How to Drape a Fitting Shell

From: Kay Lancaster

Since I sew for my mother long distance, I took the time, last time we were together, to drape a fitting shell on her. It's saved me a *lot*of hair-tearing when I'm trying to figure out how to make a pattern work for her. She's 76, with a slight dowagers hump, narrow shoulders, and she likes chocolate. ;-) 

I think this is an especially valuable exercise for those of us who don't   visualize the transition from 3-D shapes to 2-D patterns well.

You can get good directions on "how to do it perfectly" from ConnieAmaden-Crawford's Art of Fashion Draping, or you can try my quick and dirty method that will probably make Julie cringe.... but it works pretty well. 

This is going to take a lot of space to describe. It actually takes just a bit longer to do the fitting as it does to read my ramblings. 

Dig up a couple of rectangles of firm muslin that is *straight grained*.-- you want two pieces that will run full shoulder width + 6-10" or so, and from chin to hips + 6-10". You don't want to use anything with stretch, and you do want something that drapes about like the standard shirt or blouse. And yes, we're going to be wasting some fabric here. And it's absolutely imperative that the fabric have the threads at 90o to each other.

You'll also need a yardstick or other straight edge, scissors, a box of pins, a permanent marker of some sort, and a short chain necklace. If this is *your*  fitting problem we're tackling here, you also need an assistant who can follow directions and a good mirror. (I'd also suggest you try this on someone else... anybody!... just for practice before you try to talk someone who doesn't sew through fitting you!)

If you're fitting someone else, I suggest that you don't give them a mirror to watch you in... they tend to shift and stand funny in front of a mirror. 

Also take a look at the "standard fitting pattern" that's available in a commercial pattern book. Note that there are bust darts and waist darts on the front, and back darts and shoulder darts on the back.

I start by drawing a line on the crossgrain (selvage to selvage) at about bust height on the piece that will be the front. Then draw a second line perpendicular to the first for the center front line.Do the same on the piece that will be the back... mark a line that will go over the shoulderblades perfectly on the crossgrain, and mark a center back line perpendicular to that. 

Stand the person to be fitted someplace comfortable; she should be wearing her bra and any other undergarments she usually wears. Try to get her to stand naturally, not ramrod straight (that's one of the hardest things in the whole process!) 

Place the front fabric over her, making the crossgrain bustline mark go over the apex of her bustline, and the center front mark go straight up and down at her center front. Pin the fabric to the bra in this position... you'll be pulling out these pins in a couple of minutes, but you need them now. Smooth the fabric up to her throat... then take the scissors and cut a high, temporary neckline so the fittee doesn't have a bunch of fabric shoved in her face. The neckline you cut, ideally, will be higher than the standard jewel neckline -- we'll work on that  in a bit, too, and turn it into a standard jewel neckline. 

Smooth the fabric over her shoulders and around her, keeping the crossgrain parallel to the floor at the bustline. Anchor to her bra with a couple of pins. 

Start the back now:  pin the back fabric to her bra straps so that the crossgrain line is parallel to the floor, across her shoulder blades,and the center back line is perpendicular to the floor. Cut out a high approximation of a back neckline, trying to make it about 1/2" higher than the "real thing". Smooth the fabric over the shoulders.

Put the chain necklace on her, having the chain form the shape of a jewel neckline (the high, round "1950's neckline"). Use your marker to trace the shape of the chain, and your scissors to snip down to that line all around, as if you were snipping a curved facing. 

Time for more pins. Pin the shoulders together at the neckline, and the body together under the arms. At this point, you can remove the initial pins that held the front and back muslin to the bra. Working carefully,smooth the fabric out over the front shoulders, making sure the center front line stays perpendicular to the floor, and the bust line stays parallel to the floor. You may find you need to take your scissors and make a quick approximation of an armscye... go ahead, just leave lots of "seam allowance". Pin the bust dart into position... it should end about an inch from the apex of the breast. 

Pin the back shoulder darts into position. Smooth the front and back shoulder fabric one more time, checking the grain lines, and looking for sags, wrinkles and pulls. When you get things fitting smoothly, pin the shoulder seam. You may find that you need to readjust some darts... go ahead and do it. 

Time to work on side seams a bit more: pin them into position, smoothing the fabric as you go. If you want to make a closely fitting shell (which isn't really needed for checking most of today's patterns), put in back and front waistline darts. (Front waist darts should also end about an inch from the apex of the bust. Check all the grainlines again. Wrap a tape around at the waistline, and mark the waistline.

Now dig up the chain necklace again and slip the arm of the fittee through it. Find the point of the shoulder, and hang the necklace from the point of the shoulder. Mark the shoulder point, and where the necklace hits as it falls front and back. Also mark at the side seam where the bottom of the armscye (armhole) should be.

Another check: are the grain lines still straight? are the side seams straight?   If so, go ahead and trim any extra off the neckline and armscye. Check again. Mark the shoulder seams on both front and back pieces, and mark the side seams on both front and back. Mark the darts.

Carefully unpin the shell and take it apart. Make sure you've gotten all the markings transferred. 

At this point, I usually take some fresh muslin, copy the seam lines and dart markings on to it, and make up a second copy of the shell. I go ahead and put in simple facings at neck and armscye, and make a button and slit opening at center front or back. Let the fittee wear that for several hours -- that's the "shakedown cruise", and fitting problems that you might not have spotted at first will show up there.

Once you've got the shell to the state you're happy with, take it apart again and compare it to a commercial pattern. Chances are you'll see that the shape and slope of your shoulders don't match the commercial pattern. The bust may be higher or lower on a commercial pattern. You may see that your body is noticeably asymmetrical, or the shoulder width is off or your back is wider than the pattern and narrower in the chest than the pattern or...

And you may find some real surprises. I started sewing in the 1960's, and I thought shoulder seams should be straight. Mine (developed by the shell method) look like /--\____/ (sort of a double dip). Compare that to the closely fitted garments of earlier in the century... and my shoulder seam shape is much more like those! 

But now that you've got a copy of your body in cloth, you can compare it to a commercial pattern and see where you're going to have to add and subtract to get it to fit correctly. Or you can use that basic shell as a sloper, and with one of the flat pattern design texts like Norma Hollen's, you can start designing your own patterns!

(If you're going to use it as a sloper for pattern development, I definitely suggest that you add the back and front waist darts! -- go for the June Cleaver fit! It will make your pattern development easier, even if you don't want the darts in your finished patterns.)