So you've tried on your muslin and instead of the bodice ending at your natural waist, it is either sitting up somewhere in the vicinity of your ribcage or somewhere around your hips. How do you fix this? It's quite simple: adjust the length of the bodice pieces. This is often referred to a torso adjustment. It is also one of the simplest adjustments to make as it uses the very straightforward slash-and-spread or fold method. Keep in mind that any changes you make to the bodice length must be applied to all the bodice pieces for a uniform fit.
As Hazel does not have a clearly marked waistline, as seen in the tutorials below, I recommend marking the approximate centre of each pattern piece and making the necessary adjustments from that line. That way, the design of this beautiful dress is kept intact.
There are several methods for making this adjustment, and I will highlight three of them today. First up is Megan Nielsen's tutorial. This clearly illustrates the step-by-step method for lengthening bodice pieces. Again, it is so important to work from traced copies of your pattern pieces for these adjustments.
Next up is Tasia from Sewaholic Patterns and her method for adding or removing length from the bodice pieces. As with all of Tasia's tutorials, this one is clearly laid out with easy to follow steps.
Thirdly, Laura Marsh has written a lovely step-by-step tutorial which is available in an easy PDF downloadable format.
Finally, I came across these two videos detailing how to lengthen or shorten the bodice:
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Have questions? Please feel free to leave a comment here or on Erin's and Rochelle's blogs, as well as in the Flickr Group. We're here to help!
4 comments:
this is great timing for me - i'm working on a muslin and as usual i need to lengthen the bodice. it's not a hazel - i'm going to be a little bit late to that party as i have this in my queue first! it has waist darts - would i move the whole dart down keeping it the same length (the lengthen line cuts through it)? or stretch the dart too? looks from tasia tue that you lengthen it but keep the dart legs finishing in the same place?
So this is different than the FBA which is only lengthened in the middle of the pattern and not the side seams. This is great for tall people!
Hello!
I love the blog - it's so helpful! I'm going to be attempting my first dress this weekend (fully expecting a few disasters along the way!). Only problem is I'm tall (6ft), with a big bust (GG) so not sure what the best way to adjust the bodice is. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
R x
But, how do you keep the triangle shape of the center front if you just slash and spread? Am I totally missing something?
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