Talk Back Thursday

Thanks so much to toni, Donna Hodgson, Claire, Lindsay T, Becky, SunnyQ, Lisa Laree, Vicki, Caity, mamafitz and Summerset for "talking back" to my confession last Friday! I confessed that - unlike the Tailor of Gloucestor - I don't really know how to do any of the standard fitting adjustments.

As you might imagine, the responses spanned the continuum... Three or four people reported that, like me, they are not very familiar or proficient at altering patterns. Not yet, that is! ;)

Three or four people are currently, actively working on this skill. (Check out Vicki's blog for an incredibly informative series of posts on a sloper she is making! The series starts here.)

Summerset is quite proficient at the adjustments that she needs to make for her own clothes, and mamafitz studied fashion design in school and has worked in a dressmaking department, so fitting adjustments come easily to her.

I noticed one slightly depressing theme running through the responses - as we get older, our bodies change - and not in the ways that improve their fit with patterns fresh out of the envelope! Three people specifically called out these changes as the impetus for learning about alterations, and it is certainly true for me too! (Still, all things considered, the older I get the more I like myself and enjoy my life, so I wouldn't go back, even if I could...)

Finally, as usual, I got lots of good advice. :)

To help learn about standard alterations, Lindsay recommended Nancy Zieman's Pattern Fitting with Confidence and Caity recommended Fit for Real People.

Donna reminded me that people routinely address fit issues on PatternReview, and you can learn about any adjustments that a particular pattern is likely to require before you use it from that site.

Summerset recommended focusing on the adjustments that I need for my own clothes, and getting comfortable with those before trying to learn additional ones.

Thanks again, everyone, for taking the time to share a little bit of yourselves and your sewing lives with me! :)

Thank you also to Lori and Becky for advising me re. Insul-brite for my potholders! I'm going fabric shopping on Saturday! Yay! :)