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Ask an Expert! Alyson Clair answers your knit questions

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The CSC are super psyched to have knit genius Alyson Clair on hand to help with all your fitting woes!

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Alyson Clair, knit extraordinaire

You may know Alyson as the mastermind behind the new set of knit Colette Patterns that now go up to a 3XL – the fit and flare Moneta, slinky skirt Mabel and cowl neck beauty Myrtle.

Fun fact: did you know that Moneta, Mabel and Myrtle are named after Alyson’s grandmother and two of her sisters? They look like a sassy bunch to me!

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Left to right: Mabel, Moneta and Myrtle.

Alyson has kindly offered to help out Curvy Sewing Collective readers with our knit fitting questions.

Do you have gaping armholes? Drag lines? A bump you want smoothing? Then ask away in the comments below, and we’ll run the replies from Alyson over the next few weeks.

If you want to send in a photo for a fitting diagnosis, you can also do that by posting into our Flickr account, and linking to it in the comments.

 

Comments

  1. Thanks for agreeing to tackle our questions, Alyson! As a newbie, I really appreciate it!

    In my Moneta, I have found that my shoulders are a bit narrower than the dress’ neckline and shoulder, so I have to pin it to my bra straps. How could I alter the side of the neckline so that it is wider on my shoulder, but not royally screw up the neckline?

    Thanks again!

  2. I’d love your suggestions for eliminating armhole gape for curvy petites with small shoulders and a DD bust. My first Moneta was a straight small which fit well everywhere but the shoulders and bust and resulted in darts : ( . For my second attempt, I sewed an extra small with a FBA, which reduced but did not eliminate the gaping and gave me vertical pooling at the shoulders. It was also super tight and uncomfortable everywhere else. I feel like the fabric is telling me I am a small, but I want to adjust the small bodice to fit well without resorting to darts in my knits! Thank you so much for your expertise.

  3. I also have problems with necklines…particularly when they call for facings–I can never seem to get them to lay flat (kwik sew 3616, I’m looking at you), and I’m wondering if it’s ok to replace facings with a binding instead or if there’s some trick I need to figure out to make facings work better? My experience sewing knits is pretty minimal (I’m working on that), but it’s just so super frustrating to constantly fight with the neckline finishing on a garment that is otherwise perfectly acceptable…any help would be super appreciated!

  4. Hi Alyson! Thanks for making some awesome knit patterns in a great range of sizes! I have a general question related to the pattern draft for the Moneta. I noticed that the front waist seams for the plus size patterns curve down slightly from the side seam to the center front instead of being straight, like in the smaller sizes. I figured that this was a clever way to accommodate larger busts; although I don’t have the problem myself, I do think that I’ve read on other sewing blogs that sewists with a large bust have problems with the waist seam in the front riding up. Is this correct? Based on that assumption and my relatively small bust to waist ratio, I cut my bodice pieces straight across, and this seemed to work just fine for me (and also helped with pattern matching on a stripey print I used). I was just wondering if you could talk a bit more about the shaping in that seam and when it is needed and when it might be ok to remove. Thanks!

    • I had wondered about that shaping! Like you, I have a small bust so it sat quite weirdly and I think my latest version had a straight cut along the bottom. But adding to your question would be – is there a reason why the back waist seam also curves down? I have a sway back so I’ve actually had to curve it the opposite way.

      • I didn’t even realize that the back waist seam also curved (on the bodice?). Mine also hangs low, however I assumed it was because I was too lazy to make a sway back adjustment. I’ll check that out more closely next time. I think I definitely need to move that seam up since the low in the back high in the front waistline has a particularly charming way of making me look pregnant.

  5. Thanks Alyson! I’ve made the Moneta twice and Mabel once and love them. I’ll be making the Myrtle soon, too.

    My question pertains to knit tops. I have a short back-waist length and a large (protruding) rear end and high hip. On knits with a CB seam, I do a swayback alteration to accommodate this. Do you have any recommendations on how to make knits without a CB seam better skim over my rear, rather than having fabric pool above it?

  6. Alyson, first let me just tell you of my love for the Moneta. I just made my second one last week, in a midi length with short sleeves and a Peter Pan collar. It’s so wonderful to have a dress that fits so well and is so comfortable (especially this time of year in the US, in a Rayon Knit).

    Question for you…why is there no 1X in the Collette knit patterns? There’s a big gap between the XL and the 2X as far as the bodice pattern measurements. The skirt pieces are only slightly wider, though. The first time I made a 2X and had to really take the bodice in. The second time I made an XL with some slight modifications, and it’s much better.

    • Also, is there a reason the 2XL/3XL are entirely separate pieces? It makes it harder to grade between these and the smaller sizes. (Not to mention the psychology of needing to use the “plus-sized pieces” :P) I know that technically, with the stretchiness of knits grading isn’t supposed to be such an issue, but 4 inches of negative ease at my waist is waaay too much for my own comfort. Thanks for doing this!

  7. Yes!!! I need that question answered, and this one too… As a new sewist, I’ve recently learned that I have square, narrow shoulders to go with my larger bust, which means I should use a high bust measurement, adjust the shoulder height, and do an FBA, right…?

    The problem is that (I think) I am then changing the amount of binding I should use on the neckline. Either that or I just suck at binding, because my neck band never ever looks good. It’s either too loose and droopy, or I am overcorrecting when I stretch it “slightly,” cutting off the excess, and then it puckers.

    Is there a tried and true mathy solution? Ratios and numbers are my friend. Guessing is not. Every time I see “stretch your band slightly while sewing to the neckline,” I get faint and need chocolate. Slightly means… WHAT???

    Okay, now I have chocolate.

    Thank you, CSC, for asking, and thank you, Ms Clair, for doing this!

    • Share the chocolate!!

      I make those same adjustments BTW … but they don’t alter the length of binding you need for the neckline. The answer is really one that none of us likes … which is, binding length depends on the fabric and the amount of stretch it has (or doesn’t).

      “Slightly” means stretching the binding (but not the neckline) just enough to make it really taut when attaching to the neckline but not so much as to cause gathers when it relaxes. Sorry, no real math formulas, but cutting the binding 7/8 or 3/4 as long as the neckline are good starting points. And also practice, practice! Cut neckline and binding tester scraps of the same fabric you’re using and experiment with it until you’re comfortable with the ratio.

      Also, remember to steam the binding after you’re done attaching it. By that, I mean HOVERING the iron over the binding so you’re not actually touching it and burst some steam onto it. With most fabrics, you’ll see it shrink up before your eyes. It’s cool. It works with synthetics too.

      One last tip … when prewashing a natural fiber fabric, cut off 4-6″ across one end and do NOT prewash that cut. Then use that for your bindings and when you toss the completed garment in the wash or use the above HOVER method, the floppy binding will shrink up to fit flat.

      • Wow, Debbie – I definitely owe you some chocolate. It never occurred to me to save some fabric from the pre-wash AND I didn’t know the steaming trick. I agree with Sophie-Lee, brilliant!

  9. What an opportunity!

    When I make knit dresses I always have trouble with the back waist length. I think it’s because I’m quite large on the bottom half, my skirts tend to need a lot of fabric and this pulls the bodice waist seam down too far, and so my waist isn’t highlighted the way I want.
    My question is, is there a way to account for the weight of the fabric at the cutting or pattern adjustment stage? Any nifty calculations I can do to account for this? Or is there anything g I can do to help support the weight of the skirt fabric in my knit dresses?

    Thanks!

    Geri

    • At least for the Moneta, I had to tighten my elastic a LOT compared to what was suggested – the weight of a heavier skirt pulled the elastic and the waist down a lot at the back, which I found uncomfortable. Tightening the elastic helped hold it up, but didn’t strangle me (note I’m using plain white elastic rather than clear elastic)

    • It will depend a lot on your fabric, I would think! A 4-way stretch is going to pull down vertical more than a knit with only horizontal stretch. You could try basting or pinning the skirt in place and looking in a mirror before you sew it on for good. For my figure (lots of booty, swayback) it helps to cut the back bodice an inch or two shorter than drafted, and make the skirt hem long by the same amount. (I just eyeball the skirt length, with the side seams at the drafted length and curving to add length in the centre back.) That way the skirt hem ends up level once my behind has taken up extra space in the back!

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