Hi, I’m new to sewing and when I found this site I was over the moon. I’ve been trying to make the Bruce boxes for my better half, I took his measurements and then printed of pattern, the first pair were tiny (his is a larger man), so I went back to the pattern and increased most thing, for example they were very short in the legs I increases the leg length bonus. I also increased other things in the menu. This pair I made using an old bed sheet not the Jersey fabric, they looked more like what I was aiming for but again they didn’t fit. So I measured the pattern pieces, to get the waist measurements and it is about 10cm less than his measurements. I’m not sure what I could do to get the right size. Any advice would gratefully appreciate.
Picture is of both pairs not sure if it would help or not.
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Bruce is an undergarment that is designed to be made from stretchy, knit fabric. So, it is normal that the garment dimensions will be smaller than the actual body measurements. That is, the the garment has negative ease so the garment fits snugly. To put on the garment, the garment stretches to be bigger than body measurements and then snaps back to fit snugly.
I’m not sure what might be the issue, but some ideas that came to mind:
- One possibility is that the generated pattern is correct, but a stretchy-enough fabric hasn’t been used. (The documentation doesn’t specify what type of stretch (2-way or 4-way) or what amount of stretch (10%, 20%, 40%, etc.) is needed. But, see the below 15% “Stretch” setting.)
- Bruce has a “Stretch” design fit option setting that you can adjust to better suit your fabric. (The default value is 15%.)
- Another possiblity is that the pattern is correct and your resulting garment is correct, but the designer intended it to be a style that is slightly different than what you envision it should be.
- Of course another possiblity is that the measurements should be retaken to make sure they are accurate. Be sure to follow the guidance at https://freesewing.eu/docs/measurements/ to make sure you are measuring the correct locations.
Edit: added:
- Also make sure your printouts are the correct size by checking the scalebox dimensions on part #3. (Sometimes printers re-size or shrink PDF documents when printing.)
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Thank you Benjamin for such a quick response. I did know that the old bed sheet was the wrong material, it was just a cheap way to try. Although I had read about negative ease I had not really understood what that was about, so thanks for the explanation. So now I think I will recheck the measurements and then try again in the correct material as the second pair looked better (as in more what I expected). Thanks again for your help.
Yeah, an old bedsheet definitely won’t work. I recommend rayon jersey with at least 5% of elastane/spandex. You can also use other stretchy materials such as cotton jersey with enough stretch or synthetic sports jersey. Just needs to be stretchy. If you take a length of the fabric in your hands, you should be easily able to stretch it to twice the original length.
