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I have started sewing for myself again! The last few months have been quite intense work-wise, and for relaxation I have mostly been sewing miniature clothes for my doll's house people.

My first full-size sewing project is an empire-style top/camisole from New Look 6558. This style is supposedly flattering to my full hourglass figure.

I am having a devil of a time getting it to fit though. I couldn't find an online tutorial on doing a full bust adjustment on this type of top, so just made it up as I went along. The third method seemed to be the most successful, and I decided to illustrate my steps. (To see larger size images of the steps, look at my Picasa web album here.)

I started with a size 16, based on my high bust measurement (1). I needed to move the bust apex about 1 cm towards the underarm seam (2), and the pattern piece had to be lengthened by 8 cm to fit over my bust (according to measurement from shoulder down over bust apex) (3).

Next, I slashed the pattern through the existing dart to the apex, and also from the centre front, midway between the 8-cm extension (4). Then I rotated the dart to close up the extension on the centre front, making it the length it was before my changes (5). This made the underbust dart larger (6).
I decided to use a second dart to reduce the underarm seam to its original length. I drew in a dart from the extension points to the bust apex (7). For the final "real" darts, I measured points 1.5" from the bust apex and drew in the new dart lines (8).


Here is a comparison of the original and the adjusted patterns:

The red lines on the brown paper pattern show the actual curved stitching line of the dart.