News You Can Use

LivingSoft Subscriber Newsletter | Volume 1

Q&A

What's the difference in fit between Dress Shop Quickfit, Advanced, and Pro? 

Dress Shop 5 QuickFit includes standard sizes for women and misses, plus our QuickFit pattern adjustment system, plus the option to draft and fit to 24 custom body measurements.

Dress Shop 5 Advanced includes everything that is in QuickFit, plus the option to draft and fit to 57 custom body measurements. 

Dress Shop 5 Pro includes everything that is in QuickFit and Advanced, plus standard sizes for men, boys, girls, and small children.  DS5 Pro also includes options in the Layout Tool for laying out plaids, stripes, and border prints.  And finally, DS5 Pro includes a special option in the Crotch Tool for micro-tuning the shape of crotch curves.

I have measured myself repeatedly and yet my test garments don't fit.  What can I do?

Even with as many measurements as we take in Dress Shop (our most rigorous measurement system takes 57 body measurements), we still don’t measure all the lumps, bumps and curves that you might have on your body.  And we make some assumptions about the way you’re shaped, which are not going to be true in all cases.

Take “D.”  She has a very rounded bosom, more so than most.  Her shape is more globular than conical.  If you measure her 1” below or above her bust points, she’s the same measurement as she is when you measure directly across with her bust points.

When D tries on her fitting bodice sloper, it isn’t going to close across her chest.  Maybe not even close.  And yet, we can measure her over and over, and the measurements look accurate.  The reason the bodice is too small is that the program is assuming a somewhat tapered shape where her widest place is across her bust and she is narrower above and below.  It is her width just above and below (widths which are not measured) which are making it impossible for her to fit into the bodice.

What’s the solution?  D should increase her “real” front bust measurement as much as she needs to, to enable her to pin the garment closed along the seam allowance (a very close fit but not so tight it is squishing her, even a little).  To see how much to increase the measurement prior to making the next test sloper, vertical slashes can be cut into the bodice across the bust area about 3” high.  Then D should be able to pin the bodice closed, and we can measure how much the slashes gape open to see how much width will need to be added.

Interestingly, when the test bodice is made up which has the padded measurement, the bodice may fit very well, even though the bodice width actually measures wider across her bodice width than her full bust measurement.

If your problem isn’t in the top but the bottom, the same principle can apply to the fitted pant sloper.  Dress Shop requires measurements at the waist, the abdomen, the hip and crotch length.  “N” might have all her measurements accurate at the points they were measured, but she might have an abdomen that doesn’t have much of a curve apex, but is the same width an inch above and below the high point of her ab curve.  In that case, as the pants are tapering from the waist measurement, her test pants might be way too tight in the tummy area.  Vertical slashes in the pant sloper at abdomen level will enable N to see how much extra width she needs in this measurement (which could be in the front or the back, slashing in front and back and seeing which slashes gape will pinpoint whether front, back, or both measurements need to be added to).

Once you determine a set of measurements that give you a good fitting set of test garments, you should be able to use those same measurements (including the adjustments for your unique shape) to draft all your other garments in Dress Shop.  And that’s where the fun begins!

LivingSoft Links

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