THE Q & A SERIES

FORWARD SHOULDER ADJUSTMENT

Hi Emily,

I have a fit question about the Everyday Dress. I've made two linen versions that are very comfortable (and a hack with a sleeveless format). As I wear them, I've noticed that the neck will creep up and likewise the shoulder seams will go toward the back. Are there fit adjustments to do to garments to counteract this creeping? I didn't know if it was a matter of just keeping better posture!

Thank you!

Hi there,

Sounds like you need to make a forward shoulder adjustment. Rather than worrying about changing your posture, all you need to do is make this simple alteration to your pattern - in this case, the Everyday Dress. The beauty of sewing your own clothes is that you don't need to change your body, you can change the clothes! Basically, what you are doing with this alteration is moving the shoulder seam forward, so that it reflects where your shoulders actually sit.

Check how much to move the shoulder seam by

Since you already have a couple of versions of the Everyday dress, you can use this as a reference to work out how far you need to move the seam.

Put the dress on and let it sit comfortably on your body. Stand side-on in front of a full-length mirror and check where the shoulder seam is sitting. Put a pin in the position that you would like to move the shoulder seam to. Take off the dress and measure between the shoulder seam and the pin. This is how much you need to move the shoulder seam by.

In some cases, you will realise that rather than moving the whole shoulder seam forward, you only need to move the side closest to the neck or the armhole. This will change the slope of the shoulder seam.

TIP: It can be a good idea to check what's happening on both sides of a toile. For example, for this fitting, you could put a pin on both shoulders and measure them both. If there is a difference in the measurements (which is likely), find the average of the two.

Step 1

Mark in the new shoulder seam. For this example, we want the shoulder seam sitting closer to the front, so this means marking the new seam on the front pattern piece. If you needed to move the seam backwards, you would be marking it on the back piece.

Mark in your new shoulder seam, by measuring from the stitch line (this is the grey line on In the Folds patterns).

If you are changing the slope of the shoulder, because only a part of it is sitting incorrectly, your shoulder seam might look something like this.

Step 2

Cut along the new shoulder seam.

Step 3

Take the piece that was cut and line up the shoulder seam line (the red line) with the back shoulder stitch line. Stick in place.

Step 4

Smooth out the neckline.

Step 5

Return to the front piece. Add seam allowance to the new shoulder seam line by taping some paper in place along the shoulder and marking in the seam allowance. For this pattern, the seam allowance along the shoulder is 1.2cm / 1/2in. For more information about adding seam allowance, see this post.