How to use the vest pattern as a sloper/or how do I know what the ease is in a pattern?

When I made my Lutterloh vest I wasn't sure why it was important. It made up really fast and it did need some adjustment. Large bust adjustments and shorter shoulder seams, and a tiny bit wider hip size.

Let me show you how this finished vest pattern can be your friend in sewing the other Lutterloh patterns.

A normal pattern sloper front bodice has two darts. It takes extra fabric to go over the mountains of our body. In the bodice front you have the breast to go over in the back bodice you have the shoulder blades which are smaller. The front darts can be moved all around and even combined into one big dart or turned into ease.

How you move these darts changes where the ease is in your garment.

The bigger the bump the more length and width it needs and the deeper the darts must be.

Where darts can be moved to (also inbetween these points)

click to enlarge

In the skirt sloper it gets easier, the tummy in the front, the hind in the back.

You only need darts in the waist area for the skirt.

Now look at your vest pattern below. Where are the darts? Two in the front and one in the back that extends for the waist. How is the vest like the normal sloper?

Exactly like our normal sloper actually.

The front darts are in the shoulder and waist, the back has both darts moved to the waist.

The dart that goes all the way into the skirt area is just two darts connected

Remember from the chart above you can move darts around.

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Your job will be to take special care to fit this vest snugly

I'll tell you why in a moment.

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Basic sloper in flat pattern making (not Lutterloh)

click to enlarge

Vest pattern for sizing (lutterloh)

Most of you should have gotten this pattern in a handout. It is also online on several of the Lutterloh sites.

I prefer another pattern that came in the same handout as the above pattern. I like it for the dart placement in the front, more of the patterns have side darts than shoulder. The back dart is more correctly placed also and there is a sleeve sloper which I think is important! I don't use the collar at all I just cut it off of my sloper. And it allows me a jewel neckline with a little tweaking.

However the vest will work just fine and as most of you may have already made the vest I will continue with just the vest.

The first thing I want you to do is take the bottom line of the front vest and draw it out past the pointed edge. We don't want that little opening if we are to use this vest as a sloper. When we are all finished this sloper should look like you all flattened out....I'm seeing a 1960's cartoon coming on where roadrunner rolls coyote flat.

If you have already sized and adjusted the vest pattern be sure it is snug with only enough ease to move in. Next you should remove the extra button band area.

Cut the pattern off right through the middle of the buttons.

Next thing I would do is bring that neckline up. That way I can note the distance I am willing to have necklines low and many have hallow upper chest and this vest will not show that but your patterns will. This of course is opt.

Before I go any further I'm going to explain what we are doing. If we fit the vest closely to our size and then remove any parts of the pattern that aren't "Us" (like button bands that double over themselves, hems etc) then we can use the the pattern as a sloper that matches our body shape

We take the finished sloper, put it on cardboard if you like, and put it under/over the Lutterloh pattern we are making and compare to see what kind of ease the pattern has. Yes ease, if you don't have any you need to draw a bigger pattern. If you want more then I'll show you how to add more to the pattern in another posting.

Don't panic I'll show you step by step.

So now some fitting hints

your pattern should fits as below

1. darts pointing at the bust point (not on it please)

2. waist the correct size

3. shoulder width correct

(let it stop right at the point of your shoulder where your arm attaches, bend your arm to find)

4. no baggie spots in the back or front

5. front meets the center of your body

6. the sides hang straight to the ground

7. The waist line is at your waist

(helps to draw it on your fabric for the sloper)

8. The fabric is not too tight around the hips

9. is the arm hole no more than 1" from the under arm?

You may have to raise up the underarm it is a vest after all

10. The vest is hanging straight down your body off your shoulders and you can move in the vest just enough to breath!

Time to test out a pattern.

Here is a blouse pattern front that I will compare.

It has one dart on the side and a button band and a very straight side line.

I will make my dart match the blouse.

1) I cut out the shoulder dart and taped the edges closed.

2)Then I made a cut right at the side. I tried to match the blouse pattern.

I cut until the pattern would lay flat.

Wala I moved the dart!

Place the vest sloper in the middle of the button band, match the shoulder and see what happens!

So what is happening between my tightly fitted sloper and the pattern.

1. I need more ease. There is no way I can move with the side of that blouse so close to my body! Even with the middle dart closed my hips are larger than the blouse hip.

I will add more to the 4 side seams. THIS IS THE EASE!

2. Look at the armscye. See how deep the vest armscye is? I did not adjust it and you can see the blouse even though it has a sleeve is tighter. I may drop it just a little and make my sleeve that much bigger. You will find this happens most in vintage patterns.

3. The shoulder width is perfect so my sleeve will fall where it should. I may have to slant it a bit for my slanted shoulders. I always do!

4. The neck is within the comfort zone I marked. You can't see it because it is behind the sloper. When I am doing this full size my sloper is colored cardboard and my pattern is in see though pattern paper and it makes this job easier.

5. Looking at the length, I don't like any of my tops to go below my rear so this one is a tiny bit long. So I will shorten it a bit. It has straight side seams so I can remove that extra length at the hem line, nice and easy to do.

6. See the dart? It may be up too high for my shape. I need to paper fit for that dart placement. Why only paper fit? This is not a fitted top so it will have lots of room in it and I can just pinch the paper to point the dart in the correct location and then mark it when I'm done paper fitting. I often do this in the waist also.

That dotted line on the sloper is my waist location. 4" down from there is my high hip etc.

Now the above example is not really me or my size. Below you'll see an empire top I am working on. I drew out the pattern in my normal bust size. The dart has been moved to gathering at the empire waist.

That should be cute as long as it isn't too much gathering.

But as you can see in the 2nd photo the pattern I drew is much too small in the bust. I can do the bust adjustment and will have to do it no matter what but this really is too small so I will draw it again in a larger size and see what happens. Even if I closed the dart on my sloper it is clearly too small a top

The white cardboard is my sloper

The pattern paper is on the right

This is a V neck overlap empire dress actually.

You can see the bust needs more space and the top is not wide enough.

The under arm is OK because I keep my slopers at a sleeve less height and with a sleeve you need more space. The shoulder is good. The overlap could be a lot more so I will re do this.

Remember this is my tool to see where I fit in the pattern. Sometimes I can just add a little to each seam to give me more space in the garment. Sometimes there are just too many things happening and I will redraw. It's fast enough to do anyway.

EASE CHART

average wearing ease in pattern making

This is not silhouette or design ease

see below

The larger your size the more ease you will need

The more casual your clothes the more ease you will want

To test your own clothes that you wear, pull all the ease to one side and pinch and measure. The ease is twice the measurement you took.

Wearing ease

Blouse

Bust 3" waist 1 1/2" Hip 1 1/2"

Skirt

Waist 1" Hip 1 1/2"

Pant

Waist 1" Hip 1 to 3" (measure while sitting for correct amount)

Jacket/coat

Bust 5" waist 3 1/2" Hip 3 1/2"

EASE CHART

Including wearing ease and design ease

Deep breath....one step at a time.....

This is easy when you understand how it works....