I am pretty much pleased with this. It is an old pattern from the 80's,
McCalls 7255.I still think I should cut back the armscyes more. What do you think? I appreciate your input. The original princess seams were in the middle of the shoulder seam. I am thinking if I make this again, and I think I will, that I will have to move those princess seams in a bit to accommodate for the cutting in of the armscye. Dang, those narrow narrow shoulders! Other than that I like it. I like the way it just skims the body and there is still room for a sweater underneath. I am glad I did the shirttail hem. For some reason that hem seams to be flattering on women with bigger hips. In a nutshell: here is what I did to the vest pattern:
Fit Changes
* FBA
*sloping shoulder adjustment
*swayback adjustment
* Add to hips
Design Changes
*Change back to shoulder princess seams from darted back
*Add one lapel to neckline
*Change hemline to a shirttail hemline
*Lapped seams sewn with a 4.0 twin needle, a really easy construction method, no facings
*Change button positions
These buttons are from Ima's collection. They are heavy. The fabric is soft and fluffy like a nice wool sweater. I knew it would not support the buttons so here is what I did.
I dug in the stash for a matching piece of poly silky. I fused Steam a Seam to the back and then pinked it to the proper shape. More reinforcement behind the actual buttons was still needed so I cut little triangles of Decor Bond and dot fused them with the point of the iron where the buttons would go. Pinking helps eliminate show thru.
This was then flipped and fused to the wrong side of the vest.
The buttons were then attached on the right side using matching embroidery floss. Once this was done covered snaps were sewn underneath the buttons on the wrong side.
I used larger snaps than normal to carry the weight of the buttons. The female snaps were then covered and attached to the other side of the vest. This definitely carried the weight of those big buttons on a really soft fabric.
I promised to show how I do a "fish eye dart" in the back to accommodate a swayback with full hips. Every time I make a blouse or some sort of top there is a big blob of fabric from my shoulder blades to my buttocks that is just filled with air. Just darting this does not take care of it, at least for me.I find I have to take out length as well as width. I read that you have a swayback if you can drop a string from the nape of your neck to your buttocks and there is space between your back/spine and the string. I have lots of space there. I find to get this right you must first have your muslin adjusted to the proper hip width. So start by adding in there if you need it and if you are swayback you more than likely do. Then I start pinching out fabric in a horizontal line at the waistline. I pinch it across this line but about 2 inches from the side seam start tapering it down to nothing at the side seam. This is what works best for me but I am always open to new techs here.You can see that here. I then transferred this change to my pattern piece. The darts were changed to princess seams and and a small amount of width was taken out that way as well. Very important to make sure the grain line is straightened once you have made your adjustments to the pattern. Then you cut. IMO shoulder princess seams are a swayback's best friend. Why is this called a fish eye dart? If you open up that waistline dart it will be an elipse shape with the fold line down the middle, I guess sort of resembling a fish eye. . Fish eye darts are great, by the way, for getting rid of that bag of fabric under your butt when making pants.
I may not post for a bit. I have my surgery tomorrow and hope all goes well. I do have some handwork planned and ready to go. Hope to see you all around the corner..................Bunny