The Best of Sewing with Nancy

Learning to fit patterns is definitely a sewing necessity. If your clothing you've made or purchased doesn't fit, you're not going to wear it. We can't let that happen, so in this episode, you'll soon learn that fitting patterns doesn't need to be puzzling. The commonsense approach that I take takes the mystery out of the pattern fitting puzzle. In this episode, I'll continue where we left off and show you additional fitting tips. By the end of the program, you'll have the confidence you need to fit and then sew patterns with ease. "Solving the Pattern Fitting Puzzle," that's what's next on Sewing With Nancy. Sewing With Nancy, TV's longest-running sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

is made possible by

Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting, and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting, and special effect threads, because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios, fine sewing furniture, custom built in America. Clover, making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 90 years. Pellon, dedicated to providing sewing innovations in interfacings, battings, fusibles, home dec., and more. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. During the first episode of the series, I went over the sizing technique that I like to use to buy a pattern to fit the shoulder area rather than your ins and outs. Many times, you're asked to measure around the circumference of the bustline and purchase a pattern. Sometimes it ends up too large in the neck, shoulder, and armhole. So, if you missed that first program, you can go to NancyZieman.com and watch the first episode of "Solving the Pattern Fitting Puzzle" and get all the details. We did bust, waist, hip, and changing the dart in the first program. So, now we need to continue in looking at the sleeve. Now, working with the sleeve pattern is an interesting thought, because on the back of the pattern envelope there's a plethora of information, including the measurements that go for the various sizes. There's bust, waist, hip, and back length, but nothing about the sleeve. And if your sleeves tend to be too tight, you don't know what size the pattern was designed for. So, I'll give you some general rule, rule of thumb of fitting the sleeve. First of all, have your sewing buddy measure the bicep area of your arm and take a measurement to the closest, let's say, 1/2". Don't make it too tight, don't make it too loose, and don't do 1/8's of an inch. I always say to groups, especially when it has to do with hips and waist, remember what chocolate cake will do to your waistline. So, don't worry about 1/8's of an inch. And then, you're going to measure the pattern. To your body measurement, add 2" which is traditional ease in a basic fitting pattern, in a basically fit pattern. I have two styles here. Just very simple styling; not a lot of fashion changes. So there's extra little 2" in there so that you can move around in. And this is with woven fabric. So, let's say your arm measured 11", and you'd add 13". And you'd measure underneath the cap of the sleeve from stitching line to stitching line. The little red marks indicate the seam allowance. So, this is the stitching line, stitching line, and it measures 12". So, I would need another 1" to make my sleeve more comfortable. I have two cut edges, one seam allowance, two cut edges. So, I divide my 1" by two, so a 1/2" per side. So, during this program, to do the changes, we're going to be using just some tissue paper or pattern tracing paper, some marking pens. Let me get a black and a red. And the first thing I do is trace the original shape of the pattern. This is always the first step. And follow the lines. And then measure out your needed increase. So 1/2" per side is what I'm going to do, right at the underarm. 1/2". 1/2" from the cutting line. And this is a pivoting technique where we move the pattern, place a pin, and it moves like a pendulum in a grandfather clock. The pin is placed at the large dot at the cap of the sleeve, and the pattern is pivoted to meet the increase and then you trace your new cutting line. And you do the same on the other side. And you're tracing the identical line so it will fit, "it" being the sleeve, will fit into the armhole of the top or dress. Now, since this is a short sleeve, we want that same increase going all the way down. Just slide it over. Slide this over. And there, you have your change. You've added 1" to the pattern or to the fabric. It doesn't look like the sleeve will fit into the armhole or dress, but it will. Let's check it again. I'll pivot from here to the underarm. It's the same cutting line. Same cutting line. Ta-da, you can do it! Now, if you have long sleeves, you may want to measure the length that you'll need for your sleeve, or you'd have short sleeves. Here is an illustration that depicts measuring the sleeve from the cap over the bent elbow, to the wrist area or wherever you'd like your sleeve to end. And then you can check your -- Measure your pattern from the cap, the stitching line to the hemline. And you can figure that out quite well. Often, I've found when I teach classes or I have taught classes on fitting, that most people need to shorten the sleeve. So, I'll show you how to shorten the sleeve and increase it, in one operation. So, let's say you had to shorten the sleeve by 1". You'd slide the pattern down 1". Let me measure 1" way at the bottom, and you'd slide this down 1". It's shortened, just like that. And I haven't cut the pattern apart, and now all I have to do is trace the rest of the pattern. At home, you can take a little bit more time to trace accurately. Honestly, sometimes I just trace the corners and the hem. I don't go through making all these lines. But, at least you can see the changes that will occur. Then, if I would need to increase, like we did before, 1/2" on each side, you get the general idea. I put the large dot at the cap of the sleeve, pivot, trace the line, go around the corner. Pivot, the other side. Trace the line. And then -- I don't want this amount going all the way down, so I'll put a pin at the stitching line at the underarm and taper it down to nothing at the sleeve, at the hem of the sleeve. And then, I'll repeat it on this side. So, I've combined to make it longer or shorter. Just use my finger there. And there, I have increased it and shortened it, and there's my new pattern without cutting the pattern piece apart. Now, perhaps you're not making a fashion garment right now, but yet you'd like to try out these techniques. You can go to NancyZieman.com, When you click on "Videos" and the name of this program, "Solving the Pattern Fitting Puzzle," you can find a free download for mini patterns. I think there are 12 of them in there. You could practice the techniques that I'm sharing with you, and then have it in your mind and follow along. I'm not suggesting you go there now to download them. You'll miss the rest of the show, but after the show you can download these patterns and then watch the show again online and practice. So that if you wanted to change the shoulder, which we're going to do next, you could practice and then you'd have it in your mind for later on. Shoulder, wide shoulders, narrow shoulders, sloping, square. How do you measure? You can't, because the shoulder is a style feature. This illustration shows a vest, a top and a jacket, all of the same size, but notice the change or the different widths of the shoulder. Again, it's a style feature. So, I'd use a simple measurement to change the -- Let's say, for narrow shoulders, because when you have narrow shoulders, this is what it may look like. This illustration shows that the shoulder is dropping off the end of the shoulder. Either change it by 1/2" or 1/4". It may not seem like a lot, but when you look at the length of a shoulder, it's not very long. Maybe 4 1/2" to 5" at the most, the length of the shoulder. So, to make a garment with narrow shoulders, some people just lop off a section of the pattern. That's not going to work; it will make the armhole too large. So, what I would recommend to do is if you have very narrow shoulders, remove 1/2".

Slightly narrow

1/4". So, we'll just do a 1/2" so that you can see a little bit more clearly. And to change the length, we'll just slide the pattern along the trace line. Place a pin at the shoulder where the stitching lines cross. I've marked the 5/8" seam allowance, and then pivot to where the armhole marking was. So here we'll trace the shape of the armhole. And there's the red line, your narrow shoulders. Now, the armhole is the same size. So the sleeve will fit in, but it's slightly canted to fit your body shape. Another common fitting issue is sloping shoulders where the angle of the shoulder is more than, perhaps, the pattern is. So, again, you can see the illustration how you may get fabric that will cup underneath your arm; it'll be uncomfortable. So, for sloping shoulders, we're going to do the same thing. Just trace the shape of the shoulder, the armhole. Whoop, let's make that not quite so uneven, and a little bit on the underarm. And again, use 1/4" or 1/2" to reduce it in size. So, we'll take off 1/4" or 1/2". We'll measure right in this area. If we just cut that section off, the armhole would be too small. So, to keep it the same size, this time I'm going to place a pin at the intersection before the change at the neckline. Angle it down. Draw the new shoulder. And then, move the pin to the end of the shoulder and we're going to angle it back to meet the trace line. And if you ignore that line I just drew. Let's see here, here we go. We'll get it a little bit straighter. You can see you'd repeat the same on the back piece, but then this would be taped to your pattern. And you'd see the shape of the armhole would be just like the body, angled a little bit more. You might guess it, if you have square shoulders, this illustration shows the square shoulders where the fabric raises at the neckline because the bone structure is higher than the shape of the pattern. We're, again, going to trace the pattern. And trace it. And if you're going to have the shoulder higher, we'll measure above 1/4" or 1/2". Place a pin at the neck where the stitching lines cross and pivot this upward. And then, draw the raised shoulder. Move the pin. Keep it pivoted at the shoulder where the stitching lines cross and move it back. So, if you want to practice this on your mini patterns, you'd do the same alteration on the front, as well as on the back. And there you can see how the shoulder has all been hiked up and it will fit the sleeve just perfectly.

Swayback

that measurement is listed on the back of the envelope. There's bust, waist, hip and back length. And here's how you measure the back length. Again, your sewing buddy would have to help you do this measurement from the base of the neck to your waistline. And then, you can compare your measurement to the measurement written on the back of the pattern envelope. And you know how much to take off. And, again, don't overthink this. Don't do 1/8". 1/4". I usually work in half-inch increments. For a swayback, often you'll get fabric that will gather right at the base of the waistline. And it really works best to take it off at the neckline. So, this is one that's only done on the back pattern piece. So, I'm going to trace. This is the back. I'll trace the shoulder and the neckline. Now, I'm not combining alterations at first. I'm just showing you the basics. In the book that accompanies today's program, I'll show you how to combine them, but this just shows you how simple it is. Just take it element by element. So, we've traced this. And if it's too long in the back, too much fabric gathers, we'll just take off about 1/2" and mark it on the tissue paper. So, length changes are made by sliding, like casement windows, sliding the pattern up and down. And I'm going to slide the pattern down to that length, marking, trace the neckline. And then, I have a stitching line marked at the neckline where the seams would cross. It's 5/8". I mark that separately. And then, I would angle this back to the end of the shoulder seam. And this will take out the length of the back, making it shorter. You can see, I could pin this to my pattern piece. I should say, I pin my pattern piece to the trace paper, fold this back, and I would cut out along the new neckline. The back piece is going to meet the front. You'll just take out that little extra length that occurs or gathers around the waistline. And these are some pivot-and-slide techniques that work for the shoulder and the back. During this two-part series on pattern fitting, I work with just the basics. During the first program,

the sizing

bust, waist, and hip. And in the second program, working with the sleeve, some shoulder and back changes. I thought it would also be important to talk about a skirt. Now,

a skirt

a basic fitted skirt would work or a skirt with an elastic waistline. It really doesn't matter, just something simple. And I'd like to share with you how you'd compare your body measurements to the measurements that the pattern was designed for. Now,

here are some measurements

my body measurements of waist and hip and then, the measurements that the pattern was designed for. Sometimes those measurements are listed at the back of the pattern envelope. They're always listed online. So, I tend to reference that for ease. And what size to use? It really doesn't matter. You could buy it to fit your waist, you could buy it to fit your hip, anywhere in between. And since most patterns are multiple sized, I've cut this out to a size 14, which best aligns to my measurements. And, I'll show you some of the ways to change the pattern. Now, you have a front piece and a back piece, so you have two side seams which end up being four cut edges. So, four pieces of fabric. So, again, you're going to divide your measurement by the four side seams, and if the waist, I have 2", that would mean I'd need 1/2" on each side seam. And at the hip I needed 3", so I need 3/4" at each side seam. I've already traced the outline of the side seam of the pattern, and then I'll add 1/2" from the waist and then 3/4" from the hip. Now, the best thing about fitting a pattern, sewing it for yourself, is that you can get the hip right where you have a hip line. I happen to know that my widest part of my hip line is 9" from the waist. Yours may be 7" or they could be 10". It doesn't matter. Put your increase measurement out wherever you are the widest. And so I'm adding 3/4" to this area. So, this should be fairly simple. 3/4", 1/2". And then there's one more area and that's way at the hemline because we want to keep the same style that the designer of the pattern wanted. So I'm going to add that 3/4" also at the hemline. So, to get the width changed I'll just slide it over, meet the edges, and then place a pin at the side seam where the stitching lines cross, and pivot. Move that pattern to meet the change. You're not guessing where to draw. You know exactly where to draw. Follow the edges. Then I placed a mark on the pattern. Maybe a little difficult to see, but that's right at the hip line, 9" down. And then, I'll angle this back to meet the 3/4" line at the side. And at home, you can use a pencil, so you wouldn't have quite such a wide line and you can angle this back up. And you'd make the same changes to the back piece so that, obviously, your pattern pieces would match. Now, make sure that you print out those free downloadable patterns that are online. And because you can do your skirt, sleeve, the bodice front and back and do some practice. On this mini pattern, I'm going to show you just how to change the hip. Keep the waist the same. Trace the pattern. Measure out your hip change both at the hem and the hip, and then, place the pin at the side seam. Pivot to meet the increase mark, and trace between the hip and the waist and then angle it down to the marking at the side. These little practice pieces will give you confidence to do pivot and slide techniques. When you learn that soon a baby will arrive in your family, is your first thought, "I'll make a quilt?" That's what my Nancy's Corner guest thought, plus she customized her labor of love to fit her granddaughter's special needs. Please welcome Debbie Hall, who made this very tactile, interesting quilt for Cecilia. And your granddaughter was going to be born and you wanted to make a quilt, so tell our viewers the process. Well, I asked the parents to save all her first-year clothing, and that I would put together a quilt for the baby for her first-year clothing. And when we found out that she was blind, she had ONH, which is op tic nerve hypoplasia. She wasn't going to be able to see for the rest of her life. I decided to make it a very tactile quilt. I added braille dots and a lot of feely things. I made it very rough. I didn't want to make it very formal. I wanted to make it very informal, where there's a lot of feely things. I put together all her-- I took all her clothing and I cut out all the interesting things, the embellishments and pockets. Embroidery. Embroidery sayings. There were quite a few for baby clothes. There were an awful lot of them. And I cut them all out and added the iron-on interfacing on the back. And then, as I collected different kinds of fabrics throughout the years, I brought all those out and put together the different blocks. Sure, so, we have here the-- Let's just look at this block for example, the smile block. You fused the blocks to fusible. You placed the blocks onto fusible interfacing. You have three layers here. But then, here are puffy paint braille dots. Right, right. So, the puffy paint dots say, "Smile." Because that's what the word says behind it. And Cecilia will be able to learn how to -- What it says. - What it says, and her mom and dad will know, obviously -- How to read braille, right. Each pocket was from a former clothing, and each pocket contains an item made out of felt and hand stitched. And then, on top of the pocket, it says what's inside. So here this one says "heart." And this is interesting because this quilt is fully washable, but you wouldn't think about washing an applique. - Sewn pieces, right. So, look what Debbie did. She added snaps so that these can be unsnapped, and then, put back into place. Throw it in the wash machine. Bulk of what you have is machine washable. This is all topstitched or appliqud. Zigzags around the edges. And here we have -- I mean, it's just fun for me to feel the layers, so I can imagine what fun she'll have. Now, you haven't given this to her yet. No, she gets it after the show. (Both laughing) First on TV, then a gift. That's right. You did hand applique. Is this one of the first quilts you've made? This is the only quilt I've ever made. Yeah, that's what I thought. - I'm not a quilter. But you definitely have collected fabrics. So, for someone who hasn't quilted before, to make a quilt like this, this is quite amazing. - Well, thank you. I think it's admirable. - I had a lot of help, though. Well, of course. Don't we all? - Yeah. Sometimes, when you think of quilting, you don't always think of tulle. Or, here, we have some stenciling that's done with-- Sparkle paint. - Sparkle paint and so forth. This makes it quite phenomenal. And you have some leftover fabrics that you're going to be making into another project. My last project, my latest project for her is making a quiet book. And I'm gonna add some of the patches from her clothing and also add zippers and buckles and anything else that has things for her to feel and to work with. So, this is recycling or upcycling clothing. - Mm-hmm. It's making it very personalized. Oh, yeah. These are all her clothing from her first year. And then she'll be able to learn, as she grows a little bit older, spelling and words and so forth. I think, Debbie, this is very-- As I said earlier, a labor of love. And I appreciate you doing this. - Thank you. What did you find most fascinating about making this quilt? I learned that putting plaids with stripes and different colors, opposite colors, it worked. It all works. - It certainly does. It does, yeah. You have a great collection of prints and stripes and it all is very appealing. I thank you for being our guest. Sharing this great quilt and I know your granddaughter will treasure it. Oh, I think she will, too. Thank you. - Thanks again. Thank you for watching us on Sewing With Nancy during this two-part series of "Solving the Pattern Fitting Puzzle." If you'd like to learn more about Cecilia's quilt or this two-part series, of course, go to NancyZieman.com. Click on videos, and you can watch four or five seasons worth of Sewing With Nancy videos right there and also connect to our Nancy's Corner guests. You can also join us on social media platforms and also join our blog. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now. Nancy has written a fully illustrated book that is used as a reference for the fitting techniques featured in this two-part series. The book is $24.99, plus shipping and handling. To order this book, call 800-336-8373 or visit our website at SewingWithNancy.com/2915. Order item number NZSCBK, "Nancy Zieman's Confident Sewing Collection Book." Credit card orders only. To pay by check or money order, call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at NancyZieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing With Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

has been brought to you by

Baby Lock; Madeira Threads; Koala Studios; Clover; Pellon; Amazing Designs and Klass needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Riley Blake Designs. Sewing With Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.