glitchsoc - Collegamento all'originale

Probably relevant life and body positivity tip from a sewist, pattern drafter and seamstress:
The clothes are the problem. Please try to remember that you are not the wrong shape, size or dimensions. If the shirt doesn't button closed the shirt is too narrow, you're not too wide. If the dress sags at the back it's the dress pattern, not your ass. Absolutely nobody makes clothes that are Actually Your Size unless you custom order or make them yourself. Even then fitting is a skill and an art!

You're not the problem, the clothes are.

in reply to Sini Tuulia

mastodon - Collegamento all'originale

Femme Malheureuse

All that. It used to be that clothes were handmade to fit the person. It wasn't cheap but we respected our clothing more and it looked better on us; it was more sustainable consumption, too.

I can't think of a vintage photo of persons before mass manufacturing of clothes in which clothing didn't fit well save for laborers who dressed for their jobs and comfort.

in reply to Cavyherd

glitchsoc - Collegamento all'originale

Sini Tuulia

@cavyherd @seawall @simplebadger27
@MissConstrue It's cheaper to only make sizes that people can fit inside, not bothering with if it fits them! I'm quite short, have a small waist and tiny ribcage, wider shoulders and very very wide hips in proportion... Add a sway back, scoliosis and a bunch of other things and there is very rarely anything that fits. Which is why I started modifying and making my own clothes as early as the teenage years. Actually learning pattern drafting and fitting explained SO MUCH about why nothing ever looked good. Learning about the history of pattern drafting and garment manufacture then also made me angry!
@Cavyherd @Angela @MissConstrue @Jennie
in reply to Marta 🌿🍃

glitchsoc - Collegamento all'originale

Sini Tuulia

@Triffen Honestly we could probably produce knitwear to people's exact measurements already. Heck, we did that at school when we were learning machine knitting: We calculated the pattern based on our individual sizes, and then did maths to translate that to stitch count and such according to a test swatch with the yarn... And onto the machines we went. True, we did it by hand and thus were the computer, but there's no reason you couldn't just let the computer be the computer!
@Marta 🌿🍃
in reply to Sini Tuulia

friendica (DFRN) - Collegamento all'originale

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Sini Tuulia @Marta 🌿🍃 and the technology is already here to take a number of measurements, let a computer draft a pattern for sewn clothing, and then have a human sew them the way all other mass produced garments are sewn, except they would fit significantly better (even if less than clothing that has been fitted on the body).

I think that there are companies providing that service, but I suspect mostly in the countries where most clothing are already been made.

@Sini Tuulia @Marta 🌿🍃
Unknown parent

glitchsoc - Collegamento all'originale

Sini Tuulia

@anguinea Yes! "If the body is shaped like this" followed by a neutral description "then do this" and it's to help make the person look good, feel good and be comfortable - not to rag on the person. A happy customer is a returning customer. They knew the magic of well fitting and well tailored clothes and knew you couldn't just guilt a person into changing their physical shape like some sort of sentient elastic blob. Just make the clothes better!
@anguinea
Unknown parent

glitchsoc - Collegamento all'originale

Sini Tuulia

@steggy Exactly! We had an entire pattern drafting curriculum in dressmaking school, and went quite deep into how the standard sizes were developed (at least the European ones we used) and that there's meant to be a different set for a full five or six *different body types* and another for the different heights! A full 12 different standard size categories as opposed to just one. And that's just to start with: You're supposed to use those to draft a sloper to start with, if you're in a rush with clients, and then make a personal one from the fitting adjustments.
Me, myself, am in the "Short D" body shape (hip heavy) category but have my measurements scattered across four different sizes. One doesn't even fit inside the standard range! 😆 And this is normal! Bodies are different!
@Steggy
Unknown parent

glitchsoc - Collegamento all'originale

Sini Tuulia

@MissConstrue I am very much an hourglass, though a bottom heavy one, and I started out making do with buying to fit my bust and shoulders in there, and then taking in the waist and back! I'd also need to add a gusset/gore to widen the high hip to button them closed below the waist... Modifications and tailoring existing clothes is cheaper than construction from scratch, so you might be able to afford to have several pieces fitted to you by a dressmaker. 🤔 Depends on everything, of course, but in case that's helpful!
@MissConstrue
Unknown parent

friendica (DFRN) - Collegamento all'originale

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚊 :maxwell_cat: @Sini Tuulia I wonder about the language in tailoring books from the 1800s: they talk (a lot) about defects and ways a body is *wrong*, but it was also in a context where you weren't supposed to be the right shape, you were supposed to add MOAR padding until the dress is the right shape (and that's what the books talk about).
@anguinea @Sini Tuulia
Unknown parent

glitchsoc - Collegamento all'originale

Sini Tuulia

@anguinea @valhalla Some of the trends and fads were kind of cumbersome and ridiculous (sleeve puff crinolines and hobble skirts, anyone?) but corsets and padding are actually quite comfortable! You will not catch me wearing eight petticoats, though, so it's steel bustle cages or a maximum of two petticoats only for me. 😆
Tailored jackets? Very very very heavy with all the inner layers, but feel more like armour than a straitjacket!
@Elena ``of Valhalla'' @anguinea
Unknown parent

mastodon - Collegamento all'originale

Giselle

@MissConstrue @cavyherd @seawall @simplebadger27
Full bust adjustment! It can be really fun to do (just measure the distance from mid shoulder seam down to the apex of your body first so that the bust dart points to it). When you do your first one and make it up in a cheap draft fabric, you put it on, and IT ACTUALLY FITS!!! Oh my god, best feeling in the world.
@Cavyherd @Angela @MissConstrue @Jennie
Unknown parent

mastodon - Collegamento all'originale

Cavyherd

@MissConstrue @seawall @simplebadger27

Huh. I'd be fascinated to see that.

I'm betting that "standard sizes" resolve to: "serviceable template that the end user modifies if they are so moved."

I actually got sick of having to take up the hems on all the pants I wore, & there's a local taylor who will do it for an entirely reasonable fee. Especially helpful when dealing with weird stretch fabrics that I have never been arsed to learn to deal with.

@Angela @MissConstrue @Jennie
Questa voce è stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cavyherd

hometown - Collegamento all'originale

MissConstrue

@cavyherd @seawall @simplebadger27

IIRC, the way basic patterns work is the pattern is designed for a specific body type and size...for the last 40 years that has been a Twiggy shaped female who is a size 2. Then, rather than remeasuring how women with boobs and butts will change the flow of fabric, what they do is just expand the pattern lines by X inches (maybe 2?) for every size range over that. So, 2" for size 4, then 2 for 6, 2 for 8, etc....but then it gets weird when they get into women's sizes and plus sizes.
I have a whole book on how to modify patterns to fit busty and hippy women, but I'll be honest it's a little above my skill set. (A lot...it's a lot above my skill set. I can't figure out arm holes and sleeves, so...) But if you're interested, I can photo it.

I will try to find the documentary when I get home. I may have taken notes, which will make it easier to find. ( I hate trying to use my phone to research anything, multitabbing is just a pita.)

@Cavyherd @Angela @Jennie
in reply to Sibylle

glitchsoc - Collegamento all'originale

Sini Tuulia

@sibylle I've used synthetic whalebone in mine, the same that gets used in historical costuming corsets. (It's a carefully engineered slightly more expensive plastic.) It's not right at the side of bust either, more directly under the armpit and to the side? I've not had it warp even in long line bras that need some four to five hooks to close. If you can easily source synthetic whalebone and switch to that, you might be able to use them again!
@Sibylle

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