Made to Measure

Today

Much of my sewing activity focuses on clothes for children or for family members. Recently, though, I've been wanting to make some clothes for myself.

It's much harder, in that you have to do the measuring and fitting on yourself, which is awkward at the best of times and sometimes impossible.

In My Day

When I was at college, at Worthing and Eastbourne, we were all involved in making clothes. We'd all received the same training about how and where to measure, how to fit and adjust. 

So when anyone wanted to make something, there was always someone on hand to take the vital measurements. When you are also going to make the pattern from scratch there are a lot of them, and it's impossible to measure your own back of neck to waist length or back shoulder width. And even things like waist to ankle or inside leg are likely to be unreliable when you are squinting at a tape measure dangling down your leg.

Once you'd got to the trying on stage, there was another expert who could make the adjustments while you stood as straight and still as you could, nipping and tucking seams at the side and back. They could easily make sure that the shoulder seams were sitting straight and that the trousers didn't bulge around your bottom.

One solution to the problem is the adjustable dress form. The idea is that you can enlarge or shrink it to replicate your own shape. Mamma and Daddy bought me one, made out of cardboard. This had two disadvantages. Firstly, when you made an adjustment to, say, the bust, there were always angles where the pieces of paper overlapped, so it wasn't exactly realistic. Secondly, it was unwilling to accept pins, so it was hard to pin fabric in place. I don't think I used it much, preferring to rely on my colleagues. I think I managed to train Mamma how to take measurements and adjust.

The lady pictured is very like Mavis who lives in my sewing room and she's certainly useful for checking shoulder seams and the like. But I don't think that her figure will ever be quite like mine and I just have to hope that the trousers I'm making will be the business.

Maybe I'll have to teach Paul the art of measuring and fitting.