The Palmer Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting - Pati Palmer and Marta Alto

With this guide to fitting, you’ll learn all facets of bodice and skirt pattern fitting and alteration to give you the background and guidance needed to achieve a custom fit on any pattern from any company.

Winner of the Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Silver Award in the 2019 “Craft & Hobby, Home & Garden” book category.

Amelia, from the UK, says: “I started dressmaking about two years ago. I am obsessed with fit, but have never got it quite right until I bought the Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting. Wow! Your book has transformed my sewing and made me understand about fit and how to achieve it. I’m telling all my sewing buddies about it! What a difference this has made—although I now seem to be even more picky! I now realize how awful the fit is with all my ready-to-wear clothes!”

Learn all facets of bodice and skirt pattern fitting and alteration to give you the background and guidance needed to achieve a custom fit on any pattern from any company.

The book includes the following:

• Take just one measurement for tops and one for skirts to determine the right pattern size. Find out what to do if you are between sizes or a different size top and bottom.

• Make a “body map” with a close-fitting dress pattern to see how you differ from the “standard” on which sewing patterns are based.

• Learn from “real people” examples of a variety of bodies and their individual alterations.

• Use the book’s new “wrinkle dictionary” to identify a needed pattern alteration. Wrinkles point to the problem,” say the authors, and now you can look up the page reference for a solution.

• See how age can affect body shape, from preteen to octogenarian.

• Take note of the latest sewing techniques for garment details that affect fit, such as darts, zippers and sleeves, for enhancing the look of a well-fitted garment.

• Learn basic skills for designing or redesigning for a myriad of variations using the same pattern.

This book is organized in the sequence the alterations are done, rather than alphabetical by topic. Throughout the book, step-by step instructions are accompanied by full-color photography and a new style of technical art that is extremely clear. Short captions explain each illustration.

As a bonus, the authors detail the evolution of ready-to-wear and pattern sizing over the past century, along with their own history in pioneering the art and practice of tissue-fitting.

Table of Contents:

BACKGROUND
The Palmer/Pletsch Fitting Method
History of Pattern Sizing

Fit Facts

GETTING STARTED
Buy the Right Size
But the Pattern Doesn’t Come in My Size!
What About Ease?
Analyze Your Body

ALTERATION TIPS
Two Ways to Alter Patterns
Alteration Tools & Tips
Prepare the Pattern for Tissue-Fitting

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR BODY
Make a ‘Body Map’—Fit a Sheath Dress
Tissue-Fitting Real People

THE FIT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Tissue-Fitting Sequence
Length & Width
Back
Neck & Chest
Darts
Bust
Shoulders
Sleeves
Waist, Hips, Tummy & Thighs