A "Real" FBA

This weekend I actually made an attempt at an FBA, rather than my normal "lazy FBA" which just involves using Burda patterns because they are drafted for a larger cup size, and adding to the center front if I have to. But, that sometimes doesn't work and I end up having to take a lot out of the side seams, and shaping the waist.

I have been looking for a pattern for a simple shirt, I bought some madras plaid cotton and wanted a shirt that didn't involve princess seams because I didn't want to match THAT MUCH plaid. So, I dug into my pattern stash and found a copy of OOP Simplicity 4487. But, I opened up the pattern and found....gasp....I had purchased the wrong size range. The pattern was available in 2 ranges, 8-16 and 16-24. I had purchased the 8-16 size range. Why? Why would I do that? Even at my thinnest I still sewed in the 16-18 range. I must have had a brain fart. Or maybe I bought it for my niece. Who knows? One way or another, the largest size that I had was a 16.


I looked at the pattern measurements, and decided...you know, maybe I should finally learn how to do an FBA? So, I pulled out the measuring tape. First step, high-bust measurement. My bust measurement is a 42. My high bust? 37...or 36 if I pulled it really, really tight. That is a 6 inch difference (yeah, I guess the lady at Nordstrom was right when she laughed at me when I said I was a 38C. Not so much. 34DDD). Looking at the pattern envelope, a 36 inch bust fell in the size 14 range, and the 37 inch measurement fell right in between 14 and 16.

I thought about it, did some flat pattern measurements (back width) and decided to go with the 16. Mainly because I found the idea that I should cut a 14 laughable (Fat Guy in a Little Coat, anyone?). But yeah, a 16 it was.

The shirt had darts extending up from the hem to the bust, but no side darts. So...I added some. I marked the bust point and started slashing the pattern, filled in with tissue, and then drew on the new darts. I also made the necessary changes to the front facing, and added some room to the sleeve band (I only had enough fabric for the short-sleeved version). I also cut out the pockets shown on the short sleeved top, but wonder if perching tiny pockets on top of an extreme FBA may be a bit....much.


I used the method described in Fit for Real People. I hate tissue fitting, so I just ignore that part. But, FFRP is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to do a better job fitting their clothing. I swear that they have a special team that choses the most unflattering patterns and fabrics for the photos (kind of like the fump-tastic images on the Kwik Sew pattern envelopes), but if you can look past that, the methods are sound.

After making the changes, I found that the darts that I drew in needed to be moved, since the side dart was too low, and the bottom dart was too close to the side seam. I then drew new darts onto the tissue (the green lines):


I am pretty happy with the results of my first "real" FBA. Here is the finished shirt:


I feel like there is some extra fabric just under the bust at the waist, or that could just be the way I am standing in the pic. I didn't see that in the mirror, but I often see much more in photos than I do studying the mirror. I also didn't put the bands on the sleeves, I may go add them later. I didn't alter the sleeves, and didn't end up with enough to gather into the band. so, I just hemmed them. The back fits very well:

The only remaining issue is that the side seams swoop back:


To fix this, I slashed the back pattern piece vertically and added 2.5 inches, and then slashed the front in the same way and overlapped, transferring the width from the front to the back....since the overall circumference was fine.

I have quite a lot of shirting fabric around, I will definitely continue to tweak this pattern. Although, I am torn as to whether or not this was easier or a better fit than what I normally do. Usually, I just cut an 18 or 20 and end up taking in the side-seams under the arms and at the waist, and then recut the armscye. This way, I don't have to do that, but instead I have 45 other alterations to do to make the full bust adjustment, and then the other tweaks to get a pattern 4 sizes too small to fit me.

I will need to ruminate further on this....In the meantime, I have about a million 99-cent-sale patterns that I can hack into willy-nilly to see what works better for me.