Sew Easy: #2, Pattern Types

did you know that if you buy the right pattern type you'll have fewer alterations to make later on now a few of us have the perfect figure for any one of these types but if you want to get that nicely fitted dress by the type that is closest to your figure and your alterations will be simple now I'd like to show you some of these pattern types here are four girls representing the different figure types the girl the teen junior and the misses now don't let those names confuse you these are figure types and not ages and believe it or not all four of those girls wear the same size pattern now let's compare their measurements as you would find them in the pattern book the bust waist and hip the girl measures 32 bust 26 waist and 35 hip the teen 32 bust 26 and a half waist and 35 hip the junior which comes only in the odd sizes will be a size 15 so that's the closest to our 14 size the bust here is 33 the waist 27 and the hip 36 the 32 bust 26 and a half waist and 35 hip now let's look at these a little more closely notice the similarity in the measurements for the bust 32 32 the odd size junior and 32 similarity also in the waist 26 26 and a half the odd size junior and 26 and a half and the same similarity in the hip 35 35 odd size junior and 35 even though these measurements are practically the same you can tell by looking at these girls that they would wear different types of patterns and one of those differences is height now let me show you the junior is just a little shorter than the missus and the teen a little shorter than the junior and the girl shorter than the teen now that isn't the only difference let's look at the patterns themselves here's the girl's pattern and the teen's pattern let me place this girl's pattern on top of the teen and line up the front so you can see the difference one of the big differences between these two patterns is in the general outline itself you'll notice here at the shoulder there's a difference in the slope of the shoulder difference in shape of the armhole and the width under the arm and in the length now the reason this girl's pattern can be narrower and shorter is it is taken care of just her frame with very little bust development whereas this teenage must be wider and longer to come up and over a greater bust development for the maturing figure this also explains the difference in the dart the teenage dart is larger to take care of a greater curve in the body the same is true with this lower dart now let's compare the junior and the teenage as you remember our junior is the odd size and that is a 15 that we're comparing with a 14 teenage pattern so the differences will be exaggerated but you can readily see the difference here in the darts under the arm and the darts at the lower edge and this is to take care of the more maturing figure of the junior girl now let's compare the Junior patterns and the misses they place these together you will see very little difference in the outline of the patterns themselves many people have thought that the Junior patterns are for the short waisted women but as you can see here that is not true the big difference is in the dart dart placement in the junior is to take care of a high firm bust of the junior figure and the darts in the Misses pattern is to take care of the average or normal bustline of the woman as I discussed these patterns I emphasized the maturing figure but don't let that confuse you for these are pattern types and have nothing to do with specific ages in fact an older woman might well wear any one of these but misses the junior the teen or the girls now some people confuse this junior with a half size so I'd like to show you just exactly what a half size pattern is like this too is a figure type and in order for you to see more clearly the difference between a regular mrs. 14 and this half size let me put this overlay on top of our 14 misses line up the center front and then notice there's a little difference in the shape of the neckline there's a difference in the slant of the shoulder as well as the length of the shoulder seam the armhole is quite different and here under the arm you have extra width in the 14 and a half there's a little difference we framed in the underarm seam is really taken care of in the dart so I believe that width would be about the same but here at the bottom Center front is about an inch difference in length and at the side seam the 14 and a half is almost an inch and a quarter shorter than the regular size 14 in order for you to see how these look on a figure I've asked our model mrs. Moore to wear sample blouses made from several of them this is mrs. Moore wearing a junior size 15 now you can see that this blouse is too long for mrs. Moore because it's causing wrinkles in this part of the blouse itself and the darts are a little high causing these wrinkles in the blouse and shoulder seams are a little too long letting the sleeves drop off her shoulders I think you readily see that mrs. Moore should not wear the junior type pattern now here's Jean who can wear this junior 15 jeans blouse is the right length for her because we don't have these wrinkles in this portion of the blouse and the dart runs right along here and is properly placed for her figure and we do have a wrinkle below the bust line and one above which can be taken care of in a very minor alteration we would just simply make this dart larger in the pattern to take care of those wrinkles the shoulder line is the right length permitting her sleeves to come where they should on her figure so I think we could say that Jean should wear a junior 15 and we would take care of one little minor alteration here Thank You Jean for modeling this junior 15 for us and now mrs. Moore has slipped into a misses 14 this blouse is much too long for mrs. Moore's figure because we're getting all these fitting wrinkles in through here we'll need to take care of that by shortening her pattern now the dart now the dart is too high for her bustline and that's what's causing this extreme fold up to her neckline so that isn't so good but I do believe the shoulder lines on this blouse are all right the right length cause they're letting the sleeve come to the right place on your shoulders I believe we can find a better fitted blouse for your figure however now Mrs. Moore's daughter Marsha is wearing the same type pattern and same size as this one Marcia's blouse is the right length because we don't have these fittings wrinkles here is the dart under the arm which is in the proper place for her figure now there is a fitting wrinkle above the bustline so instead of increasing the dart as we did before we can take care of this by lifting the outer edge of the shoulder very slightly shoulder seams are the right length allowing the sleeves to be in the proper place on her figure now you can see that mrs. Moore's daughter wears a misses pattern very nicely and this should reemphasize the fact that these are figure types and not ages Thank You Marcia for modeling for us today mrs. Moore has slipped into a 14 and a half this half size is much better it isn't perfect but we do have the right length now we've lost the fitting wrinkles and this portion of the blouse the shoulder seams are the right length and sleeves fit in the right place on her figure the dart is still a problem too high for your bustline but this can be taken care of with the simple alteration on the pattern we can just drop this dart down about one inch on the pattern before we cut out her dress so I think we would better use the half size when we make your dress if you buy the right pattern type you'll have fewer alterations and those you do have will be simple for instance some of you will find that by buying the patterns for the fuller figure rather than the one regular size 42 you will save yourself some alterations so do buy the right pattern type and next time I'm going to tell you about all the materials you'll need to complete your dress so that you can buy everything with one trip to the store