Baby's got back and mild scoliosis

 

Readers, what idiot said:

That's the beauty of drafting: you're using your own body's measurements, so provided you can handle a little math and draw a straight and curved line (and there are a zillion aids to help you), things are going to fit.  You don't have to waste time with endless pattern adjustments?

Nevermind.

I spent much too much time yesterday working on fitting my self-drafted top pattern.  Now I know I don't have a bulging bosom, crooked clavicle, XXXL love handles, or a hunch, but I DO have my deformities and they are heck to deal with.

How I used to wonder (with some smugness, I'll admit) at the endless fit obsessions of various blogger friends, struggling with their swaybacks, dowager humps, and assorted bumps and bulges.  Oh, but karma stings!

Granted, unless I'm drafting a skin-tight jumpsuit -- and I will be -- there can be some fullness in men's tops.  Even a well-fitted men's formal shirt is likely to have more ease than, say, a 1950's wiggle dress women's bodice meant to be worn with a bullet bra and girdle.

But as anyone who's ever gotten deeply into fitting knows, once you get started, all you want to see is SMOOTH: no fullness, no pulling, no wrinkles.

I want the equivalent of my body covered in molten latex.  Or a good face lift. 

So yesterday I measured.  I trimmed.  I widened darts.  I narrowed darts.  I lengthened darts.  I shortened darts.  I did everything but throw darts which if I had, would have been at a photo of Dorothy Moore.













The problem, dear readers, is that while in my fantasies I look like this...





In reality, I look like this:





If there's one part of my body I'm not keen about, it's my forward-sloping shoulders and rounded back.  OK that's two parts, but you get the idea.  It makes fitting my back a challenge, IF I'm going to get really obsessive about it.  A yoke should deal with some of the fullness at the armscye (see top photo). I lowered the shoulder line twice and even tried darts, with mixed success.  Or do I need to lengthen the back?  You'd think I didn't own half a dozen books on fit.  

Maybe I'll just wear stretch knits from now on.

Anyway, that's where things stand, or rather, slouch.  David Coffin doesn't even advocate drafting a men's sloper from scratch but rather starting with a decent-fitting shirt pattern and making small adjustments from there.   I'm hoping this investment in fitting will pay off somewhere down the road. The question is when, and where will that road be -- Auckland?

So there, I've been chastened -- smug no more.

More coffee please!