need help with pattern sizing quickly

Ok, I bought a pattern for a shirt I am working on and it's simplicity 5872.
I bought the wrong size, sizes 4-10 and I usually use a 12. But I looked at
the garment measures and when it's finished it says a bust for size 12 will
be about 40" !!!! I think it's meant to be loose and maybe God wanted me to
pick up the wrong size? I was wondering if it would be ok to make a size 4
or 6 which finished at 36/37 inches in the bust. I want it to be form
fitting that's why. Do you think I'd be ok? I'd test it with muslin but I
don't have tracing paper and I don't want to cut a 7$ pattern. So has anyone
went by the finished garment measures before and have it work out good?

Read the pattern very carefully and see if it just might tell you how much
ease is allowed. Sometimes they add so much that they must suspect you are
going to keep an entire litter of puppies beneath your shirt. Sometimes they
won't tell you but it's worth the time to read through.
I can't urge you too much to buy some of the stuff that looks very much
like interfacing but is actually made for pattern copies. It's white and has
red (I think) dots at the inch marks on a grid. It's just a grand tool for
taking a pattern of many sizes and enjoying them all.
And just one more random thought - using a size 4 or 6 to get it "form
fitting" is not only going to be slimmer - it is going to be lots shorter.
Probably. Don't ask me why the pattern companies think you get taller when
you get wider but sometimes they do. Hoping something here helps, Polly

"no spam" wrote in message
...
Ok, I bought a pattern for a shirt I am working on and it's simplicity
5872.
I bought the wrong size, sizes 4-10 and I usually use a 12. But I looked
at
the garment measures and when it's finished it says a bust for size 12
will
be about 40" !!!! I think it's meant to be loose and maybe God wanted me
to
pick up the wrong size? I was wondering if it would be ok to make a size 4
or 6 which finished at 36/37 inches in the bust. I want it to be form
fitting that's why. Do you think I'd be ok? I'd test it with muslin but I
don't have tracing paper and I don't want to cut a 7$ pattern. So has
anyone
went by the finished garment measures before and have it work out good?

Polly Esther wrote:

Read the pattern very carefully and see if it just might tell you how much
ease is allowed. Sometimes they add so much that they must suspect you are
going to keep an entire litter of puppies beneath your shirt. Sometimes they
won't tell you but it's worth the time to read through.
I can't urge you too much to buy some of the stuff that looks very much
like interfacing but is actually made for pattern copies. It's white and has
red (I think) dots at the inch marks on a grid. It's just a grand tool for
taking a pattern of many sizes and enjoying them all.
And just one more random thought - using a size 4 or 6 to get it "form
fitting" is not only going to be slimmer - it is going to be lots shorter.
Probably. Don't ask me why the pattern companies think you get taller when
you get wider but sometimes they do. Hoping something here helps, Polly

Having been a bigger size at 5'4" than I was, I can tell you why
patterns get longer: if your boobs are several inches further out than
those of a smaller woman of the same height (think the difference in
thickness of the torso between a size 8 Vogue Pattern woman and a size
20 Vogue Pattern woman), it's further round the bust point to the waist
on the bigger size, though the waist may be at the same distance in
vertical height from the shoulder. Longer distance = longer bit of
fabric.

Now that I am going back down the sizes, everything I own is getting too
long as well as too wide, as I no longer need so much of that extra
length to go round the bigger bust and hip sizes. The extra length on
back waist lengths on bigger sizes is not so marked as the extra on the
front, but it is there to cover the extra fat on the back.

If you have a look on most patterns, it will indicate the 'fit' expected
of the pattern, allowing you to see the difference between the body size
and the garment size. There is a table of ease allowances that will
tell you what to expect of the fitting description on my web site - URL
below. It's listed in Kate's Sewing Room, under the How To Do It
heading...
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Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
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