Bummer. Mostly NOT the right size pattern.

I'm transcribing a new neckline onto the shirt pattern I picked up the other day. I can't help but notice that while the bust measurement is barely adequate, the shoulder seam on this puppy is going to be somewhere around my elbow. I'm comparing with the old worn shirt whose neckline I'm stealing. That shirt already has the shoulder seams down my arms a bit, and this one's longer in the shoulder by at least an inch.

Guess I could cheat and just copy that whole old shirt. It'd do for this project. It's a simple enough design that I wouldn't even need to take it apart to draft its facings and sleeves. (Honestly, though, I should take it apart, if only to prevent me from continuing to wear it. It's dead, Jim.)

I need to learn pattern drafting for real. Not just the old transcribe-from-existing-clothing hack, not just the decrease-the-back-waist-length tweak or the move-a-dart trick, but stuff like how to draft a completely new armscye or crotch seam. I can do the hacks and the tricks. I can't draft entirely new inset sleeve designs. And to make a size 8 shirt with a size 16 bust, an entirely new inset sleeve is one thing I am definitely gonna need. A little dart, or even a big dart, is not going to solve this one without some sleeve mods.

Sewing might be the only context in which the word "crotch" is a perfectly polite word to say.

Flight of fancy

Jeppesen Low Altitude Enroute Charts make great sewing pattern drafting paper.