Hi, I'm Haley at Seamwork and today I am going to show you how to make a shoulder slope adjustment.
So shoulders are a really important part of any garment that has a shoulder seam and that's
because the shoulders are an anchor point. So if that point is off, then everything is going to be
off. Sometimes you might find that your shoulders are at a slightly different angle than the pattern
was drafted for and that is okay — this super easy adjustment is going to show you how to fix the
pattern so that it fits you perfectly, because that's the whole point. So how do you know if you
need this adjustment? If your shoulders are more flat than the pattern is drafted for this is how
it may present, you might have these kind of ears or points winging up towards your face right here
at the neckline. If this is the case for you then all you need to do is pinch out
a little bit. So you'll grab a pin like I have here and you'll just pinch out the amount that you need
so that it fits your shoulder snugly and anchors evenly across that shoulder seam. You may find
that you have the opposite problem, maybe your shoulders are more sloped than the pattern is
drafted for and that's okay too. How this would present on you is you would notice some
kind of straining here at the high point shoulder, and straining or tightness and feeling there tells
me or tells you that you need more fabric in this point. All you would do is take some scissors or
a seam ripper and rip along that seam and measure how much needs to be added. Once you've determined
the amount you want to add or reduce we can make our pattern adjustment, I'm going to show you how.
Okay, so if the angle of your shoulder slope is too dramatic and is winging up towards your ears
you're going to want to drop this point a little bit lower. So after you've tried on your muslin
and you've pinched out how much you want to remove, you'll transfer that marking to your pattern. This
pattern has the seam allowances already removed, so if you're working with a pattern that has
seam allowance, make sure that you remove them or mark them along the neckline, the shoulder, and the
armhole. This pattern doesn't have seam allowance. So let's say that I want to remove a quarter of
an inch. I'm going to mark that at the shoulder, right at the neckline and then using my ruler,
I'm going to blend that line from the quarter mark to zero at the low point shoulder, which is where
your shoulder connects with your sleeve. And there you have it. Then what I can do is take my scissors,
trim along
that drawn line there,
and once that is removed,
I can add my seam allowance back to the neckline shoulder and armhole, and that's it!
You might have the opposite issue, maybe your shoulder is more dramatically sloped in which
case you're going to be seeing strain on your muslin right here and that's cool, that's also
really, really easy to fix. What you're going to do is you're going to grab some pattern paper,
and it will make loud noises,
and then we're gonna do a little taping so that we can add some more room. So start by taping in
your extra pattern paper, so you have room to add room.
So let's say that you need to add an extra quarter of an inch right here to your high point shoulder
to eliminate that strain that you're seeing. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to
extend your neckline by one quarter of an inch and i'm using the grid of my clear ruler to help me
do that. I've just extended and then made like a nice little square line with myself, this is why
clear rulers are awesome. From there, I am going to do the same thing — take my ruler, line up with my
point that I measured to and then to zero at the shoulder the low point shoulder, and then I'm just
gonna draw that line. Again, my pattern has no seam allowance so if your pattern has seam allowance
remove it from the neckline, the shoulder, and the armhole.
It's just going to save you a lot of grief and like backwards fraction math. Then from there, you
have your new shoulder slope that's custom to your body. All you need to do is add your seam allowance
back into your neckline, your shoulder, and your armhole and as always make sure that you're making
the same change to the back of your bodice as well. And you won't need to change your sleeve because
nothing has changed right here, everything has stayed exactly the same on both adjustments.