The Cassidy Wrap Top comes with two cup size ranges: B-cup (sizes 0-22) and D-cup (sizes 12-34). Both size ranges were drafted based on their own blocks and have an overlap between sizes 12-22, which will have both B-cup and D-cup sizes available. You may be wondering, what if your cup size is larger than what is offered for your size? Don’t worry, today we will show you how to do a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) on the Cassidy Wrap Top.
Cassidy is not your typical bodice pattern. It does not have darts, the shoulders are dropped, and it is a wrap front. This combination may feel intimidating, but you can absolutely do an FBA on Cassidy and we are going to show you how!
First off, what is your cup size? In a nutshell, the cup size is determined by the difference between your high bust and full bust measurements. A difference of 2” (5 cm) corresponds to B-cup size, and a difference of 4” (10cm) corresponds to D-cup size. Make sure to read page 7 of the instruction booklet if you want more in-depth directions.
Example Measurements:
High Bust: 38” (96.5 cm)
Full Bust: 44” (112 cm)
Waist: 32” (81.5 cm)
According to the example measurements, we can make size 16-D because it fits across the full bust. But since the rest of the measurements fall into size 14, size 14-D with a FBA would result in an even better fit in the shoulders and the waist.
The math:
(Your Full Bust Measurement - The Full Bust Measurement of the size you want to make) / 2
The full bust measurement in our example is 44” (112 cm), and the size 14 is 42” (106.5 cm)
44” (112 cm) - 42” (106.5 cm) = 2” (5 cm) difference
Following the equation above:
2” (5 cm) / 2 = 1” (2.5 cm)
Hence, the pattern will need to be adjusted by 1” (2.5 cm) total.
How to do to an FBA (Full Bust Adjustment)
You will need the front (pattern piece 1) and front facing (pattern piece 5), a marker/pen/pencil, ruler, tape and extra paper.
Start by tracing off the pattern pieces onto a new sheet of paper. You don’t have to do this if you want to work on the originals and don’t mind printing the pattern again if needed.
Draw in the seam allowance on the shoulder of the front pattern piece. The seam allowance for Cassidy is 5/8” (1.6 cm).
Draw a vertical line (red) starting in the middle of the waist attachment seam between the two gathering notches.
Eyeball where the apex may be (highest bust point), but make sure it is above the lengthen/shorten line. Do your best estimating where the apex is by holding the pattern piece up to your body. The Cassidy Wrap Top does not have a true bust dart so there is no need to be super accurate here.
Pivot your red line at where you've marked the apex, and continue drawing in a straight towards the middle of the shoulder seam.
Draw line 2 (green) from somewhere on the side seam towards the apex. Again, no need to be precise here as we will eliminate the dart created by this line later.
Draw line 3 (blue) using a portion of the lengthen/shorten line. This will make lengthening the front facing easier at a later step.
There is no hard and fast rule on where exactly these lines must be. Just try to make your lines resemble the lines below.
Starting at the bottom of the pattern piece, cut line 1 (red) up to the apex. Pivot at the apex and keep cutting towards the shoulder, stopping at the seam line (5/8” away from the edge). From the shoulder, cut into the seam allowances towards your cut line, making sure to leave a small paper hinge.
Starting at the side seam, cut line 2 (green) almost all the way to the apex. Be sure to leave a paper hinge here as well! If you accidently cut your hinge, don’t sweat it—you can just pretend it is there.
Cut through line 3 completely.
Put a spare piece of paper underneath your pattern piece and tape piece A down. Leave the rest un-taped for now as you will be moving them around.
Before you start spreading the lines open, we need to know how much room to add. We calculated this above. In our example, we need to add 1” (2.5 cm), which will give us a total of 2” (5 cm) added across the whole front bodice. This is an example only and your number will likely be different.
Let’s get back to the pattern. Start by carefully moving pieces B and C out to the side. You will be adding room right where you drew line 1. At the same time, move piece C down so that the hemline is staying true and the sides of the cut line 1 are staying parallel to each other. This will create a gap where line 1 used to be.
The gap where line 1 is where we will be adding room and is the most important. The sides of this gap should always be parallel, and the width should equal the number from the equation above. Once you are happy, tape pieces B and C in place.
Move piece D into position so that it is the extension of the center front and is on the same line as piece C. Tape it down.
Straighten out the shoulder line and redraw the neckline, side and waist seams. Don’t worry too much about drawing the side and the waist seams perfectly, we are not finished with them just yet.
Cut the new pattern piece out. You can also just trim the extra paper for now and wait to cut the pattern piece out once we are completely finished.
You now have a dart-like shape on the side of the pattern piece where line 2 used to be. However, we don’t want a dart there . . . so let’s rotate it out!
Cut through the bottom of line 2 and bottom left side of line 1, leaving a small hinge between them. Redraw these lines if necessary so they are clearly visible.
Next, rotate piece C up towards piece B, closing the space that was created by our adjustment in the earlier steps. This will add room to the bottom of the bodice, right where we need it!
Place extra paper underneath the bodice. Redraw the waist seam line between the notches, making sure it is slightly curved like the original line was. Cut the new front out.
Finally, lengthen front facing (piece 5) by the distance that was created in place of line 3 (blue). Cut through the lengthen/shorten lines on the front facing and add the required amount. True up the seams and cut the new pattern piece out.
Note, we always recommend sewing a muslin when you make adjustments to a pattern.
Congrats! You just did an FBA on a gathered bodice with a dropped shoulder! Whoo-hoo! Sewing the Cassidy Wrap Top is exactly the same, you will just have more bust gathers and a much better fit!
