Fitting clothes for large chested women
marieclown | Posted in General Sewing Info on
Gosh, this sounds more like one of those spam messages I’m always having to delete. But I promise it is not. As a woman with a bigger than normal chest, I am having a bear of a time finding patterns that fit well. I don’t mind showing my shape, but I can’t seem to find the right dart/cut to do it well. Is there a better dart for my triangle figure? French or straight out from the arm pit, or the darts that have two points and run the length of the top? There has go to be a way for these things to work.
Replies
While I can't personally recommend them as I've never used them Silhouettes Patterns say they include adjustments for cup size up to D. My oversized part is lower down so I've never learned to perform this particular trick.
Just last night I made my first blouse from a Silhouette pattern and used the D cup front (I'm a even a smidge larger than that). It made a HUGE difference, especially compared with trying to modify a standard pattern, which I've done numerous times in almost 40 years of sewing, and fairly continuous sewing in the last 5 years. (You would think I'd be all fixed up, with that amount of effort over time, wouldn't you?)
That said, the blouse pattern is still not perfect -- more tuning is needed for these reasons:
-- The Silhouette pattern says, and means, that the pattern sizing is not based on body measurements, but on finished garment measurements. I should have gone one size larger overall.
-- Most of us who are large-chested are also non-standard in other ways. For me, the additional important non-standard element is a wide, rounded back. So I'm going to have to mess around adding more width and length there, with a back shoulder dart. I'll probably use the Betzina pattern alteration book to help with that.
But having a professionally drafted program that is a lot closer to my reality is a BIG help!
I have the same fitting problem with a large bust (DD). I recently bought Fast Fit by Sandra Betzina and she has two suggestions for altering for a large bust. I just made a blouse and added length and width to the front with an extra dart and some spreading and the fit is much improved over a blouse I had previously made from an unaltered version of the same pattern. I didn't add quite enough as I was afraid of adding too much. Her directions were very clear and I finally understand how things like darts really work! I definitely recommend her book as I have several other fitting books that just collect dust on the shelf.
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