Diving into fitting vintage McCall’s 7625 can seem like an intimidating task
Unfolding the McCall’s 7625 pattern paper, you’ll see some really insane pattern pieces that you may not have worked with before.
The most complicated-looking pattern piece is the bodice front which is a combination of:
- Sleeve
- Princess seam bodice front
- Skirt front
The bodice front is as tall as me.
Before you get started…
- Get your tools ready:
- Rulers (clear straight ruler, french curve)
- Dot paper
- Tape (lots of it, 3M Magic Tape is my favorite)
- Mechanical pencil and eraser
- Watch my relevant the Youtube videos
Step One
Not covered in the video, but absolutely vital, is to cut the bodice front from the skirt, leaving a couple inches of the skirt attached to the bodice.
Why?
If you’re like me and have to make at least 3 muslins, fussing with the skirt will be an unnecessary headache. Leave at least an inch or two of the skirt piece attached, in order to gauge where the skirt is going to sit on your hips.
Step Two
Begin torso adjustments.
In my case, I have to shorten to the petite markings (timestamp 1:40)
With a piece like McCall’s 7625, be aware that by changing the torso length, you also need to adjust the length of a couple other pieces, the facing as well as the buttonhole placement guide.
The facing itself has guide lines that match the bodice, so shortening that is easy. The buttonhole guide I recommend holding off on until the very end, when reattaching your adjusted bodice front to the skirt and you can decide where the best buttonhole placements will be for your height.
For my sway back, adjusted at timestamp 2:40, I taped the two back panels together and performed the adjustment as smoothly as I could, by matching up the waist lines. I took out about 1/2 an inch. Looking back on it, I could have taken out 3/4 of an inch instead.
If you have to do a similar swayback adjustment, be sure to straighten out your dart again, as well as readjust the center back seam, timestamp 4:30.
Step Three
Start sorting out the bust area.
The first thing to consider if you have to do a full bust adjustment is whether or not the bust point matches yours. If it does (like it did for me,) you can continue with no problems. If it doesn’t, you will need to trace out a square around the full bust on the pattern (both side front and center front pieces), and then move it up and down the seam until it matches the correct point.
At that point, you can proceed with your full bust adjustment.
Using your seam ripper, unpick the bust seam and also draw or stitch in the center front line on your bodice (black line on the photo above.)
Try on the bodice (timestamp 5:30) and move the bodice until the center front line is at your body’s natural center front. The princess seam should open up at this point, exposing the distance that will need to be added to the area for your adjustment.
If the bust point is correct and you see that you need to only add to your center front panel, continue with my video at the 6:00 minute marker.
If the bust point shifts and you see that you need to add to both the front and side panels, please watch my Butterick 6453 fitting video, which shows you how to adjust both panel pieces.
At this point, sew your final muslin and if you need a little bit taken out under your bust for a closer fit, go ahead and do that adjustment.
Then, tape the adjusted front bodice pattern piece back onto the skirt, doing anything adjustments to the skirt if you added any width (such as I did.) Also at this point, double check that your facings will match correctly and that the button placements will look good.
Fitting vintage McCall’s 7625 is not difficult.
However, as with most fitting, it does require a step-by-step process, which is almost meditative. One adjustment at a time, one step at a time to get to completion.
To be honest, I was anticipating McCall’s 7625 to be an uphill battle to get fitted correctly. Turns out my usual adjustments were just fine, and I was able to get this down pretty quickly and easily!
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Are you making this pattern? What sort of changes do you think you may have to do on it for a great fit? Have you sewn princess seams before? Let me know!
This post is part of the McCall’s 7625 Video Series!
Click the links below to see the rest of the videos in the series:
Vintage 1955 McCall’s 7625 Intro
How to Sew a Corner Seam
Sewing Walk-through of McCall’s 7625!
Discover More Vintage Sewing
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