Date: 7/3/09 1:26 PM

Hello!

After months of denial/laziness/obstinance, I did my first FBA on this princess-seam dress recently.

http://www.butterick.com/item/B4443.htm

It did not go so well.

My bust measurement is 41" and my high bust (or whatever that`s called) is 37". I did a 1 3/4" FBA, figuring that the ease would take care of some of the difference.

Well. The bust is now too big, LOW and super mega ultra pointy. OK. I can fix some of this. I can take in the front seams a bit, make them rounder and higher (ish).

But something I hadn`t considered (and didn`t read in any of the tutorials) is that an FBA also makes the waist of the dress bigger. So under the bust is now several inches too loose -- more accurately, about 1 3/4" times two too loose. Furthermore the side seams no longer lined up because (surprise surprise) the front bodice pieces are now much wider than the back ones.

I also didn`t realize until construction that an FBA makes the front bodice longer than the back. So now the waistline is droopy and I had to take up the shoulders quite a bit just to make it sit horizontal-ish on me.

UGH! !!!!!!!! :mad:

I like this pattern alright (I find its shoulders are too wide for me, but I think I just have really narrow shoulders and a very small frame in relation to my bust size) but at this point I kind of doubt I`ll ever try an FBA again. I`d rather live with and try to fix gaping or pulling at the armholes than the laundry list of problems I now have with this dress, some of which seem insurmountable. Quite frankly I`m not convinced it`ll ever be wearable, and I have pretty low standards. I`ve got this non-side-seam-matching, baggy-waist, saggy-yet-pointy-boobed sack on my hands and I can`t stand even looking at the thing.

I`ve found the whole thing really discouraging. I haven`t even wanted to go back and try to fix the problems and finish the thing off because sewing it has just been no fun at all. I`d really appreciate any advice or encouragement at this point.

(I do realize these are probably all painfully obvious issues to everyone else, but I guess I don`t have a very good spatial sense or reading comprehension, because the inevitably mismatched front/back/sides just were not apparent to me until the pieces were cut out and had to be sewn. I swear I`ve read dozens of FBA tutorials and don`t recall any of them addressing that.)


-- Edited on 7/3/09 1:26 PM --
-- Edited on 7/3/09 1:27 PM --
-- Edited on 7/3/09 1:29 PM --

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Reply to lyrae
Date: 7/3/09 2:00 PM

Did you locate your bustpoint on the pattern for reference before making the FBA? That may be why it is too low.

As for the extra inches in the waist, read this thread, especially the responses from Ryan's Mom. She shows how to keep the waist smaller when making an FBA.

------
Michelle

http://cheapandpicky.blogspot.com/

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Date: 7/3/09 3:11 PM

The bust is now too low, you need to cut a box around the apex and move that area up. There is a lot going on in this project already, many adjustments that need to work in concert with each other, more to do. I know it seems insurmountable, but it is doable... just a matter of working out the kinks one at a time since one adjustment affects another adjustment.

Since it is your first FBA, you might consider putting this aside for a bit and trying your new FBA skills on a simple pattern that doesn't have princess seams.

You are overwhelmed and feel discouraged, and believe me, we've all been there! Sewing has quite a learning curve but you are doing a great service to yourself to post and ask for advice. It might be hard to put that project aside for a bit, but you'll feel a sense of accomplishment to succeed at an FBA in a new project, gain some experience, see it from a new angle, come back and conquer this pattern.

I know you can do it!!

-- Edited on 7/3/09 3:14 PM --

------
Leah

My blog:
http://www.journeytocouture.com

My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

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Reply to lyrae
Date: 7/3/09 3:23 PM

The side seams should not be affected so I am assuming that you left out a step and forgot to transfer the side dart to the bust point, which closes the side dart and puts it at the bust apex, where you need it. Do you have Fit for Real People? They really give good step by step instructions. If that doesn't work for you, you might want a copy of their dvd called fba. A lot of people have raved about it.
There are several ways to deal with the extra room in the lower front, so take a look at the other thread on this.

------
www.nancyksews.blogspot.com

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Reply to lyrae
Date: 7/4/09 7:49 AM

Do you have the Book Fit for Real People? Get it! It will answer just about every question you have with this dress. You didn't mention your cup size. the 1 3/4 amount you added could have been too much. I'm a 34D and I don't add more than an inch to my FBA's(using a size 12 at the bust). Doing an FBA on a princess has a different tweak to it than a regular bodice. You close up the side dart, by opening one on the front where the side front meets the front(clear as mud, right?) Anyway, if you can find FFRP, it will be a great reference. Don't loose heart, just find a pattern that's not quite so challenging, at this point. I have found a great little pattern that already has the CD cup choices in it...Simplicity 2614. It's a blouse and skirt, but it comes with the cup choices. There are also some "collections" in a few of the pattern books that include the CD cup choices. I have a McCall 5847 princess style shirt dress that I have tissue fit and made a muslin. And the kicker...I didn't have to make an FBA on that dress! That doesn't happen often. I can't wait to get the "real thing" made. Remember, there's not one of us out here, that hasn't felt like throwing her hands in the air and calling it quits.

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Reply to lyrae
Date: 7/4/09 9:51 PM

First things first. Please don't give up on an FBA. This is your very first attempt and like everything in life it's rare that you would get it right the first time. It takes a bit of practice.

>>My bust measurement is 41" and my high bust is 37". I did a 1 3/4" FBA

The 4" difference in your m'ments (assuming you measured correctly) indicates you are a D-cup in pattern terms. Patterns draft for a 2" difference or a B-cup. In other words you are approx. 2" bigger than the pattern.

A 1.75" FBA adds an additional 3.5" of ease to the front pattern piece. That is a lot of extra ease for a D-cup size. My feeling is your FBA is was too big. I would have expected something more like 0.75". (Of course every pattern is different, as is every body, and it depends a lot on what size you started with too.)

>>something I hadn`t considered is that an FBA also makes the waist of the dress bigger.

There are different methods for doing a FBA, especially on a princess seam. Some do add to the waist and other methods don't. If you use a method that adds at the waist you are suppose to dart out or take in the seams below the mid-riff if you don't need this extra waist ease. I would highly recommend borrowing or buying a book on fit which explains this, such as Plamer/Pletsch's "Fit for Real People".

>>Furthermore the side seams no longer lined up

This shouldn't be the case so you must have missed a step. Again I highly recommend you get a good book on fit.

>>I find its shoulders are too wide for me, but I think I just have really narrow shoulders and a very small frame in relation to my bust size

This may well be the case but you may have also started with a size that was too big to begin with. With a 37" high bust I woud expect you would start with a size 14 or maybe a 16. Also you can trace a size smaller for the shoulders and neck if you indeed have a small frame. This is something I do. I have a 36" high bust so I trace a size 14 with size 12 shoulders and neck.

>>I`ve found the whole thing really discouraging.

I don't blame you but as I said please don't give up. We all feel this way at first. The only way to learn is to figuratively get back on that bike and try again.

------
Belinda. Melbourne, Australia
http://sew-4-fun.blogspot.com/
**Sew for the fun of it**

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Date: 7/7/09 11:34 AM

Keep trying, its a learning proces!! The frustration is normal, but the pride when that top/dress comes out perfect after 80 million tries is the BEST FEELING!! Princess seams were a hard start, but that will just put you ahead of the game when you get it!!

Make sure you account for ease already included in the pattern, which is printed on the tissue paper (why there, I don't know). Depending on how close you like your fit, consider how much you're adding. I like very little ease, and have a D cup. I generally use a size 14 (36in upper bust), and add about 3/4ths of an inch. Its a 4 inch difference for me, just like you, so try that out, it should help!!

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Date: 7/7/09 8:39 PM

One more easy step... tissue fit the pattern before and after making your FBA. Do that both before doing it in fabric... might see where adjustment is needed and save the fustration of a major do-over.

I too highly recommend both the book FFRP and especially recommend the DVD for fitting a full bust from Palmer & Pletsch. If funds are tight, try the library first before you plunk down the hard earned $$.

Keep at it... you WILL succeed. HTH's.

------
... cleverly disguised as a responsible adult!

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Date: 7/8/09 3:05 PM

Thanks to all for being so supportive. Honestly though I highly doubt I`ll ever attempt an FBA again. I have another (vintage) princess-seam dress pattern that just *works* on me somehow, and I guess I can make the adaptations I want (neckline shape, sleeves, etc) to that pattern. Why mess with success. I think that my problem (as I mentioned in a recent review of the same pattern) that I like the idea of the dress more than its reality. Live and learn.

Incidentally, here is the tutorial I was using:

http://www.cedesign.com/familyphotos/sewing/info/princessFBA/index.html

I have read the FFRP section on FBAs, but I can`t buy the book. Victim of the economy (and at the library right now to use the internet.)

Recently someone complained in a thread somewhere here about us annoying people who just SEW and don`t tissue fit, do formal alterations, etc, and how can people be so careless? Well, this is my answer to that: because I enjoy sewing when I just do my best and solve problems if they appear. When I attempt some kind of (mythical?) fitting perfection, using precise techniques, I *don`t* have any fun and I *don`t* have any success. My mind just doesn`t work the same way as most people`s, I guess.

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Reply to lyrae
Date: 7/9/09 1:10 PM

[QUOTE]
Thats absolutely horrible!! It's a learning process and its supposed to be fun. I mean I didn't even KNOW what a FBA was when I first started sewing - after posting a picture of a dress that at I made at an 18 rather than a 14 w/FBA, people were SO NICE and helped me learn what to do!!! People have been so nice to me here, I can't believe someone would say that. And tissue fitting, at least for me, is realllllly hard to do on myself, and my friend and i have had a hard time coordinating to do a DTD. Fitting can be tiring at times, and take the fun out of sewing. Its fun to just play and learn!

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