Tunic Troubles Part 2

Can our sewing machines get house calls in the US?

Once my trusty sewing machine starts skipping straight stitches, I know I need to have it checked out.  In the US, I'm very good about bringing it in once a year for it's annual maintenance, but since arriving in Japan I've asked my friends, but no one knows of a company who does it.  I finally reach out to the Tokyo American Club, and they find a store - and they do house calls!  Awesome, because I wasn't looking forward to lugging my 30 lb machine around the subways and city.  He even fixes the gauge on my foot pressure - the marker "disappeared" during the move to Japan.  It's back now though, so I can determine how much pressure is on the foot.  I'm off to a great start on the next round of tunic work! (I hope.)

I also have to buy some new "toys" to help with sewing clothes.

More research on the computer....my first thought is to go down a size on the tunic, and add a full bust adjustment.  Then I decide to stay with my current size, and just do the sway back adjustment, but bring in the side hem to make the shirt narrower. (I remember I have to change the sleeve seam for that, too!)  After some advice from my mother, I also decide to balance the shoulders by moving the seam 1/2" forward (I remember to change the sleeve mark for that, too.  I'm on a roll.)  

Look at the pencil tracing,
and you can see how much wider it needs
to be to match the back neck facing.

I'm still not happy with my V-neck facing - it continues to bubble up because I'm having to stretch it out.  I finally take one and truly see how wide I have to make it in order for it to work.  It's wide!   

I finish the muslin...and I still have a problem with the back.  I pin up the center, and that does eliminate the back horizontal wrinkles.  A great online description of sway back is from Pattern Scissors Cloth.  Scroll to the end of the post, and you can see her fast shortcut way to do the adjustment.  However, she says the biggest adjustment you should make is 1/2", and I did 3/4" and I still have an issue.

4th version of the shirt (3rd muslin) - pinning does
get rid of the horizontal wrinkles.

There are other problems with the fit, too, so I decide I should have gone with my original idea - I need to drop down a size.  Back to the computer to research a full bust adjustment - there's a great tutorial at Curvy Sewing Collective.  She mentions using the waist dart, which isn't on my pattern, but I figure out how to work around it.

The bodice front pattern (muslin #4)
after all of it's adjustments.

Back to the drawing board though - because it's a different size, I have to rework the V-neck (I'm kind of getting sick of them at this point.)  I'm getting smarter though - in addition to the name of each pattern piece, I'm labeling each part with the date, size, and any adjustments I make.  It's getting to be a long list - on the front bodice, I have: shorten the bodice 3 1/2", side slit moved up and to the left, bust dart moved down (yes, I learned how to do that, too), shoulder seam balanced 3/8", full bust adjustment (FBA)....then a note - fill in neckline and armhole BEFORE doing FBA.  Because the FBA causes the armhole to rotate, it's much more difficult to do the other adjustment afterwards. (In my opinion - but you know, I could be completely wrong!)

Truing up the pieces - look how
much sewing vocabulary I've picked up!

So seriously, how am I ever able to find clothes in a store that fit?  [Side note - as I'm trying to figure out the sway back thing, I pull out some shirts from my closet, try them on and ask my husband - are there wrinkles in the back?  Generally the answer is yes...though one time his response is, "Yuck - that looks horrible."  Um, thanks, honey.]  Since I've done lots of reading on sewing blogs, I've noticed people mention they're much more particular about the fit of clothes they make for themselves then when they shop at a store.  

As I'm working on muslin #4 (5th version of the shirt) I'm actually shocked to see it coming together correctly.  After the FBA and sway back adjustment, I thought there was no way the side seams and bottom edge would match, but they do for the most part (the front is about an 1/8" longer than the back).

So when it's finished it has potential, but I feel like it still needs some work - I'd like to shorten it a little more and I decide I might need a sloping shoulder adjustment.  The V-neck is still not wide enough, and those darn back wrinkles are still there!  Again, when I pin up another inch, they disappear.  

Muslin #4 - no wrinkles when I pin!

Tie-Dye asks to have his picture taken, too!

 




















I'm now out of muslin, and I only have a small piece of Swedish Tracing Paper left (it works wonderfully for tracing pattern pieces).  So I decide I'll redo the front bodice and V-neck - I have just enough tracing paper for it.  One of the reason I want to redo the front is because the FBA I do adds a couple of inches across the waist and hips, too.  I happen to find that Curvy Sewing Collective has a lesson on how to do the FBA without adding to the width of the entire shirt (and coincidentally it's called a FBA on a one-dart bodice, so it's what I should have used in the first place).  

I also redraw the V-neck wider.  Then I decide to try to do a bit more adjustment with the sway back.  I feel the biggest change I can make is 1 1/4" (I had done 3/4" previously), so I can do that with my current piece without having to redraw the entire thing.  Last, I do a sloping shoulder adjustment.  It's recommended you do that adjustment before balancing the shoulders, and I understand why - I have to really pay attention to the extra "fabric" I move from the front to the back piece while making the change.  But I'm now finished with all the modifications.  Since I'm out of muslin, I decide to be brave and go straight to my "nice" fabric.

That may not have been the best decision.  It starts out well - the shoulders mostly match, so maybe I haven't goofed that up.  The newest V-neck placket almost fits, with just a couple of small ruffles that I should be able to press out (but it still needs to be wider....or the back part of the placket needs to be narrower).  But when I go to sew the sides together, the front and back are not matching up.  With the FBA the fabric has a deep curve to reach the proper spot on the waist, and with the woven fabric, there's no stretch (plus I'm short, so there's not a lot of length in my torso).  I end up with wrinkles as the fabric pulls to the waist.

Luckily I anticipated this when I was pinning the fabric, so I've only sewn it with a basting stitch.  I go through about four attempts at making the sides match nicely, working within my seam allowance (maybe that's why it's so wide for sewing).  I finally have both seams mostly matching, with just a couple of wrinkles, and I decide that's the best it's going to be.  This time I didn't even bother trying to google how to fix it. (Okay, I lied.  I just googled it.  Adding waist darts to the front might have helped...but can you do that if it's just a shirt and not a dress?  Or do the FBA like I did the first time, and just take the extra width off the side seams.  Alright, I'm stopping now - I could keep searching/reading for a couple of hours.)  I've also ended up with the front being 3/8" longer than the back...but is this because of the FBA or the sway back adjustment?

Moving on (because I'm just pushing through at this point - a quilting quote is "Finished is better than perfect," and I've decided to follow it for this situation), the sleeves seem to go on well.  In fact, I tell Steve it's one of my best set-ins - the armhole is smooth with no puckers or gathers.  Then I try the shirt on - and both sleeves looks like they're twisted.  Now what?!?  My first thought is that I didn't cut the sleeves on the straight of grain.  However, they're both identically wrong, and I wouldn't have cut both wrong.  My guess is that I must have done something wrong in the shoulders.  Or the FBA.  Or...who knows?!?

Still, finished is better than perfect, so I push through with the final hems (once I've trimmed the front so it's even with the back).  After washing and ironing, it's finished!  Still not perfect...but most of the sway back wrinkles are gone.  Now there's a diagonal fold going across the back - maybe my shoulders aren't level.  Is that a thing?

For some reason the camera can't seem to
focus on the shirt - I think the print is
playing games with the focus.

Wrinkles, be gone!

I've decided it's time to take a break.  I'll probably try to make a tunic again, but I need to get back to quilting - it's (usually) a lot less frustrating!