If you're familiar with my fitting methods and have downloaded your copy of The Perfect Fit Guide, you already know that understanding the balance of the garment on your body is the key to making a pattern fit you. As a result I get asked this question all the time:

"How do I find the balance lines on a sewing pattern?"

I do give you some general guidelines about finding these important lines on other sewing patterns in this video but since we're talking about knits this month, let me show you how to find them on the In-House Patterns Jenny Tee.

I'd love for the Jenny Tee to be your go-to t-shirt pattern and I know achieving a perfect fit is the key to making that happen. If you already have a copy of the pattern, I hope you'll follow along because locating the balance lines on the pattern and transferring them to your sample will give you the guidance you need to assess the fit and solve any issues that may arise. Watch the video for all the details.

Next week we'll...

I have a very, very important concept that I want to share with you today. It is the concept of garment balance.

If you don't know me yet, my fitting philosophy is all about balancing the garment on your body using horizontal and vertical balance lines. I truly believe that balance lines, when put on the pattern and then transferred to the sample garment, will give you the ability to understand how to balance the garment on the body you are fitting.

Tracy, a member of the In-House Patterns Sudio Facebook Group, was kind enough to allow me to use her photos to demonstrate how to use the balance lines to assess fit. Tracy shared her sample of the Lila sewing pattern which already has the balance lines marked on the pattern. When she posted her images in the Facebook group many of the members of that group were suggesting that she needed a "sway back adjustment" I respectfully disagreed.

Watch the video to see how I interpret the balance of the garment on Tracy.

I know...

No doubt you've heard this cliche before: "practice makes perfect". Although this is generally used as a form of encouragement, I prefer the phrase practice makes progress.

Of course in order to make progress it's important to practice new skills mindfully, with focus and attention. As this author states: 

"An hour training session with a wandering mind can drastically decrease the learning process. Eight minutes a day of mindfulness has been shown to be the minimum amount of time to start seeing physical changes in the attention centers of the brain."

Eight minutes minimum. I point this out because, based on the "minutes viewed" data on my tutorials, most of us struggle to stay attentive for more than 3 minutes. While this could say something about my ability to create engaging videos, consider how much information you may be missing in those remaining 5 minutes.

Of course this equation becomes...

Last week, I shared the four stages you generally go through on the path to fitting mastery.

As you move along the path through the four stages you'll undoubtedly be confronted with failure. While we all try to avoid it, failure is an extremely important part of achieving mastery in a subject, as long as you are able to consider it a helpful friend.

I know you've heard it before, but have you embraced it?

If you're not quite there yet, the key is to learn from the failure. Take a step back, zoom out and consider what may have gone wrong and how you might approach it differently based on the new knowledge the failure brought to the surface.

Those who succeed are those most willing to experience failure first.

With failure comes new knowledge as long as you move through the process like this: develop a hypothesis, test it out, analyze the results, develop another hypothesis and continue until you succeed.

This looks alot like the sample...

Fitting is difficult. No number of fitting books, classes and guides you’ve purchased with the words Fast, Quick or Easy in the title, is going to change that fact. Fitting is a process that takes time to perfect and a skill that is acquired through study and experience.

I’ve studied fitting for a very long time. It wasn’t until I started using vertical and horizontal balance lines on my garments that I truly began to understand how to make sewing patterns fit me. These markings made it so much easier to understand the origin and nature of fitting issues and eliminated the confusion of trying to “read the wrinkles”. Once I started focusing on the balance of the garment on my body the wrinkles would magically disappear.

When you draft a pattern to your personal measurements, these vertical and horizontal balance lines are the foundation of the pattern, but what do you do if you are using a commercial pattern? Well this month I’m going to share...

Last week I showed you how to prepare a commercial sewing pattern for fitting using a fairly straight forward shift style dress. Since the dress I used as an example was very similar to a basic block pattern, it was a pretty straight forward exercise, once you understand how to manage the details. If you missed part 1 of this series be sure to watch it. 

This week we’re going to talk about how to prepare the pattern for a flared jacket with a raglan sleeve which you’ll soon see is not nearly as straight forward. Watch the video now to see how to prepare the sewing pattern and find the balance lines on a not-so-basic style.

I hope this example has helped you understand how you can prepare a stylized commercial pattern for fitting and give you the ability to start using the vertical and horizontal balance lines to assess fit. If you’ve tried or used this method to assess fit, share you comments on this page. 

If you want to learn more about balance...

Mastering any skill can be a long road so I googled "the path to mastery" and landed on this article. It certainly provided some insight-especially about the 10,000 hour rule. If you're not familiar with that rule it basically states that if you spend 10,000 hours doing any one thing, you'll achieve mastery of that subject, but here's another perspective.

The author of the article makes this statement:

"The number of hours is arbitrary, and what really matters is "deliberate practice" where we are highly focused, have integrated feedback from experts, and work on the correct technique…"

This struck me quite profoundly when considering how most of us approach fitting. In essence this statement defines what the path is made of. The stops we make along the path to mastery are what the author refers to as "stages of competency", of which there are four.

So what stage are you at? You can let me know HERE or HERE.

Next week, I'll share some tips on moving through the stages...

Fitting is generally thought to be a trial-and-error process. There is seemingly no roadmap, no sequence of logical steps to follow and no hope of ever getting a pattern to fit you. I’d like to challenge that thought because there is in fact a sequence of logical steps to follow that will lead to a pattern that fits.

If you want to know what that step by step process is and you have declared 2024 your year of fitting success, here are three things you need to do to get started:

1. Download the Perfect Fit Guide (and read it). It contains the step by step process that will put you on the path to fitting success.
   You’ll find the link in my bio.
    
2.  Take your body measurements.
   You'll find the Pattern Measurement Worksheet inside the guide with directions on what and how to measure.
   Watch this tutorial: How to Measure Yourself
   
   
3.  Choose Your Pattern Size. Choose a simple top or dress pattern to practice on. You may already know your...

In the last video lesson I shared all the pattern refinements for the Bria lounge pants. We altered the waist line, refined the hemline of the shorts and talked about the back crotch extension and how to alter it if you need to. Your draft should now be refined and ready for the addition of seam and hem allowances.

In this video we’ll talk about what seam and hem allowances to use, the steps to assembling the garment and a take a look at the final garment.

Watch the video now to get all the details for finalizing your Bria lounge pants.

I hope you enjoyed the Bria Pattern Design Project! If you've been following along, I hope you'll share your make in the In-House Patterns Studio Facebook group! Join the group HERE!

If you’re looking for more projects like the Bria pattern design project, I invite you to try out Ava. The Ava pattern design project will teach you to develop a new style from your personal bodice block.

For more step by step classes be sure to check...

In the last video lesson we completed the basic draft for the Bria lounge pants. I hope the draft went quickly and easily for you. If things are looking a bit odd, double check your draft calculations, often this is where things get a bit off track.

In this video I want to share some tips on refining the draft before we create the final pattern. We'll alter the waist line, refine the hemline of the shorts and talk about the back crotch extension and how to alter it if you need to.

If you missed getting the Bria drafting instructions, you can get your copy by clicking on the image below.

Once you have completed the pattern refinements, you're ready to add seam and hem allowances. In the next lesson I'll share all the details on what seam allowances and pattern labeling to use, give you a general guide to assembling your Bria's and give you a peak at the final garment.  

While you wait for the next lesson to drop, double check your pattern work. I’ve shared...