Made-to-measure patterns for a full bust

A shop-bought pattern is drafted for a reference cup size: it assumes an average difference between your bust and your high bust. When your difference is bigger, choosing your size by your bust gives shoulders and a back that are too wide; choosing it by your high bust leaves the front too short and too narrow.

That is what a full bust adjustment, or FBA, corrects: you keep the size that fits your shoulders and open up the front only, to give it the length and width the bust needs. A pattern drafted to your measurements does that work in the drafting, provided it knows both measurements.

For the method on paper, step by step, read our article fitting a pattern to your bust (FBA / SBA).

It all depends on the pattern block, and we would rather say so plainly:

• the blouse and the shirt, for a woman's figure, are drafted on a women's bodice block with a bust dart: the upper body is built on your high bust, and the dart takes up the difference with your bust;
• the tailored coat, for a woman's figure, also has its bust dart, with a side panel;
• our dresses are all drafted on a darted bodice;
• T-shirts, jumpers and sweatshirts, sewn in knit fabric, have no bust dart: they are drafted to your bust, and the toile tells you whether the ease at the bust suits you and whether the front rides up.

Each block is described in detail on its own page, for example the one for the made-to-measure blouse.

And to sew a dart neatly, follow our guide how to sew a dart.

Your high bust is taken with the tape high under the armpits: above the bust at the front, across the shoulder blades at the back. It isn't one of the eleven required body measurements: we offer it in the optional ‘For a more accurate pattern’ step. Without it, we estimate it from your bust, which amounts to assuming the average difference of a shop-bought pattern. With it, on the blouse, the shirt and the tailored coat, it is your real difference that is drafted.

In the same step, shoulder to bust point, from the top of the shoulder close to the neck down to the bust point, places the bust dart at the right height. Take these measurements wearing the bra you will wear under the garment: they depend on it.

The form accepts a bust from 70 to 150 cm and a high bust from 65 to 145 cm. Outside these limits, we can't yet draft accurately.

To measure yourself accurately, follow our guide to taking your measurements.

A dart drafted to your measurements doesn't replace a fitting. A toile is still recommended, and even more so here: the position of the dart and the ease at the bust are judged on the body, not on paper.

Our studio does not draft these yet: bustiers, halterneck tops, wrap dresses, dressing gowns and kimonos, kaftans, ponchos, pleated skirts, wrap skirts, corsets, lingerie, swimwear, wedding dresses and formal occasion or haute couture pieces. If your design can't be drafted, no credits are deducted.

T-shirts and vest tops, skirts, jumpers and sweatshirts, hoodies and shorts are the families we know best; for the upper body, they are sewn in knit fabric.