Our pattern drafting workshop
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016
Last Sunday at Sassy Sewing, a gaggle of keen sewists and instructor, fashion designer and seamstress Kate Pinfold huddled over calculators, paper, rulers, measuring tapes, calico and a whole host of other essentials. This weekend we were pattern drafting for a woman’s shirt. Pattern drafting is the art of making a pattern from your own measurements – so it’s as good a fit as a pattern can ever be. Once you’ve got your basic pattern, you can then go on to design whatever shirt you want – even a Vivien Westwood copy if that’s your thing. It’s very addictive because it’s just so fabulous being able to design something from scratch. Now I love commercial patterns too, don’t get me wrong but pattern drafting is so exciting. Your design may start out as one idea, then a tweak and a twiddle here and there and your finished garment may be quite different to what you had in mind – it’s a very creative process. All our workshop attendees went away with a pattern for a long sleeved shirt with front and back yokes with gathers at the yokes. Some had fashioned a collar with a neck stand (one or two very pointy collars amongst them) with a Peter Pan collar being an option for others. We learnt so much on this workshop but here are six things that stick in my mind the most:
1 When drawing a curved line, its easier and more accurate to draw it in such a way that you are pulling the curve towards you, not pushing it away.
2 When making a shirt from your own pattern, ditch the usual 1.5 cm seam and use a 1cm one instead – less is more to avoid bulk.
3 When marking the right spot for your bust darts, remember it needs to point upwards towards the middle of your bust not downwards. It’s much more flattering this way and will make you look perkier than you are if you need that kind of help (many do).
4 It’s great to be excited by pattern drafting, but there are maths involved so be prepared to concentrate. My first attempt at a collar looked like something made especially for one of the Bagpuss mice!
5 The measuring tool called a pattern master is a very useful investment
6 Winifred Aldrich is the goddess of pattern drafting and her book Metric Pattern Cutting is a must have if you really want to get serious about this. Yes the illustrations look like something out of the fifties, but the advice is invaluable. It’s an oldie but a goodie – available from Amazon.
Here are some shots of the day. We were a messy lot!
A very useful sewing site
Welcome to Sassy Sewing
Let’s connect:
Subscribe to my posts:
Archives
- January 2017
- November 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
Leave a Reply