I started work on the footman’s jacket today, I was going to finish the ladies outfit in its entirety first, but I still haven’t settled on a fabric for it, so i thought I would make a start on this. It’s quite daunting, I’ve never worked on male clothing before (other than tunics). I found a full size version of the pattern above, but my model is a little on the small side, and the pattern was for a person over 6 foot. So I thought I would do better to work straight from the book. I had to completely ignore the scaling it gave, it would again have been way too big.
The process involved lots of grid drawing and took a couple of hours. I have decided a pattern master is an absolutely amazing piece of kit that I definitely need to own.
I very carefully made sure all the different bits matched the measurements, checked, and rechecked, then cut and stitched. Took time over tracing it out and ironing the side pleats.
After all that (well, an hour or so) I slipped it on…
How on earth did I not spot it before? The back was about 10cm too narrow! I knew I was having a particularly scatter-brained day, but I remember looking a the back pattern piece and thinking it looked narrow. How come I didn’t measure it? I astound myself sometimes, never mind though, this is what toiles are for.
Thats awesome that you can scale up a pattern. I have a degree in fashion design so I usually draft my patterns from basic blocks I've created. I'm daunted by scaling up patterns from a book and have no clue as to what the first step would be! It looks like it would be faster.
ReplyDeleteIt did take a bit of time. I did it with grids, but I'm sure it would have been much faster just to use a photocopier, though it takes a few goes to get the sizing right. I think I will try that next time.
ReplyDelete.....check twice, cut once perhaps?! <3 xx
ReplyDelete