Bespoke Cutter And Tailor

Hello dear cutters and tailors,

my latest project is a casual SB two and half-button jacket (unstructured/unlined/cotton fabric/easy fit), side panel cut on.

Generally I'm quite happy with the fit of the muslin, I would make it a bit longer, change the lapel shape etc, but I think I'm still struggling with the front-back balance: the quarters "swing" forward and overlap, the lower back comes forward and the collar gaps in the back neck. (-> indicating front too short, back too long?) I have quite a rounded back/stooped posture/sloping shoulders.
Can you help what adjustments to try on the pattern?
Many Thanks!

Hello Pergamon,

I'm not very well qualified to comment on fitting, but some of the professionals here have been more than generous helping with my projects.

It would aid them greatly if you indicate the major construction lines on your muslin.  Also, see if you can stand in a consistent posture with a background that has horizontal and vertical lines, such as cabinets or a door frame.  Get someone else to take the photos, and take front, back, and both sides.  Finally, stand relaxed in your normal posture.

Hope this is useful !

It would have helped to see the back too, but I'd say you don't have enough length on the back; specifically at the neck and shoulders. As a result you have gapping at the back and the fronts are being pulled backwards, in turn causing the front hem to lift off the body. It's best to sort out the balance before making other adjustments.

At the side seams put a mark. On the back put a mark half an inch down. Undo the side seam. Now match the marks and bast the side seams together. Mark your new shoulder line and bast that together. The back armholes are adjusted. And add to the bottom. The actual amount may be different and both sides may vary. You may need more width across the back. Perhaps the front a little narrower by moving the front outwards on the shoulder seam. Without fronts pinned together the front edges should hang parallel.

Profile and Back Pics would be fine.

And pics taken with a stand or by someone else. At the moment it seems you have a low left shoulder.

It also helps to mark the chest and waist line in the toile. This reveals inbalances quite good.

I don't have someone to take photos so I prop my phone up against my machine on the table and video myself slowly turning 360 degrees, pausing when in profile and when my back is to the phone. I then pause the playback at these points and take snap-shots.

Wow, thank you so far for all the helping comments. I will try these and post the results.

Hello again,

I am still struggling getting my head around vertical balance of a jacket.
Since I'm fitting a rounded back/stooped posture, I shifted up the back along the side seams, as the cloth has to go over a longer area. What happens is that the bottom of the musslin swings forward against the seat area and the front quarters collapse - when I pull the jacket down on the front, it sits quite nicely, but creeps back/up when moving. Please see my sketch, comparing "regular" posture and stooped posture.
My questions is: what alteration "rotates" the whole jacket forward? (as stated, lengthening the back did not do it).
Many thanks in advance!

It would help if you posted photos of where you are at the moment.

open:




closed:

Two things I can see because I've struggled with them myself:

1) it looks like you have a dropped right shoulder.  There are a number of simple corrections for that you could apply.

2) if you are planning on shoulder pads you should have them pinned in place when fitting.

I'll defer to the professional members for other things.

Take heart, it's looking a lot better than some of mine did at this stage!

I don't see the gapping at the back of your neck as seen in your initial photos, so increasing the length has obviously helped. I'm guessing that the misaligned balance marks seen in profile are due to the back being shifted up (they're old marks?).

If you follow the centre-back seam all the way up you'll see it being pulled over to the right as we approach the neck. Likewise the neck seen from the front. That pull could be due to tension under the arm; which would make sense as your shoulder is dropped on that side, as Jim mentioned. Everything is dropping slightly on the right and needs picking up (with a corresponding adjustment to the armsyce). We need photos for both sides of your profile, incidentally, for comparison.

It's a little on the baggy side. I take it there's no side panel, but did you include a dart under the arm? Difficult to tell. Suppression can be tinkered with later, however, sorting out the RHS would be the place to start IMO. More experienced eyes will no doubt offer other suggestions.

Looks like you fall into the category of sway back. Don't remember much of that anymore.

I would request that your photographs be: Front, Back , Right side, Left side.

Sway back in German is Hohlkreutz. It's best tackled in the draft stage, Shifting the back waist point, to the left by 0.5 to 1.0cm.

Since this changes the draft radically, it's a difficult correction on the muslin.


See:  https://movsd.com/BespokeCutter/index.php/topic,548.msg4300.html#msg4300  Down the Bottom.

"The Alteration for a belly pushed forward
(Hollow Back) and seat drawn in 3 cm

This alteration is extremely common in men's tailoring.  The measurements may be completely normal and yet the jacket must be altered if this posture is present.  For the sake of clarity, we have implied the normal cut in light lines and the alterations in lines of extra thickness.



Diagram 43

The back draft is marked out.  Then the back pattern is held firmly at the shoulder point and rotated forward 1 ½ cm at the seat line – half of the amount of the drawn in seat.  The back is marked out such that the neck ring and shoulder remain in their normal positions.  The back pattern also pushes forward at the waist.  The center front waist point and the waist dart move forward by this amount.  Thus, the front part has become 1 cm too wide in the waistline.  This 1 cm is removed from the side seam from the waist-line downwards.  The side dart should lie as far forward as possible at the waistline.  This makes the waist look good.  Therefore, it is put forward by 1 cm.  Marking out the front edge and the transfer of the shoulder is described in the preceding diagrams. We request you read them there.




https://movsd.com/BespokeCutter/index.php/topic,504.msg4025.


"Since, in this jacket draft, one can readily remove any amount at t1 and g1 below the back width line Rb, for the sake of simplicity, for this normal posture, we did not move the centre back inwards at the seat height and we hollowed the centre back line only 0.5 cm at the waist from T1-T."

As others have said, it's best to make one change at a time.  So I would recommend correcting for the dropped shoulder and pinning a couple of ready made shoulder pads in place.  Then take a new set of pictures as Schneiderfrei suggested.  We can see then just how swaybacked you are and if a new muslin is necessary.

Don't forget to keep track of all changes on your paper pattern.