Saturday 23 September 2017

Back to School Sweater CAL - Making Alterations to Suit



Welcome to this week's post on the #backtoschoolsweaterCAL blog hop. Find out more about the blog hop and CAL here. You've already thought about why you want to crochet a garment, choosing a style, selecting yarn, measuring, swatching and ease - now we can look at making adjustments to the pattern.

I've included a list of the resources I've come across at the bottom of the post. If you can recommend any other resources, leave them in the comments and I can add to the list.

Why would you want to make adjustments anyway?

One of the great reasons for crocheting a garment, instead of just buying one, is that you can make it fit you as opposed to a standard size 12, or whatever.  A pattern also has to fit a generic size, although there may be more sizes available to choose from, but since every body is different, this may require you to make some small changes to get a pattern perfect for you.

Another reason for adjusting a pattern is because we can! You might fall in love with a pattern, but you prefer longer or shorter sleeves, or you want waist shaping added/removed, or you like really long/short tops and so on. Making a garment from scratch means we can change things to suit us - within reason, obviously!

What kind of adjustments can you make?

These are some common adjustments you might make to a pattern.

  • Lengthen or shorten the body
  • Lengthen or shorten the sleeve
  • Alter the sleeve width towards the wrist
  • waist shaping
  • bust adjustment
  • adding width for hip/tummy 
  • pulling in the neckline
  • adding stitches because of falling between sizes
  • choosing a different size due to a different gauge

As you grow in confidence, you may end up doing more than one adjustment within a pattern, until you have completely customised it. You will also come to recognise where you generally need to make adjustments, which will speed up the planning time.

Some adjustments are going to be easier than others, and you need to be careful to make them within the confines of the pattern shape, so that you don't cause more problems than you solve - eg, adjusting around the sleeve area, so that the sleeves no longer fit in the armhole.

The important thing to remember is that if you make a mistake, you can pull it out and try again. You may have lost some time, but you will have gained more understanding of how (or how not) to do a particular adjustment, which will speed up your next project.

What do you need to be successful?

Before you can decide what adjustments you need to make, there are two very important steps to take (see the last blog hop post)

1. accurate body measurements

You can't guess, and you can't go by your shop-bought size. These will not be accurate enough to make your pattern changes successful. Measure yourself and also measure a favourite sweater, so you can see how your size compares to the sweater, which gives you an idea about the ease you like. Measurments you might need include bust (across the fullest part of the bust), waist, hips (high for shorter tops, or fullest hip for longer tops), shoulder to hip/waist length, arm length and upper arm width. The resources listed at the bottom of the page can give you more help on which measurements to take.

2. Gauge swatch

You can't avoid this step because you need to know your stitch and row measurements if you want to make any accurate adjustments. There's no point doing all the work of making your garment to discover you were slightly out on your gauge and it doesn't fit at all.

Once you have your swatch measurements, you can get your stitch per inch (or cm) and row per inch (cm) measurements.

eg. your gauge is 24dc and 12 rows to 4 inches (10 cm)

Divide the stitches by 4 (or 10) to get per stitches per inch (cm) :
24 ÷ 4 = 6dc per inch   (24 ÷ 10 = 2.4dc per cm)

Repeat this for the rows :
12 ÷ 4 = 3 rows per inch   (12 ÷ 10 = 1.2 rows per cm)

Don't worry about fractions of a stitch or row for now. As you use these values you can decide if you need to round up or down to the nearest stitch or row.

Make things easier

Always try and find something in the pattern you can use, rather than reinventing the wheel: merge sizes, use a different size front from the back, look for decreases or increases that you can use.

eg. Start with a small in the yoke, increase stitches to match medium in the bust, increase again to match large in the hips.

Examples

Merged sizes, added shaping, lengthened

  • Lengthen or shorten the body or sleeves

You can use the rows per inch (cm) if you want to alter the length. Multiply the rows per inch (cm) number by the number of inches needed.

eg. I want to add 3 inches to the length of the sleeve. In the swatch example, I have 3 rows per inch, so that gives me 3 (rows) x 3 (inches) = 9 extra rows needed. 

eg. I want to remove 2.5 inches from the length of the garment.
So, 3 (rows) x 2.5 (inches) = 7.5 rows. Since I can't have half a row, I can choose to crochet 8 or 7 rows less than given in the pattern.

  • Alter sleeve width

Most sleeves decrease in width from the upper arm width (or increase, if you're working from the end of the sleeve). 

You can remove all of the decreases/increases to have the same width all the way.

You can use the stitch per inch (cm) if you want to alter the width of the sleeve. Multiply the stitches per inch (cm) number by the number of inches needed.

You can remove some of the decreases, to make the bottom wider.
eg. I want a final sleeve width of about 6 inches.
Using the previous swatch example with 6dc per inch: 6 (stitches) x 6 (inches) = 36 stitches at the end of the sleeve.
Looking at the pattern, I can finish decreasing when I have roughly 36 stitches and just work even after that. In reverse, start at 36 stitches and do fewer increases.

You can insert decreases/increases to make the bottom narrower.
eg. I want a final sleeve width of about 6 inches. 6 (stitches) x 6 (inches) = 36 stitches at the end of the sleeve. Add in extra decreases to reach 36 stitches. Or in reverse, start at 36 stitches and add increases to reach the pattern starting point.

You can spread the decreases/increases out differently, to better match the width of your arm. Use the stitches per inch measurement to see how wide the sleeve is at each change and insert and remove rows before/after to change where that measurement lands on your arm.

  • Waist shaping, bust or hip/tummy adjustments, falling between sizes

You can use the stitch per inch (cm) if you want to alter the width of the garment. Multiply the stitches per inch (cm) number by the number of inches needed.

eg. I want to add 2 inches to the bust area.  Using the previous swatch example with 6dc per inch: 6 (stitches) x 2 (inches) = 12 extra stitches needed. Increase the 12 extra stitches towards the bust, and decrease them afterwards.

eg. I want to add waist shaping by removing 1.5 inches from the width of the garment. Again using the previous swatch, 6 (stitches) x 1.5 (inches) = 9 stitches to remove. Decrease 9 stitches towards the waist, and increase again afterwards.

Merged sizes, different size front and back, added shaping, added length

  • pulling in the neckline

If you end up with a much wider neckline than you like, you could continue decreases if you're working bottom up, start with a smaller chain and do more increases, for top-down, or add an edging to the neckline at the end.

  • unable to match gauge

If you can't match gauge, but you're happy with the fabric you've created in your swatch, you could see if you can match up with a different size in the pattern than normal.

eg. Pattern gauge is 26dc and 14 rows to 4 inches
So: 26 ÷ 4 = 6.5 stitches per inch
14 ÷ 4 = 3.5 rows per inch
Size M is 40" across the bust, according to the schematic, so 6.5 (stitches) x 40 (inches) = 260 stitches. 
Size S is 37", so 6.5 (stitches) x 37 (inches) = 240.5 stitches (rounded to 240 stitches in the pattern)

Using the previous gauge, I have only 6 stitches and 3 rows per inch.
To get a 40" bust measurement, I need 6 (stitches) x 40 (inches) = 240 stitches

My gauge gives me the right number of stitches to follow size S instead of size M. It's a good idea to check other areas, eg arms, to see if you need to make any other adjustments.


Not exactly an adjustment, but used thicker yarn (so different gauge) with numbers from a child-size pattern

Resources

This post can only be a quick overview, because "making adjustments" is a large and fascinating topic! Hopefully this has given you enough information to get started, but here are some resources for more help.

NB. I've used Amazon links to the books for ease, but I'm not affiliated and received nothing for writing this post.

Essential books (in my opinion) :
Top-Down Crochet Sweaters and Custom Crocheted Sweaters, both by Dora Ohrenstein. These have so much information in the opening chapters on measuring and adjusting, the patterns are almost an added bonus.

Other books which may be useful - I haven't read them but they're on my list. Knitting based, but the adjustment and measurement information should still be of use.
Knit to Flatter or Knit Wear Love - Amy Herzog
Little Red in the City - Ysolda Teague
Knitting Plus - Lisa Shroyer

Craftsy classes: (sign up to emails and check for sales)
Dora Ohrenstein Custom-Fit Tunisian Crochet - I managed to preview some of this class, and it looks like it has some useful fitting information, plus tunisian crochet technique, so double-whammy!
Marly Bird Curvy Crochet plus-size techniques

Haven't tried these, but again they are on my list:
Amy Herzog - Sweater Modifications for Custom Fit
Amy Herzog - Knit to Flatter
Amy Herzog - Simple Techniques for a Super Fit

Online resources:
Craft Yarn Council standard measurements
Craft Yarn Council Woman size charts
Robin Hunter - Measurement sketch
Robin Hunter - How to take the measurements

Thanks for reading!

This post is part of the Back to School Sweater Blog Hop and CAL. Last week's post from The Crochet Project is here : Measuring and swatching The next stop on the blog hop will be 30th September 2017 when Fay of  Knit it-Hook-it-Craft-it and The Crochet Circle Podcast will be talking about finishing, washing, blocking and caring for your garment. Not to be missed! Find out more about the CAL in The Crochet Circle Podcast group on Ravelry.


7 comments:

  1. Such a helpful post and I love all your examples. Thanks Sam xx

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    1. Thanks Helen xx. I hope it gives people confidence to have a go. It's so satisfying when you make a change, and it works!
      (And look, I even remembered to reply to a comment - I'm improving!)

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  2. Thanks for a useful post Sam! It's very satisfying to customise a pattern so it fits perfectly. xx

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  3. Great blog post Sam! The sweaters you've made all fit so well! I like the examples of the calculations and the suggestion to make things easier by looking at existing sizes. I need to make longer sleeves on my sweater so I'll be following your advice. And I am now using the term customize to describe the three times I've messed up my yoke. "I've been customizing my sweater" sounds so much better. Thank you so much for being part of our blog hop!

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  4. Wow, Sam this is so helpful! So many nuggets of usefulness and information to take in - I'll be making a note and coming back here when I'm at the stage of inevitable alterations to my garments!


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  5. Amazing work Sam - definitely a page to bookmark for reference! So much detail, thank you x

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  6. So many calculations I hadn't thought about, thanks for sharing your expertise.

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