Sew Easy: #6, How to Alter Your waist Pattern

[Music] patterns are made for the average figure but very few of us have that average figure that's what's necessary for us to take care of these individual differences before we ever cut out our dress now i'm going to show you how to alter the blouse pattern so it'll be your pattern pattern will be perfect for you alone we'll start by measuring the front blouse length measure from the high point at the neckline at the seam line and measure down to the seam line at the waist and that's 18 inches we'll compare this measurement with your body measurement these are the measurements we're going to use but of course you'll use your own measurements the pattern measured 18 inches the body measurement was 17 and this was an actual body measurement so we need to add at least one half inch for breathing ease then we would obviously need to shorten our pattern one half inch this is the same alteration we did on the skirt pattern and these double lines indicate where to sharpen our length in this pattern so we'll measure up from the double lines along the grain line line and put a mark and a half inch then crease the double lines be sure that the grain line stays on itself and you see that right through your pattern and then bring that crease up to the mark we've put there and again make sure that your grain line is straight place your pattern right on across and then pin that in place now if you need to shorten your waistline it's only logical that you need to shorten the dart or pleat in this case so we'll need then to connect a lower mark with this second dot so we have straight lines now suppose your pattern needs to be lengthened a half an inch instead of shortened to illustrate this we'll use a small pattern and now we will cut along this line indicating to shorten our length in our pattern then we're ready to pin a piece of tissue under the upper part of the pattern measure down our half inch and you better mark two or three places and then bring the second piece of the pattern back in check be sure that the grain line is straight and then pin this in place after you finish pinning check the green line once more just in case your pattern might have slipped now cut off this paper and the alteration is complete next we'll check the measurement from the shoulder to the full part of the bust as you remember that's taken from this high point of the shoulder down to the full part of the bust in order to get the same measurement on the pattern we'll need to line up this peak on the cutting line with the point of the dart we can lay a ruler right across these two points and then measure from the seam line the high point of the shoulder down to the ruler and that is ten and a half inches the body measurement was 12 which means that the point of the dart is not pointing toward the fullest part of the bust as it should but should be lowered an inch and a half we use a plain piece of paper and a carbon flip it under the pattern and then trace this dart remove the carbon and then slip the paper with a new dart down so it will measure an inch and a half lower here at the point and it should also be an inch and a half lower out here at the peak the cutting edge pin this in place then draw in the new lines at the outer edge these will be your new cutting lines and then we'll disregard this dart completely and now we'll check the shoulder measurement in order for this to fit the body measurements we'll measure from seam line to seam line not from outer edge to outer edge and that measures 5 and 1 8 inches your body measurement was four and three-fourths which means we need to shorten the shoulder seam by making a series of small tucks tape them off as quickly as possible then recheck to be sure you have the right measurement now we're ready to pin those [Applause] now we'll do the front bust measurement we'll measure from the center front line across the point of the dart to the side seam and that is 11 inches that's half of the front so we'll need to double it or 22 inches now that gives just enough ease for our body measurement of 21 inches but i'd like to show you how to do this alteration anyway by using a small scale pattern to make this alteration we'll pin a strip of paper along the side seam of the front of the blouse then draw a line extending from your cutting line the amount that is needed to be added to your pattern to make it full enough and now since we have added an extension to the front of the blouse we'll need to add an extension to the front of the sleeve since we've increased the armhole we want the sleeve to fit into the armhole you can tell which is the front of the sleeve seam by corresponding notches so make that alteration in the same way by adding a strip of paper to the seam pinning it and then drawing the same line here at the armhole seam and taping it off to nothing and now we're ready for the back pattern [Applause] check this measurement down the center back measuring from the seam line at the neck to the seam line at the waistline this indicates we have to make a half inch alteration or shorten the pattern half an inch just as we did in the front and we'll do it in exactly the same way your green line in this case is your center back fold line let's turn to the measurement that's four inches down and across the back to compare the body measurements with our pattern measure four inches down from the seam line and straight across the pattern this measures seven and a half inches we'll need to multiply that by two to take care of the entire width of the body which would be fifteen and our body measurement was fifteen and a half which means we have to add a half an inch to the entire width of the back or one fourth of an inch to this part to do this draw a line down from the shoulder seam parallel to your grain line and well below the armhole and then come right across under the armhole and then cut this section out we bring this piece of pattern back in and hold it together at the underarm seam then lay your ruler across the pattern at this four inch mark and spread the pattern right here until it's one-fourth inch then pin your pattern in place you'll remember we shorten the front shoulder seam we've added what we need in this section of the shoulder across the back but we've spread the shoulder seam too much so we'll need to remove this amount plus the same amount that we removed from the front shoulder seam of the pattern by laying small at the shoulder seam and running them off to nothing don't make the mistake of trying to compare the shoulder back shoulder seam with the front and make them the same length for the back shoulder seam is usually a little longer than the front to take care of ease over the shoulder blade now if you've put those tucks in and of course you'd pin them in the next thing is to take your ruler and make a new shoulder line from the high point of the shoulder to the armhole and then we'll be ready to finish up the alteration at the waistline the important thing to remember there is that when you alter one section of your pattern as we did the skirt then you'll need to alter the other part that will later be joined to it at the same place in the same amount so we would alter the waistline in the same manner that we did the skirt back same thing would be true with the skirt front and the blouse front last time as well as now i've shown you many more alterations than any of you will need to take i've done this on purpose so i could show you the common alterations and what you can do about them and next time we'll use this altered pattern and cut out the fabric [Music] you