V7903 blouse fitting #2

 

I put the earlier version of the V7903 blouse up on the critique board at Stitcher's Guild, and Linda F and Nancy K, kindly commented on the fit. There seems to be something wrong with the shoulder and armscye, this being the North American term for armhole, sounds fancy! I have already taken in the shoulder a lot. When I layed my altered pattern piece over the original pattern, the shoulder and armscye were smaller than the smallest size "A", which gave me a warm fuzzy vanity sizing feeling, as I had originally cut a "B". I am very happy with the neck and collar fitting, so chose to try a narrow shoulder adjustment, rather than redraw the upper bodice of the pattern to a smaller size, which was suggested in another fitting thread at Stitcher's Guild. The narrow shoulder adjustment amuses me, as I have always thought I have very broad shoulders, however, possibly the rest of me has caught up to, and indeed surpassed them! My shoulders also tend to squareness. I do not usually adjust for this, but seeing as I was in my fitting book (above) I thought I would go the whole hog and adjust for my square shoulders as well.

 

Here is my altered front and back pattern piece. The scribble on the outside armscye is where I have already taken in the shoulders after I sewed the first blouse. You can see that I just increased the seam allowance to improve the fit in the already constructed blouse, and have just transferred this to the pattern. It is not an approved method, but it worked for me, sort of. In order to compare effects of the new changes, I am carrying over this adjustment to the second trial blouse, although I may regret this later if I have to make a 3rd fitting attempt version.
For the shoulder adjustment, I slashed (outside the dart) vertically from the shoulder, and horizontally from the bottom of the armscye, then crossed over the slash at the shoulder by the amount I wanted to take in. Then I trued the shoulder, and redrew this line with a decreased slope to allow for my square shoulders. I have cut out the blouse and hope to make it up tomorrow to judge the success of these alterations. I have not altered the sleeve again. I think there is enough ease already to allow for the very slight change this adjustment makes to the bodice armscye.