Wednesday 26 October 2011

Not so Spirally Spiral Skirt -Drafting Part 2

This is the best resemblance of me I could find. I was down the past few days, I still don't want to eat anything. I have moved from PJs  to extremely soft jeans though. Enough whining from me and on with the tutorial!

Last time we got as far as drafting the position of the break. Today we'll shift the dart control so you don't end up with a bag that shows your undies for a skirt :P!



  1. On your break line draw in the points directly underneath your dart apexes. 
  2. Then draw a straight line from apexes to hem. This line should go through the dart apex and the point of the right-side neighbour on the break line (If you want the skirt to spiral in the opposite direction you can just flip the entire pattern around at the end.).
  3. Shift the darts as shown in the diagrams.
I couldn't find an elegant way to pivot the shaped darts and keep the seam straight. I'm sure there is a method though. I just have to find it. For this it doesn't matter all that much. The skirt is cut on the bias. Well the non-true one anyway. I'll explain about that next time.

So much for today. I'm going to make myself another cup of tea.

Butterfly

Sorry to keep you waiting

So it looks like I can't get the drafting post written in the next few days. A friend of mine just fell over yesterday. I mean honestly one moment he was walking next to me and the next he was just lying on the floor. So I spent the day making sure he went to see a doctor. So I couldn't type it up yesterday and I don't have a lot of time until the weekend. But I promise to try!


Monday 24 October 2011

Straight Seamed Spiral Skirt - Drafting Part 1

Illustration of a possible skirt outcome
The area where the break is is shown in blue.
The red part shows the amount of turn.


Here is the promised tutorial on how to draft and sew a skirt with gores that wrap around the wearer. I will show you how to do a skirt with 6 gores. This is the easiest thing to do, as you won't have to shift the darts around to much.

Materials:
  • basic skirt sloper (pattern of a well-fitting pencil skirt)
  • pattern paper (you can use newspaper, butcher paper, paper table cloths, normal paper taped together ...)
  • long ruler or other straight edge
  • measuring tape
  • French curve or a flexible ruler or a piece of washing line








Procedure:

    This is roughly what the skirt sloper
    for Dolly looks like. As it is only
    knee length I lengthened
    it to just above the ankles.
  1. Trace front and back parts of  your sloper (or of your skirt without the seam allowances).aligning the side seams. As this is an asymmetric design you'll need to trace both halves. You'll have shaped darts at the side seams and a "normal" dart in each of the pieces.
  2. Measure the distance from CFW (centre front front at waist) to how long you want your skirt to be. Shorten or lengthen the centre seam accordingly. Shorten or lengthen al the other seams by the same amount and draw in the new hemline.
    1. The red lines show where I will
      add length and the green lines
      show where I will take some away.

    2. Measure the hip measurement (play at connecting the dots with the apexes of the darts) and divide this measurement by six. Dolly's hip measurement is precisely 14 cm. This gives me a result of 2.3333 cm. I will round this measurement up to 2.35 cm. Please remember that you should never round your measurements down.
    3. Start shifting the darts and side seams by folding the pattern in one place and adding the same amount somewhere else. This works because you don't have any sharp angles in your body so you can shift the darts a little bit.
    4. I choose to have the break in
      the middle.
    5. Decide on where the break should be by measuring down from your waist. Draw this line on your pattern paper. It should be the same distance from all the darts. NOTE: The break line can only be as far away from the hem as half the distance from hem to dart apexes.
    So much for today. I'll have the rest for you within two days.

    Butterfly

    Sunday 23 October 2011

    About the importance of reading your comments before you publish them ....

    So I admit it: I am stupid ... and lazy! I am following a  sew along. It's very graciously hosted by Anna at A Few Threads Loose. There had been a longish gap and I wanted to ask when it would continue. So I wrote a comment in no ill intend and sent it without reading it first. Right now I could actually slap myself for that. My comment was this

     "I know you're very busy with affordable manicures and such, but when does the sew along continue?"


    Argh! I'm not the most horrible person in the world. I simply forgot the god-damned smiley. If I where Anna I wouldn't even have kept posting. She had mentioned that she really wanted to get a manicure on her trip (and who wouldn't). So I figured I might be able to start making up for it by taking some work of her hands. Do you think it's any good?


    Okay so I know I'm not going to be able to write a sewalong as well as she does. Instead I'm going to write about something that she luckily doesn't have to worry about: LBAs. Anna's method just added inches horizontally. Like the Facebook user I didn't get enough coverage. I was actually afraid things would pop out. Now the Facebook person was much smarter than me: She just scaled the pattern up! So here's a tutorial about how to do that.


    Draft of the bra cup pattern. The red lines are those used
    to find the BP (bust point).
    First you have to find the bust point For this I connected the lower edge of the upper dart and the lower edge of the middle dart along the bottom. And I drew a line that halves the angle on the CF corner. The intersection is where the BP is.


    Then you measure the distance from BP to the lower edge along the red line. I came out with 8.75 cm. Anyone have something different? Then measure the distance from your BP (the nipple) to your under bust (where the under wire would lie). From that you can calculate the percentage you need to scale up or down by.


    SCALE="BP to UB on you" *100
          "BP-UB on the pattern"


    You then just print your PDF-Pattern that much bigger. Be careful about the notches as they will be in a different place now. Measure along the lower edge of the bra cup (darts folded) to determine the distance from CF to notch and mark the new distance on the braa band.


     I haven't made a full bra like this yet, but I have cut a muslin and basted everything together and that fit just perfectly.


    You can of course use this method to make any bra cup fit you.  Just find the bust point, measure and scale. This also works for making a bra cup smaller.

    Saturday 22 October 2011

    Meet the newest addition to my sewing family!

    Sorry these where taken with a web cam :(

    This is the newest member of the family. Meet ... oh hey! Puppet without a name! Can anybody think of one?
    SOMEBODY needs a major swayback adjustment ...
    and a dress that doesn't look like a dish rag!
       Okay on to the important things. Who needs a name anyway? I adopted this tutorial assistant for  3 Pounds. She might be related to Barbie, but her proportions seem more natural to me. I might even have a larger cup size than her :). Her waist is tiny though.
       If I'm nice she gets to have a name. Maybe even before the first tutorial. That is coming soon. Very soon actually. It will be about making spiral or swirl skirts with straight seams.

    And as to stop you from wondering: I'm still working on getting all the measurements for the Christmas Coat Project (I'll shorten that to CCP). And it's more of a long term project.
       This swirl skirt is more of an Instant Gratification Project. Besides - I really, really need a new one. As soon as the sewing machine is fixed I'll sew one for me. Oh and as soon as I have my new measurements taken properly.

    Read from me again soon!
    Butterfly

    Thursday 20 October 2011

    It started with an IGP ...

    ... and ended with every sewaholics nightmare: a wounded sewing machine! Is it just a scratch? Will it heal by itself? Or could it be the end?

    This is my baby <3
    It most probably won't heal by itself. It will need some surgery. And out comes the one big problem with the Brother i20 LE. You can't just do the surgery. The problem is that the little "bed" for the bobbin has shiftet about 3 cm. Therefore you can't sew any more. If you wanted to put everything bak where it's supposed to go you'd have to undo two screws. But the screwdrivers that come with the machine are to long and the arm  hangs far to deep. Therefore I'd need to buy a really short screwdriver. But I don't have the funds to buy one right now. Therefore my baby has to stay in it's sickbed for a while.
    This is the luggage my baby brought. Notice the screwdrivers?
    Until then it will be no sewing and a lot of grumbling for me. On the bright side: I can perfect my new sloper! I had my little sister measure me the day before yesterday and made slopers with those measurements.  Everything but a trouser sloper as I  dissected my favourite pants for that. Unfortunately the measurements don't seem to be correct. Somehow my total bust, hip and waist measurements turned out 10 to 17 cm to large. How did that happen? So anyway I'm back to taking measurements (by myself).

    Tuesday 18 October 2011

    Project Christmas-Coat

    So for my first post I'll be jumping right in ...

    The project: A new coat for my mum.

    The problem:
    I want to sew this coat as a Christmas present so I'll have to work on it when she isn't there. That's a very limited amount of time. And she doesn't trust my sewing skills so she won't let me take her measurements.

    The solution:
    Mum is on a business trip in a few weeks, so I'll have to make sure I clear as much time as I can  during that period. I will "steal" her measurements from her clothing. As I do the laundry that won't be a problem. My biggest concern is the bust area. I know I'd have to do an FBA on any commercial patterns. But that's what bras are for - right? I'll also be making a sloper (that's a first for me). She'll probably figure it out when she has to put it on so I might just make it into a blouse. Discretion is my aim here!

    Inspiration: 
    My mum used to have a coat that looked ever so endearing. The best description I can come up with is a warm  baby doll with sleeves and a big Peter Pan Collar. Sadly she threw it away before I had a chance of tracing the pattern. Why would she do such an awful thing?

    Mum looked youthful and in need of protection in that coat. However she wants to have people respect her and listen to her. Some people think her quite severe and aggressive, because of that. So I think I'll keep the big, rounded collar to make her appear sweeter. I'll add  princess seams, because they are timeless and lady-like and make everyone look good. The empire waistline and under bust band are also a keeper for all of those reasons.

    More as soon as I have halfway presentable sketches. I'm of to the drawing board!