[Tamara]

I’m in the process of altering this pattern view a so that my 8 year old (who incidently is 147cm tall!)can wear it. She loves this pattern and even though I have a similar one from another company, she wants me to make this one instead.

I’m just curious as to how it fits because I’ve looked at the flickr photos and they look to be roomy around the chest area.

So my question is, is it supposed to fit as a roomy dress?

Thanks in advance

Tamara

[Mama_Knowles]

I just made the 18-24 months size and it is a bit roomy on the top. It’s nice so she has room to move around and play. It is a bit long too on her but she is just now able to wear this size. I hope this helps a little.

Sharon

[Violaisabelle]

Tamara,

Did you see this thread? https://oliverands.com/forums/topic.php?id=632&page=2 If you read through to page two, I did give some suggestions for enlarging the size.

Based on what others have said for the larger sizing, I would suggest lengthening the placket for more ease in getting the dress on and off.

I hope that helps.

Carol

[Tamara]

Hi Sharon

That helps a deal thankyou. I have just spent a good 2.5 hours drafting sizes 10 and 12 against the pattern (which thankfully is still intact). I took care to make reference to the amount of space between the already drafted sizes. The most difficult was the collar. Now I’m ready to cut and sew a muslin and will endeavour to finish this with (excellent) results by the end of the week (having a no sew have to go shopping day tomorrow). I have the perfect fabric in mind but won’t go near it until I am sure I have done a good job with the pattern drafting.

This isn’t for the faint hearted I have to stress lol. I have had a teensy bit of experience in drafting patterns and grading etc but I am by no means an expert. The previous attempts have been successful though so I am confident this will turn out well.

Tamara.

[Mama_Knowles]

I can’t wait to see it! Good luck!!

Sharon

[Violaisabelle]

Oops, I see I linked to the second page in that thread…sorry about that. here is the first page of that thread that Liesl started: https://oliverands.com/forums/topic.php?id=632

Here is the link for grading up or down patterns that is very helpful. http://sensibility.com/tips/how-to-resize-a-pattern/

Tamara, I look forward to hearing how it all turns out for you. 🙂 I will need to grade up this pattern as well, to use for my 9 year old daughter.

Have fun,

Carol

[Tamara]

Oh I am such a goose! I didn’t even see this link!? Maybe I was in too much of a hurry to get started. Thanks Carol for the link I will have to print this out and read it whilst miss 8 is having her piano lesson this afternoon – I did mine slightly different.

Well I am happy to report the muslin bodice is under way but I have hit a snag – the notches don’t match with the armscye notches so I have done something wrong somewhere along the line. No matter, I will go on with it and try and figure out how/ why and what I can do to fix it so I don’t do it again in the pattern resizing journey.

The collar fits the neckline though which is what I was most concerned about. I just have to tackle the sleeve….

Meanwhile lunch! and filling out the most important royal show entry forms before heading in for the school run. This is going to be my “up till midnight project” I think but hey I’m up for a challenge.

[Violaisabelle]

Tamara,

I thought I would attempt to grade up this pattern as well, since it will fit into what I want to make for my daughter. I pulled out the pattern yesterday and traced. While I still had the master pattern out, I decided to do some measurements of the flat pattern to check and make sure everything is as it should be. I have only traced off, not graded the patter up as of yet. I discovered a discrepancy with the chest measurement from view A and B. I have checked and rechecked and as far as I can tell, there appears to be a 1/4″ deficit in view A from view B in the chest. Upon further inspection, now laying my traced pattern pieces on top of each other, it looks like view A is actually smaller in the neckline and shoulder/armscye area for sizes 7 and 8. If you have traced these off, would you mind inspecting your tracing and see if you find the same?

I think what I might do is use the neckline and armscye from view B and grade up from there since that already has a bit of extra room. I think the deficit is about 1/4″ in the size 8, with a little less on the size 7. That of course, makes the armscye and neckline smaller, which might explain, in part, why some people said the view B was easier to get on and off than view A.

Carol

[Tamara]

I’ll have to have a look. I went and bought some sturdier interfacing to trace the pattern off again as the other was a bit flimsy. I plan to make this my sole missin today in order to keep my mind from a plethora of worry and stress (when a family member is really very ill you can’t help but worry incessantly) and it will help me to stay near the phone (there is a chance that my mother in law will need to be flown to specialist care in Perth – it is more serious than we gave it credit) and keep busy at the same time.

I have a question though (and I know I may have to wait a few hours because you might be deep in slumber right now given the time differences), how do you grade the collar? Because how I did it was to measure the difference between each point (given that the collar pieces are drawn with the sizes 3 sizes apart) and measure out accordingly. I didn’t have my French curve ruler as it had mysteriously disappeared (I got a second one to combat the frustration) so I didn’t do the curve as nice as what it should have been and I halved the collar piece to make it symmetrical. I noticed the blog entry you linked said nothing about sizing a collar so that is why I have to ask.

[Tamara]

Carol, I measured the size 8 view a front bodice to size 8 view b and it is out at the shoulder and armscye by 1/8th inch (measured using a ruler and a tape measure and I got the same).

Yes, I think I am going to do this all over again and use the view b shoulder/ armscye to resize. I think I just need to slow down a bit and think carefully about the process as I’m going to bull at a gate and I think this is what is wrong. Plus I found the body measurement sizes and realised of course the my daughter is definitely not an 8 lol – I was looking at the finished measurements and naturally went from there. No biggie I can go over it again and get a better result. And I may attempt it by the instructions from the blog entry you linked to see if it turns out better/ worse/ same that the way I first did. Plus I think I may have to size it to a 14 to make it fit as she grows seeing as there is 4 months until the heat really hits us and she will get lots of use from this dress.

We can compare notes.

[Tamara]

I see where you get the 1/4″ difference as the back is out at the neckline by 1/8th also. This is very interesting!!!

[Violaisabelle]

Hi Tamara,

Nope, not deep in slumber here. It’s only 9:36 pm here. Sorry to hear about your mum in law. It’s always nice to have something to work on to keep our minds and hands occupied when things are stressful of this nature, at least that’s how I do it. 🙂 I do hope all works out well for her.

In regards to your question about the collar. Because I am not sizing up a lot, I am putting my additional amount at center back. If you trace off the other sizes of the collars for this pattern, fold at center. Move it away from center, out towards the ends of the collar. Look at the differences from the various sizes, and coordinate that with your added length to the shoulder seam. I checked my balance marks or notches to make sure I had things lined up…such as, shoulder seams, center front and center back.

I just sized up a collar for my boy’s western shirts. I took the amount I added to the shoulder seam and added that at center back. I did a muslin of the collar to make sure it was going to work and it worked out beautifully.

I did not add to the overall depth of the collar, but you could do that. Again, since I am only moving up a size in this dress, I might add just a tad to the overall depth, but not much.

I have not done much grading of collars. 😉 I have books that teach how to make the collars from scratch, but not how to grade up….. 😉

I hope that is helpful. Maybe someone else has a great way to describe the technical way to do this. 🙂

Carol

[Violaisabelle]

Re: the amount of deficit, I pulled out the pattern again and I have a 1/4″ deficit for size 8 and a 1/8″ for size 7, all the other sizes match up. The deficit being in the A view vs. the B view.

I am editing since I saw you posted about the same time I did. 🙂 Yes, the back is out as well, by the same amount from what I was able to measure.

Carol

[Tamara]

Hi Carol,

Yes I thought this may be how you’d do the collar just needed to verify. Are you using body or finshed measurements to resize?

It’s good of you to answer so quickly – 9.30pm is my bedtime on week nights only because I have to get up before 6am to get children organised for the school bus.

We are doing our best to stay calm about mum K. It’s all we can do until we know what else and that’s a matter of talking it over amongst ourselves about tandem visiting etc. We are praying hard for a positive outcome.

OK back to the drafting – dh wants the computer.

[Violaisabelle]

I am going by body and finished garment measurements. 🙂 The dress is supposed to have a 4″ ease. I have taken my daughter’s measurements and for good measure I am rounding it up 1/4″ and adding probably 5 to 6 inches of ease….I know that sounds like a lot, BUT I am concerned about getting the dress on and off. I will likely lengthen the placket while I am at it, at first glance, quite possibly 2″. I will do a muslin before I go further into actual dress fabric. If I find at that time the ease is too much, I’ll take it down a bit.

I’ll pray for your mum in law too. Off to stitch up a hopscotch dress so my daughter can wear it tomorrow. 🙂

Take care,

Carol