Fitting and Full Bust Adjustment // Kelly Anorak Sewalong

Today let's talk fitting for your Kelly Anorak. I think for most of you, the pattern won't need any modification. With its casual fit and generous ease, Kelly should work for most body types right out of the package, and the vast majority of our testers didn't require any major pattern adjustments.

ADJUSTING LENGTH

I believe the most common adjustment will likely be to the length. Kelly is meant to end at the bottom of your butt. If you are much taller or shorter than the 5'-6" we draft for, you might want to consider using our length/shorten lines to make it suit your frame. I tried our sample on a petite 5'-2" friend and could have pinched out about 1 1/2" of length at the waist. Having said that, Keena, our model for this pattern, is over 5'-10" and I thought the length worked well for her. If you're in doubt, make up a quick muslin of the body pieces before making a decision.

Regardless of whether or not you decide to make a muslin, I strongly suggest trying on the coat body before sewing in your drawstring. I intended it to sit at the natural waist when drawn closed, so the suggested location on the pattern may not work for you. I think our drawstring is actually an inch or so too high on Keena since she has a longer torso, although the drawstring height is exactly right on me and we are more or less the same size. It's important to figure this out before you install your grommet or drawstring buttonhole since you can't take that step back once you've done it.

ADJUSTING SLEEVES

The sleeves of the Kelly Anorak were drafted to be slim and slightly fitted while still being roomy enough to layer a sweater on underneath. As always we suggest making a quick muslin to ensure the fit works for you; the most common adjustments to the sleeve with be to add length or width. If you need to do anything more complicated (ie. changing the sleeve cap or armscye opening) I suggest reading this great post from Threads on fitting sleeves; it covers everything you'd want to know.

ADDING LENGTH TO TWO PIECE SLEEVE

If your arms are shorter or longer than what we drafted for, you may want to adjust the length. I am only showing this modification for adding length, but if you want to shorten the sleeves the principle is the same; you'll just overlap your pieces instead of spreading them apart.

To start, lay your sleeve pieces on the table with grainlines parallel and double notches more or less aligned. Draw a horizontal line through both pieces at the top of the notch. This creates a guideline to help you figure out where to cut the sleeve pieces at the same point.

Cut along this line on both sleeves and spread or overlap the pieces the desired amount. Fill in the space with some scrap paper and true or smooth out your seam lines. If you are lining your Kelly, make sure you make the same adjustment to the lining pieces.

ADDING WIDTH TO TWO PIECE SLEEVE

If you find the sleeve too slim on your Kelly Anorak, the best thing to do is add some width through the bicep; this adjustment will be made to the upper sleeve only. Start by taking the upper and lower sleeve and laying them on your table with grainlines parallel to each other. Line them up at the top of the seam allowance; your single notch should line up approximately as well. Now draw a straight horizontal line across both sleeves at the bottom of the armscye. It's important to find where the armscye ends on the upper sleeve to make the following adjustment.

Once you have that line marked, you can put the lower sleeve aside. Draw two vertical lines on the upper sleeves, diving the pattern piece in approximate thirds.

Cut up those vertical lines until you reach the top of the sleeve cap, but leave a little hinge at the top so you can rotate the sides out.

Now cut through the line you horizontal line you marked earlier on the lower left and right pieces, again leaving a hinge at the side seam. Add the desired width, and then rotate the bottom left and right pieces so they touch the bottom middle piece. This ensures you are not adding more width through the wrist. As you can see, this lets out create two wedges of space through the sleeve.

Tape paper underneath the pattern piece to fill in the gaps, and "true" the line along the bottom so you have a nice smooth line along the wrist hem. True or smooth the curves where you rotated your pieces. This adjustment has only added width to the middle of the sleeve; the length of your outside seams has not changed, so everything should still line up when you sew the sleeve together. If you are lining your Kelly, make sure you make the same adjustment to the lining pieces.

FULL BUST ADJUSTMENT FOR A DARTLESS BODICE

If you have a larger bust, you may want to consider doing a full bust adjustment to this pattern as explained below. Again, I suggest making up a quick muslin first since there is a decent amount of bust ease and you may not find it necessary. Since there is no bust dart it's not a typical FBA, and I had a little mental struggle figuring out the best way to do it. Thankfully I have access to a great sewing braintrust and called upon the sewing wisdom of a few friends; thank you Renee, Carmen and Betsy for giving me your two cents!

To make this modification we will be modifying the lower front coat; while there is a slight "dart" built into the seamline along the yoke, after a lot of thought I decided it was just too complicated to try and adjust . This is a simple FBA that should give your girls enough room without having to do any deep tissue pattern surgery.

To start with, let's locate the bust point. I suggest taping the yoke to the front along the seam line and holding it up to your body to find your bust apex (or the center of your breast, aka nip city); the center front for the coat is at the first set of notches so align those notches up with the center of your body. If you want to save time, the bust apex as it was drafted is located as indicated below, although this is for the size ten; the apex would shift as it was graded, and let's be real, everyone's nip city is located on a different place on the map.