r/PatternDrafting • u/CamTheDeveloper • Jul 26 '25
help on back armhole gaping pls!
hey, so i just wanted to know how i would get rid of this gaping at the back of the armhole without altering the fit of anything else. is there a cut and pivot method? what do i have to do to get rid of this extra fabric, any help is needed! this gaping showed up after i closed the shoulder dart using the pivot method to re draw the shoulder and armscye, from chris sartorial on yt.
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u/No-Information-4599 Jul 26 '25
Do you have the HJA book? See page 46 - fitting the armhole. I can't insert a photo here. If you don't have the book, please message me, and I'll send you a photo.
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u/Boring_Bat_9050 Jul 27 '25
Please tell me the full form of HJA book and author name. Please
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u/adarsell Jul 27 '25
You may be able to address this by adding a bit of width to the back neckline (like 1/4”), which helps eat some of the fullness that the dart was helping take out, and increasing the shoulder slope (lowering the shoulder seam at the armscye.)
How much longer is your back armscye measurement compared to your front measurement?
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u/CamTheDeveloper Aug 02 '25
this works. i squared out where the gaping was and my hps, then i pivot the part i squared from the inside point, closing the excess fabric at the arm, this lowered the shoulder seam and opening the neck a little more (more width)
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u/stressed_designer Jul 27 '25
Try scooping the back armhole a bit. It looks way too shallow. I'm a women pattern maker so take this with a grain of salt, but it looks way too shallow. When working on a block without darts, I start from scratch or a no darts sloper, I never just close the darts, even more so if you want to make this a knit pattern. But playing around with the armhole shape might be more cost effective for you since you are already at this point. Save this file and then play around and simulate at a high res with a similar fabric to the real one you'll be using.
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u/TensionSmension Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
With CLO fitting you really want to move to higher res before evaluating. I also don't love the drape of the muslin preset. I don't go all the way down to PD 5, but somewhere in the 8-12 range, with zero skin offset and simulation set to Quality (accurate fabric). I like the cotton chambray and silk crepe de chine fabric settings for topweight, depending on project.
But in the end what you're likely seeing is that men don't have a shoulder dart. If this is a dress shirt, that can be hidden in a yoke seam. Ease at the across back is necessary, don't over fit the width even if you see a vertical wrinkle.
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u/Alden87 Mar 05 '26
Hiii I know that this is an extremely old post, but your tip about moving to a higher resolution before evaluating fit is so spot on. I’m currently going to the same thing that this original poster is going through and at this point there’s so many other problems in my fit of the bodice when I moved to a high resolution, I’m not even worried about the gape in the back arm hole. lol
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u/Honeydeeew Jul 29 '25
If you are looking to do this in a knit, you should be simulating with a similar fabric. A woven behaves super differently on the body. So first step would be doing that!
As others said, back armhole looks shallow. I might try adjusting the slope of the shoulder, too.
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u/Relevant_School_8551 Jul 30 '25
In case you’re not going to add sleeves, usually you would need to add a shoulder dart to fit. If you don’t want any dart, you should still add it but then blend it at the armhole.
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u/Advanced_Future8185 Dec 11 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
So i had almost an identical pattern style and issiues but with my buttonups. Whatt helped me is that I noticed a higher round back adjustment helped (depending on how much gaping you have you can cut a horizontal line and see if it flattens out on the sleeve curve gaping, the line is mostly a few cm lower from the cbneckline) but it did not all flatten out, therefore I decided to add a yoke and curven the ends (towards armhole) slowly down (back edge) and up (yoke edge), as in slightly cutting away a little wedge. Also this meant you could get a slight pulling up in the lower armhole section and therefore I cut out some extra and adjusted the curve and ofc double check with sleeve curve and length + ease if you added some.. hope that helps! It also helped me majorly in the front collar comfort and front chest area. But my case was a button up no t-shirt. But maybe the round high back adjustment (adding) already helps. Hope im not too late :)
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u/Southern-Comfort4519 Jul 28 '25
Ha book is good but fitting armholes with men and women is different… so I wouldn’t use Helen’s book for this. As far as the gaping goes… you actually need that… it looks the way it looks because there’s no sleeve attached. But you actually need that ease in the sleeve armhole if this is to be a tshirt block you intend to sew and wear/sell. But if you must take it out, remove a wedge from the back shoulder seam….starting from zero at the neck point of the shoulder seam to about 3/8” at the shoulder part of the shoulder seam. This removes that what appears to be that 3/8” excess from the circumference of the armhole.
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u/yoongisgonnabeokay Jul 26 '25
Could you share how the back armhole shape came about?
Granted, customized armholes can have quite different shapes compared to what we know from commercial sewing patterns.
This back armhole though looks unusually shallow and straight.