Beautiful Work

Double click this link and see something interresting about another method of making an exact duplicate of your body for dressmaking purposes http://www.leanna.com/DuctTapeDouble/  

There's also a woman with a strange sounding name who offers sewing catalogues with tons of sewing related "things" for sale... wish I could remember her name but anyway... she invented something called a "perfect pleater" board among other things. Try googling that.  I think she's also got a magazine (no it's not Martha Pullen and not Nancy Zieman)   I just can't remember her actual name.  It's frustrating but someone here might remember and if so maybe they'll post it).   This lady has a video tape for sale that demonstrates still another very good way to make a sturdy/inexpensive body doubleing dress form.  I've seen the tape (VHS) and it's good!

Leonie,   I'll bet there are a lot of women who can't imagine how having a full bust could be any problem at all but on the other hand why lament when you are lucky enough to be a sewist who can end up with what ever she really likes best. 

Creating fullness that accomodates a more generous then typical bust through the use of darts is definately the way to go.  I read Nehzat's excellent suggestion and it's a great description of how to calculate for that adjustment.    I would also suggest that rather then assuming all the fullness you need must be provided from one set of darts consider creating a second pair of darts slightly shorter then the oiginals and parallel just to the outside of the original pair for a less exagerated look.  You might also consider the addition of a second set of darts from the side seams just below the armhole... say two-and-a-half to four inches down and angled slightly upward toward the apex at the fullest part of your bust.  If the lines of your garment will accomodate this addition and you have sufficient fabric to lengthen the bodice on both sides to allow for what will be taken up in a dart the result of the natural movements of your body will not affect fabric at the waist as much for two reasons.  You will have have less need for very sharply angled darts and also a portion of the edge of your bodice where it's attached to create the waist seam will be slightly biased so it will have a bit of give built in resulting in less of a tendancy to rise.  Larger busted women are also frequently prone to having each side of ourselves slightly disproportionate with the other and side darts provide a good opportunity to adjust for this so there's a more symetrical appearing finished garment.  Remember dear new friend that people see what we expect to see and that can work to our advantage.  I'd also suggest that a bit of very soft elastic... the sort that is frequently applied to the leg opening of panties or the waist of a half slip be placed at the inside of the front waist of your dress just ever so slightly stretched as a sort of stay mechanism.  They make such pretty elastic these days in every color imaginable.  This will also give you a lovely finish detail.  You might like it so well that you'd want to continue it all the way around the waist. 

I'm looking forward to hearing if any of this works well for you. 

Dear Leonie,

Thank you. Right now we do not have a video on how to pad out a model to your dimensions. However "isew4fun" has given a very good description on how to do this.

As far as fixing the waistline rising on your dress. The best thing to do is to increase the bust dart intake on your pattern.

To calculate your bust dart intake divide your bust circumference by 20 and add up to 2.5 cm to it. If you are big busted you can add the maximum of 2.5 cm, if not add less, as little as half a cm.

Hope this helps.

Nehzat

I was a size 28 but in my mind of course aspired to be a 14 so I purchased a dress form in the size 14 hoping one day it would fit me but in the meantime  I would adjust it to fit reality.  A good sewing friend of mine helped me to drape a skin fitting sloper that mimicked not just my dimensions but also my posture, curves and mass distribution. It's important that the fabric being used have little to no stretch; I chose a tightly woven cotton.   I put one of my own well fitting bras on the maniquin, padded it out densely and then through trial and error layer by layer padded the remaining surface of the maniquin to a bit larger then my own dimensions then covered the padded out dress form with the sloper and slip stitched it in place distributing the padding for a close match to my own body.  I used a slender tape to mark off high and low bust points, vertical center front and back, shoulder seam placement lines, waist, hip and vertical underarm to waist hip and hem placement lines right onto the sloper.   Having these markers in place was particularly useful for me because I'm not precisely identical from one side of myself to the other and doing this extra step helps me to minimize the need for precise alterations later.  Hope this helps someone; it's worked out fairly well for me.