The Savvy Seamstress - What's it All About?

I'm reposting from the C&T Publishing blog (with their permission), an excerpt from my book,  The Savvy Seamstress: An Illustrated Guide to Customizing Your Favorite Patterns. I've included some of the photos and added some annotations to to help explain a little more about how it all works.

“I’ve always been a garment maker. I was a child who made doll clothes, a teenager who was obsessed with sewing my own clothes, a fashion student, a designer pattern maker, and then a pattern designer and teacher. I still make most of my own wardrobe, often using the same small selection of basic patterns that I adapt with different fabrics and design details. I’m lucky to have a strong background in pattern making and sewing, but, as a teacher, I know that even relative beginners can learn to make the most of their pattern stash this way.

When I began teaching at a fashion college, most of the pattern-making and industrial sewing resources I found were pitched at a higher skill level than my students had. I had to break down the processes into small, achievable steps so my students could make the garments they designed. It occurred to me that the average home dressmaker could benefit from the same information.

By learning how to make a few key design alterations, you can keep transforming your favorite patterns— adding or removing collars and pockets, changing neckline shapes, and swapping a zippered back for a button front, a waistband for a facing, or vice versa. The variations are endless. I hope that this book gives you the inspiration and the confidence to try some of these changes, and that you are amazed by what you can achieve.”

The skirt started out in life with a waistband, and now it has a lowered waist with a facing. The same could be done to the pants in the photo at the top. Zippers can be swapped from back to front to side, and invisible zippers and lapped zippers can be used interchangeably. The pants could have a fly front.

These little blouses (above and below) are made from the same pattern. Apart from being on different sized kids, they look different because the design features have been changed. The one above has short sleeves, a lowered neckline and a rounded Peter Pan collar, and the one below has a higher neckline with a pointed collar, and long sleeves, gathered into a cuff. There was also a collarless version.

By adding a skirt, the little blouse could become a dress... and the front buttons could be swapped for a zipped back... 

...which is what happened with a heap of tween/teen dresses. Necklines were changed. Collars and pockets were added and removed. Zippered backs became buttoned fronts, and vice-versa. The one dress became many.

Mens' and boys' shirts were also tweaked with different collars, cuffs, pockets and sleeve lengths.

Classic styling can become casual, and even pajama styling... all from the one pattern.

The book itself does not contain the patterns, because it's about learning basic techniques to tweak the patterns that you love and want to expand upon. 

I had great plans to get the patterns for these garments all finished and ready to accompany the book, when it is released in November, but (insert one-woman-show-work-life-balance-(with-curveballs) story here..), that development has been slow. 

I'm currently working on instructions for the pants, which are graded from size 6-20. If you'd like to test the instructions and fit for me, I'll have them (to use for free) at my next class at Cutting Cloth, on the 18th Sept.

I also have skinny pants in size 8, a large men's shirt, a size 10 girl's dress and size 5 in the blouse and classic (boys') shirt. These have not been graded, but if you would like to make them IN THESE SIZES and with my guidance rather than written instructions, you can do so at my classes at Cutting Cloth over the next few months.

Bag Design and Pattern-Making Work-Along

Many years ago, I used to run weekly classes in bag design and patternmaking. It was popular with the locals, but people living interstate and overseas were always asking me to put it online, so that they could attend, too. 

AT LAST - Creativebug have done just that. These classes are the first stages of learning to design and make your own bag patterns, and will set you up to make a very broad range of designs..  

Even better, Creativebug are currently running a special (until 28 Nov 2016), where you can sign up for a 3 month subscription for $1! (after that, it's $4.95 USD per month). That's just in time for some serious holiday crafting. Alternatively, you can now buy individual classes.

The first class is all about learning the basic processes and terminology for patternmaking. It's about beginning to draft simple shapes, making basic patterns, and understanding the relationship between the 3-dimensional bag and the 2-d pattern.. The same processes are used as the designs become more complicated in Parts 2 and 3.

 Part 2 is all about the KEY to patternmaking - moving seamlines. This is how you change the design lines of the bag, create colour blocking, linings, pockets and facings.

And here I am, looking like an old lady peering over her glasses. (I hadn't realised how wrong the prescription was with these glasses until I couldn't see the cameraman - over or through the frames - with my middle-aged eyes...). There is some squinting to camera, but also lots of patternmaking and construction techniques for making the bags.

Part 3 is all the bells and whistles that jazz up the bag - pleats, gathers, etc.

When I taught Patternmaking for Bags in my studio, I ran it as two sets of four sessions - Beginners and Advanced - 8 weeks in total.  There is a lot more that you can learn, but these three sessions will set you up to make all the shapes that appear in my Beginners, Basic and most of the Intermediate range of patterns, as well as those in The Better Bag Maker, and many more besides.

The Creativebug work-along includes the sewing techniques for the overall shape construction, but if you want tips and tricks for things like using interfacings and hardware, inserting zips and pockets and getting a fine finish on your bag, check out my other classes on Creativebug and/or read my book The Better Bag Maker. 

Who knows, maybe we might follow up with another online work-along one day.

You asked for it..

I've spent the last few days zooming in and out of lines, measuring lines, checking lines.... seeing lines in my sleep.... adding notches, size labels, text...

 

 

The new All Seasons Coat will soon be available as the Tween Seasons Coat - Sizes 8-14 for girls. 

 

 

 

I feel a bit proud of the line drawings I constructed using my patternmaking software.... they're only tiny on the pattern instructions so I have to put them up here to show them off a bit more.  They show the swing styles with the variations of belt and hood.



 

 

With a bit of testing and tweaking ahead of me, there's time to organise a quick giveaway. 

 

If you'd like to win yourself a copy of either the All Seasons Coat or the Tween Seasons Coat, leave a message in the comment box, mentioning which size you'd like to win and which variation you'd make first.  I'll draw a winner when the pattern is released.... hopefully in a week or so.

 

 

We had a great Zippers for Bags class on Saturday. 

I'm not sure what these girls had for breakfast, but they ZOOMED through the techniques and made lots of zippered bag components.... more than I've seen any other time I've taught this class.



I've since seen evidence of finished multi-zippered bags and had some lovely emails.  Thanks girls - 'twas a pleasure!

My next Zippers for Bags class is at Addicted to Fabric in Canberra on 21st September (and a Hats workshop is on the 22nd September).

 

I'm also teaching a hats class here in Northcote on 7th September.  There's one place left on that one.

 

I'm looking forward to sewing up the new Tween Seasons Coats... I'm hoping that the largest size will be big enough to fit me (I may have mentioned before, that there's an up-side to being the size of the average 12-year-old...).

 

 

So you want to design handbags...?

This stencil illustration was made by my dearest, dearest friend Super-Duper-Tracy . It expresses that joy and pride I see in other people when they realise just how clever and creative they can be, and how that makes me feel....(...and I love how my teeth look so pearly-white...!)

I love seeing bags or purses in boutiques, online, at markets or on the arms of people in the street, when I know that I helped the creators to learn how to pattern-make or sew. It's nice to have played a small part. It's warm and fuzzy stuff, you know...?Right now, we have a couple of gals who are dead-keen to learn patternmaking for bags, so we've scheduled a class especially for them. There's still space in the class for three more people, if you're at all interested in joining us. DETAILS AND BOOKINGS HERE.

Before anyone asks...I'm afraid this course wouldn't work in a weekend format. You really need a week between classes to digest and practise and experiment with what you've learned. I also don't have time right now to develop it into any other format (online, correspondence etc). I'm afraid that this format - the weeknight class - is all there is for now.

GO on.... make my teeth shine pearly-white... You know you want to....

Taking shape

The last week or so, I've been enjoying making some new bag and purse samples to freshen up the displays of my patterns... but my designer's brain has been engaged mostly in the area of clothing. I'm making bags while I wait to hear back from the second round of pattern-testers for the draped T-dress. Between bags and draped dress, I keep thinking of new ways to shape the trapese-line top (and knitting machines.... which is another story altogether).

I should be preparing more for the Quilt and Craft Show in Sydney, which is looming large...
..but I can't stop thinking of ways to drape and sew and twist fabric around the body. Anyone would think I'd just been inspired by my own book.... (these photos are actually from those original book projects). I just can't stop the creative express-train (of thought) that the projects in the book began.

I've realised how much of a full-circle I've come, since I was a kid - draping fabric around my body to make clothes for myself, through to rigid block (sloper) based patternmaking as I studied Fashion design.... then draping on the stand (dummy/dressform).

Now I'm back to where I began.... albeit older, wiser and and wrinklier. The pattern-based knowledge feeds the pattern-free and vice-versa. It all works together to create an understanding of what fabric shapes create which effect on the body.

And I want to PLAY with it...

I don't see much sewing-for-me time ahead.

Looking at my calender, I see that between now and October, my weekends will be spent going to the Quilt and Craft Show in Sydney and Melbourne, teaching two Bag in a Day classes, two Purse Frame classes, a Shell Purse class, another Pattern-free Wrap skirt and a Pattern-Free Top class. There will be classes in the Make Craft Your Business course at the Thornbury Women's Neighbourhood House and an industry day for the Australian Sewing Guild.
There will be TWO lots of school holidays.....

I think I'll be positively brim-full-to-exploding with ideas to explore by the time I get to Sewjourn in November!! But keep watching this space. I sense that - although I anticipate little time to explore the ideas I have a-swimming in my head - there will be a few garments that escape, because I won't be able to hold them in anymore!

***
BTW - The amazing Sooz (my knitting machine hero) has agreed to run a class in pattern-tweaking to fit individual shapes, too. She's been sewing and altering patterns to fit and suit her body shape since she was a kid, and has a great sense of style. Do have a good look through her blog. The girl is a multi-crafting textile genuis. She'll be teaching a "Fit Right" class at my studio on the 23rd July. I'll be teaching the Patternfree top the next week.

Secret talent #32....

Jigsaws. I've always been really good at them. Got a puzzle with pieces that have to fit together? I'm your girl. And lately, I've been brushing up on those skills.... BIG TIME........ and wishing I had a wide-format printer (or that my favourite printers were a few suburbs closer).

I've been patternmaking and devising class notes for my Draped Top workshop in March.
Using the Japanese Drape Drape and Pattern Magic books as inspiration, I'm working on notes to show class participants how to adapt their own favourite t-shirt to add twists and drapes.

It's lots of fun, experimenting with different drape placements and styles -and with three or four overlocker (serger) seams, they're a piece of cake to whip up. Instant gratification galore! These are yesterday's photos. After a trip to GJ's bargain back-room today (to re-fuel with knit fabrics), I refined these styles and I think I have a few patterns I can grade to multi-size and make available to those of you who can't make it to class.

(Feedback required here..... Do I make cheap, simple patterns with basic instructions, or do I put in my usual umpty-five thousand hours into developing the pattern as a sewing class? Are we more interested in the pattern or the instructions here, folks...?)

Secret talent #33.... cracking the code on tricksy patternmaking techniques.

Secret talent #34.... posing like a git on the stairs.

Secret talent #35.... hairdressing (it's a bit like sculpture with scissors).

Yes, I cut away most of the 20-odd-years-of-colour and found out that I look remarkably like an elderly pixie.

Still not sure where this hair thing is going.... I'll wait and see.

Secret talent #36 - the ability to sustain a state of indecision indefinitely.

*********************

Apparently, it's no secret that I'm quite a dab hand at bag-making. Did you know that I'm giving away one of my Laptop Bag samples? Yep.... head on over here to enter the giveaway (but go via here or here first!).

Hyperventilating with geeky excitement!!!

My sewing buddy, a few of her fashion industry buddies and I are booked in and waiting anxiously for a weekend in late February, when we get to learn from the master of Subtraction-cutting, Julian Roberts. He's teaching a master-class at Beautiful Silks in Fitzroy.

OH. MY. GOODNESS. What this bloke doesn't know about manipulating fabric around a body in all manner of sculptural forms isn't worth knowing.



And I'm going to learn from him.

Eeep!

Think Music

Over the last week, whenever I've reached the end of my ability to think about class notes, submissions (for yet-to-be-revealed projects), website tweakings or pattern instuctions, I've tinkered with a little idea I've had for a long time.

This has been in my head since pushing a pram around the northern suburbs with a nine-month-old* who wouldn't nap during the day (or night, for that matter) and dreaming up bag designs was the closest I got to a sewing machine.

(*That baby is now nearly three years older. For those of you who ask how I work around a small child: the answer is.... S - L - O - W - L - Y!!).

Patternmaking is like a puzzle that grips me until it's solved. I started the pattern after midnight last Sunday morning. It was lucky I didn't have a sewing machine at home or I'd have been up all night!

I once knew a writer who said he wrote "to get it out of my head". Patternmaking is a bit like that for me. It's compelling. Addictive. The next stage is nutting out the right materials and processes for the job, and that's just as absorbing.

It's been my think music all week. Whenever I reached a block point with whatever I was writing (or was simply too tired to think in words) - or whenever I felt overwhelmed by it all - I'd tweak the pattern again. Make a toile. Tweak again. Today I worked only on this (and trying to keep a sugar-fuelled kinder-holidaying child busy). By this evening I was happy with the shape, at last.

There are still minor technical glitches to be ironed out before it's a kit, but I'm hoping to have it finished in time for the Sydney Stitches and Craft Show.

I have a lot to write between now and then, so I anticipate a bit of 'think music' will be needed in between. Watch this space...

Frocking up... on paper, at least.

I don't watch much TV... but as the man of the house will tell you (as he rolls his eyes and heads out to his shed), I'll watch anything remotely resembling a costume drama. (Preferably BBC versions of classic literature, but that classification also includes Poirot). I love a good frock.... particularly a good historical one.

I've noticed that ALL the books I've bought recently (in the hope that I'll find time to read them) are about women in previous times. Seems I even like to READ about a good frock!

At the moment I'm particularly loving this book.

It's a biography of an 18th century girl who rose from utter poverty and obscurity to the height of fame and fortune - in a time when that sort of thing just didn't happen. She married into the aristocracy and eventually became Lord Nelson's mistress. A cracking read!

I'm also loving these books, which were left in my studio by my fashion-industry-sewing-buddy friend.
Ooh-ahhhh.... just LOOK at the detailing on the front of that jacket!

In the Vionnet book there are even details on the pattern construction and (quite possibly drool all over the..) photos of fabulous drapey gowns from the early 20th century.

I can feel my patternmaker's fingers beginning to itch....

Bag, hat and clothing patterns, anyone...?