Okay, bad pun.

I needed some new clothes and thought I’d sew myself a nice capsule.  This doesn’t anchor well with a lot of the rest of my wardrobe, ‘cept a couple of purple pieces and the new wavy print here.

The brocade was a haori I made a few years ago.

Everything but the jacket was a tried-n-true pattern, so this was very much a quick-n-easy SWAP and it only took me a couple of weeks to sew up.

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II’m four garments in to a nine garment wardrobe capsule. Yes, I’ll post the composite photo when I’m done, but I wanted to talk a bit about the jacket I just completed.

I’ve been eyeing the Saf-t-Pockets patterns for years. The idea behind most of the garments designed by the company is to have an attractive garment with enough pockets to carry your stuff without having to resort to carrying a purse. There are garments with visible pockets, but the one I made has all the pockets hidden on the inside. Yes, I like gadgety cleverness of design even in clothes. Stop looking at me like that. I can’t help it. I was scared of trying it, though, because I was worried it was above my sewing abilities. You’d want a year or two of sewing under your belt before you tried it solo, but I wouldn’t have a problem coaching a beginner through this.

I just wore this gadgety goodness to a business meeting and a few errands.  I am in love with the design.

There are four internal pockets to the Flounce About Jacket. Two of them are fairly commodious. They fit anything from a smartphone and keys to a Kindle with no real problems. Yes, this means you can slip a steno pad in there to take notes! The other two pockets are smaller – about the right size for a business card or credit card.

So, I didn’t need to take a purse to my business meeting.

Now, I’m sure you’re saying, “Yeah, but a lot of pockets make the garment bulky and clumsy. We all know what a cargo vest looks like.”

And you’d be wrong. This is the genius of the design. Yes, those pockets are big and can hold a lot of stuff. But they’re not sewn into the front panels of the garment. They hang from the front band so that the drape of the flounce skims over it without ever making it clear that there’s pockets in there with lots of stuff inside! The pockets also have a nice velcro closure, which makes them useful to carry more valuable things.This is smart designing.

I’ll probably make another one of these jackets in a heavier material as more of an inter-season coat and travel, as this is sheer genius.

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The suit is nothing special.  It’s pretty much the same thing I made as for the purple and gold on with the bird motif.  But oh, the colors.  These are my favorite colors in the whole world.  If it reminds you of a Caribbean sea, yeppers.  That’s what I like.

I did make the sleeve slightly looser at the cuff as I like to push up my sleeves when I’m cooking.

I had been instructed to lose the glasses for the shoot.  Okay, fine, maybe I should go back to wearing contact lenses more often…

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I actually had a little bit of free time today, so I decided that I’d finish something that’s been hanging fire for awhile.

I used to have instructions on how to draft very basic patterns.  So, what I’ve done is written up instructions on how to make the Kameez part of a Salwar Kameez (at least the way I do it).  From there, you probably wouldn’t have too hard a time extrapolating how to draft your own patterns if you sew.

If you don’t know how to sew yet, this would be a terrible way to learn.  Try some easy commercial patterns first.

I don’t explain how to make facings or finishing for the neckline.  If  enough people can’t figure out what you’d need to do, I’ll write up some instructions, but for now, this is about as much free time as I have.

So, announcing

Pattern Drafting Down and Dirty!

*If three people out of my tens of readers ask for something, believe you me, it’s popular demand in my tiny world!

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Learning pattern drafting is actually fairly easy.

I am not meaning this to imply that it is easy in any way to create a good professional sewing pattern. The practice required for professional level skill takes, well, professional-level work. You have to design to a wide range of body types, making a sewing pattern that will be flattering on the largest range of figures possible.

I don’t know how to do that.

Professional design ability also means that you know how to create a very wide range of design elements suitable for not only current fashion trends, but in encouraging other fashion looks.

I don’t know how to do that, either. I am not by any means a professional clothing designer.

What I can do is take a set of measurements, make a sloper, and then design something relatively basic from that. The results are so much nicer than a commercial pattern (custom usually is) that fancy design elements are almost unnecessary. Never underestimate the beauty of well-fitting clothes.

The thing is, I’ve noticed that people who are used to commercial patterns will sometime freak out at dart width and placement on something they’ve created for themselves, especially women who wear quite a large cup size, or have a bust measurement a great deal larger than the waist measurement. If you’re used to the two inch dart on a commercial pattern designed for the “average” B cup young woman with perky breasts, that seven inch dart for the F cup designed for the woman of a certain age who hasn’t resorted to surgery looks downright freakish when drawn flat on the fabric. It’ll make you scared to cut the pattern out.

But after you sew it… Ahhh, what a thing of beauty a custom designed pattern is. Narrow shoulders? No problem. Ever had a armscye hit exactly at the shoulder joint? It really improves the look of the garment. A bust dart that actually shapes the fabric to your body and ends where your nipple actually is? It makes a much smoother line. A garment that has the waist where your waist actually exists, and flares out appropriately to the real wide point of your hips?

You can’t get that stuff in ready to wear, and even have to do a lot of pattern redesign to get it in a commercial pattern.

The book from which I learned how to do this (Patternless Fashions) is unfortunately out of print. Part of this is because the styles in it are dated and the instructions really aren’t as clear as they could be. But since the point of being able to draft one’s own patterns is that you can add any fashionable design details you want to, the fact that the drawings in the book look a bit 1960 doesn’t matter but so much.

If you like to sew and you like to make your own clothes, I can’t encourage you enough to learn to draw your own patterns. The fit is amazing.

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I make most of my own clothes, as I’m sure my readers have gathered by now J.

Last year, I bought enough fabric to make a purple capsule for my wardrobe, and I’ve finally gotten around to making the last piece – a jacket with kimono sleeves. It’s really easy to sew, but I’d been stalling about making it. Partially, this is because I just have been slammed with other projects, but it is partially because there’s a part of the sewing process I absolutely despise.

You see, I hate to cut out patterns. Always have. Don’t ask me why. It’s not like it’s difficult. But I don’t like it. I’d actually sew more than I do if I could get out of it in some way and still be able to make clothes. I have a plenty large surface at a good height to cut things out, good scissors, chalk and anything else you’d need to cut out patterns comfortably – even one of those dangerous pizza cutter type things the quilters use! Even so, I still I don’t like cutting out patterns.

What’s spurred me on is that I really want that purple jacket so that I can put together outfits more interchangeably. When you do a combination wardrobe and find yourself with a hole in it, it really starts to cramp your style when putting outfits together for the week!

The next thing I’m going to make is a black broomstick skirt. I have one that’s a bit too narrow at the hips and too short. I want a proper full and long one. I tend to keep black fabric on hand, because I do wear a fair amount of black, and well… it goes with everything!

<sighs> I like my interchangeable wardrobe, but I still miss my salwar suits. Damn, first impressions…

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Sewing is on my mind, what with doing a lot of it right now and all.

My mother taught me how to sew.  She sews quite well, but doesn’t do it often.  I don’t think she’s been much into it since she was out of her twenties.  But she did break down and make a prom dress for me for my senior prom.

I had lost my taste for ruffly, frilly numbers or metallic shades of bright pink and blue at a time when they were really fashionable.   I saw a pattern for this long, slinky Grecian-inspired dress that I just had to have for a prom dress (in black.  I had started a serious black phase), so Mom agreed to make it for me.

It was sooo cool.  Looking back, it was a fairly difficult dress to make, though the pattern itself wasn’t too appalling.  It was the fabric.  The fabric was a slinky knit that is the very devil to sew, especially if you don’t have a serger – which few but the most fanatic of home sewers/quasi-professionals did in the spring of 1987.   Mom didn’t have a serger.  I didn’t know at the time about this, and Mom has never mentioned it.  It’s only knowing what I do now that I can reconstruct this.

What I remember was how awesome it was to have something totally unique to my own tastes.

Ironically, one of the first things I made for myself some five or six years later was pink – a jumper.  Mom talked me through it, held my hand through the sewing process, and doing some of the hard parts.  Yes, there were parts that were difficult and confusing for me when I was learning to sew!  It was this wonderful soft corduroy.    The skirt was supposed to be gathered, but we pleated it instead.  I forget why, but I’m pretty sure it was a screw-up on me not following directions properly or something.  The mistake turned out okay, though.

I wore that jumper out, and kind of miss it.  Too bad they aren’t too fashionable right now.   Maybe I’ll make another one anyway.

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I got a nice compliment this morning.  Someone mentioned how beautifully my clothes always match, and asked how in the world I can keep finding skirts, tops and jackets that match so well.

I mentioned that it was by specific design, as I sew my own clothes and make sure everything matches everything else.  I did not admit how difficult I find this when shopping for store bought clothing.  I’m sure there are people who can put together a proper wardrobe where everything matches from buying stuff in a store.  All I can say is that I’m just not that talented.

Speaking of talent, as is often the case, I got the “Oh, you’re so talented” routine.  Though she didn’t add, and I was grateful she didn’t, the “and I couldn’t do that” addendum I often get.

While of course I like it, it’s funny to me when people act impressed, as the pattern  I use for my clothes is actually a Simplicity Easy to Sew pattern.  Yes, I’ve made a few alternations¹, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use this pattern to teach someone to sew.  It’s beginner stuff, and really about as complex as I would want to handle on a regular basis when sewing my own wardrobe.

I’m looking for some patterns for some long-sleeved tops I can add to the mix. Yes, I can draft my own patterns, but it’s a PITA to design something if I don’t have something specific in mind.  Sometimes I do want to take something that someone else has done, and just add one or two embellishments.  At that point, a store-bought pattern is easier.

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There are times when I am very glad I learned to knit.

This week has been fantastic from a professional point of view, but teaching a week’s worth of all-day classes is exhausting.  I don’t know how full time teachers pull it off and not burn out.  That’s some high-energy stuff if you want to keep your students involved and engaged, and do a good job.

A seamless yoke sweater

So, the knitting.  Knitting is how I relax when I’m too brain-fried even to write a blog entry. It’s soothing with enough repetitive motion to calm me down while I watch Torchwood.

Last summer I sewed a series of garments in a plan called a SWAP. (Sewing with a Plan).  Basically the idea is that everything is supposed to mix and match well with everything else.   I had garments in black, burgundy and a floral/Japanese print.  This winter I added a capsule to it in dark forest green.  So, I have this great, basic interchangable wardrobe.

In cotton.

For the most part that’s fine. Between the fact I made shells and jackets, this means it carries me through a lot of seasons.  What it doesn’t help a lot with is those cold months of a New England winter.   Luckily,  I knit.  Getting good sweaters is no more difficult than following the Seamless Yoke pattern that Elizabeth Zimmerman explained in Knitting Without Tears and adding whatever colorway and yoke design takes my fancy.  I’ve done pirates, Heathen symbols, abstract symbols and Autobots in the yoke and turned out some warm, unique garments.

What I don’t have (yet), are several sweaters in my SWAP color palette.  Oh, I’ve got a gray, purple and burgundy one that goes okay with my black and burgundy pants and skirts.  I have a gray and purple one that goes okay with the black, but nothing else.  This sweater I just made will go with all the skirts and pants I’ve sewn quite well.   I need to sit down and plan two or three more over the course of the winter.

The thing is, these babies are warm, warm, warm.  Stranded knitting (that’s how you get the colorwork — strands of yarn carried behind the main fabric) of various sorts is definitely popular in the colder countries for a reason.  You basically have two layers of yarn for a much warmer garment.  Nordic sweaters look the way they do at least in part for practicality.  If you’re lucky enough to own a real one, you know what I mean.  So, they’re not something I wear year-round, but only when it gets really cold.

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Finished a pair of pants yesterday.  No, no picture.  They’re just dusty forest green pants with an elastic waist and wonderful deep pockets.  Nuttin’ fancy.

I know I go on and on about how much I’m liking a wardrobe where all the pieces match all the others.  When I was a youngster and I shopped with my mom, I’d get “outfits” and let me tell you, I did not buy with an eye that whatever I got should “go” with other stuff in my closet.  When my clotheshorse mother (well, really my dad… he was the one making the money) was footing the bill, why bother to think about it? Yes, I’m sure Mom gently nudged me in that direction, but I’m not all that conscious of it.

When I was on my own, I learned to sew, but still tended to do so according to fancy, rather than an eye to a whole.  Then I went through a period of mostly wearing tunics or salwar suits, and again didn’t think much about my clothes in terms of a finished wardrobe.  So, it wasn’t until I was nearly 40 that I really had one, and I’m enjoying it.  I can dress things up or down with scarves or jewelry, everything matches with several pieces and I can go almost anywhere except a fancy dress ball and be dressed appropriately.  Since I haven’t worn a ball gown, nor needed to, since my last prom at 18 this particular wardrobe lack is less than urgent.

What’s also nice is when I get a wild hare to sew, I can design to a pre-established background. I’ve never really thought in terms of matching wardrobe presentation before.  What I really like about it is that once it’s done, I don’t have to give presentation a great deal of thought.  The wardrobe is there hanging in my closet and I don’t have to root through a bunch of mis-matching garments in the hopes of finding something. Or worse, I don’t have to have that sinking feeling that all my matching outfits are in the wash.  I can guarantee that I’ll have something appropriate in the closet even if it is not my bestest and most favoritest combination.

I’ll be making the green shell next week.  Garment construction is going to be limited to one a week simply to keep me from getting too into this at the expense of working.

I also need to get my butt over to the fabric store for some facing.  When my kimono fabric arrives, I definitely want to be able to get on that!  I’m making my next one unlined, just so I can have a summer yukata for visiting.  The lined kimono is really a rather heavy garment and really only nice for winter.  Though for winter, it is very nice, indeed!

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