There is a seductive mystique to muslins. Let’s call it the “Muslin Myth”—the dangerous belief that if your cotton toile fits perfectly, your final wool, linen, or crepe pants will, too.

A number of years ago, I participated in a week-long, Palmer/Pletsch Pant Fitting and teacher training workshop in Portland, Oregon. During the week, I sewed three pairs of pants. I purchased the fabric at Fabric Depot: black, grey, and navy “Downton” weave (a rayon, nylon, and spandex fabric by Telio Manufacturing). I used the same pattern for all three pairs: McCall’s M6571 (out of print, but re-released as Butterick B6851). Even though I sewed all three from the same pattern, for the same body— I swear, I didn’t gain any weight over the week! —each pair had to be fitted differently.

Why?

Even though the fiber and the weave of my fabric were identical, the dyes’ chemical reaction with that fiber and weave can change the hand of each color fabric. Therefore, it was possible for me to make three pairs of pants from the same pattern, for the same body, and still have different fitting issues.

Once we spend time and energy tissue-fitting and muslin fitting a pattern, we want to use the pattern more than once. We naturally turn to different fabrics. After all, who wants to make a dozen pairs of identical pants? Therefore, it is necessary to fit each pant as it is sewn.

How Do I Use My Muslin to Create My Pants?

Your altered muslin is your pattern for your pants. Before laying out your fabric, “true” the pattern pieces that you did not use when making and fitting your muslin.

Steps for truing your pattern pieces:

1. Mark seamlines on all your additional pieces, such as fly protectors, fly facings, pocket facings, pocket linings, and cuffs.

2. Check each piece against the seamline where it is to be sewn.

3. Adjust the piece to match the length of the seamline where it is to be sewn. If the piece is curved, use your tissue alteration to inform your approach.

4. Redraw seamlines and add seam allowances. I prefer seam allowances of at least one inch, and I use at least two-inch seam allowances at the side seams.

5. (Optional) If you plan to use your pattern frequently, it may be worthwhile to create muslin pieces (left and right) for each piece, as tracing wheels and tracing paper tend to wear through tissue patterns. A full set of pieces can assist with pattern matching and can be placed more efficiently, minimizing fabric waste.

Example: If you lengthened or shortened your crotch, pocket pieces, fly facings, and fly protectors will need to be altered to match. You can make muslin versions of these pieces or use tissue ones.

Once all the pieces have been trued, press your muslin with a hot iron and spray starch. This will help it to lay flat on your fabric.

Lay out your muslin pieces on your fabric. Cut your pieces generously. I leave the following total seam allowances from the cut edge of the fabric to the marked seamlines of your pieces:

1. Inseams, waist seam and crotch seam: 1 - 1.25”

2. Side seams, including side seams of pocket pieces: 2”

Transfer your seamlines from your muslin (or tissue) pattern pieces onto your fashion fabric using the best marking method for your fabric. If you mark with a material other than thread tracing, baste along your marked seamlines on each piece. This allows you to see your seamlines from both sides of the fabric, which will streamline your fitting and construction.

What Does “Fit As You Sew” Mean in Garment Construction?

Most pants patterns base their instructions on the order of construction of ready-to-wear (RTW) pants. This isn’t a bad thing if you are simply constructing the pants without a desire to fit them on an actual person. As I’ve said from the beginning of this series, every single body is different, and none of them are the same as the dress form for which RTW pants are made.

If your goal is to fit pants to your unique figure, you need to construct pants like a bespoke tailor, not like an RTW factory worker.

With this in mind, you need to take multiple opportunities to check the fit of your pants during the construction process.

What Are the Essential Fitting Checkpoints When Sewing Pants?

Pants construction order is addressed in detail in Pants for Every Body by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto. In addition, the construction order for fly-front pants with topstitching is addressed in Fit and Sew Custom Jeans by Helen Bartley. Both books have revised pants construction orders to include opportunities to check the fit along the way.

Some of my students have commented, “With all these fittings, shouldn’t I just sew while I’m naked?!” No, not naked. You should be wearing the shoes and undergarments that you plan to wear with your finished pants, because your underwear will affect the drape of the pants, and your shoes can change how your pants fit from the hip to the floor.

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Why Make a Pants Muslin?

You’ve spent hours tissue-fitting, do you really need to make a muslin, too? No. After years of fitting gingham pants on their students, Pati Palmer and Marta Alto decided that paper patterns were faster and easier for beginners to alter than fabric. Today, most Palmer/Pletsch pants fitting classes progress to cutting fashion fabric pants directly after fitting the tissue pattern. However, I find that students benefit from creating muslins for a variety of reasons:

1. A muslin provides insight into how fabric will drape. While even a well-fitted muslin cannot entirely eliminate the need to fit as you sew your fashion fabric pants, your muslin will provide much more information about how your pants will fit your crotch than a paper pattern can. Since most people’s figures vary quite a bit from standard patterns, tape and tissue from multiple alterations will obscure their understanding of how their pants will hang.

2. A muslin gives confidence. Many of my students are experienced sewists who come to me for pants fitting after taking group classes that failed to result in wearable pants. Other students come to me with limited sewing experience, but with a strong desire to create pants for their non-standard figures. Both types of students gain much-appreciated confidence by creating muslins. For the former students, a muslin assures them that their altered pattern will fit when they cut their precious fashion fabric. The latter students benefit from the low-stress opportunity to practice sewing machine and construction techniques.

3. A muslin is a permanent pattern. Your muslin will become your permanent pattern. Unlike tissue patterns, which wear out after multiple uses, muslin can be used, marked, and reused for years.

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So, what’s the solution? Tissue-fitting your pattern before making your muslin is fast, cheap, and addresses most major figure challenges before you fine-tune the fit in a muslin. In fact, in some circumstances, it obviates the need for a muslin. This week, I’ll walk you through tissue-fitting, step-by-step. Next week, I’ll address the need for, and fitting of a pants muslin.

Why Tissue-Fitting Is Important for Sewing Pants

Tissue-fitting allows you to easily make length, width, and back adjustments, subtly alter inseams, all without wasting resources; all you need are scissors, tape, and paper. By contrast, muslins require fabric, and any alterations need to be sewn precisely into place. Tissue-fitting is perfect for making major alterations with ease. In fact, after tissue-fitting patterns for culottes, palazzo pants, pajama bottoms, or other loose styles, you may not even require a muslin at all!

How Do I Prepare a Pants Pattern for Tissue-Fitting?

Successful tissue-fitting builds on a foundation of accurate pattern preparation. If you are precise and intentional when you press, trim, mark, and tape your pattern pieces, you will have good results. If not, your mistakes will multiply, and your results will be less than optimal.

Preparing your pants pattern for tissue-fitting is similar to preparing bodice patterns. After determining your size, follow my step-by-step instructions for preparing a pattern for tissue fitting. Instead of taping and snipping the neckline or armscye (armhole) curves, you will tape and notch your crotch curve. If you choose your pattern size based on the stretch profile of your knit or stretch-woven fabric, you also need to add strips of tissue down the front and back side seams.

After your pattern is prepared, pin it together along the seamlines, wrong sides together. Pin darts to the outside. If your pants have slash front pockets, attach the side front piece (sometimes called the pocket back) to the main front piece of the pants with pins or tape. Since the side front/pocket back piece is part of the total pattern width, it must be included during fitting. Pocket lining/pocket facing does not need to be included.

👉 Pro Tip: Since tissue doesn’t stretch, if you are working with a knit or stretch-woven material, you will need to pin the side seams of your pattern parallel to the seamline, but far enough into the tissue strip to allow you to slide the pattern onto your leg.

What Is the Correct Fitting Order for Pants?

As with bodices, the order in which alterations are made matters. It is easy to make one alteration to your pants pattern, only to realize that you have undone your previous alteration. This leads to frustration and away from the joy of sewing well-fitting pants.

Pants Fitting Order, Step-by-Step

Below, I will walk you through the Palmer/Pletsch tissue-fitting process step by step. For clarity, I will provide photographs and describe the indicators of alterations; I won’t provide step-by-step instructions for specific alterations. For these, I refer you to Pants for Real People by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto. If you are confused or not sure whether you require a particular alteration, schedule a one-on-one Zoom or in-person consultation, and we can work through it together.

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After determining the style of pants we want to make and choosing a pattern, your next step is to purchase the pattern in the right size for your body. Beginning sewists often buy their first patterns using their ready-to-wear size, usually with very disappointing results. In the second part of my series on fitting pants, I’ll explain how to measure yourself so you can select the pants pattern that best matches your actual body size. This will put you on the road to perfectly fitting pants.

What Measurements Do I Need to Take for Pants?

You only need to take one measurement to determine your pants pattern size. I had a hard time fitting pants until I learned the Palmer/Pletsch tissue-fitting method. Many of the resources I used required dozens of difficult measurements, all with disappointing results. In their landmark book, Pants for Real People, Pati Palmer and Marta Alto teach us that there is only one measurement that we really need to fit pants: the full hip. If you take this measurement accurately, you will start with a pattern you can alter to suit your unique figure.

How Do I Measure My Hips Accurately for Sewing?

You should always choose your pants size based on your hip measurement. If you purchase for your hips, you can alter for your waist; altering the hip is more challenging, as this alteration often involves pockets and other design details.

Pants patterns are drafted from a pattern block where the full hip is 7-9” below the natural waist. Even if you want your finished pants’ waistline to fall above or below your natural waistline, it is important to use your natural waist as your landmark when measuring your full hip measurement.

To determine your full hip measurement, follow these steps:

1. Dress in the undergarments that you plan to wear under the pants. If you plan to wear shapewear, you need to wear it when measuring for size and throughout the fitting process, as it will change your measurements and body distribution.

2. Place a piece of elastic around your true waist and secure it with a safety pin or Velcro®. The elastic should be tight enough to cling to your body, not so loose that it moves independently.

3. After you have pinned the elastic in place, measure 7” to 9” from the elastic down your side. In this vicinity, you should be able to feel the upper part of your pelvis. This is your “hip bone” where you will measure your hip circumference. (If this bone is less than 7” below your true waist, that’s okay! You will probably shorten your crotch length later in the fitting process.)

👉Pro Tip: Your true waist is the place where your body bends when you do a side bend. In the studio, I sometimes sing the old nursery song, “I’m a little teapot…” to demonstrate the correct location!

👉Pro Tip: Do not measure higher than your hip bone, even if your abdomen is larger than your hips. Similarly, don’t measure at the top of your femurs; even though this may be the widest place on your body. This location is slightly below the separation between your legs, and the measurement changes when you move your legs closer together or farther apart.

How Do I Choose the Right Pants Pattern Size?

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This week, I walk you through the structural differences among four classic pants shapes and how each shape affects fit. I’ll also provide a resource to help you determine which style will flatter your unique figure.

What Is the Difference Between Trousers, Slacks, Jeans, and Culottes?

... and why should I care?

In her classic patternmaking textbook, Patternmaking for Fashion Design, Helen Joseph Armstrong defined four basic pants shapes. Each shape has a different ease, fit, and crotch geometry. Generally speaking, the looser the pants, the easier they are to fit on the body. Below are the different types of pants, from loosest (easiest to fit) to most fitted (most challenging to fit).

Culottes: Culottes are wide-legged pants that mimic the silhouette of an A-line skirt. They feature a dropped crotch and significant volume starting at the waist.

Trousers: Trousers are fitted at the waist and drop straight from the seat and abdomen to the floor. The crotch curve is designed to sit gently against the body without clinging.

Slacks: While we often think of ‘slacks’ as casual, loose pants in our everyday closets, Helen Joseph Armstrong states that in pattern drafting, the slacks foundation is actually more fitted than the trouser foundation. Slacks are fitted through the waist and hips. Slacks also cup slightly below the abdomen and seat.

Jeans: Jeans are cut to fit very closely to the body, hugging the waist, hip, seat, abdomen, and (often) thigh. This close fit makes jeans the most challenging pants to fit.

It is important to know which style of pants your pattern is drafted to create, and to fit the pants to that convention. It is impossible to make a pair of jeans from a pattern drafted for trousers. Similarly, it isn’t possible to alter a pair of trousers into a pair of slacks without re-orienting the entire crotch seam, for which there might not be sufficient fabric to accomplish.

Which Pants Style Is the Easiest to Fit?

The Easiest: Culottes & Trousers

I encourage students who are starting their fitting journey to start with culottes or trousers. Because of their generous design ease through the seat, abdomen, and hip, culottes are the easiest pants to fit on most bodies.

Trousers have less design ease than culottes, but more ease than other pants. Trousers are designed to drop completely straight from your seat and abdomen to the floor, leaving a column of air and ease around your legs. Pajama bottoms, which are essentially elastic-waisted trousers, are a fantastic place to start a pants-fitting journey.

The Hardest: Slacks & Jeans

Slacks and jeans are designed to hug or closely frame the body, making them more challenging to fit. Of the two, slacks are easier to fit than jeans.

Slacks are designed to contour and cup slightly below the abdomen and seat. Because slacks skim closer to your actual curves, they require a more precise fit than a straight pair of trousers—making them a bit trickier to nail down on your first try!

Jeans require an even closer fit through the abdomen, buttocks, and thighs, often with negative ease; this makes them the most challenging pants to fit. I recommend that students fit a few other styles of pants before embarking on jeans fitting.

What Are the Most Flattering Pants for My Body Type

Determining what shapes flatter what bodies is the subject of many books, and too much to cover in a single blog post. My favorite reference for addressing this question is The Science of Sexy: Dress to Fit Your Unique Figure with the Style System That Works for Every Shape and Size by Bradley Bayou. Bayou considers not only basic body shapes (i.e., triangle, inverted triangle, rectangle, and hourglass) but also height and weight when determining the best clothing proportions. It’s an excellent, detailed reference for determining flattering wardrobe contents–down to the size and placement of pockets!

That said, I think many styles can be flattering on an individual's body, so long as they are in proportion to that figure. Pattern alteration is key to refining those proportions.

Your Next Steps in Pants Fitting

You don’t need a dress-form-shaped body to sew perfect pants; you just need to understand the structural blueprint of the style you’re fitting. For a little homework this week, flip through your pattern stash or browse online at Simplicity.com or StyleArc. See if you can spot the difference between their trouser and slack drafts by how the fabric drapes in the listing illustrations. Start brainstorming which pants might look best in your summer wardrobe—but don’t click buy quite yet! Next week, I’ll teach you exactly how to measure your body for a flawless pattern size selection, including the critical differences between measuring for stretch fabrics versus stable wovens.

Let’s chat in the comments: Which of these four styles are you most eager to fit for yourself? And which one has historically given you the most trouble? Comment below:

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Next week, we’re moving from theory to practice. I’ll help you determine the exact pattern size you need, including the secret to measuring for stretch versus stable woven fabrics.

Ready to fast-track your pants sewing progress? Let’s skip the wait! Click the link below to schedule a personalized one-on-one pants-fitting session today.

Let's Fix My Pants Fit

From full biceps to forward shoulders and puzzling drag lines, this post walks you through practical pattern adjustments that can make all the difference. If your sleeves feel tight, twist oddly, or never seem to hang quite right—this is where things start to click.

Q5: How do I adjust for a full bicep or sleeve that’s just too tight?

Adding Width Without Distorting the Sleeve

In the previous section, we saw how to add width to the sleeve when increasing the length of the bodice and how to decrease the width when decreasing the length of the bodice. But, what happens when you need more width, but you have decreased the length of the bodice? Or when you have increased the length of the bodice, but need to decrease the width of the sleeve?

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Sleeves can make or break a garment, both in terms of appearance and feel.

Even seasoned sewists struggle with the fit of sleeves. You tissue-fit your bodice, adjust for a full bust, choose beautiful fabric, and then the sleeves bind, twist, or hang strangely. It’s frustrating, and it’s common.

In this two-part post, I answer seven of the most frequently asked questions I hear from students about sleeve fitting. Whether your sleeves feel too tight, look too loose, or show mysterious drag lines, I’ll help you understand why—and how to fix it. These tips come from years of couture sewing, custom fitting, and helping sewists like you master the details that elevate their work from homemade to custom-made.

Let’s dig into what your sleeves are trying to tell you—and how to get them to behave beautifully.

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A Word About Ease

The first thing we need to consider as we start to fit is ease. There are three different types of ease. Two are body-dependent, and one is fabric-dependent.

Wearing Ease

Wearing ease is the amount of ease required to move your body; this is not a static number. Rather, it is affected by your personal preference and your body’s mobility.

Example: Wearing ease across the fullest part of the hips in straight-legged pants is typically 5” in pattern drafting textbooks, but a person who uses a walker or wheelchair may require more than 5” of wearing ease.

Design Ease

Design ease refers to the additional ease beyond wearing ease that the designer incorporates into the design.

Example: A 1960s swing coat. The width at the bottom hem required for the wearer’s leg movement is wearing ease; all the width beyond that is design ease.

Design ease is relative to the proportions of your body; if you are petite, you can reduce design ease so that the final garment will be in scale with your figure. Conversely, you may increase design ease to match your taller stature if you are tall.

Negative Ease

Negative ease is a property of knit fabrics. It refers to the amount by which the pattern ease is reduced due to the stretch of a knit fabric.

Example: the upper portion of the sleeve pattern for a woven fabric is usually 1-2” larger than the bicep of the person who is wearing it. This is wearing ease. However, the upper portion of the sleeve pattern for a top from a 30% stretch knit is often precisely the same as the bicep measurement of the person wearing it. This means that the pattern has a negative ease of -1” to -2.”

While sewing patterns for knit fabrics can be tissue-fit, the process requires additional steps to accommodate negative ease. Interested in working with knits? Schedule a private lesson HERE.

Fitting Frustrations

Fitting can be frustrating for beginners. When sewists first learn to alter sewing patterns, they often begin with the most obvious one, which can create problems.

Example: The sewist initially notices that their pattern is too tight in the bust, so they make a full-bust alteration. But once they complete their full bust adjustment, they see that their armscye is too deep. They shorten their armscye and find that their bust point has shifted, and now their full-bust adjustment no longer fits them. If they succeed in altering for the bust point, they find that their back doesn’t fit right. Then they give up in frustration.

Order matters when we are fitting. When we tissue fit using the Palmer/Pletsch order of fitting, our alterations cascade down the body, preventing each alteration from reversing the previous one.

One of the reasons I love the Palmer/Pletsch tissue-fitting method is that it is WYSIWYG: “What you see is what you get.” When you tissue-fit your pattern, you can see exactly how it fits your body and choose exactly how much to alter each location. This allows you to control the process and make a garment that perfectly fits your proportions and body type.

In this blog post, I will guide you through the Palmer/Pletsch fitting order, highlighting key considerations and providing helpful tips along the way. However, I will not provide instructions for making alterations. Complete instructions for each alteration I reference are contained in The Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto. Copies of the book are available for purchase at the FitSew Beautiful store, HERE.

Palmer/Pletsch Tissue Fitting Order

Order matters when fitting! As I mentioned above, we don’t want to undo a previous alteration with a subsequent one. Palmer/Pletsch has developed a precise order of fitting. People who subscribe to the Fit Sew Beautiful mailing list can obtain their very own copy of my free fitting guide. Click HERE to download your free copy, so you can follow along with this blog post!

Lengthwise alterations

As I mentioned in the first post in this series, everyone has different proportions. You can be longer than the pattern in one place and shorter than the pattern in another.

We start fitting a bodice by evaluating length, front and back, in two places:

1. From the top of the shoulder to the bottom of the armscye (red to purple lines in the photo, below)

2. From the bottom of the armscye to the waist or hem (purple to blue lines in the photo, below.)

(Three images show the bodice of McCalls M7279 on a dress form. The image on the left shows the bodice front, the image on the right shows the back. The center image shows the side view, with the armscye length (1) indicated with red and purple arrows, and the armscye-to-waist length (2) shown with purple and blue arrows.)

When properly fitted:

• Your armscye should rest as high as possible in your armpit, while still being comfortable. Why? Although it may seem counterintuitive, the higher your armscye, the more you can move. Conversely, the lower your armscye, the more your sleeves will inhibit your movement.

• Your waist seam or pattern waist marking should rest at your natural waistline at the side seam. Check the waist at the side seam. If you have a large bust and/or sway back, the waistlines will not match the pattern --- yet! Folks are often confused about where their natural waistline falls: Do a side bend or sing “I’m a Little Teapot”; your natural waistline is where your body bends.

TIP: If you require an alteration to your armscye, complete that alteration to both your front and back pattern pieces before evaluating your armscye-to-waist length. Because each alteration will impact the next, each alteration must be completed before moving on to the next one.

(These three images show the bodice of McCalls M7279 on a dress form. The left shows the bodice front, where the pattern waist seam is slightly above the dress form's waistline. The right shows the back, where the pattern waistline dips slightly below the dress form's waistline. The center image shows the side view, where the pattern's waist seam is on the dress form's waistline.)

Back alterations

Once the lengthwise alterations have been completed, we proceed to the back.

First, we look at the vertical alterations, a broad or narrow back.

When properly fitted:

• Your armscye should rest along the crease of your arm. (1)

• Your center back seam, fold, or marking should rest along your spine. (2)

• The center back neckline (of a jewel neckline) should rest on the knobby protuberance where the neck meets the shoulder. (2)

(The image shows the back bodice of McCalls M7279 on a dress form. A red arrow indicates the width of the back, from spine to armscye, and a purple arrow indicates the upper back. In this case, the neckline seam rests on the dress form's neckline.)

Obviously, the design will play a role here. A design with cut-on sleeves, for example, won’t have an armscye, and a top with a dropped back neckline won't rest at the top of the spine. This is why I strongly encourage students who are new to fitting to work initially with designs that have simple lines. Using a simple design will train your eye to recognize what alterations to look for in a more complicated design.

Once we have addressed the vertical alterations of the back, we return to the horizontal shape, which includes high and low round backs. These alterations reseat the shoulder seam.

Again, instructions for the various alterations can be found in Pati Palmer and Marta Alto's The Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting. Copies of the book can be purchased at the FitSew Beautiful store, HERE..

Fitting the shoulder and head

After the back has been altered, your shoulders can be evaluated properly. Ideally, your shoulder seam will start at the center of the side of your neck and extend to your shoulder joint.

Look first for a forward head. This is a relatively infrequent alteration, but a forward shoulder alteration can confound it. A forward head alteration is required when both the wearer’s neck and head are forward of the pattern shoulder seam line. In this case, the entire seam needs to be moved forward.

After checking and altering for a forward head, evaluate for a forward shoulder. In my experience, most people over 30 (and a fair number under 30) have a forward shoulder due to texting and computer work. You will spot a forward shoulder when the shoulder seam begins at the center of the side neck but ends behind the shoulder joint. The forward shoulder alteration will angle the seam so that it ends on the shoulder joint, from which the movement of the wearer’s arm emanates.

The images show the side bodice of McCalls M7279 on a dress form. On the left, a red arrow indicates the shoulder seam, and a blue arrow indicates the shoulder joint. On the right, the purple arrow indicates that the shoulder seam rests on the shoulder joint. This will allow the joint to move freely in the sleeve.

The full bust alteration (FBA) or small bust alteration (SBA)

Only after the back and the shoulders are seated correctly on your body is it (finally!) time to evaluate your bust.

When evaluating the bust of a princess seam garment, we first alter the pattern by matching the pattern’s bust apex to the wearer’s bust apex. However, we align the bust apex of other styles after the bust adjustment is completed. Because we select our pattern size based on a high bust measurement, SBAs are relatively uncommon. That said, Pati Palmer and Marta Alto's The Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting provides full instructions for SBAs.

When measuring for an FBA, we measure from the center front fold line or pattern mark to the center front of the body at the fullest part of the bust. The red arrows in the left-hand photo below show the location where the FBA measurement is made. When the bust mass is carried high on the rib cage or is very full, the pattern will veer dramatically away from the centerline. In this case, the pattern will fit better if the FBA is split between the shoulder and the armscye. In Pati Palmer and Marta Alto's book, The Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting, this addition is referred to as the "Y" alteration. The book provides comprehensive instructions for FBAs on various bodice styles. I enjoy consulting work with odd-shaped pattern pieces. Students frequently email photos of pattern pieces and ask how to make the needed alterations. If you are having difficulty with your pattern pieces, schedule a sewing consultation in person or on Zoom HERE.

The images show the front bodice of McCalls M7279 on a dress form. The image on the left shows the bodice before the full bust adjustment. A red arrow indicates the total full bust adjustment required; the purple arrow indicates the "Y" adjustment required. The image on the right shows the bodice after the FBA. A red arrow indicates the location of the full bust adjustment; the purple arrow indicates the location of the "Y" adjustment. Green arrows indicate the addition to the waist width provided by the FBA. Note that the size of the dart has not changed so as to provide additional width at the waistline.

Waist and Hip Adjustments

The FBA will add width not only at the bust but also through the waist and hip; see the green arrows in the right-hand photo above. If this is insufficient to fit your waist and hips, you can add additional width at this step in the alteration process. Similarly, if the bodice is too wide, you can remove the excess with darts or seams. You can also shape the hip or waist seam to better reflect your figure.

Sway Back Alteration

When you have finished your waist and hip alterations, your bodice should fit fairly well. This is the time to evaluate your lower back. The “sway back” alteration is really a misnomer. You do not need to have a sway back to benefit from this alteration. Folks with flat seats or extraordinarily erect postures can also benefit. How do you know if you need it? Your center back seam or making will begin to drift away from your spine, just above your waistline. If your garment has a waist seam, the sway-back alteration can be split between the bodice and the skirt pieces. This prevents either the skirt or the bodice from going off-grain.

The images show the back bodice of McCalls M7279 on a dress form. On the left, a red arrow indicates the waist seam, and a blue arrow indicates the dress form's waist line. On the right, the purple arrow indicates that the waist seam rests on waistline.

At this point, your bodice should fit well.

Images show the final fitted bodice of McCalls M7279 on a dress form. The image on the left shows the bodice front, and the image on the right shows the back. The center image shows the side view.

Sleeve Adjustments

Once the bodice is fit, the sleeve can be altered. If the bodice has been lengthened or shortened through the armscye, the sleeve cap must be altered. Additionally, the sleeve should be evaluated for its width and the location of the elbow darts and hems. I devoted an entire blog post to sleeve alterations!

Skirt Adjustments

Just as the sleeve must fit the armscye, the skirt must fit the waist. If the wearer has retained the FBA expansion through the waist, they should also add that width down the front of the skirt, in the same location. I promise to devote a future blog post to fitting skirts.

Keeping track of your changes

In conclusion, I would like to say that home sewers never make the same garment twice. We either make it from a different fabric, with a different pattern, or for a different body shape. Our bodies are constantly changing, so it is important not only to catalog the alterations you make to a pattern but also to record the date on which you made them. I have included a convenient Palmer/Pletsch “body map” in the free fitting guide, so Click HERE to get your free copy!

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I hope this post answers your questions about fitting order and puts you on track for fitting success. If you have problems, please feel free to schedule a sewing consultation in person or on Zoom HERE. I’d be happy to help you analyze your figure and learn to make the necessary alterations so that YOUR patterns fit YOUR figure perfectly!

In my previous post, we explored how to select the correct pattern size. Now, let's dive into the next crucial step: preparing your pattern for fitting.

Measure Your Size

If you have read my last blog post, you now know how to choose the pattern size that will be closest to your body’s frame size. If you don’t know how to measure or how to select the right size, you can review those steps at THIS LINK.

Unpack Your Pattern

Once you have your sewing pattern in hand, pull out the contents. Sewing patterns typically include both instruction sheets and pattern pieces, usually printed on separate sheets.

Note: Some patterns have no printed instructions and are intended to accompany recorded tutorials or are intended for advanced sewists.

(Image shows McCalls pattern envelope M7279 unpacked: several large folded sheets of pattern paper and pages of instructions.)

Review Your Pattern Instructions

Your pattern instructions will list the pattern pieces by name and number. If your pattern offers several different styles (e.g., short sleeves, long sleeves), your instructions will indicate which pattern pieces are required for each view. On your instruction sheet, circle all the pattern pieces that you will need to create your chosen garment.

Next, review which pieces will be required for fitting. For our initial fittings, we will focus on the core pattern pieces that define the garment’s shape and size. For example, for a shirt, we will need the front, the back, the back yoke, and the sleeve for fitting. We won’t need the collar, though we might make alterations to it once we have adjusted the major back and front pieces.

Pieces count as “major” if they contribute to the length or width of the garment. For example, we won’t use the front facing to fit a convertible collared shirt. However, we would require the button band on a button-down shirt, as the band piece contributes to the total width of the pattern around the body.

(Image shows a close-up of the pattern piece list on the pattern instructions for M7279 with the major pieces checked in red.)

Rough-Cut Your Pieces from Your Pattern Sheets

Pattern pieces are printed on large, unwieldy sheets of paper. Carefully unfurl the sheets, and identify the pattern pieces that you require for fitting. Once you have identified them, carefully separate each pattern piece from the large sheet by cutting along the spaces between them. Avoid cutting too close to the lines, as this can make accurate cutting more difficult.

(Image shows bodice front and bodice back for M7279 rough cut from the large tissue sheet.)

Press Your Pattern Pieces

It is very important to cut out your pieces accurately. Since patterns are usually jammed into too-small envelopes, they have many extraneous wrinkles which will hamper your cutting accuracy. Pressing removes these wrinkles and ensures accurate cutting and fitting.

We press our pieces with an iron. My students often ask if it should be a hot iron. I tell them that the iron needs to be hot enough that it will smooth the paper, and not so hot that the paper starts to curl, scorch, or burn. I actually use a very hot iron, but I also move very quickly. If your ironing is more slow and deliberate, use a cooler iron.

Get into the practice of pressing the back sides of your pieces. If you are tissue fitting, you will accumulate a lot of tape and tissue on the pattern’s front side. Although Scotch® tape is somewhat heat resistant, tape generally melts and curls when exposed to hot irons. However, if you iron on the back of your pattern, the tissue will insulate the tape from the heat of the iron. In addition, some inks will melt onto your iron’s sole plate; you can avoid this annoyance by ironing on the backside of the pattern pieces.

(Image shows the bodice back being pressed with an iron. The iron is pressing the back side of the pattern paper.)

Trim to your size – just outside the cutting line

Next, we will trim the rough-cut pieces to size. Some sewing patterns include seam lines (sewing lines), and some do not.

• Vintage patterns and single-size patterns (e.g., Marfy and some Style Arc designs) are printed with both CUTTING lines and SEAM lines. (See the dashed line next to the pointer on the vintage pattern pictured below)

(Image shows the pattern envelope for vintage Butterick pattern 6469. To the right is the jacket front pattern piece. A sewing awl points at the seam line that is printed on the pattern.)

• Modern, multi-size sewing patterns are ONLY printed with CUTTING lines. These lines INCLUDE a seam allowance, which is enumerated in the pattern instructions.

(Image shows a close-up of the pattern instructions. The instruction for 5/8" seam allowances is highlighted with a large red arrow.)

Multi-size patterns can be confusing, so identify the line type for your size (each size uses a different line) and highlight it with a highlighter pen or pencil. Highlighting will help you stay on the correct line.

(Image shows the bodice of a multi-size pattern. An orange pen points to the orange line, which highlights the Size 20 cutting line.)

Whichever pattern you have, cut carefully and accurately, just outside of the cutting line. You will want to see the entire cutting line. Incorrectly cutting the pattern pieces can lead to significant fitting problems.

(Image shows a close-up of scissors cutting just outside of the size 20 cutting line.)

Mark seam allowances

Once we have our major pattern pieces cut, we need to determine the seam allowance.

Modern multi-size patterns typically include a single cutting line that incorporates the seam allowance for all sizes. Refer to your pattern instructions to determine the specific seam allowance for your chosen pattern.

There are a wide variety of seam allowances among sewing pattern manufacturers. The first page of Vogue, Butterick, McCalls, and Simplicity pattern instructions say, “seam allowance of ⅝” is included, unless otherwise indicated.” Other pattern companies use seam allowances ranging from ¼” to ¾”. Butterick’s Palmer/Pletsch teaching patterns include 1” seam allowances on the side and waist seams.

(Image shows a pencil and seam gauge measuring a seam allowance. The pattern notes that the seam allowance is 1"; the pencil marks are 1" from the cutting line.)

Muslin or Tissue Fitting?

At this point, you will want to decide whether to create a muslin (toile) for fitting, or whether to tissue fit your pattern. I enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of each approach in THIS BLOG POST.

That said, even if you plan to use a muslin for final fitting, tissue fitting can help identify and address major alterations more easily and efficiently. It is much easier (and cheaper) to use tape and paper than it is to pin and sew large chunks of fabric into a toile!

If you are interested in learning about how to create and use a muslin, please refer to THIS BLOG POST for a complete explanation and instructions.

Reinforce the curves

If you plan to tissue fit, you will need to reinforce the inwardly curved areas of the seam lines to prevent tearing. For this, we use tape. As I mentioned earlier, I prefer Scotch® brand tape, as it is somewhat heat-resistant. Do NOT use clear cellophane tape. Cellophane tape is extremely heat-sensitive; it will shrink and wrinkle with the slightest heat from an iron.

Reinforce your curves this way:

1. First, pin the pattern piece to a cardboard cutting mat. This will prevent static electricity from attracting the pattern piece to the wrong part of the tape.

2. Use small pieces of tape to estimate the curve.

3. Place the edge of each piece of tape on the seam line, with the rest of the piece extending into the body of the pattern piece.

4. Lap each new piece of tape over the one before it.

5. Once the curve is taped, snip the curve, as shown in the picture below. As we fit, we want the pattern’s seam lines to lay flat on our bodies. To do so, we must relax the seam allowances, so they don’t get in our way. Snipping the curves allows the seam lines to lie smoothly against your body during fitting.

(Image is a closeup of a bodice neckline which has been secured to the cutting table with pins.)

(Image is of a pair of scissors pointing to the snips in the curved pattern edge. Small overlapping pieces of tape secure the curve from tearing. Snips through the seam allowance allow room for wearing.)

(Image shows a dart which has been pinned closed for fitting. A sewing awl points to the dart line, which is highlighted in orange.)

Pin the pattern pieces together.

Once the pattern pieces have been prepared, we must pin them together. Quilting pins are great for quilting and working with heavy fabrics, but they can create large holes in pattern tissue. Instead, use 1⅜” fine dressmaking pins (diameter = 0.02”). Pin along the seam lines, as though the pins are metal stitches.

It is essential to view all the pattern information as you fit, so keep the printed sides facing out. Pin the pattern pieces together with the WRONG SIDES facing each other. This protects the delicate tissue from tearing. Use the pattern sewing instructions to tell you how the pieces go together, or use this general guide:

• Start by folding the darts to the outside

• Next, pin together any pieces that form larger pieces. For example, pin the back yoke to the lower back piece, or the front to the side front

• (Pants only) Pin the inseam

• (Bodices only) Pin the shoulder seams

• Pin the side seams.

If your garment has set-in sleeves, do not pin them to the bodice; they will be fit separately. Similarly, if your garment has a waist seam, pin the top and bottom separately; they will be fit separately.

(Image shows the sewing pattern's bodice front secured to the bodice back with pins along the seamlines. Note that the pins are parallel to the seamlines, like little metal stitches.

Ready to Fit? Follow the Palmer/Pletsch Fitting Order!

Now that your pattern is prepared, you're ready to begin the fitting process! In my next blog post, I'll guide you through the proper fitting order and explain why it's crucial for achieving a perfect fit.

Want a handy guide to remind you about sizing and pattern preparation? Sign up for the Fit Sew Beautiful mailing list HERE and get a link to a free guide to tissue fitting.

What constitutes a good fit? After almost three generations of dressing in poorly fitting products of the fast fashion industry, most consumers don’t know what a good fit looks like.

A garment fits well if it is comfortable, conforms to the body without draglines, is suitable to the purpose for which it was designed, and compliments the wearer in style and proportion.

Because they don’t know what a good fit is, consumers are more likely to blame themselves for their clothing’s poor fit than they are to blame the clothing. How many times have you thought, “This would fit better if I lost weight,” or “This would fit better if I worked out more”? It’s NOT YOU. It’s the CLOTHES.

Why should good fit matter at all? It matters because when you wear clothing that fits, you think more positively about yourself and your body. Instead of looking into a mirror and knowing that you don’t look your best, you will see in your reflection someone who is dressed in the perfect design for their unique figure, in colors that compliment them and style that flatters them. You will be confident. You will be powerful.

The Myth of the Ideal Figure

If a good fit is so important to our confidence, why is it so elusive? Sewing patterns and ready-to-wear (RTW) clothing don’t fit you because they weren’t made to fit your body! Most RTW clothing is designed to fit dress forms. In the case of some large-volume retailers, clothing is designed to look its best when folded flat on a display case.

It is hard to find clothes that fit your body because sewing patterns and RTW clothing aren’t designed for YOUR body; they were designed for a dress form – the mythical “ideal figure.”

To quote Helen Joseph-Armstrong’s book Patternmaking for Fashion Design, 4th ed.

“The 'ideal figure' is symmetrical, with an upright stance, and aesthetically pleasing body proportions, with a ratio of 10- to 12.5-inch differences among bust, waist, and hips.”

In addition, this “ideal figure” is also proportional: she is measured in head lengths: One head length from chin to full bust, one head length from full bust to waist, one head length from full bust to waist, one head length from waist to full hip, two head lengths to the knee, two head lengths to the ankle, and her foot is one head length long.

What’s the problem with using the ideal figure for almost all clothing on the planet? The problem is that no one has an “ideal” figure. Every one of the nine billion people on this planet has their own unique figure!

Embrace Your Individuality

Our bodies are shaped by our genetics, our history, and by the wear and tear of time and gravity. Sewing our own clothing gives each of us the power to tailor our garments to our unique shapes.

Sewing patterns may be designed for the ideal figure, but for sewists like ourselves, they are only the beginning. We can alter a pattern to fit our own figure; we can vary the proportions to flatter our bodies. We can add details – like pockets! – to make the design fit our purposes.

The Fitting Process

Taking Accurate Measurements

As sewists, we CAN sew our own clothing to fit our own bodies. But where do we start? It’s easiest to start by selecting the correct size pattern. The right size pattern for you will be the one that is closest to your body’s frame size.

Selecting the correct size pattern is easy to say but hard to do. Most pattern companies’ size charts offer a wide number of body measurements. The more measurements we take, the less likely it is that we will find a pattern size that matches ALL of our body measurements. Look at the range of measurements below. I’ve circled mine just to show you how crazy they can be!

(The image shows a standard size chart with circles indicating the author's size for each measurement. The circles are all over the chart, and not aligned to any particular size.)

I’m happy to say that you only need two body measurements to select a pattern that fits. For blouses, dresses, and jumpsuits, you will need your high bust measurement. For skirts, shorts, and pants, you will need your full hip measurement.

How to Measure Your High Bust for Pattern Size:

To measure your high bust, first, stand in front of a mirror. Draw a flexible tape measure around your body, as high up under your arms and as high across your back as you can. Take a deep breath, exhale, drop your shoulders, and think of a Hawaiian vacation (this is important — everyone relaxes when they think of something pleasant, and their measurements tend to be smaller!). Pull the tape as tight as you can, look in the mirror, and note the measurement.

How to Measure Your High Hip for Pattern Size:

To measure your hip, stand in front of a mirror. This time, you will need to place a piece of 1” wide elastic around your natural waist. Your natural waist is the place on your torso where your body bends when you bend from side to side, NOT the place where the tops of your RTW pants or skirts sit!

Your full hip is the fullest place on your body between your waist and the bifurcation (division) of your legs. The full hip on patterns is usually 7-9” below the natural waist; if you are tall or petite (and even when you aren’t), your full hip will probably fall above or below this range, but it is a good place to start.

Standing comfortably in front of a mirror, draw a flexible tape measure around your body. Take a deep breath, exhale, and think of a Hawaiian vacation; then pull the tape as tight as you can. Look in the mirror and note the measurement.

How to Measure Yourself for Sewing Patterns

If you would like to see these measurements on a real person, watch the video below:

How to Choose the Right Pattern Size

For the Best Fit, Use Your High Bust to Find Your Sewing Pattern Size

Now that you’ve measured yourself, you can make sense of the pattern size chart.

Revisiting the Simplicity.com size chart, we can see that the chest (high bust) measurement falls between sizes 10 and 12. I am 5’6” tall, so I will round down to the smaller size. If I were taller than 5’7”, I would round up. Why? The answer is because of the complexities of pattern grading. (If you’d like to read a more detailed answer, CLICK HERE for the entire blog post!)

What if the size chart does not include high bust or chest sizes?

Some size charts are very simple. The ones on many pattern envelopes include only (full) bust, waist, and hips. How do you choose the right size in these sewing patterns?

To do that, you will need to know the cup size for which the sewing pattern company has drafted their sewing patterns. Most of the major brands (Burda, McCalls, Butterick, Vogue, Simplicity) draft their sewing patterns for a figure with a B cup; you can see this on the size chart I marked above, where the difference between high bust and full bust is 2”.

If you are using an independent pattern designer’s patterns, the calculation is a bit more complicated. Fortunately, most independent pattern designers include both high and full bust measurements in their size charts.

If the pattern company includes only full bust measurements on their size chart, you will need to search their size charts or websites/instructions to find the cup size for which they design. Once you’ve determined the cup size, add it to your high bust to obtain your “theoretical” bust size.

Example: This is the size chart for True Bias patterns

Image of size charts from True Bias. The charts indicate that sizes 0 - 18 are drafted for a C cup, and sizes 14-30 are drafted for a D cup.

This size chart only provides chest sizes but states that True Bias designs for C cups, so I will make the following calculation:

31.5” (my high bust) + 3” (the cup size for this pattern) = 34.5, which is the bust measurement of a person of my frame size in this pattern line.

34.5 places me between a size 4 and a size 6. Since I am 5’5”, I round down to a size 4.

What if I’m a different pattern size on my top than I am on my bottom?

If your high bust and full hip measurements indicate two different sizes, you are not alone! Most of my students have the same issue. If you are buying a pattern that contains designs for a blouse, jacket, and pants, the solution is fairly straightforward: cut one size for the top and a different size for the bottom.

What if you are making a dress? In the case of dresses and pantsuits, The Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting instructs you to cut out the entire dress in the size of the bodice. Adjustments will be made to the waist and hip areas as we progress through the alteration process, so there is no need to cut a different size.

Avoid Pattern Fitting Failure

Don’t try to “grade” between sizes. Inexperienced sewists often will cut a dress out of a multisize pattern by cutting one size at the hip, another at the waist, and yet another at the hip. Doing this will set you up for fitting failure! Professional grading (sizing) of patterns is proportional. This means that the patterns become proportionally longer as they widen. (For details, see my blog post on grading.) If you cut out different sizes, the pieces will no longer fit together properly along the seam lines.

Now that you have the right-sized pattern, it’s time to prepare it for fitting. For that, see my next blog post!