Weekend Review: Make Your Own Dress Patterns

 

Make Your Own Dress Patterns / Adele P. Margolis
illus. by Judy Skoogfors
Mineola, NY: Dover Books, 2006, c1985.
480 p.

I realized when I recently reviewed Sewing Love by Sanae Ishida that she mentions Adele P. Margolis' Make Your Own Dress Patterns -- which is one of my favourite books on patternmaking. Inexplicably I have never shared it here. That changes now! 

This is my Dover edition, the easiest one to locate if you're looking for a copy. It's an exact reprint of the original, though, and has all the delightful line drawings intact. I have talked about another of Margolis' books in the past, How to Make Clothes That Fit and Flatter, and many of the selling points for me in that book are found here as well. 

Margolis is funny, with quips in her intro and clever chapter headings. But she's also very knowledgeable, and this book delves into how to make a pattern for what you want to wear. It's broken up into two halves, both with various subdivisions. The first is Pattern Whys: the basic of constructing a pattern. It looks at basic shapes, darts, control seams, fullness, making an actual pattern, and slopers. The second half deals with Style Lines -- necklines, collars, closures, pockets, sleeves, and in the final chapter she touches on draping, grading and muslins. 

I find it an inspirational book, it's one of my favourites to just go through for ideas, over and over again. The instructions for different elements are pretty short but if you are familiar with sewing they are clear enough to work with. There are illustrations of the pattern changes for, let's say, changing a bland a-line skirt into a crossover front view. Or many other ideas for all areas of the pattern. One of my favourite parts of this book is all the illustrations. They are all line drawings, both instructional and simply showing the kind of thing Margolis is talking about in the text. There is something about the retro feel of the styles and the hairdos and the combinations of images that I just love. Some of them feel quite 60s while others are pure 80s. I really enjoy looking at all the style ideas laid out here in detail, both the clothing and the women illustrated. 

But aside from it being an entertaining read, and having fabulous figure drawings, this book gives you a lot of solid information on making your pattern, adding in the details that you want, and getting it to work in actuality. I use this one in combination with my Helen Joseph Armstrong Patternmaking for Fashion Design (which I picked up for $3 at a thrift store) whenever I need to figure out how I might do something particular to a pattern. It's well worth taking a look at this book -- widely available and a fun reading experience. 

Muslining a Self Drafted Dress

As I've mentioned a few times now, I've been sewing along with some members of my local Garment Guild this summer (via Zoom) as we work through 10 lessons on pattern drafting by Cal Patch on CreativeBug. 

This week's challenge was to take the dress draft from last week and muslin it, so that you could do any necessary adjustments and then rework the pattern. 

As suspected, I am going to have to make sure to trace off a separate back piece and make some tweaks there -- specifically to take a 1/2" swayback adjustment. In this class the front and back are drafted as one piece, with no bust darts included. If you have a larger bust you may have many more adjustments to make but I didn't have to worry about that. I do have to adjust the back though! 

One other small tweak is that I had to shorten the lower back darts by a fair amount -- I raised them 1.5" but could even raise them another 1/2" -- I have a shorter waist to hip and the original dart I'd drawn in had the points sitting way down on my butt. Now it's much better! 

The primary adjustment that I had to make with the actual muslin was in the shoulder area, however. I basted the muslin (made from an old sheet) together and added one sleeve. Then tried it on and realized that my shoulder slope was pretty significantly different from my first draft. The shoulder is drawn in by measurement and then you add in a recommended 1/4-1/2" point at the neckline to slope down to the outer edge, but that didn't work for me in reality. 

I ended up with a shoulder that had far too much fabric in it - I could pinch a good inch up as excess. Not only were both the shoulder seam and sleeve cap too high at the shoulder point, the shoulder seam sat slightly below my shoulder hinge as well. So I changed the shoulder line by marking a spot 1/2" lower at the shoulder edge and 1/4" down at the neck edge, and basting a slanted line between them, on the side without a sleeve attached. That allowed the shoulder line to sit flat, and lie right across the top of my shoulder.

Before

After

I also shaved a scant 1/4" out of the armscye, starting at the shoulder seam and blending back the original line by about halfway down. I also lowered the bottom of the armscye by a 1/4". I then removed almost an inch from the sleeve cap so that it was still only about an inch larger than my armscye. I basted that in carefully, and found that it was perfect. No excess fabric to pool at the shoulder, but enough movement in the sleeve to be able to reach and move my arm normally. I am going to add in a bit of width at the bicep for a little more comfort but overall I am very happy with this draft, and think that I'll retrace the pattern onto heavier paper so that I have a basic close-fitting sloper of sorts to compare with commercial patterns and to use as a basis for any designs I want to play with.

I really enjoyed this process and feel like I've learned a lot. As one of my fellow sewists in this project mentioned, this feels empowering. We're now more comfortable with adjusting patterns to fit ourselves, aside from the whole self-drafting excitement ;) 

Drafting a Dress Block

Following along with the pattern drafting series in CreativeBug means that I'm not really getting a lot of other sewing done! I've cut out three dresses from stash fabric that are now awaiting the sewing process, but in the meantime I've kept busy rewatching old seasons of the Great British Sewing Bee, and the lessons in the CreativeBug summer sewalong my guild is doing.

This week's lesson was pretty straightforward -- take a whole whack of measurements and draft out a basic dress block. This is based on your own measurements but also has a couple of standard issue elements like darts and armscye to add in. The next step is to sew up a muslin and do the fine tuning required. 

I found this quite straightforward. The lesson was easy to follow and the draft looks like a basic dress shape, that's for sure. In the class, it's drafted as front and back as one, with differing necklines drawn in. However, I usually prefer making my pattern as two pieces, front and back, since there are differing adjustments I like to make on each part for a better fit on my figure.

I'm not much of a muslin maker in my regular sewing life; I like to make as many flat pattern adjustments as I possibly can before starting on a project. So I think that I will also be doing the same here -- looking at the drafted pattern and evaluating if any of my usual adjustments need to be made around the dart length, bust point, back length etc. before starting my first muslin. Reduce any extra work in the muslin stage is my mantra. I'm hoping that because this is based on my own measurements to begin with that there won't be many changes to worry over. We will see...

My plan is to get my muslin sewn and tested, and adjustments made asap, so that I can sew up a sample dress testing out the theory that I can draft something wearable for myself. If so, I think I'll have a lot of fun with this over the next few months! Never mind the literal hundreds of dress patterns I own, I'll just make some of my own too. In all my spare time. 

I am enjoying the technical skills here and the very entry level style of pattern making that these classes offer. I do have the series of pattern drafting classes by Suzy Furrer on Craftsy as well, and perhaps after working my way through these Cal Patch classes I won't be so intimidated by the more complex work in the Suzy Furrer ones. It's always good to stretch the mind and learn something new, and I'm finding this sewalong is definitely delivering there. 

A Summer Sewalong Project

My local Garment Guild is one of my favourite groups of people :) We have a lot of fun and have kept our Guild going over the last year via Zoom meetings. We've had some great guests and speakers, and have kept in touch with each other. I really enjoy it. 

But of course we don't meet over the summer, so this summer I suggested a sewalong so that we could all keep sewing together while apart ;) 

Our library systems in this area subscribe to CreativeBug, so with our library cards we can all log in and follow along with tons of classes. Our summer sewalong follows all the pattern drafting courses run by Cal Patch -- there are 10 sessions which works out perfectly for us to do one a week until the end of the summer! 

This week we started with drafting our own Boxy Top. It's a great intro to the process for people who have never used measurements to draft out a simple pattern for yourself before. It's fairly straightforward, but there is a lot of potential in such a basic patterns, some of which are shared in the class -- colour blocking, dividing it into panels, adding pockets etc. I think this would be a fun project to experiment with and see what you could do with it. 

I drafted mine out but second guessed the arm depth and shortened it by about 3/8" since I am short between bust and shoulder. However, I should have trusted the numbers because my first sewn sample is a bit too grabby into my armpit area. I've added the 3/8" back onto the pattern and will try again. 

I used some linen from my stash (yay, using up big chunks of leftovers!) and left the hem raw since the selvage is a pretty line of shimmery thread. I am thinking about maybe embroidering a motif along the neckline to spark it up a little. 

The fit is great (except for the armhole boo boo, which is still wearable though not perfect) and I really liked the simple process. 

It was fun to see what others had done with this project, and now we are all looking forward to week two -- drafting a simple pair of wide leg pants. At least I hope it will be simple! Maybe I'll finally have a pair of pants that fits. I am hoping to learn more about basic pant drafting so that I'll understand patterns and alterations better. I hardly ever wear pants so haven't really made many, and those I've tried have been rather disastrous. Onward and upward. 

Weekend Review: Cal Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes

Design-It-Yourself Clothes  / Cal Patch
NY: PotterCraft, c2009
158 p.

This book is a fabulous intro to pattern drafting and making your own patterns and clothes. That is exactly what it is -- there are no patterns in this book, but instead there are five items with variations for a total of 15 possible makes. The trick is to take her instructions, your measurements, and the desired look of a garment and build your own. 

The first 30 pages are a necessary introduction to the concept, and a lengthy, thorough look at measurements -- which ones you'll need and how to take them. This is more extensive than the basic measurements that sewists are familiar with and use in our work with existing patterns. These measurements are the core of what you'll use to create the patterns she shares in the second part of the book.

Part Two has the five core patterns and three variations for each: A-Line Skirt, T-Shirt, Button Down Blouse, Dress, and Pants. Each one starts with the basic pattern; there are instructions on the block and then how to use your measurements to create a pattern unique to you. Then there are two variations, and they are pretty big variations, so that the item looks like another piece, ie: Button Down to Jacket. You have to be a confident and I think at least an intermediate sewist to follow along and feel comfortable manipulating patterns in the ways shown here. If you're not already familiar with patterns I think you might feel a bit lost. Still, the instructions are thorough and the illustrations are simple but clear. 

Basic dress on left; Phoebe skirt and Betsy Jacket (my fave item) on right

Part Three gives some more elaborate changes to the patterns from the previous section, one for each, and encouraging the reader to experiment. This section involves significant changes like adding flare or yokes & pockets. It really does give you the idea that once you've become comfortable with making changes like this, designs are innumerable.

There is also a tiny bit of info included on fitting, grading patterns, and a few basic techniques. However, this book isn't really about the sewing as much as the pattern creation, so the process of sewing isn't much more than a paragraph for each project. But as the expectation is that readers who are making patterns will be experienced sewists, I didn't find this much of a drawback. 

There is also a brief, two page bit at the end on using readymade clothing and rubbing off patterns, which can add to your own collection of patterns. 

Overall I thought this was an interesting book with lots of inspiration and information, and one that could start you on a pattern drafting journey. The designs are fairly simple, so they aren't going to put you off your first go at pattern making. The only thing about this book that raised my eyebrows a bit was the claim that before this book, a reader was "hard pressed to find self-teaching tools" that weren't dry or outdated. I've found plenty of excellent, fun guides before this one, so I'm not sure where the person who wrote that blurb was looking. Otherwise, this is a great book to search out if you're interested in beginning drafting your own patterns and need a bit of guidance. 

The author, Cal Patch, also has online classes on this topic on CreativeBug. You can get a free trial or a low-cost deal often on CreativeBug if you'd like to check it out. If you don't have a subscription to CreativeBug yourself, check out your local library -- some libraries do subscribe to CreativeBug for their users, so you might be able to access her classes with your library card. 

Weekend Review: Make It Your Own

Make It Your Own: Personalizing Patterns for Creative Design /
Lori Bottom & Ronda Chaney
Radnor, PA: Chilton Books, c1994
167 p.

I requested this 1994 book via Interlibrary Loan after someone recommended it on PatternReview. It's definitely of its era, with fashion sketches that are very much 80s and 90s. However, as shown by my recent post on patterns of that era, I really love that element!

The book is a primer on taking a pattern and changing it up -- adding collars, overlays, tiers, ruffles, drawstrings; changing necklines, closures or sleeves, and making yourself a new look. Each idea is illustrated with a sketch, and has good information on how to do each alteration. Measurements for new collars or overlays are explained, and sketches show the steps. It has tons of great ideas that can be used today and the techniques are not dated even if some of the particular styles are.

I found two ideas that I want to use right away, and many more to inspire me. I'm going to have to keep an eye out while thrifting and second hand book store shopping to see if I can get my own copy, because this is one of the most interesting sewing books I've seen in a while. I think it is due for an update and a reissue.

The things that caught my eye right now are: how to add tiers to a skirt or dress, and, how to add a tied bolero style overlay to any V-neck pattern. They both look like neat, modern ideas. They are also both pretty straightforward and any sewist with a bit of experience would be able to figure them out. I love how this book gives lots of ideas and also assumes that anyone can do this. It's positive and fun.

Definitely recommended if you want to modify and adapt your current patterns, and don't mind a bit of 90s illustration to go with it.

Weekend Review: Boundless Style

Boundless Style / Kristiann Boos

London: Fons & Porter, c2015.

176 p.

This week it's another mix-and-match pattern book. Boundless Style is a book of interchangeable skirts, bodices & sleeves designed by Kristiann Boos of Victory Patterns, a Canadian company. 

There are 5 distinct designs for bodices, skirts and sleeves in turn. There are also suggestions on how to turn a bodice into a blouse, sometimes with peplum. The cover image shows the most unusual bodice as well as the most unusual sleeve, which has an inverted box pleat running from shoulder to elbow. If you are looking for a bit of a different style for your dress wardrobe, this book might be a good bet.

The photographs here are gorgeous; all styled images with forest, lakes and flowers as beautiful backgrounds. They feel quite moody, with mists and brick walls featuring as well. The models are all young and thin, suitable for the sizing, I guess. Size range runs from 2 - 16, or a 33-44.5" bust and 35-46.5" hip.

The book includes information at the beginning on choosing your size, preparing your pattern, basic dress construction like seams, zippers etc. For a beginner this will be helpful but most sewists interested in a book like this will probably be comfortable with these basics already.

Unlike the previous book of this kind that I reviewed last week, there are no pattern hacking elements to this one beyond the mix-and-match styles. She does mention adding elements like ties and collars to change things up, and the style lines of many of the bodices also encourage some colour blocking.

I don't think that this is necessarily an essential book for the sewing room, but if you're looking for some unusual patterns and you love dresses, it might be a good addition. I found that the sleeve section was the most interesting for me, as she has a couple of features (like the pleated sleeve) that I haven't really seen in many of my patterns so far. There are some intriguing ideas to use in future makes. 

One neat thing about this book is the addition of an online "lookbook" where you can test out different combinations to see what bodice/skirt/sleeve option you might want to mash up. It is really quite helpful! And fun to play with ;)

If you like Victory Patterns' aesthetic, this book will be just the thing for you. The sizing and the specific patterns included do limit its general usefulness somewhat, but as a dress lover, I find it lovely to look through even if I haven't tried anything yet.

Weekend Review: Making Patterns from Finished Clothes

Making Patterns From Finished Clothes / Rusty Bensussen
NY: Sterling, c1985.  160 p.

Here is another of the pattern making from RTW books that I have in my collection. This one is a decade earlier than the previous volume I just reviewed, and it does show.

There are no photographs, only line drawings, for example. Now, I do love a good retro line drawing, but for technique and learning, I did find the other title with multiple photos more useful. Though this one is awfully charming in its way.

It has a bit of a different approach, too. It starts out with with a brief intro to equipment and organizing patterns -- not only your own but commercial ones as well (in essence, she suggests manila envelopes and a good filing system - I already have the first but not really the second!)

Then there is a dated section on figure types and colours, and which suit you best -- which make you look the most slender, essentially. As a book from the 80s, it still focuses on hiding 'trouble spots' and recommends for my own 'short and heavy' figure that I should emphasize vertical lines and not use bold prints. Hee hee. I love a bold print.

It's a book for the creative sewist, though. The reliance on finished clothes is more of a suggestion to take a standard piece that you like and fits you well and trace it off to make a sloper of sorts. Because the technique bit is pretty quickly passed over to get to the design options that you can use to change up your basic and make it into a multitude of variations. Actually, the design suggestions are a lot of fun, and can be applied to any basic commercial pattern you have as well. Lengthening tunics to dress length, adding waistline casing or drawstrings, changing sleeve shapes or adding flounces/ruffles, or changing hem shapes, are just some of the ideas that any sewist could easily adapt, and that many of us in the modern sewing community already do frequently.

The design ideas and the drawings suggest to me that though this book was published in the mid80s, it's really a child of the 70s. Some loose caftan-like adaptations and the freewheeling just-do-it vibe speak like more of a 70s maker. And while it's not technique driven, it is inspiring, and this freeness to it is the key to its charm. Maybe not best for an introduction to this technique for someone trying to learn it alone but definitely still a fun 'retro read'. I enjoyed it, and really love the fashion sketches in it.