Category Archives: 1940
Haslam System of Dresscutting Pt2
Ok, I have made my Blouse, it went together very easily, no funny, I’m not sure what that bit is doing….
There are a couple of problems, one of which is to do with measuring and two, the ladies of the 40s must have been a darned funny shape in the hip/stomach region.
Item one – either I mis-measured my shoulder or I didn’t quite understand what the foundation booklet wanted. I measured my shoulder at 4 1/2 inches it wasn’t wide enough, when I measured it a second time I carefully read the instructions ‘measure from the prominent bone in your neck to the point of your shoulder bone then take 2 1/2 inches away’ after a re-measure it turns out that maybe it should be 5 1/2 inches, this actually corrects half of the problems I had with the blouse.
Item two – The hem of the back of the blouse wasn’t wide enough. I was going on the assumption that the side seams of the blouse should fall level with my under arms. Wrong!!! If I held one side level with where you would expect a side seam the other side was at least an inch out, maybe a bit more. Also I had a lot of fabric in the front, when I say a lot, each front nearly went from one side seam to the other.
Looking at the instructions you can see why this would happen, you take the hip measurement and quarter it, then you add an inch to the front, the back you deduct an inch.
On the bodice sloper craftsy class I have, you do something similar but only with 1/4 inch. May be I should have done this but I went the other way I measured my hips then I split the measurement up as my body split it up.
There was one other problem but that was connected to my fabric choice, I used a piece of poly cotton which was a bit stiff and I think the fabric should have a lot more drape to it. As it was the blouse looked very boxy and was quite uncomfortable across the back and sleeves, (this should be fixed by the nearly 3 inches added to the back piece across the shoulders).
I have redrafted the pattern pieces and cut them out in some sort of pink shiny fabric, that I’m not sure why I bought it the colour is totally not what I would wear.
Lutterloh the verdict
Now this hasn’t been a complete success, but it also hasn’t been a complete failure. The fit was good, unfortunately the choice of pattern was a bit ambitious.
I managed to get the front lying better in the second version than the first version, probably if I made the dress a few more times I would get the stitching right.
I can’t get the front to line up properly, the two fronts curve up under the bust, one side following back down the other, just in case you think it’s because, it’s too small across the chest, it didn’t matter what I did even just laying it on the bed with nothing in it it wouldn’t lay properly.
As you can see the back looks good, I think I probably should have taken an inch out of the skirt length as it is laying a bit low across the hips.
I might fiddle with the bodice size as I didn’t have much movement in the shoulder area, but for once I wasn’t swimming in fabric under the arms and across the bust.
This picture shows the hip problem quite well.
The verdict is that I will make more dresses from the system, but will be more careful in my pattern choices. I was very impressed at how easily it was to create the pattern, practice will make the curves (sleeve head) better and I have noticed that the later the pattern the more information you are given for making up the garments.
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 