How to Achieve the Perfect Fit with Vogue 1821: My Fitting Process Explained

In this blog post, I’m sharing my detailed process for getting the perfect fit with the Vogue 1821 pattern. I’ll walk you through the steps I take to adjust the fit, including tips for measuring, altering, and fine-tuning the pattern to match my body. Whether you’re a beginner or experienced sewist, these fitting tips will help you achieve a flawless fit with the Vogue 1821 pattern every time!

Transcript

Hi everyone, my name is Teria from Peace and Make. Today, I’m going to talk about a dress I just cut out yesterday, and walk you through the next steps and my process for fitting it. I’ll also discuss how I plan to adjust the fit to suit my style. If you’re interested in that, stay tuned!

I’ve got my list of steps here, so I’ll quickly go through them and then dive into each one in more detail.

1. Back shoulder darts
2. Front button placket
3. Back darts (and potential adjustments)
4. Front darts (and potential adjustments)
5. Plans for lining
6. Testing the sleeve fit
7. Adding a cuff to the sleeve
8. Shortening the hem

Alright, let’s get into it!

So, I just talked for about five minutes and realized my phone wasn’t recording, so let’s start over! Here’s the dress: the front and the back. You probably can’t see the whole thing, but I’ll make sure to include a photo or video of it later so you can get a better look. For now, let’s go through each step.

The first step is adding the back darts. These darts should be on both sides, but I didn’t include them for the initial fitting. As you can see, there’s extra fabric between these two points, so once I add the darts, the fabric will line up properly. This is going to help with the overall fit.

The next step is the front button placket. It’s important for getting the fit right, so I’m going to fold it over twice and stitch it down, as per the pattern instructions. I’m not adding a separate button placket because I want the pattern to feel continuous, but if I run out of fabric or if it doesn’t work, I might go with a separate placket. For now, though, this is the plan.

A bit of backstory: I usually make a muslin, but this time I didn’t. I’ve made this dress before in a rayon fabric, and it still fits, so I decided to skip the muslin and take a chance. The fabric I’m using now is a cotton satin, which drapes completely differently and doesn’t have the stretch that rayon does. I think it will still be fine, but we’ll see how it turns out!

The next steps involve adjusting the darts. For the front bodice, there are darts here and here, plus side darts. I plan to keep the side darts, but I might need to adjust the front darts depending on how it fits. For the back, I’m adding two darts—one here and one there—and I’ve already marked them on the inside of the fabric.

I want to see how the shape changes with these darts, as my goal is to achieve a looser, boxier fit, not something fitted. That’s why I initially left out the back darts, since I want the dress to hang loosely, like a classic shirt dress.

Another issue I’m dealing with is that the cotton satin sticks to my undergarments, which is uncomfortable. So, I’m thinking of either adding a slip underneath or doing an interlining for the front and back bodice. I’m leaning toward the interlining, as it will help the fabric shift more smoothly instead of clinging. But, I’m not sure if I want to go that route, so I might just opt for a slip instead. I’ll test it out.

Next, I need to figure out the sleeves. I need to cut out the sleeve pattern, and I have another pattern with a cuff I plan to use. I’m not sure if I want to make the sleeve longer and fold it over like a traditional cuff, so I’m aiming for a looser fit sleeve instead.

I actually have a dress here that I made when I was pregnant, and I’m thinking of wearing it this summer—although it’s pretty big now! It’s got a looser sleeve with a cuff that’s a separate attachment, and I want to replicate that look for this new dress. I’ll figure out how to do that, so the sleeve fits a little more loosely and isn’t attached directly to the bodice.

I’ll work on finding the pattern for the cuff to match this design. The sleeve on this dress is attached, but I want to keep it looser and a bit longer than the original sleeve pattern suggests.

Once the sleeves are done, I’ll move on to the collar and collar stand, but I’m not planning to make any changes there. That part will stay the same as the pattern.

The final thing to adjust is the hem. The dress is currently too long—it goes past my knees—and I want to shorten it by about 2 or 3 inches, so it hits above the knee. Once that’s done, I’ll be finished!

With all these changes, it’s going to take some time to work through the steps. I tend to process things slowly, so I might take two or three days to move on to the next step, but I’m excited to see how it all comes together. I thought it would be fun to share my plans with you and let you know what I’m working on!

Let me know in the comments what your process is like! I love hearing about how others approach their projects. I’m always geeking out over different sewing processes!

And by the way, if you’re new here, I have a brand-new channel! If you like this video, please hit the subscribe button and click the notification bell so you don’t miss any of my upcoming content. I have tons of cool ideas I’m excited to share with you all. Thanks for being here and supporting me as I grow my channel.

Alright, that’s it for today. Bye!