Fit

Isn't fit always the biggest issue? If it doesn't fit you don't buy it from read-to-wear so why would you want to sew something that didn't fit? About 20 years ago I went to a Lutterloh System lecture. The lure was they would explain fitting issues and give you 5 or 6 patterns. It turned out to be an interesting lecture and as I suspected, they had something to sell. They gave us a little pamplet with miniture patterns with lines and numbers marked on it. Then they proceded to get a volunteer from the audience and used that person's measurments to create a waist coat pattern that fit the volunteer. They used the numbers and lines to expand the little one to two inch pattern into a full sized pattern.   

I was pretty impressed so I purchased the starter kit for these patterns and have used it all of these years. I found the same lecture a couple of weeks ago and decided to attend because they sold some things that would be pretty helpful tools that I did not purchase the first time.  Nearly word for word it was the exact same lecture. When I purchased the patterns the first time I was shaped like a Barbie doll so alterations were rarely needed or were very slight. 

In the twenty years between the lectures I spent more time sewing for my kiddos than for me and time has made alterations on me that I have to work with now. I specifically wanted to hear where to make height adjustments. Which they did cover so it was worth listening to the lecture again. Funny what we can forget, or not learn when it does not apply. 

Before I attended this lecture, I had ordered a kit from Glenda Spalding at Sure-Fit Designs.  Her kit arrived just after I attend the Lutterloh System lecture again. In addition, after much trial and error on trying to establish propper fit for me again, I succeded in scratching off a pattern from a well fitting ready-to-wear garment. Now I have three ways to make things fit properly.  

At the lecture I learned that the average seamstress makes about 7 garments per year. I think even in the "barely sewing at all years" I made more than that; but I can certainly understand why one would not want to sew if what they sewed did not fit.


From Online Etymology Dictionary - Fit

fit (n.1) 

1823, "the fitting of one thing to another," later (1831) "the way something fits." Originally "an adversary of equal power" (mid-13c.), obscure, possibly from Old English fitt "a conflict, a struggle" (see fit (n.2)).

fit (v.) 

"be suitable," probably from early 15c.; "to be the right shape," 1580s, from fit (adj.). Related: Fitted; fitting. Fitted sheets is attested from 1963.

fit (n.2) 

"paroxysm, sudden attack" (as of anger), 1540s, probably via Middle English sense of "painful, exciting experience" (early 14c.), from Old English fitt "conflict, struggle," of uncertain origin, with no clear cognates outside English. Perhaps ultimately cognate with fit (n.1) on notion of "to meet." Phrase by fits and starts first attested 1610s.

fit (adj.) 

"suited to the circumstances, proper," mid-15c., of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle English noun fit "an adversary of equal power" (mid-13c.), which is perhaps connected to fit (n.1). Related: Fitter; fittest. Survival of the fittest (1867) coined by H. Spencer.

fit (n.3) 

part of a poem, Old English fitt, of unknown origin.

fitful (adj.) 

used once by Shakespeare ("Macbeth," 1605) in sense of "characterized by fits," then revived by Scott (1810) with a sense of "shifting, changing." From fit (n.2) + -ful. Related: Fitfully;fitfulness.

fitness (n.) 

1570s, from fit (adj.) + -ness.

fitter (n.) 

1650s, agent noun from fit (v.).

fitting 

1530s (adj.); c.1600 (n.), from present participle of fit (v.).