The BRUTAL truth (and lies) about SEWING PLUS SIZE CLOTHES!

Thank you for watching and for your wonderful comments! I’m reading them all and loving hearing your views! A great and well needed discussion. Please share this anywhere you think will interest people so we can get the message out there and further open dialogue x

Many years ago a boss told me I would look much taller if I wore higher heels. I polity told her at 5 ft tall the only thing would make me look taller was a pair of stilts and they weren't in the dress code

I've been pulled into looking inside some late victorian dress making books and almost all of them give a variety of adjustments for the different body shapes and types to, in the end, get the "fashionable silhouette" without body shaming, but rather tweeking the cut of the cloths to propperly fit the individual's body. Ready made cloths nowadays are made with the mind set of changing the body to fit the cloths/style. Which I think is a very wharped way of thinking.

Make yourself a block. If you have one pattern that fits you well ,you can add details and use different fabrics to create a totally different look. All of the alterations are done on the block. Make peace with your body. I have a friend who is petite and slim and has problems finding clothing small enough.If you have a favourite garment that you wear a lot,analyze what it is that you love about it. Fabric,colour,print? I find ready to wear plus size clothing sometimes has decorative touches that make them look cheap. I like plain colours,stripes,checks and some small prints. I see other wearing large florals and think they are pretty but past experience has taught me that I won’t wear them. Clare you are as charming ,entertaining and informative as ever. Have a wonderful holiday season. Black shoes,black leggings,a variety of tunics and a few accessories…I’m good.

I'm 76 , tall, shortwasted with really long legs. I've gained 20 pounds and can fit into my clothes. I don't like the clothes inthe stores now--for only the young, fit, or frumpy. Claire, I am so proud that you have attacked the lies about sizes... looking good is what matters. Ill-fitting does no one any favors. Thank you for this video..

When I started pattern testing, it really opened my eyes to the breadth and depth of adjustments made by sewists of all body types. Here I thought that MOST people were making the pattern as-is, and it was an issue with my size and body shape that resulted in needing to make adjustments, but that is definitely not true!

My brutal truth was when my bust or hips got over 44 inches, I often needed TWICE as much fabric as I did when they were under 44 inches. You might think if you are just a couple inches bigger than you used to be, you only need a little bit more fabric than you used to. But if your fabric is 44/45 inches wide, you often need twice as much fabric. When I got too big to make a pencil skirt from a single length of 44" fabric, I cried. Due to fixed standard fabric widths, there is a definite cutoff point when you will be spending double for your fabric. (and have a lot more waste).

Thanks so much for this video. One thing really hit home and I appreciate that you said it: we look better in a garment that is the right size. What hit home is the “looks better” comment. With the body positivity movement, sometimes it seems taboo to say anything that suggests that as a larger person, I may want to look “smaller/not even bigger than I am/wear something flattering”. I want to wear things that make me look my best, and doesn’t show off things I don’t like. “Normal” size people choose garments and outfits this way, why can’t we? Just because I do this, doesn’t mean I hate my body. I want to look good, whatever that means to me.

The one thing that has really helped me was the back of vogue patterns. They show which body types would look good in each particular pattern. This how I found out I'm a rectangular. Fit and flair is a no go. I'm quite petit and short waisted. This why I have to make my own. I enjoy your channel.

I also like my clothes to fit, but sometimes I can be a little too picky with my own makes. I made a top recently and thought the arm hole was not sitting right. Luckily before I took it apart I tried on a 'bought' top I knew fitted well and I was pleasantly surprised that my own effort was good enough. Also confidence it a big deal. My friend put on a lot of weight last year and her glittery xmas top didn't fit and she didn't want to go out. Anyway after a bit of persuading she put on a t-shirt that fitted and zuzzed it up with some sparkly jewellery and hair glitter and she looked amazing and had a great time.

I absolutely agree that you should wear the colors that you feel good in and if you like stripes then wear stripes. That is a complete myth that women of size should always wear black and as far as I'm concerned it's nonsense. Most women don't look good in Black anyway

When the big 4 are polling people, maybe they're not taking into account all the plus sized sewists who have dropped out of sewing due to all the tedious upsizing that had to be done.thru the years. I was never a B cup & didnt know how to do a FBA way back but my younger body still fit better into standard patterns, so i just figured it out. YT has opened a door for me of pattern drafting, upsizing patterns, & other sewing skills that i never learned yrs back. I did a lot of natural "winging it" but it only took me so far. I'm learning to look up the pattern i want to make to see how it looks on a normal person, especially the plus version which is often not featured on the envelope.

Over the years, I have bought many, many (waaaay too many) big 4 patterns, knowing I would have to do major adjustments. I have really hated them, because they were styles that I liked, but the alterations would be way to hard. So, yes, your black shoe / blue shoe analogy is perfect. I do not buy the big 4 any more, even for their crafts. I have bought Cashmerette for many years, and I love them, because they do not treat me like an outcast. I wholeheartedly agree with you on your assessments, and I really feel that it is a huge market that most designers are missing. Thank you for your comments!

When I was in college, I worked in a fabric store part-time. I often had to convince customers to ignore their ready-to-wear sizes and go with the measurements on the pattern envelopes. I suspect that many couldn’t bear to sew up patterns in the correct sizes and instead made garments that were too small to wear.

Cheers! Us oddball shaped people rise up!

Oh wow, I wasn't expecting to cry at the last point you made. I honestly crochet more than I sew anymore due to available space in my household and I do the same thing with my yarn the same way I do with my fabrics. I shy away from using any of my pretty things for myself out of fear that I'm just wasting it on my body... but what sense does that make, right?! It was purchased to be used and it deserves to be worn, be it yarn, fabric, makeup, whatever. Thank you for the perspective throughout this whole video, and especially right at the end. You're a wise woman.

I’m a US 4-6 bottom and a 10-12 top due the the girls lol. I have discovered you can’t really look at sizes. I have to buy dresses up and get them altered. It does hit your ego to buy that larger size and you know it’s a number and in other brands you wear something different; and you know nobody sees the tag, etc. but it’s still a mental thing. I love how you explain things. I’ve decided to venture into sewing for me. It will be a first. I made my daughters’ dresses and I make quilts, but grown up clothing is something foreign. Thank you for having such a wonderful channel!

This hit a chord even though Im a bit late to the party! It occured to me last year that the reason that designers like tall people with little flesh on their bodies is that they are more standard and the clothes are interchangable. The more flesh you have, the more individual your body becomes, often in a delicious way! Great video :)

Thank you, Claire, for the honesty especially about the difference between learning how to sew and learning how to fit.

OMG! I am SOOOOOO glad you talked about the baggy styles and very dark coloring for plus sized women. I do like black, but I do not want a completely black wardrobe. Most manufacturers of plus sized clothing only know these colors: black, dark navy, dark grey, and dark brown solids. Plus women couldn't want anything else, right? And a lot of pattern makers only see us in baggy styles, not the slightly over-sized fashion style, but made like a grocery sack. I am done with all of that. I have taken to drafting my own patterns from beloved things that fit me and I love to wear. Sometimes it takes a bit of adjustment, but I get what I like in the colors I want.