Notes of a Pattern - McCall 7288 Part I

I really didn't want another day to go by without posting something.  So today, I decided to do a "Notes on a Pattern."  for McCall 7288, view B with collar of view D.

During my recovery I had a little time to work on some new sewing projects, in additional to the UFO's I finished. What I haven't had much time to do is take pictures.  It's gloomy and cold in the midwest.  Too cold for me to really go outside with or without a coat on.  Picture taking is challenging right now.  Maybe this weekend I'll have better luck.

It is a multiple size/cup pattern with collar and back variations.  The jacket is unlined with front princess seam, self-lined front and yoke back.  I made a muslin to help me get the FBA fitting right.  Additionally, I wanted the upper back and sleeves to have enough room.

Sewing the muslin - 

I started by simply selected my size, cutting it with no changes to see if my adjustments were consistent with what I typically need minus the cup size.  The fitting revealed most of my usual changes:

• swayback
• deeper back darts
• prominent shoulder blades 
• lower bust apex
• lengthen sleeve  

plus a few more:

• tight sleeve
• shorten neckline 

Let's start with the back.  I made my usual swayback adjustment.  This adjustment includes a tuck across the lower back, starting with a center back tuck of 3/4" and reduced to 1/16" before the side seam.  The second step is to add the amount of the tuck to the hem of the back jacket to balance out the hem.  After trying on the muslin, I noticed that the fish eye dart needed to be deeper.  This is one of the adjustments you can make as you sew.   So I don't worry about this until I make the actual jacket.

To the back yoke I added about 1/2" to the outer shoulder seam to give me room cross the upper back area.

The whole idea behind the multiple cup size patterns is to reduce the amount of adjustments needed.  And the multiple size does help, in this case; but there is still some tweaking to do.  First, I moved the apex down about 1" and trued up the edges of the front and side front patterns.  Also, on the front I made a tuck in the neckline to reduce gapping.  Unfortunately, this pattern change was made after I cut the jacket out.  I didn't notice/see it in the muslin.  Does that ever happen to any of you?  Anyway, the change was made on the collars as well.

Typically, I don't have a problem with tight sleeves; but the one piece sleeve was a little tight (muslin) and not long enough.  Below is that adjustment.  I simply made a vertical and horizontal cuts in the center almost to the cutting edge and spread the pattern about an inch.  Next, I added about 2": 1" in the upper and 1" in the lower arm.  If I use the pattern again, I may substitute the one piece sleeve for a two piece one.

Sewing -

The sewing was easy.  Nothing confusing or difficult.  That's always welcome after laboring over the fit.

Next, more details on making the actual jacket.

Happy Sewing!
C