Hello there! Hope you are all doing great and that life is treating you good 🙂 This is my second post of a short series I will be doing called “My custom-fitted vest with Dora”, if you haven’t read the first one you can check it out here. Basically I am taking a new Craftsy class where you learn how to adapt a pattern to fit your measures by altering a vest pattern that uses tunisian crochet.

The last you heard of my vest was what yarn and hook I had purchased for this pattern, and a bit has happened since then. First, I did my swatch to check my gauge and see what hook size to use and what is the right tension to get that gauge. I used a 8mm hook size as recommended for this pattern but I still got more stitches in my swatch than I should so need to use a bigger hook. Since that was the biggest hook I had I am now waiting for an order for bigger sizes and hopefully I will get closer to the gauge.

I have to say I have never been fond of doing swatches for gauge and sometimes you can get away without one, but for any kind of garment it is really important, and it is the base for any alterations you might make so you must get it right.

I continued with the lessons and have learned what measures to take and how to take them, and constructed my own body schematic to help me adapt the pattern. As I mentioned I am a small petite size, so I am smaller than the smallest size in the pattern. The good thing about this is that unless I gain or lose quite a lot of weight I should be able to keep this drawing for my future pattern alterations.

Then you are taught how to adapt the pattern to fit your bust and shoulders. The instructor goes through various scenarios to help you adapt your pattern, such as being between two sizes, being larger than any size and being small but with a large bust. Even though my specific case wasn’t there, I could easily apply the logic for the case when you are larger than any size to work for me. It involves a bit of math but nothing complicated and it didn’t take long at all.

Once you have your changes to that part of the pattern you are asked to do an armhole swatch to check if your alterations actually work the way you expected. I think this is a really good idea and even though it adds to the time it takes to finish the pattern I definitely prefer to take that extra time and make sure everything will fit perfectly. I will have to wait for that hook to start this though…

I have had so much fun altering this pattern that it is really getting a bit geeky, I really enjoy the maths of patterns so it doesn’t bother me at all to pick up my calculator!

I will let you know how my armhole swatch goes and next in the class Dora shows you how to adapt length and hip…stay tuned!

x

Sol