[Mel]

We’re still going round and round about these flower girl dresses! My sister’s soon-to-be nieces are in the wedding party and my sister has decided she wants all the girls to match. I’m fine with the younger three but the older one doesn’t fit into the largest size. Her measurements are:

Chest 31

Waist 32

Hips 33

Height 53 1/2

I’m facing a huge time crunch and I don’t have access to the girl for fittings (she’s in Calgary, I’m in Ottawa). I don’t have any experience grading patterns. This style is not fitted but I’m worried about sizing it up. How difficult would it be? What changes would I have to make? Help please oh, lovely ladies of the forum!!

[Nicole]

Your measurements

Chest 31

Waist 32

Hips 33

Height 53 1/2

The size 12

Chest 29

Waist 25

Hips 31.5

Height 58

So comparing them, would you consider knocking up a super quick muslin for a fitting?

There may be enough ease.

Could you post it or is that just impossible? Maybe find someone similar sized?

I will mull this over tonight.

[Violaisabelle]

Mel,

I *might* be able to assist you. When is the wedding? I’m wondering what the deadline is and looking at my own schedule. 🙂

Those measurements are very close to my daughters. I will have to measure her again and will do that later today to get a better idea. I do have the digital of this pattern, but have not yet made her a dress from it.

Looking at the measurements you provided, I am guessing this young girl is in ‘development’ stage, would this be correct? My first thought on seeing this patter was that the extra fabric through the bodice front is a bonus for developing young ladies. The trick is, making sure her bra straps won’t show with the neckline. If she is in development stage, this can happen so quickly so knowing when the wedding is and how much ‘growing room’ or ‘flex room’ to add will be important.

I go through the city regularly, so I could do a fitting for you, or she could come this direction as well…you can contact me through my blog, in my profile….it’s a very sad, neglected blog, I’m afraid. I just don’t have the time to keep up with it regularly. 🙂

Happy Sewing, 🙂

Carol

[Mel]

The wedding is at the beginning of August. The girl is only 9, my sister doesn’t think she wears a bra. I’ve never actually met her.

I hate doing things in a rush, especially when I’m not confident in my abilities. I didn’t realize my sister was so indecisive until she started planning this wedding!!

Thanks for your offer of help, Carol. I may just take you up on it! I’ll send you an email.

[Tamara]

Mel you have six weeks. I know that isn’t a huge amount in “wedding” time but it is achievable.

My daughter is out of the size range for these patterns now and I enlarge them to her measurements. Unfortunately I haven’t done this dress yet so I do hop Carol can lend you a hand. Good luck!

[Mel]

Carol has very generously offered to work up a muslin for her daughter and provide some advice to me. Phew! 6 weeks sounds like a lot but throw in all the year end activities, birthday parties, kids home for summer holidays, oh and the full time job I do to pay the bills and it’s not really much time. I’m a planner and don’t deal well with pressure or unexpected events, can you tell, lol? But I’m sure it will all work out and I will post pictures when it’s done!

[Nicole]

Mel, that is wonderful. I truly think a muslin is the way to go on this one and Carol is a muslin Guru.

Carol, how unbelievably kind of you.

Makes me happy.

[Violaisabelle]

Hi Tamara and Nicole! Congratulations to both of you on the additions to your family, very exciting!

Mel, I ditched the sewing room cleaning and have traced off the pattern and working out the math for the sizing. Hopefully tomorrow I can cut out the muslin to see how things will fit…..sewing room is calling to finish up the cleaning, let’s see which task wins tomorrow. 😉

Carol

[with love Heidi]

I hope it all works and I love the generosity of this forum!

I always use this tutorial to enlarge the patterns. I have used it successfully with the bucket hat, Explorer Vest and I can’t remember what else. I’m putting off using on the field trip cargos because of all the pieces, but I just need to do it.

http://indietutes.blogspot.com.au/2008/09/resizing-pattern.html

I know this is sizing down but the same principle works for sizing up.

[Sarvi]

Carol, you’re so generous! What a wonderfully kind thing to do. Hope the dress is a huge success, please post photos once it’s done.

[Violaisabelle]

Mel, the muslin is all traced off and I have just stitched a tiny bit together, before I head to bed. An unexpected injury for a child gave me extra time away from home today, so the project is moving forward, just not at lightening speed. Tomorrow is booked, but I am trying to sneak in the rest of the muslin sewing.

Rita Farro has often said, “women who sew are the nicest and generous people”, and I agree with that statement. How can we not give back when we have so graciously received from others? If I am able to assist, I count it a pleasure.

Heidi, the trick with sizing up is, if you add the exact inches, the same amount all over, you may not be getting the necessary extra fabric where your body might need it. This is the beauty of ‘fitting’ so that we can work at getting the fabric where it’s needed and take it out, where we don’t need it. It took me a few years to ‘get that’, and when I finally did, my learning went up, drastically! Children also have different proportions and need tweaking of patterns, and when we get into development years, well…..sewing is extra fun! 🙂

[Tamara]

I recently learned that measuring the front and back separately and treating said pattern pieces separate when flat pattern altering cuts a lot of fitting fuss out of the equation. Its a relatively new theory but upon trying it I believe it works beautifully.

You are certainly a generous soul Carol. Privileged to serve which is wonderful. I hope this little joint effort brings a fabulous result featuring matching flower girls and everyone happy all round.

[Violaisabelle]

We have success at the first stage. 🙂 I have met with the young lady and her mum. I had the muslin finished and it fit her perfectly!!!! I thought it might be a tiny bit big, based on measurements here, but her measurements were a little different and the muslin fit her without needing any further changes, from what I did to the pattern in scaling it up. 🙂 Now, I just have to give all the changes to Mel.

In this scaling up, I had to add more to the front than to the back, the front was increased by 3 3/4″ and the back was increased by 3/4″…..The total increase needed was, 4 1/2″, but the back only needed 3/4″. That’s just one example of putting the needed increase in the right place. 🙂

Here’s hoping to get all the particulars off to Mel, tomorrow, so she can begin things at her end. 🙂

[Violaisabelle]

Tamara, in one of the threads here, you gave the advice to someone about the Craftsy class by Joi Mahon. I was going to give the same recommendation and was glad to see you gave it so I didn’t have to jump in. “Fast Track Fitting” and “Fast Track Fitting In the Details” are excellent classes! I really questioned myself as to whether or not I needed another fitting class, but knowing I can always learn something new, I decided to take the first one. Well, in minutes I realized, this was a very good decision and I was not disappointed at all. I was already using much of what she teaches, but there were some new things in there for me, such as the bust curve! Dividing that section of the breast into those quadrants was new and perfect!

After 6 pregnancies, nursing, and postpartum, over many years, I learned my body had to be divided up into front and back and all that, in order to get a good fit. I have to lengthen bodices above bust line, but shorten above waist in order to fit me correctly. Dividing the body up into quadrants and making the necessary changes on the pattern, BEFORE the muslin is really a more simplified way to do things.

While I used the fast track method for the width or horizontal changes I made to the pattern, I followed the scaling of the pattern for the vertical measurements. I did that knowing I might have to tweak things since I was going from a size 12 to a 16, based on the size 10 and 12 increments.

Whew…..I’m glad we have success and Mel can move forward with her project.

Thanks, Mel, for allowing me to assist you. It was delightful meeting your family. 🙂

[Lightning McStitch]

Wow, two days from posting a problem to having a muslin fitted by a “stranger” in another city! This is the kind of feel good story that should be on the evening news. I feel like hugging you all. Thanks for sharing all this here instead of taking it offline. It’s been heartwarming to read.