 Hi you guys welcome back to another so long series this time I'm gonna be making the seam work chantel dress It is a super cute little body skimming button-up Collared dress with a little sleeve option. It really is so adorable and really a great transitional piece for the fall This is our episode zero This is all the stuff that we're gonna need to do before actually sewing I like to keep the sew along to sewing But I also want to do some of the prep work to and give you guys some of my best tips and tricks for Fitting this pattern the alterations that I made to this pattern We're gonna talk about fabrication including the fabric that I'm using and some other options that you have Gathering up the other supplies that you need as well as all the prep work that we need to do before we Actually start sewing with the sew along which kicks off with episode one. So let's get to prepping this one Okay, so when we are talking about fit for seam work, we're gonna come down to Fit details page five and you want to notice that their block is Draughted for a C cup the straight sizes are for a C cup and a height of 5 8 and the plus sizes are a Double D cup and a height of 5 9 so no matter which of the blocks you choose Double check your cup size and your height. Thankfully. I am close enough to a C cup, especially like with a bra on So that's gonna be okay for me And then I but I'm only 5 5 so I am gonna need to reduce the height So I'm just gonna make a note of that in my fast-fit workbook and then we're gonna come down and they already Tell you the ease in the garment. So that's one less thing you have to calculate when you're working with the seam work pattern So you can go ahead and write those numbers down here You can go ahead and write your measurements down here And then you can go ahead and write down the intended fit as well before ever even doing anything else You can write down one four and five the sections Okay, and then we're gonna come down to the body measurement chart Which is right here and we're gonna compare our measurements to the body chart So I was closest to a size 10 technically sizing down, but that's okay We will factor that in later We will factor that in later and then for the waist I was technically closest to a Size 14, but I don't like doing more than one size grade For every horse for every horizontal line on the body. So from bus to waist. I don't like doing more than one size grade I don't like going from a 10 to a 14 bus to waist bus to hip 10 to 14 is fine. That's two sizes for two horizontal measurements on the body. Okay, so I said, all right There's princess seams. There are six seams all the way around this body all around this pattern If you want to look at the line drawing up here You can see we've got side seams one and then the center front so one two three four and then the center back as well Five six So if I took half inch if I took quarter inch seam allowances just at the waist I'd be able to earn back three inches right there plus we've got five and three quarter inches of pattern ease already That's already kind of a lot So I know I have a couple of inches to play around with there as well So I I'm thinking to myself, okay We're gonna make the 12 even though it's gonna be technically too small and we're gonna fudge with the seam allowances in Or to get it to fit. That's what seam allowances are for you guys. They're for fitting. Don't just Use the seam allowances or sew at the seam allowance and then just surge it off every single time use it for fitting That's what it's there for. Okay. All right. And so then for the hip I was gonna do the size 14 again to honor the one size grade in between each horizontal measurement Okay, so then the finished measurement chart is right below the body chart you can see that right here and We are comparing size 10 12 and 14. We're writing down the finished measurements for those sizes right here now We're gonna compare Three and five. All right, we want the intended fit what the pattern designer kind of hopes that this will fit like What their plan was for us and the finished measurements We want those to try and be kind of close so close enough on the bust, right? For the waist though, I knew I was gonna be way off because I'm technically sizing a size too small But remember I have those three inches if I take a quarter inch seam allowance So I'm gonna do that and then know that I'm just gonna be four and three-quarter inches at The waist ease and that's fine. That's plenty. You could even go three and three quarters two and three quarters even You know, it's it's that's pretty generous at the waist for the hip. Okay, so always for the hip I was like, you know when I'm looking at this pattern I'm like these are cute, right, but they're a little bit Professional they're a little bit office appropriate. They're a little bit kind of buttoned up for no pun intended I wanted something a little bit cuter and flirtier and sweeter even and so I always wanted to increase the Circumference of the him to kind of create a little bit more of a flared skirt here at the bottom So that's what I did. Seamwork has an incredible tutorial about how to increase the Width of a skirt of a top of a sleeve whatever you're working on. I'll have that linked below And believe it or not. Well, you might believe it. You can't just Sadly just add to the side seams There's a great article. I'll link that in the description box as well for why you can't do that It's a little bit more Sciencey than I want to get into here But the short answer is you can't just do that and I'm sorry But it doesn't work out right and doesn't end up looking right it distributes the the hem in a weird way and You really need to be adding it into The panels so I did a mixture of both I added to the side seams I added to each seam and then I also cut up from the hem to the waistline the waistline ends up being These like first notches on your side seams right here just above the pocket dots So I ended up cutting up you can see right here cut up through the hem and then cut up through the waistline creating a little like Hinge right here and then you can kick it out just a little bit. I did a half inch on each one This ends up folding over itself by like I didn't even know like not even a millimeter. It's very very small So now I've added an inch to this panel, but that's technically two inches, right because We make two of these Same thing for the side front. I have two of them here and then for the center panels I only did one so you can see I cut up just one time here. Okay, so all the way around I think I ended up adding One two three four five six inches all the way around on my hem Now once I did that I Notice that the side seams. Let me find the side pieces We're gonna be a little bit too Curvy when they created their little Their design to make it a little bit straighter you have to add in a little bit of a curve here for the For your hips, but because I was adding so much at the hem Technically adding also some at the hip line, which is right here. I Didn't need that much of a belt. It was gonna create. I don't know a weird like Bubble at my side seams. So I simply just straightened those out. Okay, so The goal here for you guys as you are looking at what I did is not to just mimic exactly me Unless you're exactly my Size like you're exactly my measurements and you want to just you know do the exact same thing I did the goal here with this video is for you guys to start to critically think about the patterns design What you like what you're comfortable in and start to feel more confident in making the kind of adjustments that you Need to make to create the garments that you know, you're gonna love and that's what I was able to do here So I've got all my Measurements done. I'm not gonna go in. I've got all my adjustments done I'm not gonna go into like super super great detail about exactly how I graded and all that kind of stuff You guys figure out what you want to do for your dress and knock it out But I do want to point out that for your so for the bust up. I made a size 10. Okay, remember So that also means that for the collar pieces you're making a size 10 minor right here and For the sleeve you're making a size 10 now I'm looking at the sleeve on her and it looks great. I'm looking at this leave on her and I'm thinking There's gonna be some issues with the bicep. I just know that there are I tried to Figure it out on the flat pattern myself and I just didn't get You can see all the blue lines. I was I marked my seam allowances. I was trying to figure it out I think the problem is going to be the height of the sleeve cap I have plenty of fabric so I might be recutting mine to add Honestly, like maybe an inch to the sleeve cap, which also means I'm dropping the arm side on these pattern pieces Again kind of an advanced situation. So if you're new to pattern adjusting Just make the sleeve that they gave you hers doesn't look that bad I might take a smaller seam allowance that might give me enough I just I just think that there's not enough to get around like a meaty shoulder Like I know I have if you have narrow shoulders like this girl then You'll probably be fine, but I know I have a little meaty shoulders meaty biceps, you know So I'm a little bit nervous, but we're gonna we're gonna do our best right and we're gonna get as close as we can Right. It's not perfection. It's as good as we can and that's enough. That is enough. Okay So that's what I have to say about pattern adjusting when it comes to fabrication We're gonna come to page seven supplies fabric and measurements And these are all the things that you're going to need. Um, I'm skipping top stitching thread I'm not going to worry about that Um, if you wanted to make like a sportier look and you wanted to do flat-filled seams both flat-filled seams Top stitching thread would be really beautiful. I'm not worried about that on mine Um, because I'm using this corduroy. I'm not entirely sure how much it would even show up So I'm not worried about that on mine, but you do need some fusible interfacing I ended up using I ended up using the mid-weight Woven interfacing from heat and bond. I love love love love heat and bonds interfacing I've talked about this a thousand times Because one you don't need steam. So, you know, when you have that issue of using your Interfacing that ends up being smaller and ends up shrinking up your pattern piece That doesn't happen with heat and bond because we're not using water at all. It's just straight up heat That's all you need to melt little doodads on the back I also love it because it acts a lot more like fabric. Can you see how this is technically woven like fabric is? And it's not like the papery stuff That's non-woven heat and bond makes that as well. But I like the woven stuff. So this is the woven I want to say this is the mid-weight Because I am using, uh, you know a little bit more of a thicker fabric not so much summery Like they were doing in their example. This is more fall appropriate corduroy um If you're doing like a velvet or a denim or anything like that You're probably going to want a heavier interfacing as well Just to give that collar enough stability the collar and the facing are the two pieces that are going to get interfaced. Okay um fabric wise medium weight woven fabric such as linen denim chambray vatisse lawn Rayon shally here is not a me a mid-weight woven fabric. I'm not entirely sure why they have that here But uh kupro is also a rayon and so is tinsel So I because of the the time of the year it's like about to be fall I'm going to go with this. Um, it's kind of like a lighter weight of kind of thinner Corduroy, but it is corduroy still so it is you know a little bit more substantial than just like a regular cotton is So this pattern though you can use lots and lots of different fabrics You can use anything from quilters cotton to I would say probably like a I don't five ounce denim maybe at most Any of those weights anywhere in there and you will be just fine Okay, so that should be everything we need to cover before we actually get sewing. So go ahead Make your pattern adjustments cut out your pattern pieces Cut out your fabric Cut out your interfacing Apply the interfacing go ahead and do that now. I promise you guys like There's nothing worse than like getting ready to sew this pattern and then having to go get the interfacing and do all of that Plus the interface pieces. They're not the very first things we need, but they're pretty close Um, we won't cover them until the second video, but go ahead and just do it now I promise you your future self will be so happy Okay, so here's the cutting layouts cutting layouts There was nothing funky with this if you are working with a corduroy Remember that there's a nap to corduroy. There is a right way and a wrong way To corduroy and they also need to be the same. So all of your tops need to be your tops. So see how this is upside down I needed to flip that one over So I had to you know, do a little bit of pattern tetris with this But um, I was able to get it going no problem and then we're going to get started with stay stitching in our next video Okay, you guys so um, yeah lots of homework to do Before we get to our next video. So go ahead and knock that stuff out Leave any questions you have in the comment section below Otherwise, I'm excited to sew this dress with you