More Fitting with Kenneth King.

A few women were envious that I have access to these fit clinics with Kenneth King. Well readers, he's making a fitting dvd for Threads magazine based on the series of articles he wrote awhile back on his fitting method.  Of course it won't be as good as actually having him adjust your muslin, but it should be useful as well as entertaining.

Eight women participated in the latest fit clinic with Kenneth King.  A couple had taken his moulage class and wanted to fit the blouse/dress sloper. Two women hadn't actually sewn up a muslin for the class. I guess they didn't read the preparation   instructions for the clinic.  One woman had brought the blouse she made up from her muslin from the last fit clinic. Unfortunately, she thought that she could just make it up without another muslin. Really not a good idea.  I was at that clinic and remembered how many changes KK made to her muslin.  She is a small woman and she was just swamped by the Lynn Mizono pattern for Vogue that she'd chosen.  He made it look much better than the original had looked on her but it still looked like the original.  I know that Vogue uses their own slopers for cutting designer patterns and the fit often ends up very different than the original shown.  Patterns tend to have a lot more ease than rtw and this style did not need more style ease!  
Only one woman had really extensive changes to make. She had a princess seam jacket that didn't meet at cf. Nothing daunts Kenneth and she ended up with a really well fitting muslin.  
The next two women brought muslins from Vogue patterns as well. One was a designer pattern and the other, shown here was an Easy Vogue, not my favorites.  They take too many shortcuts to get to the finished piece just to make it 'easy', often making it harder impossible for the sewer to get a professional fit and finish.  The pattern was the right size, but it was too boxy and had too much ease for her slender frame, something that is all too common in the big four pattern companies.   Patterns  are graded to fit a wide variety of bodies and sizes but smaller sizes need less ease than larger bodies which isn't taken into account by the pattern companies. From all the questions I've seen on Pattern Review about what the 'best' pants, dress, skirt pattern for their body type, a lot of women expect a pattern to fit  without having to make adjustments. This is, for most women an unrealistic expectation.    Fran brought this Vogue sheath dress because she thought that it would be a good tnt pattern; something she could make up in lots of different ways, a really good choice for her.  She's a slender woman with a good figure but this  didn't do her justice.  

He started at her shoulder, then started fitting her back.

KK  tucked the shoulder to bring up the dropped shoulder. She doesn't have narrow shoulders, but it was still too wide and there was  too much fabric.  He took in the back and front to slim the fit, blending in before he got to the hip, which fit well.  He then took in the front, above the bust. Simple adjustments that anyone can do. Just look in the mirror.  Well, more than that really.  We need to learn to  look at ourselves honestly and see what is really there, not what we wish was there.  During my marathon pants fitting journey I was constantly looking at how pants fit women I saw out in public. I thought about what was wrong with the fit and why.   Starbucks is a good place for this.  You sit, drink your coffee and you can see the rear ends of all the women on line for coffee. At least at the one I frequent.

Another woman, also slender, had this  Vogue pattern where the sleeve style, also a dropped shoulder, just had too much fabric for her. She even left off the lower sleeve which rolled and buttoned onto the upper sleeve.  Here King restyled the sleeve with a box pleat at the hem  for a more flattering look.  He also made some fitting open ended tucks  in the front to give the pattern more shape and match the open pleats used at the neckline. Sorry I don't have pictures of this. But, the point is that no pattern in sacred, no matter who the designer is.  KK doesn't just tweek fit, he makes judgement calls on style changes so that we ended up with flattering garments, the holy grail of sewing after all.