Grading the Kirtle Pattern

The next step after scaling up the patterns in the Tudor Tailor book is grading them to fit you. Unless your body measurements are the same as the measurements the pattern was designed to fit, you'll have to adjust the pattern since, unlike an already graded commercial pattern, there is only one size offered. I have never graded a pattern, so I relied on Missa’s instructions here: http://www.sempstress.org/demo/how-to-grade-a-pattern/. I highly recommend going over and glancing at her how-to in order to make sense of what's about to come. In fact, I highly recommend her site in general; she is a font of knowledge, and her explanations actually make sense.

Now, when deciding how much larger to make the pattern pieces, I found it a bit frustrating that the bust and waist were not indicated on the original pattern. I’m assuming the bottom edge of the kirtle bodice is meant to sit just at (or just above) the natural waist; the bust point, however, took a bit of guessing. The Tudor Tailor book indicates that the patterns given are meant to fit a 28” waist and a 36” bust.  My current body measurements are more like 39" at the bust and 30" at the waist. When trying to decide how to change the pattern, there were a few factors to take into consideration. 

Between the several layers of fabric and the boning, the finished garment's measurements will end up smaller than the pattern itself indicates, but I also want this garment to allow for just a little bit of squish. I’m not trying to waist-train with this, nor is the kirtle intended to do this, but I do want it to hold my body in the fairly rigid “conical” shape that is recognizably Tudor; it will need to be able to compress my bust and remain taut and rigid everywhere else. As a person with some squish, this necessitates a small amount of negative ease through the bust, and a very close fit at the waist. I also want to allow for a bit of stretch from wearing the garment, and perhaps a bit of weight loss as this has been the trend. Therefore, on this first go at a pattern, I chose to draft it to just my waist measurement instead of adding any ease, knowing it will end up slightly smaller than my current waist measurement after the addition of the boning. I also chose to factor in some negative ease through the bust, making it smaller than my actual bust measurement.

Next, I needed to decide how long to make the pattern. Going up in size, as Missa explains, also means adding length to allow the pattern to follow the curve of the body without coming up short. The way I make sense of this to myself is to imagine a car going over a small hill vs a large hill; the car has to travel a longer distance to get over the large hill. This is assuming that the pattern is already the correct proportion for your height. However, this isn’t exactly a pattern piece with a lot of curve; it’s going to smoosh the body rather than conform to the curvature of the bust and waist, which to my mind means the length won't have to change so drastically, as it's not going from having a small hill to travel over to a large hill to travel over; there aren't really any hills in this pattern. So, I determined how long I wanted the bodice front to be (or perhaps a better way of thinking about this is how far above the waistline—the bottom of our pattern—do I want the kirtle neckline to sit), and how long I need the side seams to be so that the side of the garment does not cut into the armpit. Recall, too, that this is a garment meant to be worn under another fully-constructed gown. Therefore, I want enough space in the armscye that I can have another sleeve on over it without that feeling too bulky, so I want to make doubly sure that this isn’t digging.

With all of these factors in mind, I measured my pattern pieces so I could decide where make my changes. The bust (or at least where I guessed the bust would fall…) is approximately 34 inches (so we’re assuming that the pattern is accounting for some negative ease since it's supposed to fit a 35" bust- further supporting my plan), and the waist measures to 28 inches-- exactly the waist measurement the garment is meant to fit. The center front is 11” long and the side seam is 7”.  I am pretty sure my front needs to be more like 8.5”-10.5” depending on how much my bust gets “smooshed” upwards, and the side needs to be more like 5.5”. I very unscientifically determined this by putting the base of my clear ruler at my waist and holding it close to my body, mimicking the flattening of the bust the kirtle should provide, and looking in a mirror to decide where I'd like the neckline. I chose to actually shorten my pattern rather than lengthening it as I graded it up, knowing that I can adjust further on my mockup if need be; I suspect I may have to adjust where the neckline sits, and I think I’ll definitely end up widening the neckline and adjusting the angle of the straps.

First, I cut open a paper bag and laid my pattern pieces on top of it. The brown paper bag will end up being the "extra" inches in my pattern. 

 

I needed to add 3” to my pattern pieces at both the waist and the bust, which makes this a bit more straightforward; I didn't need to slash and spread, as illustrated in the Tudor Tailor; rather I just needed to add the same amount all around. If you are proportionally larger at the bust or waist than the patterns, you'll have to adjust your patterns at an angle, rather than the straight lines you'll see in my illustrations. You may still need to separate the sections of the pattern completely as I have, rather than just slashing like the illustration shows, depending on your body size.

The Tudor Tailor's illustration of the slash and spread method

I just eyeballed where I made the marks to cut based on where I thought I’d be the most likely to not negatively affect the line of the waist or neckline. I also made a horizontal line just above the waist from which to shorten the pattern. This is a bit harder because I want to adjust the length of the side and the back more than the front, and I cannot slash and spread horizontally without completely messing up the pattern; this adjustment may need to be made by redrawing the waistline and the neckline once I have the pattern at the correct circumference. To start with, though, I ended up angling the bottom pieces slightly so that I shortened the pattern on the side and not the front; I have a more extreme dip at the waistline than the original pattern as a result. 

Because the back of the pattern was being shortened a uniform amount across the pattern, I simply folded it. It's upside down in the picture, but I folded just above the waist; you could see the shadow of the fold more clearly if I took the picture from this angle, though. 

I know that I will need the bulk of the extra inches in the front of the pattern to accommodate my bust; I have a relatively narrow back and ribcage, my fullness is in my bust. Therefore, I wanted to add just 1 inch at the back, and 2 inches in front, increasing the pattern measurements to 31” at the waist and 37” at the bust. This will be smaller than my bust measurement, but as discussed, I want to leave some room for squish. I’m just guessing that this will fit, of course—I’ll need to wait until my mock-up to see if these guesses were accurate to my body.

Because I was only working with half of the pattern, this meant adding .5” to the back pattern piece and 1” to the front pattern piece. These measurements needed to be distributed across the cuts I made to enlarge the pattern. Because there aren’t darts, princess seams, etc… I made only 3 points at which to add fullness, one on the back piece and 2 on the front piece. So, I spread the back piece by .5” and each line on the front was spread by .5” to add up to the full 1.5”. That way, the finished garment will be 3" bigger all around.

Once my pieces were spread and shortened, I taped them in place, and cut out the new, larger and shorter (gee, doesn't that sound flattering?) pattern. 

Hopefully this makes sense! I think actually going through the steps helps clarify things, so if you're finding yourself in the position to grade a pattern, my best advice is to just get in there and do it. Keep in mind that I'm just guessing on a lot of things; this pattern is very much a draft, and I'm using my own experience and knowledge of my body and how I often have to alter garments to make educated guesses on how to adjust this pattern. We won't find out until I make a mock-up whether or not I was totally off, so it's best to think of this iteration of the pattern as the first draft of several.

Next up, see how I plan on adjusting this first draft of my pattern to fit me more accurately!