Category: pattern making

Fearless – 1960s shift

~ velosews ~ 29 Comments

This a typical 60’s style and the instructions are for a short women with a small bust. But this is pattern making from scratch and I haven’t done this before – fearless.


So my aim was to ‘make this work’ for me. I can work in cms or inches so I worked in inches and that was ok. I do have a copy of a metric pattern making book but I’ll use that another time. When it comes to research, I do just enough research to get me into and through a project.
So you saw these fabrics that I intended to use. Then I spied a second-hand cafe curtain remnant that I bought from St Vinnies that was more Enid (60’s) appropriate. The only pattern matching I tried was from the waist line to the hem. I love the front bust dart that goes to the hem and the effect it had on the lacework.
Front view
Back v-neck view

The large lace design is prominent at centre front but is minimised along the dart that goes from the bust to the hem.

Fitting changes:
The dress was at least 2″ too wide – fixed.
The front bust dart was 2″ too low – fixed.
More fitting changes:
On the pattern, the side bust darts need a bit more (2cm) taken out. The shoulder seam also needs to be shortened because the dress looks like it has a cap sleeve, which I don’t mind but wasn’t in Enid’s original pattern.
I’ll have to wear this dress at Love Vintage in March to get some styling feedback. There are sure to be some people there who are taking part in 1940’s Sew for victory.
Thanks again TJ for passing Enid over to me.

Giveaway winner

~ velosews ~ 3 Comments

The first week of February was busy with Deb’s Sew Grateful week.

The giveaway patterns are now on their way by carrier pidgeon to jpluo. Congratulations.

What you can see above are the makings on the Enid shift dress. My attempt at making the pattern from scratch is in the background and I used the seam allowance guide to cut out the lining and the lace overlay.

This is dress is the basis for my second fearless project this month.

Thank you Melinda for the iphone suggestion on Melissa’s blog. I saw some ‘wetsuit’ fabric recently so I’ll give this armband a go. Melissa has lots of projects that she’s worked out and shared on her blog.

Next up

~ velosews ~ 8 Comments

Draping and drafting a pattern from scratch – that’s what I’ll decided to do for Fearless February. Although I’ll be starting next week on 2 of my fearless projects. I have a few project deadlines to get through this week.

My comment is there on Victoria’s blog in black and white. As Dr Phil says “What were you thinking?”

1: Drafting:
So I have lace pieces in the fabric stash that I’d like to work on and TJ from The Perfect Nose enabled me last month with this perfect starting point – Enid Gilchrist!

I could try the easy route and make this ‘beach dress’ in soft, cool eyelet fabric for our humid summer weather.

However, being Fearless February, I’ll make the day dress and use eyelet or lace fabric. I have had one attempt at drafting this dress for a 36″ bust today. Fearless. Test dress is ready to cut out.

2: Showerproof Minoru #2
I made Minoru #2 because I’ve never used PUL fabric so this was a new experience. I was being fearless.  I used Tasia’s tutorials to make  this version better than Minoru #1. I wear Minoru #1 a lot. And this piece was finished early Feb to coincide with Deb’s Sew Grateful week. Thank you for your comments throughout Sew Grateful week.

3: Draping and lace
And Victoria has been waving draping resources at us over the last few months so I’ll have to do some reading and give draping a go later in Feb. I have Draping for apparel design by Helen Joseph-Armstrong on my desk.

Maybe I can use a Jungle remnants again. Thanks again for the lovely comments about the jungle prints I made last month. I have to focus on lace because not sewing with Jungle prints is going to be a hard habit to break.
Have you seen the inaugural Annie Awards yet? A true spotted carpet event.

However I did discover winter jungle prints…in my stash.

Fearless.

Pattern magic start

~ velosews ~ 15 Comments

I’ve been admiring the Pattern Magic work that Melissa and Carolyn have been succeeding with for a while.This year I bought all 3 Pattern Magic books and they’re all in English but I have a habit of not reading the drafting instructions too closely. And since I started dabbling with the first book I found the Flickr group and Tracy of ‘the material girls’ work. Yippee!

What I didn’t realise was that once I showed Renata the first Pattern Magic book, she bought a copy too. So was spent a Saturday at The Remnant Warehouse drafting as best we could.

Below are the 3 drafts I attempted so far.

Pattern Magic page 60:
I tried my hand at the collar with two distinct expressions first. It looked simple but a casual observer noticed that the top collar is slimmer than the bottom collar. A head slap moment ensued. I’ve used Connie Crawford’s blouse (Butterick 5538) for this collar because I had used this pattern at a workshop recently.  

Marked cutting points on both sides of the collar.
It was later pointed out to me the top collar is skinnier that the bottom collar.
The collar pieces have been cut and is ready to be spread to size.


This was the first version so you can see what the resulting pattern piece is like.
I was lucky enough to play with a fabric toile version and I made a few more tweaks at the time.

The top collar now has a squared collar point and the top collar is much skinnier than the bottom collar with the help of Angie Zimmerman. Angie was fascinated with Pattern Magic because she has been sewing for others and teaching sewing for a long time and the designs in the book inspired her creativeness too.

Here’s a close up of the collar in the finished toile. The front and back yokes are fake. This is where I took out some room below the shoulders on the front and back bodice pieces. I forgot to take the same amount out of the sleeve head, hence the gathers at the top of the sleeve. Voila, design feature:) The buttons were from my stash. After the bust cup adjustment workshop and the inclusion of the Pattern Magic collar my view is the blouse is baggy but comfortable.

The white eyelet blouse below uses the intented fabric. After many years of wearing close fitted knit tops and jackets I think this blouse pattern could be closer fitting using a stretch woven and with a centre front zipper. I think I’ll look at Pattern Magic for a new sleeve style too. What do you think? 
When I make this collar again I’ll interface all the collar pieces so the top piece stands up. I love this feature so my view is this Pattern Magic collar was worth trying.
PS: When I wore the green shirt to the Sydney sewer meet up, the cuff detailing hadn’t been added. I ran out of time to finish this bit of sewing but sewed on the cuffs, buttons, buttonholes the very next day🙂
The green blouse and eyelet blouse reviews are on Pattern Review.

Pattern Magic page 13:

Then I tried my hand at the Deppari shirt but I used the princess line shirt and did the Deppari detailing on the Front Side piece only.
 
I’m a B size on a good day so the detailing is not as pronounced but may turn out to be a good laugh. I’ve used Connie Crawford’s blouse pattern for this feature. I’m ready to test this out in the New Year.

Pattern Magic page 57: Then I had a go at the Bamboo shoot pattern. This was fun. I enjoyed analysing the design lines, when to start cutting and then “what do I do now” set in. I’ve used the Peony bodice for this trial.

This is the front piece showing the cutting lines. I numbered them to keep tracke of where I was working.
This shows the spread of the cuts.

The piece is now on a paper to draw the final front pattern with the folds marked and numbered.
Now to test this work…
This kinda worked. I did this test piece with Angie Zimmerman.

On closer inspection, the top right  fold was missing.

Here’s the inside stitching. This needs a bit more work. So I now have another draft to test in the New Year.