Tag: pattern-drafting

The Halloween Costume

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Now that Halloween is over, it seems an opportune time to share a little more about this year’s costume-making process. I think it’s safe to say that this is one of my more involved costume projects — I self-drafted my outfit and built two props to go along with it. I’ll start with the outfit, as I already discussed the first few steps in my previous newsletter.

The dress was relatively simple to make, though the pattern looks complicated. As I mentioned last time, I drafted a fairly simple strapless princess seam dress, removed about 1/4” from all the seams to account for the stretch of the fabric, then put together a quick toile. I drew my design onto the toile, then cut it apart along the new style lines, which I then traced back onto the pattern pieces. I cut these apart and reassembled them as needed. And here’s what I ended up with:

A series of hand-made pattern pieces laid out on a hardwood floor. The pieces look like funny shapes, but when sewn together they will form a dress!

I made sure to add plenty of notches and labels so that I’d be able to easily put them all back together. I also made a simple lining pattern out of the original princess seam pattern, which I cut out of a lightweight knit fabric. And, to top it off, I made a built-in shelf bra from from power mesh and bra foam using the same pattern pieces.

I sewed rigilene boning directly into the seams of the lining to give some added support. While I added a halter strap to the dress, it isn’t exactly doing anything to hold the dress up; it’s essentially a completely strapless garment with a decorative halter neck. The support is coming entirely from the boning and the built-in bra, combined with the stretch of the fabric.

While the fit isn’t bad and it’s not unpleasant to wear, I do think I can make a few improvements to the overall pattern. First of all, with the addition of lining and built-in bra, it became rather tight, so I may benefit from adding just a smidge more room in the upper section of the pattern. Because I factored in enough stretch, I didn’t add any kind of zipper or fasteners, but I think adding one might actually make it a little easier to get into and out of. The boning works alright, but it gets a little odd in my bust area, as the boning ended up on the lining, which was outside of the built-in foam bra, and therefore not attached to it. I’d definitely love to learn more about improving internal, structural elements in my garments.

The props were a lot of fun to create as well. A friend loaned us a 3D printer a few years ago, and I used it to make the ray gun. I found a pattern for free online, printed it out without too much trouble, then glued the pieces together and painted it. The helmet is an acrylic globe meant for outdoor lighting. We cut the opening a little larger to fit over my head, then covered the sharp edges with electric tape and glued a couple of foam wreaths to the base.

I completed the look with a pink wig and some Twiggy-inspired makeup. It was a fun costume, and I can’t wait to challenge myself again next year!

A selfie of a woman with pink hair in a silver sci-fi inspired dress.

Hope you all had a fun Halloween. Thanks for reading!

Halloween Costumes A stock image of black fabric bats on an orange background.

Let the Halloween Sewing Commence

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I usually begin Halloween costume preparations in mid- to late-August, so getting started after the first week of October feels woefully late to me, but I think I’ll still have plenty of time to put together a pretty fun costume for this year’s festivities.

My concept this year is a space traveller inspired by 1960s retrofuturism art. I drew a relatively simple design, then drafted a strapless, princess dress from my bodice block using the method laid out in Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong. I whipped up a quick toile, then drew the design onto it, which I’ll next use to draft the final pattern pieces.

Two images. The left image is a sketchbook containing a pencil sketch of a retro-inspired space-age dress. The right image is a mockup of the same design in knit fabric.

The next step, of course, was to purchase fabric. My good friend Diana was kind enough to take me on a tour of Los Angeles’ famous fashion district, a place I’d always been curious about but intimidated to visit by myself. I ended up buying way more fabric than I’ll need for this project, but, in retrospect, much less than I could have bought considering how tempting a lot of the selections were! Since I’m sort of figuring out this costume as I go, I figured it would be better to have too much fabric than not enough, and I’m sure I’ll find a use for the leftovers.

A pile of sparkly stretch fabric piled on a wood floor. There are four pieces of fabric, one in each color: blue, purple, pink, and silver.

I’ll update you all again in a few weeks when my costume is further along. Until then, thanks for reading!

PS: Have you planned your Halloween costume yet? What are you planning to go as? Will you be sewing it yourself? Let me know in the comments!

Pattern Drafting A stock image of patterns ready to cut from a grey fabric.

My First Self-Drafting Experiment

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Since you last heard from me, I’ve leapt head-first into a number of self-drafting experiments.

The first — which was in retrospect perhaps a bit ambitious for my very first attempt — was to re-create a vintage DVF silk wrap top that I purchased from ThredUp several years ago. I absolutely love this top, but it’s a bit oversized, and therefore too revealing for everyday wear. I thought that using my new bodice block as a base for duplicating it would allow for a better fit.

On the left: a silk DVF blouse on a dressform. The blouse is black with purple, green, and brown geometric designs printed on the fabric. It has long sleeves and a pussy-bow necktie. On the right: an attempt at a dupe of the DVF blouse, made in a teal, brown, and white fabric.

The image on the left is the original, while the image on the right is my version. Most of the drafting problems can be seen in the front bust area. I’m actually thrilled with the sleeves, and I’ll be keeping that pattern for future makes. The back isn’t bad, though the length adjustment that I made to the torso meant the back darts, which I intended to sew as gathers, completely disappeared.

I started the process by studying the original, and I managed to duplicate most of the construction pretty closely. I did a bit of guessing in terms of how to shape the neckline, which is the main source of my woes. I also added about two inches below the waistline before attaching the waistband, which ended up being a strange spot on my body. I converted all the dart volume into gathers, but it’s too much, so it makes the area between my bust and waist look too voluminous.

Most of these, thankfully, should be easy fixes. I fully intended for this to be an experimental toile, not really a wearable garment. I used a mystery polyester fabric with similar drape to the original top, purchased from a local re-use store in Los Angeles as part of a fill-a-bag for $10 scheme, so all in it probably cost me less than $2 in fabric to make.

My most recent self-drafting experiment has taken the form of creating a knit block, and it’s still an ongoing process. As a larger-busted individual, with a lot of forward projection, I’ve had a lot of success with adding knit FBAs to patterns, or just using patterns designed for larger busts to begin with.

I spent a bit of time searching for a method to self-draft a knit block with these considerations in mind, but every resource I found suggested that the front and back be identical widths. I ended up using the book “Patternmaking with Stretch Knit Fabrics” by Julie Cole, thinking I’d draft the pattern to her instructions, then add an FBA like I’ve done in the past.

Well, that didn’t work. I’m not even sure the bust drafting itself was the problem, but rather the shape of the armscythe. Even the neck opening was too small, so I’m guessing this was a result of user error and not a problem with the instructions. I drafted from my own measurements, when perhaps I should have started with a standard size, as I did with my woven block drafts.

As a palette cleanser, I printed out the Cashmerette Concord Tee in my usual size — 2 F/G — and sewed it together in order to compare. Here’s the two side-by-side:

A diptych of the same women wearing two similar but different striped t-shirts. The t-shirt on the left is ill-fitting, with the sleeve seams oddly shaped and pulling fabric from the torso towards the shoulders. The t-shirt on the right appears to fit much better.

Clearly a huge difference. One thing I noticed and love about Cashmerette’s knit drafting for larger cup sizes is the “boob bubble” — as you can see on the pattern piece below, the extra room for the FBA is added in a curve below the underarm, allowing the armscythe to remain unaffected.

A pattern piece from Cashmerette. This is the front piece from the Concord T-shirt, drafted for a G/H cup. The side seam on the left side of the bust includes a "boob bubble."

My next steps for my personal knit block will be to apply something similar. I may even use the Cashmerette pattern as a basis for the front bodice block, and adjust as needed for fit. The sleeves need a bit of adjusting (they’re a little too tight), I’d prefer the neckline to be smaller, and the waistline needs to be lowered. But this seems like a much closer starting point!

That’s it for this week. What have you all been working on? Drop me a comment and let me know!