[Rebecca W]

I am making my daughter a size 4 fairy tale, but I need to add about 2 inches of length to the bodice. Normally when I add length, I just add the 2 inches on the bottom. But what do I do with the darts? Do I keep them the same size/length and just move them down to the bottom? I plan to do a muslin, but I really don’t know what to do with the darts!

[sarahb]

I marked the darts so I had them evenly centered, but on the musin the real darts to for my daughter were so much different, really only the position on the waistband was the same. I think you’ll be fine marking guides on the lengthened waist with a muslin.

[with love Heidi]

Have you checked out Liesl’s posts on fitting the fairy tale bodice on the blog? they seem quite extensive and my help you with placement.

http://oliverands.com/blog/2012/10/fitting-a-muslin.html

http://oliverands.com/blog/2012/10/how-to-make-a-muslin.html

I think there may be another one but I can’t find it easily.

[Jennifer1568]

I made a muslin, too, and lengthened the bodice 1 inch. I started with the darts like they were on the pattern but moved down 1 inch. I kept them the original length. Then I had to deepen the back darts when my daughter tried the muslin on. I made the base of the back darts wider but still kept them the same length.

[Rebecca W]

Jennifer1568- thanks. I will be getting to this muslin in the next day or so. I will start by trying them in the same spot and see what happens! Since this is her 2nd fairy tale- and the first one still fits pretty well- except for length- I have been looking at the first one to sort of gauge adjustments that will be needed, 🙂

Heidi- I have looked at those. I used the for a guide for the first muslin I did. But I can’t find anything in there that talks about moving darts when adding 2 inches to the length of the bodice.

[Rpankow]

Hello Rebecca:

I guess I too have a long torsoed daughter. I added 1.5 inches to my daughter’s fairy tale along with other dressed that require darts. I guess how I’ve handled it is to not add to the bottom, but to splice the pattern at the point from a notch on both sides, front and back, and add the length between the splice. Then I connect the dart lines between the splice making the dart longer. I first had to do this on an old 1960’s simplicity dress pattern and used their shorten/lenghten here lines and if memory serves, that’s where I lengthened. The lengthened darts look perfectly fine and then the points end at the chest/back where they should. By all means, I’m far from a professional. I’m just going off of my own experiences. I’m trying to get all of my pattern fitting knowledge squared away since I’m working on a dress shirt for my husband and he’s way more picky than my dd. If I don’t get this shirt just right he won’t wear it! Good luck!

Rebecca

[Audrey]

I logged onto the forum tonight looking for the answer to this EXACT question! So glad for this resource once again!!