FBA? What Does That Mean?

Acronyms--we live with them constantly.  Sometimes it's easy to guess what they mean, and sometimes not.  I had personalized license plates for my car: "SWS-MS."  My mother's parents were Swiss immigrants; I am a Ms. "SWS-MS" makes sense, right?

Well, one of my cousins, same side of the family, and her husband were trying to figure out my plates and they came up with "single woman seeks more sex"--much funnier than my intended message, but not quite right.

This leads me to "FBA."  In addition to blogs about quilting, I have found some great ones about sewing.  Once you start following blogs, it can become quite addictive.  If I start reading ones about cooking or machine embroidery, I might as well have a laptop permanently attached to my body.

Anyway, I was reading a blog about sewing and the acronym "FBA" was used.  What the heck is that?

Okay, it's been a while since I studied clothing construction at Mizzou, but I do not remember THAT term at all.  Trying to use "context clues" to figure it out, like good readers do, the best I could come up with was "Fat Body Alteration."  Wow!  Right up my alley!

However, I didn't really think it could be that simple, or that, well, such an "un-nice" term would be used for modifying patterns for those of us with hourglass figures that have just a bit too much sand in them.

So, I did a little hunting around.  The internet is wonderful.  You can find almost everything.  Eventually, I came across an entry in the "SewMamaSew" - http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=486 explaining that FBA means "Full Bust Alteration."  Again, right up my alley.  Though, there are times, when I think it should be "Falling Boobs Alteration."  I knew gravity would finally catch up with me.  I remember my mom admonishing me in the 70's not to go braless.  So, now, I guess I have to pay the price.  Anyway, the post in Sew Mama Sew explains how to redraft a princess-line pattern for a fuller bust, which was something I knew I had to do for the top I was making.

I had picked up New Look 6911 as something I wanted to make sometime.  Come on, we all have those.  Just like our fabric stashes.  The things we are going to make someday when we have the time. And with my slimmer body, I am trying to go for a more structured, classic look than my previous big shirt, Earth Mother look.

As luck would have it, I found the "perfect" fabric before I ever got out the door of the fabric store.

The leaves are iridescent gold and I found some large, Byzantine-looking buttons to go down the front.  I can wear this alone with black pants or a black skirt.  I might wear it as a jacket over the new black embroidered sundress I just got from Holy Clothing (an eBay store.)  Well, maybe I haven't given up the Earth Mother thing quite yet.

The process for adjusting for a full bust, which I do now remember from my pattern drafting class, was a bit more complicated than I wanted to do at the time, so I took a short cut, which may have been a long cut truth be told, but my top ended up looking pretty good anyway.  I just have to do the buttonholes and buttons and it will be finished.  From layout to cutting to nearly-completed project all in one day!

TTFN,
Vickie