serinde

(I realized now I never posted part 1. Oops.)

I decided this year to finally make good on my promise of several years' standing to Claire to fit her for a cotehardie. (It helped that I finally feel like my skill might possibly be up to the task.) I had the first go at it in, erm, March I think? Whereat even after paying close attention to having been fit myself any number of times, and consultation with sundry online sources, I simply could not get it to work. So I called in the Marines, and after our usual false starts at trying to get anything scheduled, Beth and Kasia came over last night to set me on the true course.

My Big Damn Error was that I failed to keep a straight grain across the front. (Also, it is noted that using a twill for your first effort is perhaps making your path rockier than it needs to be.) I also cut away too much at the armholes, having forgotten the pull-up-and-out bias stretchy bit of managing the top front, and leaving not enough to pin the stuff you're pulling to, though that was not tripping me up in my first attempt because I wasn't doing that bit correctly. I also should have kept the bodice somewhat longer--7" below the waist was Beth's thumbnail guide; basically, long enough to go over the widest portion of the hip.

I was somewhat comforted to know that my other large woe, to wit when I had the subject lay down for the moving-boobage-up portion of the pinning and the entire back of the garment kept creeping upwards only to be discovered when she stood up that it was horribly awry, happened again this time, much to the chagrin of my panel of experts. The cause for this appears to be because the subject's waist does not markedly go in (her figure is exceedingly slender) and so the body's natural curvature doesn't hold it in place when gravity is taken out of the equation. This is not a problem any of the three of us have. Ahem.

Kasia's advice on how to deal with inevitable puckering was very aikidoesque. UNIVERSAL APPLICATION, YO.

A recap of pointers & ideas:

1) Keep the center front straight--even laying it out and pinning it on a table is a reasonable start.
2) Mark the grain line, and then KEEP THAT LINE STRAIGHT. Also, mark the cardinal points of the smallest point of the subject's waist at each seam. You can even make your grain line "ruler" at the smallest point of the waist, though of course it may wander slightly as you adjust things.
3) The curvature of the center back is super-important; fit it, pin it, and sew it so that you get as precise a curve as you can while you're pinning everywhere else.
4) That puckering often means you need to release pins along the side seams, but not always where you think you do. Listen to what the fabric is telling you, but gently direct it where it needs to be.
5) When in the lying-down part, you take the front shoulder bits, pull up, THEN out. You are making bias stretchies on the idea of making the excess fabric that you might otherwise have to take a breast dart for go into the fabric that'll be cut away for an armhole. (The more breastage, the more difficult.)

We did not finish, but it's getting there. (Note to self: dinner should be faster.) We are meeting again next week, at which point the fitting should be complete and I should be able to fly solo. Until I have hysterics about cutting into the actual dress fabric, anyways.