When fitting a garment, you always want to work top to bottom. This not only gives you a framework to make sure you don’t miss any small details, but it helps you identify the right corrections to make on the garment.
The whole garment hangs from the top – which is pretty obvious – but this means that how the top fits affects how the rest of the garment fits. The first thing to review in any fitting is how the shoulders and neckline sit. Armholes are the second thing I check because although they are lower on the garment than the shoulder and neckline, they can throw off both if not drafted properly.
Consider a dress. You may immediately notice that the sleeves are too long. Are they really too long or are the shoulders too wide and hanging down the arm adding length to the sleeve? Perhaps you see that the side seam of the skirt is swinging forward. Is the skirt balance the problem or is the back neck drop too shallow, causing the garment’s shoulders and front to be pulled up and back? These are just a few ways that fit issues near the bottom of the garment are actually a result of the top fitting poorly.
This is the reason why fitting the top of the garment first will help you find what is wrong – if anything – with the bottom. Work top to bottom pinning and making adjustments as you go. Once you’ve reached the bottom, go over it again from the top to see if any of your lower corrections changed the things above.