Once started, where to stop? I originally thought that the fitting issues with this jacket were mainly in the front pieces, around the bust/underarm area.

But even in the photograph above you can see that the shoulders need serious attention.  I don’t think that I have particularly narrow shoulders, a 4 1/4″ shoulder seam is what I usually put in blouses/dresses etc.,  and allowing for the fact that this is a jacket and has to go over other stuff, 4 1/2″ to 4 3/4″ [or even 5″ at a push] should be plenty. This shoulder seam is  5 1/4″.

Having decided to press on until I was happy with the fit the question wasn’t so much ‘where to start?’ as ‘where to finish?’ . I started by taking out the lining, shoulder pads and sleeve head and tape. This gave me a clear look inside.

I kept remembering all the advice I could on fitting – and the phrase “fit from the shoulders” kept popping into my head. If you get a good fit on the shoulders, and the garment hangs straight [perpendicular] with the bottom parallel to the floor, then you should be able to resolve any fitting issues you find. That’s the theory I cling to anyway.

Of course, the shoulders connect to the sleeve and any adjustment has to be catered for there. Remembering that the sleeve should hang down from the centre shoulder without wrinkles, and that it won’t [or shouldn’t] lie parallel with the side seam but hang slightly towards the front. [put your arm down by your side loosely relaxed and see where your lower arm and your hand/thumb point, you have to move your shoulders back to get your arm straight down by your side].

All this has slightly obscured the bust issue, but rather than tackling that first, I guess it will probably be the last thing to be adjusted. So far my fitting aims are;

1. Shoulders
2. Sleeve set and fit
3. Underarm/side seam
4. Adjust back, if needed.
5. Front princess seam over bust [the perceived original problem]
6. Putting it all back together again!

I’ll keep you posted how it goes.