Adjusting for wide or narrow shoulders

Today, we’re going to talk about two of the most common adjustments: adjusting the shoulders to make them wider or narrower.

If you’re a woman or sewing for a woman, it is very likely that you’ll want to make the shoulders more narrow. For guys, either fit issue could come up. We’ll start by showing you how to adjust for wide shoulders, then move on to narrow shoulders. They are very similar pattern alterations.

Problem: Wide Shoulders

The shoulder is the point from where your coat or jacket hangs, making it the most important part of the jacket to fit for a man since it affects the way the rest of the garment falls. If you have wide shoulders, you may notice that the coat feels tight across the back. In front, you might see pulling at the upper chest and the armholes pulling towards each other. To adjust this, we’ll modify the front and back.

1. On the front yoke, draw a pivot point at the low shoulder (red dot), and another along the armhole (blue dot). Draw a line from the armhole point towards the middle of the shoulder (blue line). Draw another line from the first line to the low shoulder pivot point (red line).

2. Slash the lines up to the pivot points and clip into the seam allowances.

3. Pivot the blue line outward to make the shoulder wider.

4. Pivot the red line inward to realign the shoulder seam.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for the back shoulder. For version 1, adjust lining pieces to match.

Problem: Narrow Shoulders

Some men (and many women) may need to adjust the coat for narrower shoulders. If you find the armholes sitting away from your body and the top of the armhole slipping off your shoulder, try this adjustment.

1. Draw a pivot point at the low shoulder (red dot), and another along the armhole (blue dot). Draw a line from the armhole point towards the middle of the shoulder (blue line). Draw another line from the first line to the low shoulder pivot point (red line).

2. Slash the lines up to the pivot points and clip into the seam allowances.

3. Pivot the blue line inward to make the shoulder narrower.

4. Pivot the red line outward to realign the shoulder seam.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for the back shoulder. For version 1, adjust lining pieces to match.

When You’re Finished

Now that you’ve altered your fit and pattern, you may feel like creating another test version. This is entirely up to you and how severe the changes you’ve made are. For minor changes, you may feel confident moving on to cut your real fabric. For big changes, you may want to give it another test.