I loved the drama of Vogue 1202 when it was first released and thought Vogue 2934 had an old world sophistication that was elegantly eye appealing. Not so on my figure. I'm too short and too short waisted for so much fabric and the dolmen sleeves obscure my waist and completely dwarf my narrow shoulders.
The Vogue 2983 skirt has - with considerable adaptation - become a favourite. It took work. I've learned that wrap around seams are not good for my well endowed hips. I need more adjustment and wiggle room. My adaptation has a side seam. My adaptation has no curved back seam. My adaptation is darn near a completely different pattern - LOL - although it still has those fabulous pleats.
The Vogue 1186 pants are VERY fun. They are also surprisingly dressy even though the pattern cover looks less formal. When I wear them, people tend to think I'm wearing a long skirt and I tend to lift it and move around like I am too. That's not every day comfortable. I like the trouser look but not so much the really wide legged look.
I've sewn the Vogue 2893 top twice. Unfortunately the first one, sewn from a knit, shrunk before I could wear it because it showed potential. It was soft and cuddly. The second one, sewn from silk dupioni, made me feel quite conspicuous. It reminded me yet, still, once again that stiff fabrics are not for me. I need fluidity. The same silk dupioni fabric used for the skirt pattern would have been amazing. Too bad I didn't think of that sooner. I'm learning to think about the fabric properties more before starting a project.
This Vogue 8146 swing jacket has been on my list for years because I LOVE SWING JACKETS. On Monday, I sewed the muslin.
The back is the only thing I still love about the jacket. Everything else is not me so I will adapt that feature to another, more suitable, pattern at some time in the future.
In this side image, you can see the bunching at the underarm. Typically, I shorten a pattern by at least an inch through the armhole. I'll tell you why I didn't with this one further down. Here you can see why it's necessary. You can also see the need for a full bust adjustment.
In choosing this pattern for the SISC, my attention was focused completely on the swing back. If I'd looked at the garment as a whole, I'd have paid more attention to the closure and the hem. I am extremely uncomfortable in garments that are buttoned up to the chin and look heavier in garments that obscure my waist never mind the fact that the raglan sleeves make my shoulders look narrower which in turns makes my hips look heavier. I would look and feel fat and uncomfortable in this garment which is, I'm sure, subconscious data that was preventing me from sewing.
Before I sew any more of the SISC patterns, I will give them a really good think through. There's no point spending time on them if I discover that there are more cons than pros to the pattern. I'd rather up the success factor. Perhaps the pro factors could be transferred to a more successful base garment.
Mary wrote - Today I saw you mentioned Pattern Master Boutique. But all your other posts (that I've read) mention commercial patterns. Do you no longer use PMB? If so, why not?
I use PMB but not in the way that you are thinking. Instead of using it to design garments, I use it to produce a sloper with the correct lines and amount of ease and then I use that sloper and Lynda Maynard's method from her book DeMystifying Fit to alter the commercial patterns to fit my measurements.
Lynda's book was the ah ha moment in fitting for me and it gave me a reason to really figure out how to use PMB. I started by fitting a Butterick fitting shell and then transferred those measurements to the software until I could duplicate the shell and the fit. Once I knew my basic measurements were correct, I could then draft and print out any "sloper" as required whether it was a princess seam or a darted design, close or loose ease. This was an advantage to the one sloper that Lynda talks about in her book. It - finally - made me appreciate what PMB could do for me.
The BAD NEWS is that we had to reformat my computer just before Christmas when it had a bad virus and my charts and slopers were lost. I have a print out of a recent chart in my filing cabinet and will be able to duplicate it much easier than before but it is going to take some effort. I'll need to re-test all the measurements. I'm annoyed that I need to do this again and glad that I can because fitting the jacket muslin and the dress that I'm now working on would have been a LOT easier if I could have printed out the appropriate sloper to compare to the pattern. It's incentive to do the work - perhaps this weekend.
Last night was knitting. I've started on a new project. It's the Garns Studio 71-14 cardigan. This company offers over 39,000 free patterns. It's an incredible resource. This one is a combination of ribbing which is my favourite stitch and cables which are my second love. It has a pattern graph that I'll need to learn how to read. The edge of the sleeves is slightly ruffled and the garment fits smoothly. I'll narrow the shoulders. They would look a lot better on the shoulder rather than dropped. The teal color is fabulous with my green eyes and even if it wasn't, it's a nice change from all the knitting with black I've done recently.
Talk soon - Myrna
Grateful - first day of work
Myrna, of all the charts, that one is not very difficult. If you have problems switching from chart to knitting and back again, you can write out the pattern in lines from the chart. I do this, because it helps me memorize the pattern, even though I knit from the chart.
ReplyDeleteI am too a short and not slender person - one thing I found helped to decide what the pattern would look like on me was to take the pattern image and using MS paint, enlarge it in the horizontal direction only until the proportions of length to width were more in keeping with mine. It gave me some nice insights on what NOT to do...
Myrna I hear you on the patterns. I've just cleared out a bunch of uncut, unused patterns, about 30. Even at $4 each that's a lot of wasted $$$. They're going because the few similar patterns I did cut and did try to make up were collosal failures. Why did I buy these? Well I'd lost so much weight, I thought they might look good. Or I'd decided long ago I didn't like something about a particular style but couldn't remember what. So now I have 30 patterns that I won't use. Sigh. I hope to be more critical in the future both buying and sewing.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you all the way.