Tag: fit

Care and Feeding of Your Fantastic Beasts…er, Masks

Posted on by Felix

The proper way to put on, wear, remove, and tolerate your face masks

By Kitty

UPDATE (Nov 2020): A lot of changes and new knowledge have come to light since this blog was written.  Some of this content is still accurate, but some of it may have become obsolete.  Please read the more recent mask-related blogs for up-to-date information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and mask-related issues.

Most of the world now agrees that face masks are a Good Thing, but like many good things, they can do more harm than good if used the wrong way.   

Masks aren’t magic talismans that automatically protect people who wear them; they’re a tool for a particular job.  And like all important life tools (hand sanitizer, hand weights, hand blenders, condoms, etc.), you need to learn to use them properly if you want them to do their job. 

I’ve seen all the mistakes mentioned below more times than I can count, where people end up turning masks into actual health hazards.  So here is a succinct summary of how to safely use face masks to protect yourself and others. 

NOTE: I’ve written a slew of blogs concerning face masks in the last couple of months (covering assorted mask styles, fitting different faces, cultural attitudes toward mask wearing, even Harry Potter-inspired masks), so I won’t repeat huge tracts of the same info here.  If you want more detailed discussion, you can read those, and/or the FAQs on the website.

Pick the right fit for your face shape. 

If your masks doesn’t fit you correctly, you’ll be touching and adjusting it constantly.  That’s the biggest safety no-no!  Also, big gaps severely reduce a mask’s effectiveness.  If you’re not sure what constitutes “right fit,” get details here.  Just know that as with shirts and shoes, one size does NOT fit all. 

For instance, you do NOT want your mask to fit like this:

Bad Mask Fit – Huge Gaps

Some people (like Kitty) love contoured masks and others (like Felix) can’t stand them.  On the other hand, Kitty thinks pleated masks are awful and Felix thinks they’re the bee’s knees, which I’m told is a good thing. 

Pick the right style for you.

It may be down to your breathing, nose shape, or just personal preference, but make sure you get the one that feels comfortable for you, because you should NEVER be touching or pulling down your mask during wear.  If you want to figure out which of the two main mask styles suits you best, you can find out more.

Don’t touch your mask

That’s right, no touchy.  Once you’ve been out in public, you should consider the outside of your mask a contaminated surface like any other.  If you must adjust the mask, try to do it by the straps or elastic, and do NOT touch the face area.  If you absolutely must do it, wash your hands thoroughly before, then again after.

Obviously, this is only doable if your mask is reasonably comfortable and fits well.  So keep trying until you find the one for you, and adjust the fit if necessary.  Any mask you need to touch a lot is a bad mask (for you, at least).  Speaking of which….

Don’t be afraid to alter the fit

Yes, I’m repeating myself, but the biggest problem with face masks is that some people keep touching their faces because the fit is off or uncomfortable in some way.  If you can’t more or less forget about the mask for long period of time, look into altering the fit so it feels better for you. 

You can lengthen the elastics to reduce tightness or digging-in, or tighten them to help with slippage.  Try a different style or fabric if your mask is impeding your breathing, catching on your beard, or clouding up your glasses (some people find that a wire nose-piece like the ones in an accordion mask helps with this).

Put on and take off masks with clean hands only. 

Seriously.  Wash your hands before putting on your mask, before taking it off, and even after taking it off.  Once your mask has been worn, it’s safest to treat it as a contaminated object.  If you keep removing and replacing your mask with dirty hands, you’re potentially introducing pathogens to your face, which rather defeats the purpose.

Launder your mask between each and every wearing.

Technically, you should put your mask in the laundry every single time you take it off your face, even if you go through three or four a day.  If that’s not feasible, at least remember to only handle the mask with clean hands each time, and put it directly into the washer when you’re done for the day. 

It’s perfectly fine to just wash your mask as part of your regular wash and dry cycle.  You don’t need to bleach or boil it; in fact, boiling is possibly less effective than just washing with soap and water.  Unless you do laundry every day, this means you do need more than one mask for each family member.  If you have cold-like symptoms, you may need lots more.

Have a spare mask/s and change it if it gets wet or soiled.

If you do have any cold-like symptoms, or hay fever for that matter, you may be a bit drippy or sneezy.  If your mask becomes damp, you should change it for a clean, dry one immediately.  I sound like a broken record, but do remember to only do this with freshly washed, clean hands!

Remove your mask by the straps or elastics, not by the fabric part.

It might seem like common sense, but don’t touch the part that goes over your nose or mouth.

Wear masks the right way up.

With contoured masks, “up” is side with the sharper peak in the middle (for going over the bridge of your nose).  But honestly, if it feels more comfy upside down, you do you, and no harm done.

Right Side Up – Note the Curvature from Rear Ties up Over the Nose

With pleated Accordion-style masks, there’s definitely a right way and a wrong way up. The fold of the pleats should always point downward, so they do not create a pocket that potentially collects particles. The following show a mask the wrong way up (and a pair of scissors acting as a large “particle”):

Wrong Side Up – Catches Crumbs

Here’s the same mask right side up:

Right Side Up

Consider special masks for special needs.

For example, if you have a largish beard or abrasive stubble, the pleats of an Accordion mask would give you better coverage than a contoured style.

If you wear glasses, a wire nose-piece (which you can form over the bridge of your nose) may create a better seal and prevent your mask from steaming up your lenses.

If you suffer from some kind of breathing disorder, you obviously need to exercise caution with masks, and must keep a close eye on yourself.  Anything with a heavy filter is right out for you.  You could request an extra-breathable fabric and lining material by emailing us directly; more breathable is NOT the same thing as more permeable to particles!  Also, a pleated style that keeps the lining away from your nostrils may work best (you can read more about how this works).

If you have some special need/s that makes it hard to find a masks that works for you, email us, and maybe we can help.

Be extra-careful if you want to put face masks on dependents.

If you want to put a mask on people other than yourself (such as a child or elderly person with advanced dementia), be very sure that they understand how masks work and how to wear them safely.  If they can’t be made to understand all of the above points, mask-wearing might not be for them. 

And of course, you need to be certain that you can trust them to communicate to you if they run into any kind of breathing or other difficulties, and that they’re old enough and competent enough that choking is not a danger.  If you’re in any doubt, always consult a health care professional.

Stay safe and well-informed, and remember that your mask is a service to your community during the apocalypse.

That Perfect Shirt

Posted on by Felix

(…for a given value of perfect)

This is the story of Kitty yanking out all her fur while trying to design the perfect shirt for as many women’s bodies as possible, preferably without having to personally fit them all one at a time. 

If you read my last blog on what makes a shirt fit properly, you already know how challenging it is just to get reasonably good fit.  But I wanted this new design to have all of the following assets too:

  1. A simple enough line so you could wear it often, but also stylish enough that it doesn’t look like you bought it at Fast-Fashions-‘R’-Us.  Basically, you should be able to wear it under a business blazer AND a Victorian corset equally appropriately.
  • Some adjustability.  Much as I would love to have a separate pattern for each common figure variation (bust size, hip size, waist length, sleeve girth, etc), we’re not a mega-corporation with a sweatshop.  One Kitty can only sew so many things in a day, and we don’t have room to carry (or store) thousands of shirts.  Which means that there would need to be built-in features made for flexing around your diverse shapes.
  • Affordability, within reason.  Everybody needs a shirt that fits.  On the other hand, a truly custom-fitted, hand-made blouse, constructed with decent materials with all the fine details I’d like it to have, tends to cost about as much as a small car.  So, compromise is going to be a thing.

So this is the design so far:

We’re going with a standing collar because it gives a finished look without being generic.  I started with a front that closed all the way up the neck, but nixed that idea in favour of this neckline with a narrow V-shaped notch.  Seriously, no one can handle something buttoned under the chin unless you have a swan-like neck and chiselled jawline.  I actually really love the way this neckline turned out — oddly elegant and elongating.  Totally worth the dozens of attempts that it took.

The sleeves are three-quarter length, lightly gathered into a narrow cuff.  The cuff echoes the collar and pulls the look together, and the gathering adds a definite but not over-the-top softness.  Also, it accommodates more kinds of arms, softening the skinny and making room for the billowy.  I can’t be the only one with massive biceps compared to the rest of me, right?  And three-quarter is a universally flattering length, which also happens to look great even if your arms are an inch or three longer or shorter than average.

There is no way to adjust the bust fit on a fitted shirt that I know of.  I suppose I’ll just have to make these in multiple cup sizes.  Oh well.  But it’s worth it!  See how marvellous a shirt can look when it correctly cups your bosom and actually nips in at the waist?

The upper back actually has a built-in adjustment for a forward shoulder.  This is the one alteration you really need that you didn’t know you needed; almost EVERYONE needs it in this age of computers.  Your shoulders and neck curve forward more than they used to back when everyone was out chasing antelope or show-jumping on horseback.  This is why store-bought shirts sometimes fall back off the shoulder and, in extreme cases, crawl up and try to choke you (lots of people avoid high necklines just for this reason, and this is why you often have to pull your shirt down in the front).  See how the shoulder seam is shifted ever so slightly forward?

The blue ribbon in the previous photo is where a conventional shoulder seam sits.  It’s a very small change, but it ensures that the shirt will stay put on your shoulders.

There are adjustable lacings in the back.  Firstly, no one has the same waist length, and secondly, you may have no bum, an average bum, or a really fabulous bum with the full swayback deal.  A little manipulation of these lacings will help most of us skirt the issue, just enough to achieve decent fit.  I detest sewing loops, and I tried many ways to get around it, but I had to admit defeat — the lacing system really works well, and adds a nice detail besides.

It’s so much simpler to make the hem straight all the way around, but stark horizontal line right at the hip doesn’t do us any favours, especially in a crisp fitted item like this.  Ergo, we have a gently curved hem, which is a headache to sew correctly, but makes your legs look longer and enhances your curvature.  It’s subtle and you wouldn’t consciously notice it, but believe me, it makes a difference.

I’m satisfied (for now) that this us the best off-the-rack shirt I can make.  I realize that everything looks good on Amelia, my trusty and completely inhuman-looking dress form, but honestly, this looks halfway decent on me too (linebacker shoulders, Hanoverian bosom, no waist, hip-deficient, bum-less, truly epic biceps), which is rather a feat for any blouse.  There is a reason you’ve never, ever seen me in a button-down-style shirt before.

I may have ripped out all my hair while stitching the million or so sample shirts to get to this point, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end.  The plan is to debut these (yes, with different cup sizes) in April at Calgary, so come help me test out the prototypes. Then as usual, I’ll probably end up making a host of changes based on your suggestions.

Next up: Steampunk goes to Hogwarts.

Blouses for Bountiful Bosoms

Posted on by Felix

(…and other lost causes)

By Kitty

If you have a generous bosom, odds are your shirts don’t fit. 

I don’t mean spandex T-shirts that can stretch over the Taj Mahal.  I mean dress(ish) shirts with actual buttons and a collar that you could actually wear to a job interview, or Cousin Sally’s sixth wedding.  The bigger your bust, the harder it is to find a blouse that stays decently buttoned without pulling across your breasts – unless it’s a vast tent that drowns the rest of your torso in enough excess fabric to conceal an Alsatian. 

As you already know, the fashion industry mostly consists of people who think all women are built like 10-year-old boys, maybe with plums in their breast pockets.  If you look at the average “women’s” shirt, you’ll find that its anatomy is basically the same as a man’s shirt: flat front and back.  You might get curved seams, usually only at the sides, if someone wants you to think it’s extra-feminine. 

Spoiler alert: your breasts don’t grow out of your sides, so curving the side seams do exactly nothing toward fitting them.  If there isn’t a seam or dart that actually touches the peak of your puppies, that shirt will NEVER fit you correctly.

Allow your Aunt Kitty to illustrate.  Meet Amelia, my unrealistic dress form.  She is shaped like no woman ever, but she’ll do to demonstrate how bust fit works.

Amelia has a fairly generous bust, disproportionately tiny waist, and moderate hips.  By measurements, she’s something like a DD cup.  But because of the huge bust-to-hip ratio, you will really be able to see how cup size in shirts work. 

For instance, here is a shirt mock-up made to her supposed size, but with no shaping other than at the side seams (I left the sleeves off, so you get an unobstructed view of the torso).  This is essentially an A-cup equivalent.

Does this look familiar? The shirt gapes open over the fullest part of the chest, and because she’s rigid, I can’t even pull it closed (if she was squishy, like human breasts, you’d be able to force the buttons closed, until they popped off and flew across the room).  The area below the bust is super-boxy, and completely hides the fact that she has a magnificent waist.

From the side, you can see pull lines pointing to where the bust is desperately trying to steal some fabric to cover itself, and the pulling actually causes even the back waist to ride up and get all weird and wrinkly over the butt.  If you’re a D cup or larger, you’ve been there.

Now, here’s a different shirt, but note that this one has actual seams running over the middle of both the front and back panels; it’s drafted to a B cup:  

I picked the pattern size according to Amelia’s BUST size, meaning it fits pretty well there.  But now it’s baggy and loose at the waist, hips, and back, though it’s a huge improvement over the no-shaping-at-all shirt.

Now, for illustration purposes, look at the exact same B-cup shirt pattern, but this time, I used the size intended for her WAIST measurement instead of the bust.  This one fits better over the waist and hips, but you can’t get it closed over the chest.

Finally, look at the same design, but with a DD cup size.  Ladies, this is how your shirts are supposed to fit.

Why don’t all the clothing manufacturers make clothes this way, with actual shaping seams that travel over the actual bits of you that stick out and need actual shaping?  Would it kill them to offer tops in different cup sizes?

In fact, it just might.  It took me three times as long to cut and sew together the pink shirts (with the extra seams that go over the bust and back shoulders) than the red one with only side seams.  Not only do clothes made with built-in shaping usually need more pattern pieces, the pieces themselves are more complex and the seams are more curved, making them much harder to stabilize and stitch accurately. 

As an indie designer who still does all my own sewing, I’m willing to take the extra time and care – but if I were a mass-manufacturing giant who makes millions of each piece, the cost would be drastically higher, especially if the target market just wanted low-priced fast fashion.  Maybe high enough to drive me out of the business altogether.

Even for me, making each size in multiple cup sizes means investing many times the amount of time and materials for any given design, and carrying around three or four times as much inventory when we go to events (and we only have so much storage space!).  I sort of understand why not many people offer this option. 

Still, as a woman who has NEVER (never, never, never, ever) found a shirt that fit until I started sewing for myself, I’m finally planning on giving it a go.  So, this is my design project for the upcoming season – fitted button-down shirts for every bosom!  I’ll try to document my progress in the next blog.

Obviously, real bodies have fit issues other than just bust-related.  We’ve got wide or narrow hips, flat or protruding bums, long and short waists, wide or skinny biceps, square or sloping shoulders, and a hundred more variations.  Any and all of those can look marvellous if you fit them right, and as Amelia proves, the most idealized figure can look dumpy if the fit is wrong. 

The next time you have a frustrating shopping experience, try and remember that it’s not your body that’s at fault, but an industry that prioritized cheap mass production and absurd standards over you, their customer.   And also that when we prove that we want diversely shaped, properly made clothing and are willing to pay what it’s worth, maybe (just maybe) the industry will decide it’s worth making.