Pattern Drafting - my epic fail and the revisit!

I apologise in advance for the terrible out of focus pics. The camera was not willing to focus today at all. Might have something to do with the wee drop it suffered? (might?? who am I kidding LOL)

The one in the calico is the first version. Crikey. See why I was so utterly disappointed? lol

The next one, is todays version. There are a few wee changes needed here and there (the back neckline is too high, the back of the bodice needs to coem down about an inch. So if the inch went off the neckline, and to the waistline, it'd be perfect.
Finally, the bust points are in the right place. I think this is the part I am happiest about. There is still some gaping that could be eliminated in the armholes(but I do know you need some gaping in the armhole for ease of movement when sleeves are attached), and some slight gaping in the front neckline. But overall, I am 100000000 times happier.

And Fat. boy oh boy. After seeing my pic in my skirt a couple of weeks ago, I almost died. You know how you see yourself, but don't "see" yourself? That was me. Can't believe I let it get this bad. But I have joined www.myfitnesspal.com which is great. I started last monday, so here's hoping there will be a loss! I have just over 37kg to loose. *gulp* but baby steps, is the key.

Enough about that. I'm off to sew some knickers from the fabric I bought earlier this week, and also make a plastic bag holder for a friend! So here are the photos.

 See my bust points? Errr. Wrong!

 Dear, oh dear!

Not a bad fit really!

The whole back needs to be lowered quite a bit.

Pattern drafting - week 3 - bodice block AGAIN.

Well last night was week 3. We all had to put on our bodice blocks.
It became fairly apparent, that our measuring SUCKED. We think it was because we are all amatures at this drafting thing, that we weren't exactly sure where to measure. Sure we had a diagram, but with none of us ever having measured anyone else before, we really weren't sure. So we unanimously agreed that our tutor should measure us, and she did. Some of our measurements were wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out!
We all felt very happy that we were measured correctly, by someone who knew what they were doing.
I think this is all part of learning and personally feel very happy that it happened how it did.
We then redrew our blocks, this time starting with the front, as we all seemed to get very stuck on the front (maybe because we did the back first last week, and attempted the front ourselves?) Mine looks rather good, but the test will be when it's made up in calico or similar this weekend.

And while everyone was getting measured (we all stayed for the first couple)we started to loose people out to the fabric part of the store. LOL. It was so much fun all of us wandering around looking at fabrics, some times they choose something that you'd never normally look at.
So today, I bought enough fabric to make a few pairs of knickers. It's beautiful fabric and as the store owners are due to have a baby over the next few weeks, they've started a sale, that is running until baby is born! Great idea.

This weeks lesson?

Measure twice - cut once

Pattern Drafting - week 2 - My Block

Right, so I finished drafting my block this morning for front and back bodice. It doesn't look too bad on paper.

 Here you can see what I mean about using pencils only ;)

 Front

Back curve and front curve before I cut the pattern out.

So, once this was all cut out, I got it sewn up in calico (muslin)

Put an invisible zip in the CB seam, beautiful first time round *takes a bow*. 

Got everything all stitched together, put it on and oh dear!

The pics will come when the light is a bit better, another dreary rainy day but lets see if I can remember what was wrong with it. 

The bust points were too high, and too close to my CF.

The armholes gaped like crazy. 

The neckline was all gapey. 

I didn't even look at the location of the back darts, I was too disheartened.

Would make a cool bodice for a dress though when it fits right. It's just a block, but I'd like a nice dress like that.

So to end on a high note - 

How do you catch a unique bird??

*scroll down*

You-neek up on it..

courtesy of my mother - I couldn't come up with something that lame!!!

Pattern Drafting - week 2

Right, so week two of pattern drafting has been and gone. I've just got home and had some tea (10pm argh) and now it's my wind down time. I hate night courses, I'm so past my bed time.

We all tried our skirts on. The only thing I need to do is alter my dart placement, and take about 1/2 the SA off, so it's a bit looser. Otherwise it's not too bad. I'm rather happy with that.
Then we got to tonights drafting - the bodice. Cue a happy Emma moment!

I was so excited. Got everything going well, and then I hit the shoulders. Cue Emma so utterly confused moment. It really started to get me so confused, add X here "but I've already added X there so do I need to add more to X" ARGH! LOL.  In the end, I think I got it, but I guess the real test, will be when I put it on. But we all had a wee bit of trouble with the same thing, so I didn't feel totally out in the cold.

We only had enough time to draft the back, so have been given notes to draft the front. How is that for scary! I hopefully will understand it more having the notes and images in front of me, and not havign others saying their measurements out loud while I'm trying to think of mine. I can't wait though, and then will hopefully get it made in time for next weeks class - the sleeves!

My french curve hasn't arrived yet - hopefully it's not too far away, because I could really use it.
I bought one from www.sewessentials.co.uk for a great price.

Biggest lesson learnt this week? 

USE A PENCIL!

Pens don't erase when you make a serious screw up!

A fabulous invention!

How great is this wee tool!

 Seam Allowance Guide

It snaps (magnetically) onto the side of your scissor blades, so you can cut however far aside from your pattern for a SA! No need to painstakingly go around and mark the SA.
Great for Burda patterns, and SELF DRAFTED! I neeeeed these!
Only $15AUD ($20NZD, $15.80USD)
Fantastic idea.

Block made up

Right. So here is my first skirt block made up. In calico. Excuse the terribly lit pictures, it's shocking weather here today so there was lots of fluorescent lighting goin on!

Overall, it's not too bad. The hips need a wee bit of work as you can see.

 Front

 Side YIKES!
WW here I come

Back.. sigh

Next week I'm assuming we will learn how to make those slight adjustments needed here and there.

My skirt block.

So here are some basic pics so far, I haven't got around to cutting out the pattern pieces yet as you can see, but it's interesting to see it like this, as you can see it's all been drawn as one, and it all started from a rectangle.


The pictures aren't that good, the pen color vs paper color isn't crash hot for photographing. The Back is on the left, front on the right.
You can also see the back curves down slightly at the CB, to accomodate the lift of the skirt from the bum. I've overexposed one of the pics so you can see this shape in full.

I'm really looking forward to cutting this out and getting it made up in calico.

 Front  

 Full view of back.

 Front and back side by side

Close up of back

Who needs sleep, really?

So I had my first pattern drafting class last night! 7-9pm. It was great fun! But of course by the time I get home, grab some tea etc it's late, and then my mind was buzzing buzzing buzzing with everything that happened in class. I got 6hrs sleep. Not enough for me right now, I'm suffering enough day to day on 9hours sleep, it seems the mono keeps knockign me back!

Anyway, the class.

It was great. We took all our measurements EEK. And then got straight into it. I now have a skirt block, made to my measurements.
That has to be made up before our next class. After I got home and was thinking about the pattern, I realised that given my waist is significantly smaller than my hips, there's quite a significant curve from waist to hip so the waist is a lot smaller, and I'm wondering how on earth I'm going to get this test skirt above my hips! LOL. I am thinking that I may need to add an invisible zip to the side seam so I can put it on.

It was great fun. So now I've got a good idea of what extra wee tools I need for the class, and am going to endeavour to get them before the next class.
Do you know I CANNOT draw a square. Well I can, but do you know it ends up on a huge crooked angle?
I need a tsquare, so everything comes out nice and square. Or some handy quilters ruler with grid marks so I can get it dead square.
I also noticed my sewers curve (not a french curve) is just slightly too small length wise, so I need to get a french curve as well to add to the inventory!

Now everyone realises that NZ runs on the metric system. Except as I use SO many downloaded patterns, mainly created using the Imperial system, I find that a lot easier to use. So everyone else in the class was using metric, and here's me, the youngest, using imperial.
I might try change next week, just so I can be fluid with everyone else.

So now it's 612am, and I am exhausted, with a huge day ahead. But I'm happy and excited, and can't wait for next week. Or friday when I can start on my muslin block!