Mad Men Sew-Along : Adjusting the Bodice

Sorry I have been a little MIA lately. It was my husband's 30th birthday this week and so although I found time to sew I never could find time to actually blog about it.

So, let's get this bodice muslin done.

After trying on the muslin there were three things that I needed to do.
1 - lower the neckline another inch
2 - take in the sideseam just under the armpit 1/2"
3 - drop the waistline by another inch

Once I made the first two changes by basting and cutting my muslin fit like this :



I was really happy with the fit at this point so I decided to transfer my adjustments to my pattern pieces. (You could just use your muslin pieces as your pattern pieces, but since I needed to lengthen my bodice I decided it would be easier to just change the actual pattern pieces to match my fitted muslin.)

The first thing I did was lengthen my bodice. I wanted the bodice to hit at my belly button, but it hit 1" above (minus the seam allowance). To make the bodice the correct length I first cut a horizontal line through the bottom section of my pattern piece.

Next I added a bit of tissue paper in between the pieces and taped them leaving a 1" gap.


I then redrew my darts so that they still ended at the same point (so that they lined up with the skirt darts).


Next I took in the side seams. I needed to take in 1/2" at the top and then graded it down to 1/4" and then 0" by the end. This was a little tricky on the front bodice because of the dart.

I closed the dart temporarily and then drew the desired line down the side seam.


Keeping the dart closed I cut the excess off of the side seam. Now reopen the dart.




Lastly, I needed to lower the neckline another inch. While trying it on I marked the bodice where I wanted it to hit on my neckline. I transfered these muslin markings to my pattern piece. I then added 5/8" for seam allowance and then cut off the excess.




I then, of coarse, repeated these steps for the back bodice pieces.