Why don't store-bought clothes fit?

November 2010
 

Are You Well Endowed?

If your bra cup size is anything more than a B, then ready-to-wear (RTW) clothing made of woven fabrics will not fit.

T-shirts, sweaters, and other garments made from knitted fabrics will stretch to cover the subject, but most women who are amply endowed like to wear clothes made of woven fabrics, and they like to wear clothes that are fitted to their figures. In earlier decades, women almost always wore very fitted clothing, like the costumes on the television show Mad Men. Nowadays, most of the clothes that we wear are looser by design, but for formal attire, like wedding gowns, a close and precise fit is essential.

Most women know their correct bra cup size, but did you know that clothes have a cup size, too? They have to. A bra has to fit your breast size, and fitted clothes have to fit correctly over that bra.

Most clothing sold today is drafted to fit a B cup. Most commercial sewing patterns are also drafted to fit a B cup. If you are a C,D, E, F, G, H or I cup, you are out of luck when it comes to RTW. There are important reasons for this shortcoming.

Drafting is the process of drawing the complicated shapes of the pieces of cloth that make up the clothes that we wear. Some garments only have 3-4 pieces of fabric in them, such as a tank top, which might have a front, back, and maybe a neck and armscye (armhole) binding. Other garments can have 40 or more pieces of fabric in them, such as a menswear-styled tailored jacket or a woman's wedding gown. When the shapes of these pieces are drafted, each of the individual pieces must be the right length, width, and shape to fit the various parts of the wearer's body; each of them must fit together precisely; and each of them must comprise the intended design of the garment after they are sewn together. That's complicated!

Drafting garments is a very technical process. There are generally two approaches to figuring out what size and shape to make the pieces that make up a garment.

One is draping. With this method, pieces of inexpensive fabric, usually muslin, are layed over a dressform that has the intended design lines, such as seam lines, neck lines, and so on marked on it with black tape so the draper can see the lines through the muslin. While paying very carefull attention to grainlines (the direction of the weave of the fabric), the draper uses her hands to "sculpt" the fabric into the intended design, pinning and cutting as needed. When the drape is completed, the right and left sides are trued, or adjusted, construction lines are marked, and seam allowances are added so that the garment can be cut and sewn. Draping works well, especially for some types of garments, but in the RTW industry the draping is nearly always done on a standardized dressform that is tall, thin, and has a B cup size. Sometimes draping is done on an actual figure, but in RTW, that figure is always about the same as a commercial dressform: no G cups to be found in industry.

The second method is flat drafting. There are hundreds of hand drafting systems around that use paper, pencil, rulers, compass and other tools much as an architect would draw a blueprint, using the basic principles of geometry. Nowadays, drafting is nearly always done by computer using Auto-CAD programs. After the first pattern drape or draft is completed, all the pattern pieces for a garment are enlarged in length and width to make larger garment sizes using a process called grading. The grading process assumes that everyone gets proportionally and regularly taller as they get bigger around (we wish), and it assumes that no one has any figure variations, in other words, that we look like standardized dressforms.


When fitting women's busts (the polite and professional term for "the girls"), this process gets even more complicated. Breasts vary tremendously in size, shape, and position on the torso. As anyone who has tried to follow those little measurement charts in lingerie catalogues to order a bra can tell you, there is much more to cup size than numbers.

Cup size is really a kind of short-hand way of describing the difference in circumferences around the torso from the chest above the bust, to the fullest part of the bust, to the torso just below the bust. Cup size also describes the volume of the breasts.

To explain this geometrically, the base of a breast is basically a circle. Imagine two circles drawn on your chest where your breasts are. The size of these circles varies tremendously with the size of the woman. For a tiny woman, that circle might have a diameter of 5 inches, while a large woman's breasts might be represented by a circle that is 10 inches in diameter. If you remove a segment, (think of taking a slice out of a pie) from this imaginary circle, and then you bring the cut edges together, you get a cone shape, which looks like a breast! If you take out a relatively smaller segment, the cone on its base will not be very high. If you take a larger slice, the resulting cone shape will sit up much higher. The larger segment or slice corresponds to a larger cup size. Both the size of the circle and the size of the segment vary with body and breast size, and they need to vary with garment size and cup size to fit each body.

Those pie shaped segments are like darts in fitted garments. Darts are those triangular or diamond shaped folds that are stitched down inside a garment to fit the bust, as well as other areas of a body. The size of these darts must correspond to the cup size of the wearer or the garment will not fit correctly. The position of the darts on a garment must also correspond to the position of the bust on the torso.

Even more complicated, many garments are not fitted only with darts, but with dart equivalents, such as gathers, pleats, tucks, shaped seams such as princess seams, yokes, and so on. The fit for the bust can be hidden in numerous design details.

Because RTW is mass marketed, profit is far more important than fit. That is why RTW doesn't even bother to tackle the cup size issue, and consumers just buy what they can find.

Alterations can help, but if you are well endowded, you need custom clothing that has been adjusted to fit your cup size, or you need to adjust patterns for cup size if you sew for yourself.

More later on how to judge good fit.

Today is National Ride Your Bike to Work day. As I listened to the news this morning, I was thinking that I should get my bike out and pump up the tires and go for a ride while the wonderful weather lasts. My husband pipes up and says, "I don't think you should do that." Puzzled, I asked what he meant. "Don't ride your bike to work today." Still not "getting it", he went on to say, "I don't think you would make it down the stairs"! My studio is on the lower level of our home! OK, so you had to be there. Another guest on one of the morning shows had written a book about the little things that make you smile. Like the smell of bacon cooking, or the first bloom of the spring. We have much to be thankful for, and many of them are just that...little things. The husband who makes me smile all day. My intern who "gets" it and can get through a complicated Vogue pattern with minimal supervision. The client who is truly thankful for a job well done and gives me a hug. I LOVE those moments! I think if we think on these little things we receive great joy and the rest of life fades a little and is not as overwhelming. Enjoy the day! Ride your bike today!

Busy Bridal Season

The machines here at Katherine's Design & Alterations are humming away all day (and sometimes deep into the night!). My intern, Elena, graduated from Mount Mary College this past Saturday, and is now working every day for me! It will be so nice to work with someone who really knows her stuff! Elena wants to specialize in the Bridal market, so this time of year is right up her alley. Hopefully she will help to shorten the turn-around time for our schedule and learn a lot with all the Bridal gowns and Bridesmaid dresses that are coming in.
Don't forget to keep us in mind for even the simplest repairs and alterations. We work hard to give you a perfect fit on your garments, but we can also repair holes, replace buttons, and make a favorite outfit last longer.

Prom Season, Bridal Season

Prom season has come and gone. I did 9 prom dresses this year, half that of last year. ... Maybe due to the economy? The dresses were very diverse, some being beaded columns, and others that looked like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Most were much more tasteful than in previous years which was a nice change of pace. The one that caught my eye was a beautiful, silk charmeuse dress that was SO colorful that you couldn't stop looking at it! It was a dream to hem, and it was SO soft and silky against your skin, I imagine it was like wearing a breeze. I LOVE to see all the different styles, colors, and personalities.



Wedding season is now if full swing. thanks to David's Bridal, I don't see too many innovative Bridesmaid dresses, but the Bridal gowns are each unique in their design and construction. It is so satisfying to take a dress that needs work and fulfill the vision the bride has of herself for her wedding day! I learn something new from almost EVERY dress I work on! Brides, remember...I can always make a Christening/ Baptismal gown for your first baby from your wedding dress. What a wonderful memory you create when you put your gown to use in this way!

Style and Custom Fit Clothing

This is January 2010. When I was a kid I never dreamed I'd still be alive in 2010! Not only am I alive, but I'm enjoying my life more than ever! Last month I took an opportunity to attend a wonderful retreat on the Rock River near Rockford, IL. The retreat is held during our "catch up" season before we get so busy that we don't have a minute to spare for ourselves. Fourteen women, all members of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals get together once a year with one stipulation--no client work! Some plan the weekend down to the minutest detail, and others just wing it, but each year I am amazed at the quantity and quality of work accomplished by these extremely talented women.
Last year at retreat, I wanted to use the wisdom of these fitting specialists to help me perfect a pattern for pants for myself. Being a large woman with many curves proved to be quite a challenge, and though it was not perfected, I got a great start. This year, I brought last years' pattern, and with the help of 3 wonderful friends, was able to get the pattern perfected from waist through the hip. So you can see, custom sewing for people is an art and can sometimes take quite a long time to get it right. I am anxiously awaiting the results of my first pair of beautifully fit pants!
STYLE
We humans are complex creatures. Most of us do not fit in one body shape and we each have different roles to fill in our lives which necessitates a combination of styles in our wardrobe. What is your style? Make a list for yourself: Ethnic, Elegant, Feminine, Simple, Homespun, Casual, Tailored, Timeless, Soft, Structured, Eclectic...add your own adjectives. We also have color preferences, and I was once told that the colors you are most attracted to are the ones that look best on you. Do you like the jewel tones, pastels, bright, warm, dull, cheery, cool or sophisticated colors? Of course, we must NEVER rule out a color because we are not drawn to it, but can use it as an accent piece. Finally, what are your favorite surface textures? Maybe you have never thought about surface texture. My first instinct is to touch the garments on a rack. I LOVE things that are very soft, flowey, that feel good on the skin. Silk, cotton, microfiber are on the top of my list. Other textures you might like are smooth, shiny, sparkly, crinkled, rough, bumpy, twill (as in jeans) or plain weave.
When you have clothing made for you, you have so many more options than one who purchases her garments from a retail store. You can choose your colors, textures and styles to suit your personal preferences and lifestyle as well as getting the perfect fit. Though it takes more thought and time to get a one-of-a-kind outfit, the end results can epitomize who you are and can last for many, many years!