Lmst

Well guess who had to make a second sloper because her fabric was slightly off grain and therefore stretchy?!
But I'm happy to report, the second sloper fits like a glove and now I can go and design the actual skirt pattern for the actual skirt I wanna wear!
Just an fyi: it's gonna have pockets.
#sewing #patternDrafting #skirt #skirtswithpockets

Long time no sew but the first draft of the sloper is done and traced onto my test fabric. Wish me luck that I am gonna have a good fitting skirt afterwards. I really hope it won't need too many alterations because my timeline for the skirt is TIGHT again.
The end goal is an a-line skirt in some fun quilting cotton for a christening I'm invited to at the beginning of July. Until then, a skirt and top (made from stretchy fabric) need to be done.
#sewing #sewingclothes #patternDrafting

Making multiple design decisions when drafting a blouse or top pattern like: "There needs to be a seam here, with extra, so I can let out at least a couple of centimetres as required if my bust drops or gets larger... A seam here would be prettier, but an absolute ball ache to change if the shoulders slope more. Better put some overlap and extra into the waistband, so I can let it out and shift the front gathers for more tummy as I age..."

#PatternDrafting #Sewing #Sustainability

Decided to dust off my manual pattern drafting skills to create a new daily-driver hat. Good thing it's only a hat. If I was patterning a jacket I would have needed to clean off the table first.

#patterndrafting #sewing #hatmaking

Oh, and just in case you're curious, I'm trying out the shirt waist sleeve on this page, the book is from 1909 and only slightly a hassle to interpret. The two part sleeve worked out pretty well, it's what I used for the Cinnamon Linen Jacket and would have been quite good if I hadn't messed up the back of it a little bit!

https://archive.org/details/americansystemof00merw/page/56/mode/2up

#OldManuals #Sewing #PatternDrafting

Drafting a skirt sloper on my own for the first time.
Holy moly, am I confused even though I have help in the form of clothes sewing experienced friends and a really good pattern book....
We'll see how it looks in fabric, once I'm done with the draft😅 #sewing #patternDrafting #skirt

I think I’m done adjusting the pattern of my waistcoat project. In November I made a wearable muslin; I like it but there were fit issues I wanted to improve.
After a few months parked, it has taken… 2 weeks to adjust 4 patterns and toiles to reach a fit I’m quite happy with. Yay!

I’m somehow so surprised by the dart shapes. Although they are a much better fit than neat triangles.

Next I’ll cut the wonderful wool twill! And I’ll hobbit away~

#patterndrafting #sewing #toilesandtribulations

Two waistcoat pattern fronts laid on a cutting mat. The one on the left is the original I drafted, with 1 side dart and 1 waist dart. On the right is the latest pattern, which looks more angular and has two rounded waist darts.

2 front pattern pieces of the latest test: left and right, to fit each side better, lay on top of a workmat

Me standing in the middle of a room, wearing a blue waistcoat muslin of the last pattern I made. I look unamused heh

Absolutely losing whatever is left of my sanity trying to get this shoulder dart right for a basic historical bodice.

I can't tell if I'm just stupid or if the book (Elizabeth Friendship's "Creating Historical Clothes") is just not made for beginners. I feel dumb and very frustrated.

#sewing #patternDrafting

I swear nothing makes me feel more stupid than trying to grade or draft a pattern.

And the problem is I need to be able to do this because the things I want to make don't have patterns. Ugh.

This rant is brought to you by my latest attempt at sizing a Janet Arnold pattern and rage quitting. Again.

#sewing #patternDrafting

The last time I did pattern drafting, I was making adjustments. I took notes of the changes and I’m so happy I did. Because about a month later, I’ve forgotten about the changes, and now I’m excited to work on a toile and look forward to comparing the first wearable muslin with the final garment (WIP).
(Also this was supposed to be an autumn project, inspired by hobbits and chestnuts. Anyone else? :D)
#patterndrafting

In the background, blurred, the front of a waistcoat pattern. In focus is a paper scrap held by a white person’s hand. Paper had the sketch of the before and after waistcoat front pattern, and has some notes in English and Catalan about changes to be made.

I'm stuck under a cat so gaze upon the sleeve pattern pieces, why not. On the left the lower sleeve, on the right the upper sleeve. The Victorian two part coat sleeve is very similar to the Edwardian one, the sleeve head on the upper is a bit flat because the style calls for the gathers to be mostly at the top. We'll see.

#PatternDrafting #HistoryBounding

Two paper pattern pieces laid on a desk, poorly lit. They are hand drawn with some cursive markings and seam allowances drafted on. The lower sleeve, the one going under the arm, is quite narrow. The upper sleeve has a pretty wide sleeve head, not very curvy. They both have swoops and curves to follow the shape of the arm when it's bent, and to reduce bulk at the upper back sleeve. They're on the flimsy Nordic patterning paper type, which is see through, light yet durable. Due to the lightness the pieces are held down by a gel pen, a pair of scissors and Sini's hand. The lower portion of the photo is taken up by the side on a brown and white tabby cat who absolutely had to participate.

Pattern drafting using old Victorian or Edwardian manuals is generally kind of alright, as long as you're zoomed in enough to read the fonts and gaze at the diagrams, except for everything being in bastard INCHES! Please, couldn't you have used real adult measures so any of the numbers make any sense without a fucking calculator!

If only I had the power to yell through history, this would certainly be on the list. :blob_cat_angry:

#PatternDrafting #Sewing

Continuing the pattern drafting for what may become the #CinnamonLinenJacket - I realised I didn't actually need the darts in the front and side pattern piece. I recalled seeing a drafting diagram for a short bolero type jacket at some point with NO body seams at all, and I don't want to go that far... But it did exist! Look at it!

#Sewing #PatternDrafting #HistoryBounding

A drafting diagram for a jacket, on a scan of a yellowed old drafting manual. It's all just one piece. On the left side is the centre back line, in the middle is the arm's eye, flanked by the two sides of shoulder, and on the right the centre front with an immense collar lapel jutting out of it. The bottom edge is scalloped in an intriguing fashion. All the darts and seams have been subsumed into the one bodice piece and it looks both absolutely bonkers and like it makes perfect sense.

My hand slipped for an extended amount of time and I accidentally drafted the bodice parts of a little jacket pattern.
I'm not sure about the dart placement and how much lapel or non-overlap I want at the front, so I very much need to make a toile/mock-up of this and go from there. No point drafting the collar before you've got the lapel and I've not decided what I want for the sleeve!

#PatternDrafting #Sewing #HistoryBounding

A top down photo of two paper pattern pieces on a desk, poorly lit. An array of pens is littered on top of it, to hold it down. All of the front and the side back are in one continuous and very shapely piece, the back being quite narrow with one singular princess seam running along its edge. Most of the arm's eye is on the front and side piece, giving a fun little scooped out hole in it. That's where an arm goes! It's generally not as clear in pattern pieces. A large floppy prototype lapel shape is dangling off the centre front and at the very least it's massive. Two darts at the side front of waist, also.

No but. This is genuinely very cool. The side dart cut into the arm's eye but then left intact for the peplum is probably going to give so much hip spring, and the little cut-out at the fold of the lapel is probably going to help the front round out over the bust and keep it from flopping about even with minimal tailoring. Neat!
(Alt text has more explanation should you want it!)

#PatternDrafting #Sewing

A screenshot from the pages of a yellowed old pattern drafting manual from the Edwardian era. The diagram shown sans any text or explanations is the front of a coat or jacket bodice. It has a sloped shoulder with an inward curve, meant to nestle in the hollow between neck and point of shoulder smoothly, and there is the suggested lines of where a folded collar would lay. There is a little cut out dart shown in the exact point of fold. There is one dart going off the lower edge of the bodice below the bust, doing the job of a normal modern bust dart. Next to it and below the arm, there is another dart, terminating at high upper hip. The hip below the drawn in waist looks like it will accommodate and emphasise some heck of a bunch of hip curve and it's a fairly clever design. The front extends far enough to the back that it's a combined side and front pattern piece, and would also allow you to draw in back darts with less fabric in them. Clever!

Meanwhile, I'm once again deciphering some arcane invocations from old tomes
(looking at Edwardian era sewing, cutting and tailoring manuals)

#Sewing #PatternDrafting #HistoryBounding

A screenshot of the yellowed pages of an old pattern drafting manual from 1902. It shows the diagram images of two different types of sleeves, both consisting of an upper and a lower sleeve. Next to them are paragraphs of notes and instructions with very barely any actual sentences or words, just cues to draw this point of that from this other point that you just drew before. The typographical style used emphasises this: The points given capital letters or numbers are written in bold, and jump out of the jumble of text. As an experienced pattern drafter one can look at the shapes of the example sleeves and see the differences between them, but the paragraphs themselves look like some kind of eldritch invocation written down in half notation only. Pretty cool, though.

Posting a #patterndrafting thought so I can find it later:
This morning I woke up thinking about shapes, because I want to draft a hooded cardigan. I already have a decent hood already, but i just realized the shape of it could be better. I was trying the follow the curves of the front and back neck line on the original one.

What I SHOULD do this time is is the negative space from the front center line as my jump off point. THEN I can follow the neckline curves to shape the bottom seams. The other patterns works fine, but I want to try this one, because it might help me make different styles of hoods.

#sewing #drafting #iwillforgetaboutthisanyway

Ladies, gentlemen and persons with gender beyond the ken of cis minds: I am firmly back on my bullshit, browsing Victorian sewing manuals.
Sure, I already found what I wanted, but I also have a dozen other tabs open!

#HistoricalFashion #PatternDrafting #OldBooks

A scan of a fold of an old, yellowed book. On its pages there is first a kind of gloomy and shitty illustration of two ladies engaged in some bicycling, one on a bike and the other just looking dapper. They are wearing a pair of very full trousers and a full but only calf length skirt. Their sleeves are ridiculously large. The page declares the instructions for ladies' bicycle trousers and skirt, and provides a pretty vague set of instructions how to draft them, as well as an illustrated diagram of the same. There is not nearly enough detail to glean much off it unless you've been reading these before, or are used to pattern drafting by eye.

A #PatternDrafting tip from yours truly: If you draw the first draft on with pencil, it's easy to erase any mistakes. Then when you trace the fitting modifications on with those heat-erasable pens in multiple different colours, it's easy enough to keep track of different fittings. And then, when you neaten out the final fitting in black ink, erase the original non-matching pencil lines, and iron away the fitting adjustments... Your pattern is quite neat and pretty in just black ink!

Have put in the adjustments I was too tired to, last night. And yup, we've definitely reached the limits of what my brain wants to comprehend about the shape of trousers, and I'm calling the basic block done. 😆 Now I just need to unpick this toile and transfer all the adjustments, and THEN I can finally draft the actual pattern for them. With a lowered centre seam, oodles of ease and a bunch of pleats and gathering. But at least I'll have a well fitting base!

#PatternDrafting #Sewing

#patternDrafting

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