Category: sewing

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.

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…

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.

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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¹lengthened the pants, added waist darts to the top and re-drafted the armscye so that it doesn’t gap so much from being graded up instead of properly resized for fat lady