High bust 89cm, full bust 99cm, waist matches the size 12 in this pattern company and hips are between 12 and 14. The pattern is drafted for a B cup. I have 2.2 metres of a fabric I cannot buy again, so I get roughly one shot at cutting this. Sizing up feels safer because it needs no pattern surgery, but I have read enough to know that is probably wrong.
Rough guide I use: under 5cm difference between high and full bust, ignore it and cut the straight size. 5 to 7cm, decide by how fitted the garment is. Over 7cm, do the FBA every time. At 10cm you would notice the difference from across a room.
Agreed, with the note that the pattern company matters. Some draft for a C or D cup as standard and say so in the size chart, in which case the numbers all shift.
Mild pushback: if this pattern is a loose fitting shift or a boxy top with a lot of ease, the FBA earns much less and you can cut the 12 straight. The adjustment matters in proportion to how fitted the garment is. For anything with a waist seam or princess seams, do it.
Cut your toile in something with a similar weight and drape to the good fabric, not calico, if you can spare it. A stiff toile will lie to you about where the bust apex sits.
@seasonalpalette · 2mo ago · 3 replies
Choose the size by your high bust, so the 12, and do a full bust adjustment of the difference. Do not size up.
The reason is that a pattern size is really a shoulder and neck and armhole size with a bust attached. Going up a size adds to the neckline, shoulder width, armhole depth and back width, none of which you need, and you end up with a neckline that slides off and armholes you cannot fill. Then you take those in and undo everything you gained.
Your difference is 10cm, which sits around a D cup in most drafting systems and is squarely FBA territory. It is one of the easier pattern alterations and there are only four lines: from the armhole notch to the bust point, from the bust point into the waist dart, from the bust point down to the hem, and a horizontal one across to the centre front.
On fabric: an FBA on a 12 uses less than a straight 14 or 16, so it also helps with your 2.2 metres.
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@serger_seth · 2mo ago
And an FBA gives you a bigger dart, which is what actually produces room for a bust rather than just more circumference sitting in the wrong place.
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@protein_pia · 2mo ago
Do the FBA on paper, then make the toile out of an old sheet before you touch the good fabric. One shot at cutting is exactly when you want the ugly practice version.
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