At our August Studio Hours session, we continued the discussion with Kim McBrien Evans that we started in March when she had just released her new sizing standards chart. This session focused specifically on sweater fit and was appreciated by both makers and designers. What a delight to have such a knowledgeable guest answering all our sweater fit questions!
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Studio Hours is one of the greatest benefits of Studio Membership (in addition to gaining access to all of the patterns and tutorials published since the launch of Digits & Threads). Join us each month for show-and-tell, and most months to learn from a D&T contributor.
First, we explored some definitions around ease in garment patterns: fabric ease, minimum wearing ease, and design ease. Fabric ease is the stretch inherent in the fabric that the garment is made of. For most handknit fabrics, you can count on about 2.5–5 cm of ease given the stretchiness of knitting, and this stretch allows sweaters made with “negative ease” to actually fit the body. (Negative ease is when the garment dimensions are smaller than the dimensions of the body it is made to fit.) Other fabric constructions may have less inherent ease; crocheted fabric is often less stretchy than knit fabrics, and woven fabric is generally even less stretchy. Minimum wearing ease relates to how much space is needed for the arms to swing freely or the neck hole to stretch to accommodate the head. Finally, design ease comes from the vision of the garment designer. How does the designer expect the garment to fit? What silhouette are they hoping to achieve? Of the three kinds of ease, design ease is the one that is most easily adaptable by makers.
A member then asked, “When given a range of design ease, how should the maker proceed? How much ease generally looks good?” Kim listed four factors to consider: height, body circumference, fabric gauge, and personal taste. In general, shorter people often find less ease works well for them, while taller people can handle more fabric and drape. A similar thing happens with body circumference. As the body gets larger, less ease is needed to get a similar overall silhouette as on a smaller circumference body. Finer gauge fabrics work better than bulky fabrics for patterns with lots of ease, as they drape around the body more easily. And we can’t forget about personal taste: everyone has their preferred look and fit.
We talked about working with woven fabrics and the challenges that come with the lack of stretch. Kim suggested that for these types of fabrics, it can help to work with pattern pieces cut on the bias to maximize stretch. She also suggested measuring your existing well-fitting clothes and relating those measurements to the schematic measurements of the garment you wish to make. In a forthcoming article, she will have a section on working with a variety of sewing fabrics, including those with limited stretch such as pleather, leather, and vinyl. Garment shaping becomes very important with limited stretch fabrics!
One member asked whether different shoulder constructions require different ease and Kim quickly responded in the affirmative—the shoulder area strongly affects the minimum wearing ease.
After the discussion around how ease works for different body shapes, a designer asked whether they should change how much ease they factor in when grading their pattern for many different sizes. Kim replied that she believes it is more important to have clear schematics and clear language to help the maker understand the designer’s intent and allow them to make an informed size choice.
Many sewing patterns include modification instructions to “lengthen or shorten here” and some members wondered if this could be added to knitting patterns. In general, this could be addressed with a detailed schematic giving the maker the information they need to decide where to make modifications. A comment in the chat, however, suggested that if there is a design reason—a cable or motif, for example—that would impact the decision to lengthen or shorten, it would be great to indicate this in the pattern!
Much of the conversation revolved around communication between designer and maker. Kim shared her very detailed schematic from her Edgeways Cardigan and candidly stated that she knows the details sometimes “freak some people out” but comments in the chat were largely positive, with members stating that they often end up drawing sketches like it while working on garments that lack such detail. We wondered whether having two drawings would be useful: a simplified one for advertising a pattern, and the full schematic for actually making the garment!
In the chat, a male crafter who makes things for his partner and female children shared his appreciation for patterns that show more granularly where measurements are taken, as it gives him more ideas on how to adjust garments for different body types. In answer to one member’s question about making a garment without having these granular measurements for the intended recipient, Kim suggested making something else! It’s often best to change the types of garments we make for them if we wish them to have great fitting garments.
Some sweater constructions are easier to customize than others. Top-down raglan sweaters are particularly problematic, as there are only four points where adjustments can be made to yoke shaping (along the shoulder lines). Circular yoke sweaters are more forgiving, particularly those that place the increases in wedges rather than concentric circles, as the wedges give many places to add stitches and adjust fit. This is great news given the circular yoke pattern Blue Jay published this month that uses just this shaping technique!
A side conversation in the chat discussed other first handknit sweater patterns, and two were recommended: Carol Feller’s Pistachio Saffron (top down raglan) and Whitney Hayward’s Rainier (drop shoulder, two rectangles with sleeves, though one person found it a bit boring to knit!).
Some sweater patterns move the sleeves slightly toward the back, accommodating breasts. This technique helps accommodate many body shapes, as confirmed by a member who shared that she has a narrow back and moving the sleeve placement toward the back on a recent sweater improved the fit dramatically.
A member’s question about bunching necklines led to a tutorial on how to tilt necklines forward. There are three places to add this shaping. To accommodate a “dowager hump,” add short rows immediately under the ribbing. Adding short rows just above the underarm split works well for many body types. And finally, the short rows can also be spread throughout the height of the yoke, raising the back neck. We were reminded of the possibility of using a provisional cast on near the neck so that we can decide on the neckline treatment after knitting the bulk of the garment and trying it on to see how it fits and hangs.
Studio members then suggested garment patterns we’d like to see in the future in Digits & Threads. Many options were given with one commonality—everyone asked for pockets! Towards the end, we shared many sewing resources.
Daryl Lancaster produces patterns specifically for handwoven fabrics
Cal Patch was recommended for her “make your own wardrobe” classes.
Suzy Furrer teaches through Apparel Arts and on Craftsy and offers great techniques for measuring and drafting your own patterns.
Knitspot patterns are well designed and fit well.
Muna and Broad is Canadian company producing modern sewing patterns for plus-size bodies.
Closet Core Patterns out of Montréal are well-written.
The Finished Garment blog published a Big List of Independent Canadian Pattern Designers a few years ago.
Jenny Ambrose at The Makehouse in Victoria, B.C. offers welcoming in-person classes.
Featured image by patricia serna on Unsplash
