Back Waist Draglines Corrections – Make the Garment Tighter

Back draglines often occur due to the curvature of the spine or the roundness of the shoulder blades. Natural body lines may be deceiving and could result in fabric excess along the back waist area of your patterns. There are several options for fixing this problem. This correction is primarily for knits.

Before going into this correction, always check if the pattern is balanced. So often, the back armhole is too low compared to the front armhole, which should be checked before you make this correction. That can actually fix a big part of this issue as a starting point. To review pattern balancing, here are the videos about balanced tops and balanced coats and jackets. For knits, you definitely don’t need a lower back armhole compared to the front.

If that doesn’t eliminate the issue all the way, you could reduce your waist by pinning at the side seam. However, this does change the silhouette by making it slimmer. You would then mark your pattern the amount you pinned.

Make sure you’ve mirrored those side seams. However, on some occasions, you can cheat and reduce more on the back panel than on the front, making the side seams no longer mirrored. For some reason, this correction really does hide the draglines for knits. They are still a little there but are more horizontal and don’t show as much.

Again, always check that armhole depth-first between front and back bodices to make sure they’re balanced!

This information and more can be found in The Fitting Book. Order your book today through the link below.