In with the Old, In with the New

So several weeks ago (um, about seven) I made mention of my birthday gift to myself but never followed up.

Well, here it is!



I randomly search Craigslist on occasion looking for a cheap serger. Assuming that most such items are listed by the children of mothers who sewed and might not know there's a difference between a sewing machine and a serger, I always search on both terms. Well, the week before my birthday I did a search and came up with this beauty.

Turning 34 was difficult because I'm basically in the last good year of my fertility and have not had a real boyfriend in more than six years, much less am anywhere near finding a partner to raise children with. I have known for many years that having children is something I will have to do by myself if it's what I want, but knowing doesn't make it easier to do. This is the year I'm supposed to make the decision, and I still don't feel prepared. So, it's a hard year.

When I posted the article on my birthday dress post about 34 being the most expensive year of your life, Vicki said I should *make* it the most expensive year by splurging on myself. Excessive shoe purchases notwithstanding, I am not much of a splurger, but this sounded like excellent advice.

When I was growing up, some family friends down the street had a treadle sewing machine in the front hallway. I LOVED it and always wanted to play with it, but knew I wouldn't be allowed to. Now I have a treadle machine all to myself that I can play with whenever I want! It's gorgeous. I assume it's from the 20s as it has the Sphinx decal from the Art Deco craze for Orientalism. It is in working order (though unfortunately the tension and stitch length knobs are completely immobile; if anyone has any ideas for loosening them I'd appreciate it, because the tension is set tight and the stitches tiny) and absolutely gorgeous. It's not in mint condition, which is infinitely preferable to me. I want a machine that was *used* by generations of sewists before me. I want to see their dreams and fancies etched into the wood and worn into the decals.

The sellers were entirely sweet; they delivered it to me for $15 extra, set it up, brought me a photocopy of the manual, and showed me how to use it. What's amazing to me is not how different it is from an electric sewing machine, but how much it's the same. It operates identically, even to winding the bobbin!

The head folds down so that it just becomes a little side table, perfect for serving drinks from at a party. And check out the tiny casters! I just love everything about it. I don't know that I'll actually use it as a sewing machine, but if we have a long power outage over the winter I'm set.



Then last week I was idly searching for a serger again and somehow came up with an eBay listing for a White Speedylock 1600 listed at $75 with a buy-it-now price of $99 and, most importantly, a seller in the DC area who was willing to do a pickup to avoid shipping charges. I had decided I'd spend up to $100 on an impulse serger purchase, and there it was staring me in the face. I'm sure I could have had it for the $75, but the auction didn't end until Sunday night and I wanted it for my long weekend. I did the buy it now and the seller, another wonderfully kind person, met me at a metro stop (she lives in the far suburbs, outside metro's reach) on Friday, which was my day off. I serged all weekend long, I tell you what. I've already managed to serge through a pin (oops) and KNOW the day of doom is coming when I slash into the middle of a garment with the knife, but oh the beauty of my seam allowances!



And just so it doesn't feel left out, here is my first love: my Bernina 1008. The pastel 80s paint splotches are god awful and I wish it had a few more decorative stitches, but after 10 years of sewing on a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad New Home machine every day with the Bernina is a dream come true. I've had it for four years now! Time flies when you're not sewing on a Machine of Doom. Really, I cannot say enough foul things about that old New Home. Blood, sweat, and tears don't even begin to cover how frustrating it was. But all that is behind me now, and ahead of me are miles and miles more with my 1008.

Small Bust Adjustment (SBA)

Let me first state that I feel that I am in no way qualified to provide any advice or information about alterations. I have no theory, only practice. Over many, many years of owning and operating both a small bust (32AA) and a sewing machine I have worked out my slapdash ways to alter patterns to fit my bust. I am sure anyone with actual knowledge and education will be appalled.

I should say the lack of theory is not wholly my fault. I have tried many books and websites to get more information. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of literature out there about the SBA. Most books carefully explain the FBA, and then say, "And an SBA is the opposite." Totally not helpful. There is one huge exception to the lack of SBA information and that is Shannon's tutorial on Hungry Zombie Couture on how to alter a standard darted blouse for a small bust. It is excellent, clear, well-illustrated, and extremely useful.

I get a fair number of questions about SBAs, so I know I'm not the only one out there looking so I'll share what little I know, with the caveat that it's just stuff I made up, mostly.

I would also like to formally object to the term "Small Bust Adjustment." It does make an easier acronym than, say, "Petite But Well Shaped Bust Adjustment," "Mine Will Stay Perky Longer Than Yours Bust Adjustment," or "I Can Buy Cheap, Cute Bras Bust Adjustment," but those accentuate the positive rather than making us sound inadequate (and my positive needs a lot of accentuating, let me tell you).

I generally choose patterns that are easy to alter with my bust in mind. Despite Shannon's fabulous tutorial, it is very rare for me to make a standard darted blouse because of the difficulty in altering it to fit the bust. Other styles are much easier, and at the top of the list is princess seams. I looooove princess seams (as if you couldn't tell from this, this, this, this, etc. ad infinitum). It makes no difference to me whether it is shoulder or armscye princess, I love them all. Shoulder is less common, and I wonder if that's because it's less curvy--which means it might be better for us. I haven't tried out enough shoulder princess patterns to tell (because there are so few).

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To alter a princess seam all you have to do is shave some width off the bust curve on the side front pieces. Super easy.



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If it's not princess, I usually go for something in an empire line with a bodice that hits right under the bust. I generally reduce the width of the gathered section or of the dart, and if the bottom of the front bodice piece is very rounded I flatten that out a little, as I did here for Vogue 8386; here's a comparison between the final altered bodice and the original pattern. If you don't flatten, you get what I call "Empty Bag Syndrome," where the extra fabric spills out over the underbust seam; it's like the opposite of the pencil test:



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I have a short distance between my bust and my shoulder; I don't know if this is related to my small bust or my frame, but I suspect it's a little of both. I often shorten the front strap, usually taking in a little more at the neck edge than the shoulder edge (thus shortening the front neckline, which prevents gape). You can see that in the photo above for Vogue 8386, and here for New Look 6394. This is kind of a touchy alteration because it can create serious drag lines running from neck edge at shoulder to the armpit; this is especially a problem for styles with sleeves. I haven't found a way to deal with that problem and only go with the slanted front shoulder if there's no other way to get rid of the gape. I'd rather have drag lines than gape.

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Wrap styles were always off limits to me until I discovered how to alter them by realizing that the problem really was as simple as the crossover neckline being too long. By taking out some length, I opened up a whole world of new styles. I am petite but have a long torso; Cidell was startled to find that our torso measurements are nearly identical though she is several inches taller than me (and well into the average height for which patterns are drafted). So I think this is not related to my shortness and the principle applies to SBAers regardless of height. For crossover necks, I take out a wedge of width at a 90 degree angle to the neckline. Don't forget to alter the facing if it has one, as with Vogue 8379 (though frankly I didn't love the facing on this pattern and will leave it off next time I make it). This one is still a work in progress because the angle of the marked pleats is wrong for my bust, I just haven't figured out which way to aim them:



For McCall 5314, a woven wrap, the line got too distorted when I tried to take all the length out at one go, so I shortened at about 1/3 and 2/3 of the neckline distance:



I mean seriously! Check out how ridiculous that alteration is! I took out about three inches of length! I really don't know who that *wouldn't* gape on. But the pattern looks fab on me now and is as snug as a bug in a rug along that wrap. No gape at all.
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Sometimes you need to alter the pattern along more than one axis, as here for Simplicity 3775. I shortened the V neck/mock wrap to avoid gape, and narrowed the width of the gathering. When it comes to gathering, I also find it better to gather more toward the center front than to follow the markings. I don't know if it's my body in particular or general to a small bust to be more centered on the chest, but my girls seem closer together than patterns are drafted for.



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For other miscellaneous styles, always, always, always narrow the width of a bust dart, whether it is vertical (a fisheye dart below the bust) or horizontal (a traditional dart to the side of the bust). It is invariably a mistake not to do this, and I made this mistake recently! Before I had any idea what I was doing I tried to deal with bad bust darts on the garment by taking in more fabric to try to reduce the bagginess. While that sounds like it will work, making a dart bigger makes it worse by increasing the difference in circumference between the bust and below the bust! It is essential to alter the pattern before cutting so there is less fabric to begin with.



You might also need to reduce the length of a bust dart. It's worth it to do a quick tissue fit and mark your bust point (i.e., center of your bust, i.e., nipple) on the pattern piece. If the dart apex is going to overshoot your bust point it needs to be shortened.

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This post is still a work in progress, because I think there might be something to shortening armscyes in some patterns. I just made BWOF 02-2008-103 and it looks pretty bad under the arms and across to the bust. I think a higher armscye would deal with that, and I think it has something to do with a small bust (since a larger bust would displace that extra fabric and prevent the bagginess under the arm).
Luckily, a small bust is usually fairly high so we don't have to worry about lowering the bust point. That's some consolation, right?

BWOF 08-2007-105 is Tops

I just love 08-2007-105. It's incredibly versatile, and the bust was easy to adjust simply by taking some length off the bottom of the upper bust pieces and flattening the curve a little. I first used it as the basis to adapt plus-sized 04-2008-128 to my size. Then I used it for this. I haven't even made it yet as drafted!

I am a huge fan of a tie waist, to the point where I often feel like I need to cool it on that look because so many of my projects have one that I fear people will find me repetitive when, in truth, I'm pretty sure the only person who notices what I wear on a daily basis is the fabulous fashionista guy who checks me in at the gym. A tie waist works for me, so I'll stick with it. So when I saw Allison C's New Look 6729, I knew I had to have it. I didn't want to have to buy a new pattern, though. Luckily, Sharon M had linked a photo of the bodice in progress to her review. A light bulb went off as soon as I saw it--I already had the pattern, it just needed a little tweak.



I cut the ties as long as I could with my fabric. I'll try to remember to add the measurement later. My knit had a distinct right and wrong side and was pretty flimsy. To deal with this, I cut out strips as long and wide as the ties, laid them right side to right side, stitched all the way around, and turned right side out.

This little top is really sensational. It looks great on me and makes the most of scant assets--a friend commented unsolicited that I was looking kind of "boobie" when she saw me in it. It took a yard of fabric and a couple of hours. I meant to make another before summer was done (this is from June-ish) but now it's chilly and too late! Of course, I could make something in long sleeves...

All photos are here.

Podcast!

Cidell and I chat about the recent issues of BWOF (and she tantalizes me with the fact that she has already received October and I have not), our upcoming exotic travel (hers more exotic than mine), and current projects. Grab some hand sewing and hit play below, head to the page where it's posted, or find us on itunes! It's under trenabdc.

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Going to Germany!

I'm heading to Germany for work! I'm pretty excited, as I've never been there. I get to visit the land of BWOF. I feel that can only be a good thing.

I'll be there from either the Saturday the 25th or Sunday the 26th of October and hope to stay through Sunday, 1 November. I'll be outside Frankfurt for a conference Monday through Wednesday, but hopefully will have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to sightsee and then fly back Sunday. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

I'd love to see Berlin, but I'm not sure it will be worth it with my short time. I don't think I'll be able to fly out of Berlin, so I'd have to go back to Frankfurt Saturday night to catch my flight, so I'd spend more time traveling than sightseeing I think.

My Sitemeter spies tell me I have some readers in Germany. I'd love to hear from you!