Tag: top down

Knit to Fit: How Do You Want Your Sweater to Fit?

In your closet you might have casual clothes, fitted clothes and fancy dress clothes. Or you might be like me. In my closet I have casual clothes, old shabby clothes and more casual clothes. I’m assuming you might be a little more upscale than I am.

Casual clothes fit differently than fitted or dressy clothes. You also have a very personal way you like your clothes to fit you: close fitting, relaxed fit, over-sized fit (they still fit even though the fit is looser).

How you want your sweaters to fit?

A close fitting sweater is meant to hug your curves. At the bust this sweater will probably have negative ease (the sweater is slightly smaller than your measurement around your bust). It will have an inch or two of ease at the waist and will be shaped to the hips with minimal ease. This requires that you work both waist and hip shaping and if you are on the busty side, bust darts.Body schematic close fit

I have one of these fitted sweaters and wear it sometimes (read that to means only in a class demonstration to show this kind of fit). If you can wear close fitting sweaters go for it. They are beautiful sweaters.

I wear relaxed fit clothes which have a little more ease but still have a curve in them to represent the waist and have lots of wiggle room in the hips. They still follow the shape of the body, just a little distance from it. Generally the amount of ease is that same over all your curves, with possibly a little less ease at the bust.Body schematic relaxed fit

Then there is A-line shaping or over-sized sweaters. These are comfy, easy to wear garments. They can still look fantastic, especially if the bust fits closer to the body. To finesse them you can decrease a little bit under the bust before you begin working increases for the A-line shaping.  This gives this style of sweater a nice curve.Body schematic oversize fit A-lineI especially love this style of sweater.

Thanks for reading,

Deb

ANY GAUGE and GAUGE-FREE patternsby Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns

Deb on Instagram

Knit to Fit: 7 Reasons to Double Up the Increases for Bust Shaping

One of the easiest ways to work some extra width on the front of your Top Down Raglan sweater is to work an extra increase beside the regular Raglan increase on both sides of the Front. In the last couple of inches at the bottom of the yoke you can work the EASY BUST SHAPING .Bust shaping Yoke increases Body schematic working EASY

You can add up to about 3″/8cm to the Front this way. Bust shaping Yoke increases Body schematic direction of knitting

I was asked if there were specific circumstances where you would use this method.

  1.  It’s a very straight forward way to add width to the front of your sweater without affecting the upper yoke and neckline.
  2. It’s easy to add these extra increases into any Top Down Raglan sweater pattern that doesn’t have extra width already written in.
  3. A couple of extra inches on the front really helps to alleviate button gap on your cardigan. If you wear your cardigans buttoned up, positive ease at the bust is a necessity. I cringe every time I see button gaping on a cardigan in a magazine.
  4. Nothing shows. No one can see the extra increases since they are almost in your armpit.
  5. Working the increases above the underarm works really well for a bust that is high. More traditional bust darts may be too low when they begin below the underarm.
  6. One of the best reasons is for the well endowed. The Doubling Up of Increases method can be used in conjunction with more traditional styles of bust darts. A couple of inches added at the bottom of the yoke (just above the underarm) plus bust darts in the bust area itself can add 4-6″ extra width at the bust if needed.
  7. If you have a stitch pattern on your sweater, bust darts may interfere. This method can be added where you are already working the raglan lines so they are less likely to interfere.

Could you do a little bust shaping on your next Top Down using the Easy Bust Shaping method?

Thanks for reading,

Deb

ANY GAUGE and GAUGE-FREE patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns

Deb on instagram