Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Trying a new sewing schedule

I was thinking about enhancing the efficiency of my time in the sewing room and came up with a simple schedule. It's based on activities to perform for each day of the week:

Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays: Sewing/Making up my projects

Tuesday and Thursdays: Trace, cut, alter, plan patterns/projects

Wednesdays: Writing and reading sewing blogs, tutorials, forums, books; organize sewing room

Fridays: Finishing projects

It's a very rudimentary system but hopefully it'll keep me focused.

I am taking a pattern drafting course at the local fabric store, we drafted front and back bodices yesterday. The instructor uses Connie Crawford's pattern drafting book, and took my measurements to demonstrate the process for drafting the front. I kept her draft (mine ended up pretty close) and re-drafted another bodice front and back using Helen Armstrong's book.

Armstrong's pattern is on the left, Crawford on the right, drafted by the instructor:




Here's my Armstrong back bodice: 



I was quite surprised at the squareness of my front shoulders, there was a very small slope with the Crawford pattern, none at all with Armstrong's instructions. 

The Crawford back bodice didn't have a shoulder dart. I need to re-draft that one because the waist measurements do not add up to what it needs to be. 

For class next week we're doing a review of drafting the front and back, and then working on a sleeve.

After we have all three patterns we will be sewing the patterns in muslin fabric and adjusting it on my body. 

At this point the front and back don't look like it'll come together (look at the shoulder differences!) but we've been assured it'll all work itself out when we pin and fit to the torso. 

1 comment:

  1. Good luck on the CPA exam! I hear it is a brutal process. The Bar exam was terrible but at least it was over in 3 (consecutive) days. Your drafting class sounds fabulous!

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