I recently had a customer to my Etsy shop request that I make one of my cobbler aprons in a larger size. I thought this was a great opportunity to work on resizing a pattern. And, since the pattern is not very fitted in the first place - it is an apron after all! - the fit of the final resized pattern should be somewhat forgiving.
The first thing that I wanted to do was add some padding to my standard size 10/12 dress form Stella (you mean you never named your form??). I determined that I needed to add about 4 inches to the bust, waist, and hip measurements. I had just seen a great article in the latest Threads Issue (#161) where the author made custom dress form covers to fit his different clients and each of these would slip over his existing form. A very neat concept, but definitely more than what I required. In the end, I found some sturdy packing material and wrapped and taped it around Stella.
I was actually surprised at how well the packing material worked. Now I needed to adjust the pattern so that it was 4 inches larger in the bust, waist, and hip. The fact that the entire apron needed to be taken out by 4 inches made it very easy to modify the pattern. I modified the front and back pattern pieces by simply drawing a line parallel to the grain line about half-way between the grain line and the pattern edge. For the front pattern piece, this line lined up with the center of the waist dart. I cut the pattern pieces along this line and laid them on top of extra pattern paper, separating the cut pieces by one inch. After taping the cut pieces to the extra pattern paper, I extended the neck opening and the bottom hem. The new waist dart was in the correct location since it lined up with the cutting line. I also extended the hem of both front and back pattern pieces by one inch. And that was it for the pattern adjustment. I tested the front pattern piece on some muslin just to make sure all the darts were in the correct place.
The construction of the apron went pretty much the same as all my cobbler aprons. I have to say, though, that I was extra excited when I finished it and went to try it on Stella. I am very happy with the way the adjustment turned out, and I will definitely be adding this plus-sized option for my cobbler aprons to my shop!
