CHAPTER 5
ALTERING SKIRT, YOKE AND DRAWERS PATTERNS FOR FIGURES THAT VARY FROM THE AVERAGE
Altering Gored Skirts for Figures with Round or Prominent Abdomen or Prominent Hips—Altering Circular Skirt Patterns for Figures with Round or Prominent Abdomens or Prominent Hips—Altering Yoke Patterns for Figures that are Large or Small in the Waist—Altering Drawers Patterns for Figures with Prominent Abdomens
ALTERING A GORED SKIRT PATTERN FOR A PROMINENT ABDOMEN. On figures of this type a skirt pattern unless it is altered will stand out at the front and at the sides. These women as a rule have flat backs. A small pad worn under the corset at the back will fill in the hollow of the figure below the waistline.
For a round or prominent abdomen or prominent hips it is advisable to cut half the skirt in cheap muslin before cutting your good material. In working with the muslin find out just what changes are necessary to make the skirt fit your figure. Then it will be safe to cut your material.
Ill. 53. Altering a Gored Skirt Pattern to Fit a Prominent Abdomen
Illustration 53 shows the alteration that is necessary to make a pattern fit a figure with a prominent abdomen. The front of the skirt pattern must be extended an inch or more at the top, this extension gradually decreasing to nothing at the hip.
In extending the gores the waistline becomes smaller, so the side edges of the gore must be increased to keep the waistline the original size. (Ill. 53.) This extension at the sides should slope to nothing at the hipline. (Ill. 53.) Lay your pattern on a cheap muslin, mark the allowance at the top and side edges of the gores. Mark the outline of the original pattern on the muslin with colored chalk so that you will have the original shape as a guide in fitting, but cut the muslin by the new larger outline.
Cut out the muslin, put it together and baste the skirt to an inside belt. Try it on. If it takes a good line on your figure and does not swing toward the front it is safe to cut your good material just as you cut the muslin. Do not use the muslin for a cutting pattern for its edges stretch and become unreliable. Always cut from a paper pattern.
A WOMAN WITH A ROUND ABDOMEN should take the side-front gore of the pattern and mark the hipline on it seven inches below the normal waistline. (Ill. 54.) At the hipline on the back edge of the gore take up ¼ of an inch. (Ill. 54.) This ¼ of an inch will change the entire balance of the gore, making the pattern hang straight instead of swinging toward the front.
If it is necessary in a skirt of many gores you could do the same thing to the next side-gore, but do not carry this alteration back of the hip. You can increase the size of the dart-shaped plait if necessary until the back edge of the gore above the hip forms a
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