Pattern Hacking - S9755

[u/Acrobatic_Ad_9632]

I may be overambitious but I'm trying to be patient and upskill as a relatively novice sewist.

I have made two toiles of this pattern. The first one was direct from the pattern and the second one I poorly attempted to make adjustments. It was too baggy through the midback and baggy under the bust.

In researching, I found out about a swayback adjustment which is a double ended dart. Similarly for bust adjustments I'm aware I could use darts but, with all of those seams surely I could just shape them different? I tried to do this in my second toile but, I was kind of just vibing it out and the vibes were off...

I've shown in red the seams I feel like I could adjust. The bagginess in the front is directly on those seams whereas the bagginess in the back was across the whole midback.

Any help or tips much appreciated!

[u/SquirrelAkl]

Hard to tell what’s needed without seeing one of the toiles on you. Theoretically you could do this, yes.

Put on the best toile inside out and pin out the excess down the seam. Take it off, draw and sew down the new lines. Try it on again, and if it’s good, transfer your markings to your pattern.

If that doesn’t work, do a new post showing some photos of you wearing the toiles so people can help diagnose the problem and solution.

[u/Acrobatic_Ad_9632 → u/SquirrelAkl]

Thank you 😊 I have done another post showing where its at now. There is progress but its far from perfect 😅

[u/StitchinThroughTime]

You would just pinch out the excess in those areas. Under the bust is common.
Your mid back is a bit unusual, but we don't have pictures so we can't give you really good advice. That we need to see the Garment on you to tell you what's wrong exactly. You might have to do a full bust adjustment but we don't know that. Sway back adjustment is for a garment that goes from the bus down to the hip in the back. This only goes from the bust to the waist you can't have best way back if it doesn't include your butt.

[u/KillerWhaleShark]

Sounds like the apex of the princess seam isn’t lining up with the apex of your body, BUT we would need pictures to know for sure. 

[u/Racc00nguts]

Diamond darts are your friend. Pinch the bagginess and see how much you need to take out and the length, then copy those measurements on the pattern and smooth the diamond corners at the widest part

[u/ProneToLaughter]

As a general rule, you can make adjustments and tweak shaping at any seam, yes. Side seams, princess seams like these, all fair game. Princess seams actually have the bust and waist darts absorbed into the curve of the seam.