Today let’s talk fitting for your Kelly Anorak. I think for most of you, the pattern won’t need any modification. With it’s casual fit and generous ease, Kelly should work for most body types right out of the package, and the vast majority of our testers didn’t require any major pattern adjustments.
I believe the most common adjustment will likely be to the length. Kelly is meant to end at the bottom of your butt. If you are much taller or shorter than the 5′-6″ we draft for, you might want to consider using our length/shorten lines to make it suit your frame. I tried our sample on a petite 5′-2″ friend and could have pinched out about 1 1/2″ of length at the waist. Having said that, Keena, our model for this pattern, is over 5′-10″ and I thought the length worked well for her. If you’re in doubt, make up a quick muslin of the body pieces before making a decision.
Regardless of whether or not you decide to make a muslin, I strongly suggest trying on the coat body before sewing in your drawstring. I intended it to sit at the natural waist when drawn closed, so the suggested location on the pattern may not work for you. I think our drawstring is actually an inch or so too high on Keena since she has a longer torso, although the drawstring height is exactly right on me and we are more or less the same size. It’s important to figure this out before you install your grommet or drawstring buttonhole since you can’t take that step back once you’ve done it.
The sleeves of Kelly are something I thought a lot about; I wanted them to be slim and slightly fitted while still being roomy enough to layer a sweater on underneath. You may want to do a quick muslin if you often have problems with sleeves being too small; if you need to make any adjustments you will find this post helpful.
If you have a larger bust, you may want to consider doing a full bust adjustment to this pattern as explained below. Again, I suggest making up a quick muslin first since there is a decent amount of bust ease and you may not find it necessary (for the record I am a 34D and a size 10 and do not need an FBA). My apologies if you were waiting for this tutorial yesterday. Since there is no bust dart it’s not a typical FBA, and I had a little mental struggle figuring out the best way to do it. Thankfully I have access to a great sewing braintrust and called upon the sewing wisdom of a few friends; thank you Renee, Carmen and Betsy for giving me your two cents!
To make this modification we will be modifying the lower front coat; while there is a slight dart built into the seamline along the yoke, after a lot of thought I decided it was just to complicated to try and adjust . This is a simple FBA that should give your girls enough room without having to do any deep tissue pattern surgery.
To start with, let’s locate the bust point. I suggest taping the yoke to the front along the seam line and holding it up to your body to find your bust apex (or the center of your breast, aka nip city); the center front for the coat is at the first set of notches so align those notches up with the center of your body. If you want to save time, the bust apex as it was drafted is located as indicated below, although this is for the size ten; the apex would shift as it was graded, and lets be real, everyone’s nip city is located on a different place on the map.
Draw a line from the bust point straight down to the bottom of the pattern. Then draw a diagonal line from the bust point to the top left corner of the armscye. Last, draw a line from the bust point to the side seam, a few inches below the armscye.
Cut from the bottom up through the second diagonal line, but do no cut through the armscye – you want to leave a little hinge here so that the two pattern pieces are still connected. Swing this piece out so you make a little open wedge above the bust point.
Cut the other line from the seam line to the bust point, but again, don’t cut all the way through, leaving a little hinge. Rotate the bottom portion down so the right side of this piece is parallel to the adjacent line. Play around with the angle of the two hinged pieces until you have added the desired amount of bust width. Since you are also adding length with this adjustment, make sure you slash and spread along the center front portion so that the hem line matches up on either side.
You have now created a bust dart through the side seam. I am going to show you how to remove it in a moment, but if you’d like to keep the bust dart you may. Simply redraw it so that it’s angled towards the bust point, ending at least an inch away from the point. Fill in the rest of the space you created with paper and true or smooth out any janky lines or curves.
To remove the bust dart for the clean lines of the Kelly as drafted, rotate the bust dart back so that the two diagonal lines meet.
We are now going to “fake” the side seam line. Draw in the side seam line as it appeared on the unmodified pattern before you rotated it at the point indicated below.
Trace the entire front with new armscye seam and redrawn hem seam. You will have to extend the side seam line as much as you lengthened the entire bodice.
Fill in the gaps with extra paper and then cut off the extra wedge along the side seam. Please note you will need to add a little width to the sleeve so that it matches the widened armscye.
It is very important to note that however much length you end up adding to the front as a result of your FBA must be transferred to your other pattern pieces. You will need to slash and spread the back and your zipper placket and facing so that everything lines up when you sew it together.
Hope that helps the busty ladies out there!
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