Step 6, 7, 8 & 9: cut down the shirt to match the pattern, cut and attach princess panels (test run)

This is actually going to be easy, now that I have a pattern, assuming I've done my pattern work properly.

But I won't know until I've tried it whether or not my pattern will work.  Therefore, I'm using the "disposable" shirt and muslin princess panels.

Here's the shirt, cut using the pattern I made, with seam allowances included.

Now I'll sew on the muslin panels.  Below you see the results.  I've decided I think it's good enough, and after experimenting with sleeves, I think sewing on the sleeves will actually solve the last of the fit issues I have with the shirt.

Step 4 & 5 - Sleeves off, pattern from men's shirt

Hello!  It's been a while.  I've been busy with other things, but I'm back.

I've purchased another men's shirt in the right size, one that was on sale and which wasn't necessarily one I liked in particular.  I needed one I could cut apart and experiment with, without feeling as though I was ruining the one I bought for the project.

First, I tried picking the seams where the sleeves attached to the shirt, but they were, under all the stitching, glued on.  Yes, glued on.  So, instead I cut them off of the body of the shirt, leaving the attachment connected to the sleeve.  It seemed that was the way to go, it gives me something to stitch to, and helps keep the shape of the sleeve.  Plus, I'm narrowing the shirt through the shoulders anyway.  Look:

I also removed the collar, so I wouldn't have to work around it, and sliced open the side seems.  You can see how well the body of the shirt actually drapes, the shoulder angles work quite well:

And, here are the pattern pieces I altered to work with this shirt, similar but different from the other pieces, mainly because they need to work with a different sleeve hole size and shape:

The center back needs to be lengthened, but that's easy.

Step 3 - Create a pattern from the shirt

It's always scary cutting something apart that you've worked hard on, in order to continue a project. Yes, I need to do this, but, yes, it's a bit scary.

Here is the fitting shell cut apart, without seam allowances.  I find this fascinating.

Now that I've done that, I'm going to do one last muslin, to make sure I've fit the thing the way I want to. This initial fit cycle is so important, if I don't do this well, I'll be quite unhappy with my final product.

Same pieces in paper, still no seam allowances.

I didn't get this published over the weekend, so here it goes!  More soon!

Step 2 - Part D - Fit - Part 2

So, here I am finally working on my shirt project again.  After my last fitting spree I thought about what I had done, and decided it wasn't good enough, and started again. (sigh)  That's what I get for having a "healthy" dose of innate perfectionism.  I'm not going to share the details, just know that I believe it was worth the extra time.

So, Here are some pictures of the fit that I've ended up with:

After (finally) getting a basic shell which I think fits, I needed to find the place on the shoulder of the shirt I'm altering which corresponds to the shoulder seam on the shell.  I somehow managed to put the shell on over the shirt, and figure out where the seam line would be.

Next I pinned up the shoulder so that I'd know where the end of the shoulder should be on the finished garment.

I'm feeling as though I'm so close I can taste it.  There is still a lot of work, but I'm getting there!

I'm feeling pretty happy.

Step 2 - Part D - Fit

Fitting the shirt is the next step.

The first and most obvious fit issue I noticed is that the apexes of the bust of the shirt are lower and further apart than my actual bust is.  I've marked the location with a marker.  There seems to be enough fabric to make an adjustment here.

I've gone to a bit of effort to verify that my marked apexes are actually the same distance from the center line of the shirt, and are at the same level horizontally.

I'm going to try pinning up the extra fabric between the princess seam and the apex, and see how that looks.

So, I don't think you can actually tell how much better this looks from this picture, because I've only sort of pinned the sides back, but I've taken in the center a bit with pins, fitting to my actual bust line, and I've started adjustments to correct for the shirt being tight around my waist, back and hips.

After pinning here, and adding there, and folding every which way, I actually ended up with a good fit.  Here are some pictures:

It looks better in person ... oh well. Anyway, after all that fitting, the side seam was no longer where I expected it to be.  With my daughter's help, we found and marked the place the side seam should be.

This has gone very smoothly.  I'm excited about the progress.  Next, I'll make a pattern from this fitting, make a muslin, and fit it one more time.

Step 2 - Part C - Putting the pieces back together.

I have removed *both* front panels of the shirt, and have cut out muslin fabric using my new pattern pieces.

I'm going to attach these pieces to the rest of the existing shirt.

First, I marked seam allowances on the muslin.  Around the armholes, I treated the sew line with Fray Check, a product which prevents fraying, and keeps the seam firm without having to actually sew the edge, and then cut along the sew line.

Attaching the side panels to the back is pretty easy, just a seam, like this:
Note: the full bust adjustment left the pieces a little longer than necessary, not a big deal.

Putting the front panel back in is a little trickier.  I am gluing it into place before sewing it.  Glue sticks are my best friend right now.

By the way, just in case you are wondering, no, I don't expect the shirt to fit correctly just because I did a full bust adjustment.  I'm assuming there will be other fit issues to tweak before I'm done, and I need the shirt with the muslin sewn in to be able to assess the fit properly.

Looking at the shirt and fabric piece before attaching it helps me visualize how it fits together:

Glue on the seam allowances, and the piece glued onto the shoulder and front placket.

  

I've clipped the seam allowance along the neckline so that it will fit nicely against the collar, then I'll sew along the edges, and make sure the button holes are still holes!

Here is the actual princess seam, pinned up before sewing it.  One thing it took me a long time to learn is that seams only need to fit together smoothly right along the sew line, the outer edges of the fabric are going to pucker and look problematic if you have different curves fitting together, but will be just fine after sewing if you have matched the sewing lines properly.

Finally, the shirt with the muslin panels is ready for fitting.

There are definitely still fit issues, but the full bust adjustment has done it's job, and I am now fitting a garment which actually has a chance of fitting correctly.

Step 2 - Part B - How am I going to do these alterations?

What I need to do is make a pattern from my "pattern shirt".

I'll turn the modified princess seam into a true princess seam, and then do a full-bust adjustment to that.

I will start by cutting along the seams (not taking them out) and removing the entire front panel of the shirt.

It looks like this:

You can see that I've used a marker to draw a solid line where the actual seams are, and a dotted line where I am cutting to make true princess seams from the modified princess seams which are already there.

Here are the pieces after they've been cut apart:

I traced these, and created a paper pattern.  I then performed a full bust adjustment on that pattern.

I'm not going to actually document the bust adjustment process.  Other people have done that better than I could, in fact, here's a link to the site I used:  How to Make a FBA (Full Bust Adjustment) on Princess Seams.

Here are the finished patterns:

Step 2 - Part A - Choose a women's shirt that fits me well.

This step has proven to be quite difficult.  I was assuming that some of the shirts I owned fit well.  After all, I've been wearing them, right?

Nope.

After looking at how they fit, it became obvious that I had chosen them because they fit the best of what I could find ready made, not because they actually fit well.

So, this step has proven to be considerably more effort than I originally thought it would be.

Although there are probably other considerations, the primary aspect of my figure which a ready made shirt is not going to fit properly is my bust.  This is a really common problem, since the variation in bust size is tremendous, and most ready-made clothing is cut to fit a "B" cup.  If you are smaller or larger you are never going to find anything that actually fits.  I usually wear a lot of knits, because they stretch.

For those of you who don't know, the letter in a bra cup size does not refer to volume, it refers to the number of inches which your bust adds to your circumference.  So, an "A" cup increases your circumference by 1 inch, a "D" cup by 4 inches.  The volume required to cause this gets considerably larger as your base torso circumference gets larger.  Your base circumference is roughly equivalent to your band measurement, and, at least in the smaller range of cup sizes, the volume increases proportionately for each 2" of band measurement, *or* each cup size.  So a 32D has about the same volume as a 38A.  Interesting, right?

I wear a 34D, which means I don't actually have a large bust as far as volume goes, but ready made clothes are almost always going to be about two inches small around the bust for me.  What a pain.

I've purchased a shirt on sale which I'm hoping I can alter to actually fit me, and make a pattern from.  I chose something sleeveless, because the sleeves are not important for my wild plan to work.  It's already made with modified princess seams, so that should be a start for my alterations to work.

Here it is:

Step 1 - Find a men's shirt in a fabric I like

This step was fairly straight forward.  I decided to choose a fabric I thought was interesting, in a neutral color, which didn't have a bold pattern which would be hard to work with.

The shirt I chose has a pattern to the fabric, but it's pretty subtle.

It's a 15 32/33 Shirt, and the collar and cuffs fit great. The sleeve length looks like it will be just right, once the shoulders are taken in. Although the rest of the fit isn't so great, that's the whole point of this project, right?

Here are pictures:

What Is My Goal?

When starting a new project, it's helpful to know what your goal is.  My goal is to alter a men's shirt to fit me properly.

Here is my plan:

1. Find a men's shirt in a fabric I like, which has a collar and cuffs which fit me properly.  Buy two to make sure I have enough fabric for the side panels of a princess seam shirt pattern.
2. Choose a women's shirt I already own that fits me well.
3. Create a princess seam pattern from the front and back panels of that shirt.
4. Take the sleeves off of the men's shirt, and open the side seams.
5. Make a pattern of the front and back of the men's shirt where the sleeves attach, so that I can keep the exact proportions of the sleeve attachment in my altered pattern.
6. Cut the men's shirt body down so that the shoulder's are the right width, the front follows the front panel pattern of my princess seam pattern, and the back follows the back panel of my shirt pattern.
7. While doing this make sure the sleeve holes still match the original proportions of the shirt's sleeve holes.
8. Cut out the princess seam side panels from the second shirt.
9. Sew everything back together.

This blog is about my adventures while trying to make this scheme work.