Et voilà!

Last week I was very despondent about my dressmaking. I made a kind of very early stage toile for the bodice of my daughter's wedding dress. It wouldn't even fit on Missy - even with a side seam and back seam undone. It was clear that my toile was several inches too small. Although the front looked good, the side seam bent markedly towards the front at the bust area and the back seam was a long way from meeting. I understood why this was. My daughter initially wanted a bodice that would be laid over stretch tulle so I used a stretch leotard block initially which needed fabric with quite a bit of stretch. I made a leotard and it fit beautifully. However, and it's obvious, really, change the fabric to one with much less, or no, stretch, and it can't possibly fit. I was working under guidance of my tutor who hoped this toile would work given that I wanted a tight fit - but it wasn't to be. She didn't have time at the very end of the informal class to point me in a new direction although she did say we ewould need darts after all - it's perhaps indicative of how upset (internally - -n not visibly, at least I don't think so) that I didn't immediately understand what she was saying. I felt I had wasted many hours and lost a lot of hair and was pretty upset and flat, too, when I got home. I decided I had to work from the original, non-stretch block. I followed some instructions in Suzy Furrer's book and, in addition, moved the darts into princess seams. It took ages. In the end, when I looked at the pattern pieces, I was very doubtful about them. As I was going to be seeing my tutor again, I didn't take it further. On Wednesday, I saw Rory and took my wedding dress toile problems and showed her the toile on her model. She said I needed to make a toile from the original block and asked if I had it with me. I did, in a way. Problem is I'm very poor at labelling different pattern iterations, okay labelling in general. I must do better! Rory also pointed out that the instructions Suzy Furrer gives depend on the type of block you were using, how much ease etc - but as I was not using her block, these instructions could not be followed directly. So it wasn't surprising that following her instructions hadn't resulted in a suitable garment. Anyway, I was able to make up a toile. Standard bust dart and waist dart. Rory drew up what she had interpreted from my badly drawn designs and concluded, as I had felt earlier, that princess seams were the way to go. Here's the magic. All those hours I had spent carefully rotating darts! Rory drew the dart position we agreed on the toile. Then all I had to do was cut it out and add seam allowances to where I had cut the fabric apart. The bust dart stayed closed - indeed I realised that it gets closed when rotating it elsewhere. The waist dart gets cut out. Exactly as per dart rotation. But how much faster!! I couldn't believe it! I ended up with the same side panel and front panel that I would have starting with the flat pattern and rotating darts! It's clear that a combination of flat pattern cutting and draping is very useful - and as Rory says, will generally get you to where you want to go. Tonight, in class at college, we were doing moulage. Then Rory showed us how to make a bra pattern from the moulage. I thought the dart, from the moulage, could simply be kept there as had happened in the bodice block - but of course, it had only been pinned in place, not sewn. My homework for next time is a paper bra pattern. I modified a pattern for a lace cardigan. I had to increase the size as the pattern only went up to a 16. I probably graded up to a 20. I needed extra space in my hips and for my biceps. That was a couple of weeks ago but I got around to cutting out the lace this week. I found the lace difficult to work with as it wanted to slip all over the place, distorting the lines. Hopefully I managed it reasonably okay in the end. I decided to pin and then hand baste and found that the lower sleeve from elbow was very wide indeed. I also found that I had somehow stupidly cut out two left sleeves! Lyn advised me how to try to modify my sewing to take account of this error - I didn't have enough fabric to cut a new sleeve, despite it being narrowed by quite a bit. I'm hoping it won't take too long to sew this up. I'm probably going to overlock the seams, by the way, rather than do French seams as the lace is possibly too thick for the latter. Next week is midterm so I don't have classes but I do have some time to get up to date.

I have some photos so I will edit this post later - I don't have time to do that just now, just wanted to get my thoughts sown so I remember the process.

Bodice Block and Dart Manipulation - halfway notes on my pattern drafting class.

Although I live in a city, I'm attending a weekly evening pattern drafting course at a college in a nearby city. Well the city is nearby, only 15 miles away, but the traffic is so congested it takes me ages to get there, particularly as I have to travel at 'rush hour' as it's an evening class. But that's another story. I do consider the class worthwhile, so worth the journey. I still don't understand, though, why my local college, which has a huge textile, design etc section, which is internationally renowned, doesn't do anything for those like me who'd like to learn without attending a full daytime course.

This post links in to my previous post on Tissue Fitting, Toile Making and Pattern Cutting, as I attended a weekend pattern cutting course in Stratford upon Avon.

In Stratford upon Avon, we used measurements and calculations to draw up the bodice - based on Winifred Aldrich's work. After it was drawn, we added seam allowances and cut a test garment out of calico to test the fit. The fit was then adjusted, the pattern adjusted and another toile made. The fit was then fine, though mine did take longer than others in the class, I'm afraid.  There were only 6 others in the class so there was a lot of individual attention from the tutor.

Sunderland College has textile courses by day but this is in an adult education setting and the numbers attending are much larger, so immediately there is less possibility of individual attention though the instructor manages very well and I can't say I've been left disappointed by her response. The class is only 2 hours long and that also reduces the amount possible in the class.

Rather than use the Winifred Aldrich method, which the instructor felt suited some figure types less well, she decided we would drape. She said that drawing up would usually take the first 5 weeks of the course, leaving less time for pattern work.

So we paired up and took each other's measurements, transferring them to a sheet designed for the purpose. This wasn't directly relevant to the draping but was an important starting point.

The first week, we started to drape the front bodice (one side only) - on our bodies, not a dummy, although that's the picture I'm showing. This is a lot harder than it looks! The second week, we continued with that and added the back bodice, which was easier. The 3rd week, we trued lines, drew onto paper and then cut out of calico, adding a seam allowance of 2.5cm. My toile fits not too bad but needs the dart adjusted. I'm so glad that in addition to having a fellow student on the course as a fitting buddy, we have the tutor checking our pinning. Oh, and we don't do sleeves until next term - alongside the skirt block as that's a lot faster.

Unfortunately, I missed this week's class where some of the other students were transferring their block to card. The tutor says that I can catch up no problem next week, which is the week before the autumn midterm break, although it is actually 6 weeks in to a 10 week course.

As a student, I've been able to borrow a couple of books from the library, which is great. I've also bought a draping book, which is very interesting.

I've also looked at some of the Japanese Pattern Magic books - amazing, but I'm not sure how relevant they are to my day to day life!

Looking through Amazon.co.uk., I spotted this book, which looks interesting and is available on Kindle Unlimited, so I may have a look at it.

 In week 3, we started manipulating darts. To start with, we each were given a quarter scale cardboard template of a front and back bodice. We had to draw around these and then practice dart manipulation.

The first thing we had to do was to rotate the dart, which was a standard bust dart, into the shoulder, ready for drawing a princess seam.

Although I had read about this, I hadn't actually done it before. It was rather like playing with the little paper dolls and paper clothes that I remember from girls' comics in the 50s/60s. Quite a lot of fun, though rather messy as the tutor suggested using glue sticks - at home I will use magic tape and this won't be so messy.

The next variation was a yoke top with gathered bodice. Again, although I knew the theory, I found it more difficult to do in practice. It's important that all the construction lines point to  hem level, but I had initially pointed all of mine to the bust point - as a result, I couldn't get such a big gather. Once I understood what was required, I managed this.

At home, I re-did all my little practice models and put them in my folder. I'm determined to be organised.

The following week, we continued with some slightly more involved dart manipulations.

In addition to finishing the blocks, this week was planned to start to look at designing. One of my fellow students has terrific ideas. She has a notebook full of drawings she has done - mainly vintage inspired tops and she hopes to create some of these with what she learns in class. I realised that I am not a designer - what I want to achieve is good fit in some of the patterns I already have and the tutor says that's fine.

So hopefully, next week, I'll catch up and finish my block and start to do a bit of designing - though I hope this is more about learning how to actually use my block.

 

 

Reminiscing but not much sewing

 

 Warning - not a lot of sewing here! I hope I can be excused. For some reason, I felt I wanted to write this post.

I've been doing a lot of reminiscing recently. It seemed quite appropriate that we've just had the autumn solstice where day and night are equal lengths, a time when one day seems like summer and the next most definitely autumn.

One of the reasons for reminiscing was the Scottish referendum - residents of Scotland voted last week as to whether they wanted to be an independent country, separate from the rest of the United Kingdom.

 

 

 

This question has been hanging over businesses and residents for two and a half years and caused some big companies (including the Royal Bank of Scotland) to announce that they would leave Scotland given a yes vote. 16 and 17 year olds were given a vote for this referendum - it was felt that younger people were more in favour of independence. Older people were on the whole not - worries about pensions, health care etc. My elderly - well old really - mother has been extremely anxious over recent weeks in particular. Although I am Scottish in that I was born in Scotland of Scottish patents and lived and worked in Scotland until my 30s, I have lived and worked in England for 27 years now, so wasn't eligible to vote. My oldest daughter was born in Scotland but the next two daughters were born in in England - in the home of the Geordies. Fabulous people. My DH and I had always considered moving back to Scotland in retirement but the uncertainties around the referendum put us off. So the decision is still there to make; our current house is much too large for us so we need to consider downsizing at some point. Where to go though?

Just a point, we live much closer to Edinburgh (capital of Scotland and site of Scottish Parliament) than London (capital of England and governmental centre for us). By the way, the democratic vote on the Scottish Referendum was against independence 55% to 45% with a turnout of 86%; however, it seems that the issue hasn't been put to bed.

My oldest daughter, born in Scotland, living in the south of England, has been doing a course in diversity and discrimination and considered lots of issues of identity in her answers. She showed me her written feedback where there is an assumption that she is a Geordie. I asked her and she told me she doesn't feel like one, though she and her DH (from the North East of England) would love to move back to the area, in the same way that we have considered Scotland (we've lived in a few cities, moving for jobs). This daughter is hoping to take up machine sewing with a view to making cushions, curtains etc for her home so I gave her my previous class machine  - the Viking HQ100. When I originally demonstrated it to her, it wasn't working well and the tensions were all over the place. I got it serviced and was told the needle had been loose and advised to ensure I always used the correct bobbins (which I had). I gave her a couple of books, too.

 

My middle daughter, born just after we moved to England, has been doing a Masters in psychology in Scotland. Her original degree was in a big city in England - and that's where she wants to be, as she considers that 'home', even though she has split up with the boyfriend she was going to spend the rest of her life with in that city and even though she has been away for 3 years now. Oh and she doesn't have a job. She has already had challenges and faces more but wants to be there. DH is moving her this weekend by van from our house, where she's been for a few weeks now, to a flat share with 3 young professionals.

My youngest daughter has had to make quite a few short term sacrifices in the hope of long term gain. She's had problems with her last flat share and this resulted in her and her boyfriend moving to a flat they're renting on their own - an inferior flat to their previous one (shared with two others) and more expensive but without the hassle of other flatmates. They've just moved and are effectively starting to set up home together in a way they didn't do before. It reminds me of how we started out. When they were up here last weekend, my daughter brought a few garments she'd like repaired or altered. I hate alterations. I'm also not sure that some of these garments can be altered. One of them has a torn bodice and I'm sure can't be repaired but I hope I can salvage the beautiful decorative panels at front. She also wants me to shorten the straps of the Cynthia Rowley dress I made her as they slip down - and the poppets at the back pop open, even though I used 4, so I'll have to consider using heavy duty ones.

 

I've been very busy with family matters, golf business and play, bridge class and play and sewing classes, which started last week.

I've now done two nights of my pattern cutting class. Very interesting. The tutor decided to use draping rather than mathematical methods, as that takes longer. I'll be interested to see how the result compares to the result from the class I took in August.

One of the things I hadn't appreciated is that I'm very tired after the classes - the journey to the class is very lengthy because of traffic congestion; I thought I'd put rush hour traffic behind me when I retired! So twice a week is more than I'd bargained for.

I've done one night of my beginners' dressmaking class. I'm a bit advanced for it as some have never threaded a machine etc. However, I'm missing a lot of the basics to be suitable for the intermediate class. I have been given a jetted (or double welt) pocket to try - but I've nver done anything close to this so think maybe the beginners' class is the place to be. I missed the second class, where those absolute beginners were going to be shown how to thread a machine and begin to use it, as I travelled up to Scotland, to Gleneagles, to watch the Ryder Cup (Europe v USA golf team competition which happens every second year), or at least the last practice day before the actual competition starts tomorrow (I'm writing this in my mother's home on Thursday night). Gleneagles is beautiful - I just love visiting Scotland, but do I want to live there?

 

As it's Thursday today, I've also missed the second class of my regular sewing class. At the first one, I showed my tutor my white dress - and didn't need to explain anything as she'd read my blog post! We agreed the dress wasn't satisfactory and on discussing options agreed it may as well get regularly washed when I'm washing whites to see if that improves matters. We felt that the idea of embroidering of top stitching princess seams wasn't going to work.

So I've been revisiting some previous makes. I've already jettisoned a skirt I made early on. I saved the lining I made for it and hope that I might be able to use it in the skirt I started a while back - it's cotton and I feel it would benefit from a lining as it's a bit clingy. So more reminiscing - I can see that my sewing skills have improved since those earlier makes.

Now it's Saturday and I'm busy prepping fabric and piecing together a PDF pattern, while watching the Ryder Cup on TV. I think the result is going to be very close. It's true that to some extent I'm putting off sewing by blogging and watching golf and making a rice pudding!

I ordered a recommended draping book and it arrived so I'll have a look at that too.

 

 

Over the next few weeks, I'll again be very busy as my mother is going to have operative treatment to her eyes, with the hope of regaining about 40% vision, which would be terrific. She will have the treatment in London, so a few trips there for both of us over the next few weeks.