2.html

   Scrubble4

2. 
   Beth | Feb 22, 2008 05:58pm | #2

   Good morning blessed.
   From your post, I'm not sure why your jacket armscye doesn't fit. If you have a jacket with a good fit in this area, why not compare the two? Taking a photo of yourself in the two jackets can help with indentifying what is behind your problem.

   Determining how your figure varies from the pattern company model is not easy. Once you work that out, there is plenty of information about how to adjust the pattern.

   You can do this.
   Beth

3. 
   Fruzzle | Feb 23, 2008 08:04am | #3

   I have the opposite problem -- my armscyes are always to small, even if everything else fits. I slide the bottom of the armscye down the pattern, without moving anything else, and I think you could probably do the reverse.

   It's a "box slide" method, where you cut a box out of the pattern and then slide it up or down. To draw the box, draw one line perpendicular to the grainline at the armscye notches. Draw another line, perpendicular to the grainline, on the side seam about a half inch below the armscye. Connect these two lines with a line *parallel* to the grainline, a couple of inches in from the cutting line (you don't have to be particularly exact).

   You should now have a square shape with one curved edge. Cut out the square, slide it up the pattern (by however much you want the armscye to move up -- for the sake of illustration, let's say a half inch), fill in the gap with tissue, and true the seams. Do this to the front and the back of the pattern. (I practiced this by sketching my pattern shape on a blank piece of copy paper and sliding things around until I figured out how it worked.)

   You also have to adjust the sleeve so it fits in the new armscye. Draw a line from the notches on the front to the notches on the back. Shorten the pattern at this point by the same distance that you shortened the front & back (e.g. a half inch).

   This should work if your shoulders are short in height; if you have narrow shoulders, you might have to make a different adjustment.