[Nirmala D]

Hi friends at Liesl & Co. I followed Masha’s suggestion and sewed a muslin of the Saint Germain in size 10 B cup and then in what my high bust is (35″) in Size 8 C cup.I took photos of all side of each. I am a bit intimidated as to where to go from here.
the 8 seems to fit in the shoulders and neck area much better, however it is still tight at bust. The lower back seems to have a lot of fabric, and at same time I wonder if I have the forward shoulder thing going on. Ackk! Could I email anyone the photos of the size 8 and size 10 for some advice as to where to start – which alteration first. I have looked at the tutorials for all the different ones Masha and Camelia did. Just need help to get pointed in the right direction.
Nirmala

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[Nirmala D]

One last thing. I pinned the muslin to the center line and it is clearly too tight. Its seems to have a natural gap of about 3/4 inch at the top increasing at waist to 1.5 inches.

[Lyndsey Stanfill]

The muslin in the pics is the size 8 C cup? Can you post the other pics too?What are all of your measurements?

In general, if your shoulders fit but the bust is tight, you need more room in the bust (either an FBA or go up in the cup size).

[Nirmala D]

Hi and thanks for writing. My measurements are 35 high bust
38 bust
32.5 waist

I thought to transition at waist to size 14.
I have always been a B cup but it has been a long time since anyone else checked this out, but definitely not very busty. I was thinking to try the FBA for first time. But wondered if I should do any thing to back first???
attached are the photos of the size 10 muslin with B cup

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[Lyndsey Stanfill]

These are my thoughts but I’m no expert. 🙂

The 10 definitely looks too big in the shoulders.
Even the 8 is borderline. Technically with a 35″ high bust you should do a size six, but the 8 is probably doable if the 6 seems too extreme.

On the cup size. Your full bust is 38 and the finished measurements of the size 8C cup is only 38.5″ which is only 1/2″ ease. If I look at the B cup for a 36.5″ bust, the finished measurement is 38 1/4″ for 3/4″ ease. But if you go up to the 8D, then the finished measurement is 38 3/4″ which gets you back to the “correct” amount of bust ease, so I would recommend an 8 D cup.

Another thing I noticed is the wrinkles under your arm which typically indicates that your armhole is too short, but honestly its hard to tell if those wrinkles are from the strain of the bust or the armhole length. Just something to think about.

Another thing I would investigate, under your bust you have a lot of extra length. You mentioned the extra length in the back but it is also in the front. Compare how your area looks from the bottom of your bust to your waist to the pic I posted of my muslin. What I can’t tell from the picture is: is this because you are short waisted or is it because you need more waist width and so it is artificially pushing up that fabric. Make sense? If you had bunching in the back but not in the front, I would say a swayback adjustment, but I’m just not sure that is what is going on.

For what it’s worth, I had to do a couple of muslins before I got the fit right. Do you have the Palmer Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting? I had it open with me the entire time I was working on my muslin. I’m posting my adjustment fit sheet. All the highlighted areas are the adjustment I did to get the fit right and they are all the same adjustments I typically make on a fitted bodice so there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary on this pattern.

Good luck!

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[Lyndsey Stanfill]

Also, your photographer is very cute in the background!

[Nirmala D]

Lyndsey, thank you so much for taking the time to reply in detail and great to see your muslin and record of adjustments you made.
I think that the extra fabric in front is because the waist and waistband is riding up because they aren’t wide enough, rather than that I am short waisted.
I just got the book by Palmer etc Fit for Real people that the blog recommended. Maybe I should backtrack and try to go through the steps to make a body map, etc etc. Do you think mai should?
Of course I am short on big paper, etc during this COVID time. From reading the book and looking at the photos, I think I may need the forward shoulder and the sway back adjustment and then the FBA. I wish I could lay hand on a whole bolt of muslin! I have some but not enough to just go for it! Thank you so much again for the time you took to respond to my questions.

[Lyndsey Stanfill]

Great! Complete guide for Fitting is just the updated version of FFRP. I don’t think you need to do a body map with a different pattern, you can just do it with this pattern if you want.

I know some people really hate tissue fitting but it can be so helpful. My fit process for this pattern was 1) muslin size 14 (which was too big in the shoulders), 2) tissue fit size 12 with a 2” FBA, 3) muslin of that tissue fit. When I did the second muslin I realized the 2” FBA really wasn’t enough so I did 4) a second tissue fit size 12 with a 2.5” FBA. After I felt good about that, I sewed the 5) third muslin in the picture I posted. I used the same fabric for all the pieces from the second muslin except a new bodice front.

Even if you decide not to tissue fit, you should still do the adjustments in the right order. The order for the things you’ve identified would be FBA (although if you go up to 8D you may not need an additional FBA), waist width, sway back, and forward shoulder last. You can do it!

[Nirmala D]

I am working on the tissue fitting using the 6 D. I lengthened the bodice pieces first by 3/4 inch. While the D reaches the mid point in the front, I think there is not enough ease. I will next try the FBA of 1.5 inches and see how that goes. Challenge is to understand where apex is or will be. Whew!