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Tissue Fitting Full Bust/Broad Back

Lesson 8 from: Tailored to Fit: The Palmer/Pletsch Tissue Fitting Method

Pati Palmer, Marta Alto

Tissue Fitting Full Bust/Broad Back

Lesson 8 from: Tailored to Fit: The Palmer/Pletsch Tissue Fitting Method

Pati Palmer, Marta Alto

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Lesson Info

8. Tissue Fitting Full Bust/Broad Back

Lesson Info

Tissue Fitting Full Bust/Broad Back

And now I'm going to fit nancy do a measurement first um I can tell because I put my arms around people all the time nancy has a broad back and so we're going to take that into account, but what we're going to do is use the pattern size as if we didn't know about the broad back, so that puts her into a twenty one is this sort of what happens to me? And so this is why I wanted to do this you're back okay? The edge of the pattern is in the arm crease and it naturally goes there and that I find that very convenient so then we're coming over to the center back and the cut line is really at the center back and this has a five eighths inch them alone so that says we don't have enough room let's look at the front, raise your arm to turn down on dh I could bring this over to her center front, but it's actually coming beyond the center front here and see how there's extra tissue here that says it's too big even though it doesn't work down here, we're not working looking at that we're looking at...

the chest area so this is coming over too much on the center front and they're still extra tissue there, so what we did is another one out and cut out a size eighteen wei have the twenty two sitting line from the twenty line in the eighteenth century because that's what would happen if you just cut it down to another smaller size so again we're gonna look at the back here get down go so again the cut mark is coming where we don't have enough room across the back so we're going to slash the pattern an ad for a broad back let's look at the front with maybe a lot more raise your arms charm down okay now the center front is coming to the center front and when this when the broad back is done this will bring this around and it will fit better here because the bride back allows the side seam to go forward so we're going with broad back with one more time with your back and that seema line isn't coming up to the necklace the necklace is right there and we need like five eighths of an inch I'd say almost three quarters to d'oh ah hi round so we're going to a high round and abroad back can I point something out just to this confuses people sometimes they don't know really where the broad back should where you should look at it if you go up here that's really broad shoulders if your shoulders really wide that's not back at all that's just shoulders broad back is about where you creases here sort of in the shoulder late area so if your broader narrow back it's here and see how marty's bringing her hand down so if your hands were the same size and smartest that's exactly what I think mine are now we need to do this alteration so nancy you have a five eighths of an inch high around so put plus five eights and your broad back is give us a quick press you can watch what are you thinking about doing for broad back five aye sir. Three quarters hopes I think I turned it off might have what do you what's your range that you usually do fruit broad back happen inch two recorders oh, sorry we're not my king the student I was yes you we do pretty well I'm usually between a half intentions records of an inch and so it was it can depend a little bit of have fitted or how exactly did the garment is right and you saw what martin I saw five aches ok, so we do the five eights brought back in the high round okay, so remember we remember the fitting order that you can download if you have the class just have that out and we always do start with the back and so if you follow the order you'll it'll just I think help you stay in the line of doing the alterations in the right order it would be less confusing so get that out remember the back actually controls the front so back has to be released in order for the side seem to allow the front too come together does that make sense so that's why I do the alteration if we have to do a bride back I do the broad back alteration before even look at the front so I'm gonna put the grain line on a grid and this has a line right here says broad back adjustment line and that line is generally from the bottom to the top all the way through the back piece if this was a full length coat you had to go all the way to the bottom of the pattern piece so we're gonna add five eight dude in this shoulder area not the neckline you don't want the neck to grow and I want to keep any horizontal lines on the pattern I want to keep them aligned with each other on the broad back what a law of students do it first is they match at the top so this is a straight line and if you do that it's gonna be uneven at the bottom because it's a diagonal anytime you have a diagonal you will have to keep it true keep it level so any grid meyocks are that are on it are the same place and then we true the neckline so we would draw a line on the tissue from that part of the shoulder to this part of the shoulder and you could see this little bit right here would get cut off smart is doing that broad back first you can do it either way but doing the broad back first is easier and it's easier because of high round is a diagonal lift that goes it's a wedge and so it's easier to do straight parallel lines and then the wedge just give you an interest er yeah it's okay it's just a little adjustment to get the inch on either side I usually do inch so I know you do an inch because I don't like it a lot of extra tissue in there and it works pattern paper is the same exact issue that mccall's prince all of their patterns on so you have no weighty areas like if you see some of those non woven fabrics it overpowers the tissue and so we just love this way love effect has agreed on it. You know, of course you can cut scraps of leftover tissue of your tissue paper and use that to if you're trying to save a little bit but grab it really is nice and in the fit for real people book we actually used colored tissue and more so that you could actually see the alteration in tissue so with you and if if you had an alteration where you did more than one you did the first alteration one color and the next alteration in another color so you could see this was the first alteration and this was the second alteration so it was a little more visual way had a reason because we didn't have the pattern paper yet and you don't want to spill any water on color tissue. Can you imagine doing this without having a tape dispenser have to pick up take off with the take down like a fourth hand? No there's now tape dispenser is a little bit smaller but they're still weighty and they come in blue and yellow and hot pink teal something to coordinate with your sewing space way over there. Ok, I'm gonna turn that because it's easier to cut here I guess I can cut on the other direction but it's just easier to cut a straight question and I'm going to do do the cut close to the neckline so there's not very little distortion since there's a centerback scene a little distortions okay, because if you put a zipper and it just sort of curved with your back but on any pattern now with a fold line at the center back in our guide sheets we are putting cut at the same into the shoulder for your high round so there's no distortion except in the seam allowance and that was marty's idea and it's fairly new for us so if we ever redo the book it'll you know we'll add that to it too and show you why very clearly pretty much everything we're showing in this class is everything that's the newest that we do so you're giving the newest something about teaching classes all the time is as fashions change, new styles require rethinking some of the things you do in the alterations so it's a continual learning process that never ever stops now when I pin the shoulder seen the because of the broad back back is longer than the front, so this can either be eas or it can be a dart in the back shoulder and that's actually a good thing ah lot of patterns today don't have any ease this particular pattern already has three eighths of an inch of these in the back shoulder, so by doing the five eighths of an inch brought back, we now have an inch extra so I would probably just go ahead and make that a dart and this is my silly just way of doing where do you put the dart? You folded in half so thes lines match and this is going to be a half inch start at this point here and it's about three inches long because there wasn't a dart there in the first place you didn't have any lines they're just creating a space so now lines match first panic then acting's the face away the point needs the face away from the neck you only want to get stabbed a few times you've added dart corrected back so the full amount the three eighths plus five places an inch some I'll put ads not real easy tio easel incheon I've done it on occasion but today a lot of patterns don't have any ese and um that will show up on the fashion patterns were fitting later on because it's it's silly really it's really silly if you look at your back you need this area right here is longer than this area right here and there really should be some ease or a dark to accommodate that especially noticeable on people who are thinner with shoulder blades and so I really need a back shoulder dart if there isn't a dark you'll have a gap in the arm hole and we'll hopefully we'll see that on somebody later on and that gap goes like that it says I want to be a dark and so you have to create space for the dart um but the reason a dart sort of disappeared his back when stretch and so was teaching sewing and this relates to some nets and things when stretch and so was teaching sewing everything was boxing and there were shoulder pads and boxing so you didn't need us many darts so a lot of people who learned to sew during stretching so never so dark they didn't know how to sew a dark so when patterns got more fitted in the when I turned after nineteen, ninety five or whatever and there were less shoulder pads and more fit then you had have darts. If you have bumps, you need darts to go around the bumps so pattern started putting darts in and people didn't buy the patterns because their darts and they did not so dark. So it's it's just just a silly but work there's a reason. Oh, that's. Much better. Much better. Thank you. Raise your arm again. Looking at them now down there now, it's coming to the centre back the darts actually in the correct place when you fold shoulder in half so that works. I forgot to pin this started, but she doesn't need much of it anyway. So that's fine. We're a little short at the center back. And we're a little short at the side. The bottom of the tissue is actually at the bottom of the elastic. So looks like we need to add some length about an inch. Is that what you usually add this tall? Now raise your arm under my arm, okay, now put it down, looks good there. You need to add an inch and three quarters that sound good many people call a full best adjustment and f b a and if you go onto any blog's air pattern review or something like that you see oh they need to do an f b I but fortunately they say oh just goto with o ff r p on the first of her that what's that will fit for real people our book then there's peop e r p for pants for real people and that fda there is flat career yeah but actually but that rear okay there is a lengthening and shortening line on the pattern and that line is actually been on most patterns for long long time that was the alteration we were allowed to make without question and that obviously has to do with whether you're tall or short so I'm going to cut on that line you don't have any issue half cut so I'm going to just put that line on a line being long waisted it's nice especially when you're full bested because you have more space between the bottom of your bust and your waist for you beautiful but you know what I should have checked I don't think it applies to you but just for drill that's that's check no good with team comes no no no need for why the scene comes right to your arm so again we're cutting online one to the arm hole and this is about a third of the way you'll get it this way it's not at the under arm area it's kind of right in this area you know, we're doing one and three quarters. I like the statement because I can actually see the numbers coming all the way to the and but it's still hooked together by a thirty second oven inch little bit of tissue and now we have to level it at the bottom there's line three thieves this is the rest of this street. Where do you want another piece? Actually, I wouldn't, uh that's okay, I just thought you could go up to it with this piece I've learned it looks like there's nothing there if you I have the white plain white it looks like you the flat oh, yeah doesn't matter it's not on camera but when this on camera in our workshops sometimes people think they're saving a lot of time they put a whole big sheet of perfect pattern paper on the table laid the pattern down after the pattern tape it to that big sheet but what you really have to do then is to go back to the wrong side trim all that excess away otherwise you've got two layers and and too much tissue it's good sometimes bill to see through the tissue so really stick to the small strips that's another case where oh let's do this it'll save time but in the end it doesn't really we've seen everything in fact, when we were writing the chapter about how to alter in the fifth book, it was a very bad day at a workshop a lady was doing this with half the pattern hanging over the edge of the table seriously so if you read that chapter you will find that it's quite adamantly written and a lot of people lay the tissue on the table just any old place and then I can't understand why it doesn't come out has to be on grid and the grid really helps you see that you're doing everything right and if you angle a pattern on the grid goods not helping you at all and these inexpensive with cutting boards, you know, like martin said, you put on your kitchen counter and folded up into thirds and doesn't take up much space again. I can't see the tissue have to feel it you piece here but upset that I didn't think the intrude work because it is an inch yeah, and I don't have anything but this you could use this two inch past five I'll do some more of it your sister assistant was getting behind, I'm gonna induce the more of it, I don't need it anymore, right? Yeah, yeah we'll go get you some more then so nancy you've been teaching to shoe fitting so how many years have you been has it been since you took the first teacher training class when we were doing tissue getting in portland that was two thousand two so how thirteen years thirteen years yeah and are you comfortable with it I am no yeah no no I know it took a lot of practice on dh that's really? I think all it takes is learned the technique and then practice practice practice practice which gives you confidence right and uh don't be afraid to fail because you will at some point it's okay it's just paper right now yeah I will say in the beginning I used to try and reinvent some of marty's methods thinking that I was smarter let me tell you I have never one argument with marc about anything related to fit or tissue fitting and so now when I'm in a class of someone wants to know why do we do things a certain way and I don't have a really good explanation I just say because marta said so so again I'm pinning the dart from the waist folding on the original fold lines and pinning along the leveraging a leg on this side then after we put it on and it fits ok I can mark the otherside of the dark that makes sense because I might want to make the dart wider or narrower that's okay way also get people emailing me after a forty workshop that nancy's done and she is the most patient person in the world that helps if you're teaching to be patient with your students just be easy going so that they don't have fear of cutting into the middle of a piece of pattern padding I really feel repetition repetition repetition so you know yes, I'm repeating what I've done before, but he learned by repetition so of course we do have the back into the front and the already altered patterns so that's why I'm going to grab it put on nancy and we've done something else other things on nancy, not just the full bust and the amounts are different, so I think it's good for you to see that kind of variety to really learn you need to come over a little more we may have to let out of sight. Yeah, probably yeah if if you've done the alteration is not coming quite to the center front usually that's because you needed a lot more illustrator waistline and you start painting it right in the under arm so you're getting extra with the bust area as well. You know these alterations are really not that in common that's looking good plastic that feel okay, you might have to lower your waist a little bit in the front that would be normal well, you know, we just mark that on the tissue here so a little bit of work but well worth the time and looks like we've added a forward shoulder to it the same is down the middle of her arm, which is where you want it to be narcs weren't here, you know, sometimes people have a forward head neck and it'll be you need to, like, mark the neckline lower without doing any other alteration just because what you see is what you get. So if a nancy this would be uncomfortable right at the base of her neck she could just draw her neckline lower and make the facing match that so it would be comfortable. Yeah, that looks good. I think we have the fleet. Yeah, so this is nancy's road map and if she doesn't want to make the dress she could just pin this to a bulletin board in her sewing room and every time she sew something she could refer to what she did here and then she'll know what to look for. If you know what to look for it's much quicker to put the unaltered tissue on and then look in the mirror and say, oh yes I do need a broad back oh yes I do need a full bus see how much it might be a little more the less different fashions but it really gives you an idea of what to look for thiss pattern has a elbow dart and nancy spencer elbow it's pretty much pointing their correct length there and it's the correct length there from the hymns folded up so the sleeve length is correct perfect it's a little snug in the upper arm yes, that's true depends on what you're doing if I can pinch an inch, you gotta have an engine pinch so and that this is a more fitted pattern that probably has less easy than you might have a another sleeve and that would work fine for um canis double knit the ponti because you don't need a lot of these if she was doing a jacket, she definitely wanted teo full upper arm adjustment and now we're going to do kanda thank you, nancy get rhonda's pattern I want to point out one reason in this pattern that we did elbow dart is if you're sewing a jacket with a two piece leave the nicest leaf it is usually one that slightly curved and usually has easer darted the elbow, but when you're learning about your body and making a body map it's the elbow darts nice because if you're short in the upper arm you're gonna have to tuck the upper part of the sleeve to get the dart in place then you might find that it's too short in the lower arm and you'd have to lengthen here. So what this sleeve will show you is whether you are short in the upper long in the lower or vice versa. And that's good information to have.

Class Materials

Free Downloads

Class Resources
How To Buy The Right Size Pattern
Sheath Dress Fit Pattern

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Body Map Alternations Worksheet
Fitting Order For Darted Front Tops or Bodices
How To Pick Your Correct Size
Body Graph Worksheet
How Tissue Fitting Works
Y-Bust Alteration
The Story of the Palmer/Pletsch Sheath Dress

Ratings and Reviews

user-7c3291
 

This is one of the best courses I have taken online; I just wish you had the ability to make notes or tabs so you could refer back to certain sections more easily. I have met and followed Pati Palmer for many years but this was my first experience listening to Marta Alto and I see why they work so well together. Thank you both for sharing your many years of experience. It was interesting to hear Pati's history on many things and I really loved Marta's sense of humour it makes watching so much more fun!

Leslie coduti
 

I sew very well, imagine the disappointment when what I have sewn just does not fit well. Everyone who sews and wants what they have sewn to really be a joy to wear should take this course. It is like being there in the actual workshop. I am only half way through in the viewing and am anxious to apply what I have seen to my own sewing. It has been presented so well and in such detail that one comes away with confidence that they too can do this. I am also impatient, making a muslin takes time. Time is so precious and time to sew is really hard to come by. I have tissue fit pants in a workshop in Michigan and used a Palmer-Pletch pattern for a princess line dress I made in silk on my own. Both items fit my mature figure beautifully, and I did not have to make a muslin first for either one! When you hear, "What you see is what you get" believe it. Take this class, it will improve your fitting ability immensely and you won't believe how easy it is.

Rebecca Shelly
 

I have used the Fit for Real People book as a go to for fitting since I began sewing eight years ago. I now recommend it to students who take sewing classes with me. It has great visuals on how to read what fabric/patterns are trying to tell you about your specific body shape. This class is a great visual to show how the process goes along. If you have trouble with fitting yourself, creating a dress form of your body can be a great way of making this process easier.

Student Work

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