McCall's 6397: The Pattern Alterations

The pattern alterations went quickly and I'm now ready to cut bait and fish. Er, I mean, cut fabric and sew. The cutting will take somewhat longer since I will need to cut single layer for motif matching purposes.

Here's what I did, on the upper front piece: Raised neckline and extended its and the armhole edge 5/8"; split the underbust dart to a side dart and lowered the apex of the underbust dart a smidge; moved the shoulder seam back 1/2" (if you have forward shoulders, and I don't, this is a pattern for you).

For the upper back, subtracted 1/2" from where the shoulder seam lays (to match front adjustment); extended armhole edge 5/8"; a tuck in the upper back for my erect posture.

To address some comments from my last post:

Anon: "When you make the bust dart, what will determine the angle of the line from the side seam to the bust apex? Should the line be perpendicular to the grainline, or should the angle of the line begin much lower on the side seam"

Two things determined the angle I chose. First, I wanted the dart to point upward, and second, there ain't much space between where a dart would be and the empire seam. I just eyeballed it.

M-C: "All that's wrong with these darts is that they need to be a tad wider apart, ie truly below your bust, and also shorter. The pucker just means you're trying for a Gaultier effect on a non-conical breast :-)" 

The photo must have been deceiving because the actual dart placement is fine. It's centered under the girls. But you're spot on with the Gaultier reference. And Madonna I ain't. ;-)

Now I'm off to the sewing room again. If I put my nose to the grindstone, I could end up with a finished dress today. But I'm not counting on it since I'm so not a nose/grindstone kind of stitcher. Stay tuned.