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Having a well-fitted bodice – a blouse, top, or shirt – is delightful because you hardly notice that you even have it on. You can move freely. You don’t have to pull it down and get it positioned correctly on your body. It moves with you. It doesn’t constrict or restrict you. It is so comfortable that you want to be wearing it. And it flatters your own unique figure by creating a pleasing visual proportion. Garments like this are magical!

Building on my Fitting Fundamentals course, this video course covers the wide and wild world of darted bodice fitting. Using my Signature Fitting Method with four different figures, from the first through the last muslins, I demonstrate the ins and outs of the full fitting process for darted bodices and set-in sleeves. In these videos, I guide you through the key principles and concepts of fit, patternwork and design choices, enabling you to apply these methods to any figure, so you can reliably get the fit that you desire.

In this in-depth course, you’ll be able to hear my thought process as I solve fitting problems, and watch how my hands experiment while reading and manipulating the fabric. I’ll demonstrate how I use rulers and the steps involved in patternwork changes. With real examples, I’ll show how you can make a person’s figure look more visually proportionate through the way you fit the figure. We’ll cover a lot of ground together in this course, so please join me and learn all about darted bodice fitting!

Video Package Includes:

Eight streamable videos, each approximately 50 minutes in length
Time-stamped indexes of key topics and concepts, for easy referencing
Life-time access
Free access to my "All About Horizontal Balance Lines" Master Class!

Content Includes:

My tried and true fitting methodology through all stages of the muslin making and fitting process — all the way from taking control of your initial pattern, to cutting out and marking a mockup, to every stage of fitting first through last mockups, and making style and design choices as you do so.
The full process of first through last mockup fittings on four different individuals: Myself (on my scanned dress form as well as on my body), a curvy figure, a large-busted figure, and a small-busted figure:
- For the large-busted figure, I fit two different mockups, one with and one without a full-bust adjustment (FBA), demonstrating how the process can go differently, depending on one’s starting place, and yet both end up with a nice fit.
- For the small-busted figure, we do the initial fitting, a number of fine-tune fittings, and conclude with a finished garment.
At each stage along the way, you’ll get to listen to my thought process as I look at and assess the mockup. And you’ll be able to see how my hands are moving in real-time as I manipulate the muslin.
My ultimate goal is to give you the tools to get the kind of fit you want, to empower you to fit beautifully. And if you wish, I want to help you become a skilled and intuitive master fitter.
In this course, I demonstrate many key darted bodice fitting skills, including:
- How to assess which pattern size(s) to start from
- How to think through when and how much of a full bust adjustment (FBA) to do
- How to assess for appropriate wearing ease
- How to release tightness or take in excess fabric
- How to level the HBL
- How to assess dart intakes and drape in darts
- How to change the placement of the shoulder seam
- How to fit and mark the armhole
- How to fit a set-in sleeve
- How to make a rounded back adjustment
- And much, much more!
Discussion and demonstration of making fitting choices that are also comfort, style, and design changes, and developing an eye for pleasing visual proportion:
- Bust darts: single darts, double darts, and other darting options
- How to experiment with necklines
- Fisheye and waist-fitting darts (single and double)
- How to experiment with set-in sleeve cap styles: gathers, pleats, 2-piece sleeve
- What a technically good fit is, and how sometimes we alter a technically good fit in order to gain comfort
- How to track multiple style options for the same pattern
This course wouldn’t be complete without my thorough coverage of key patternmaking skills, including:
- How to mark the pattern and muslin for a front entry into the test garment
- How to true a pattern
- How to transfer fitting changes from the muslin to the pattern
- How to mark and blend new darts and seams
- How to use different types of rulers
- How to form dart legs and dart extensions
- How to blend a new armhole
- And more!

Please note: When you sign up for a course, you will receive emails that will contain course login information. To ensure that these do not get sent to your junk or spam folder, be sure to add courses@sarahveblen.com to your email contacts.

See the Video Course FAQ page for more info and instructions.