I tend to wind up hacking any pattern I come across and drafting up bits of it myself.
I, uh, managed with this pattern, but it required some finagling to make it lie evenly, to add a liner, etc etc. If you feel comfortable modifying hemlines and making bold decisions, I would recommend this as a base, but it’s definitely not perfect.
(I did manage it with one year in high school’s worth of a sewing class, though, so maybe I’m being overdramatic)
You’re really probably not. In my experience cloak patterns are generally shit. And I always wind up modifying them, or reworking sections to sew them in a way that makes sense.
Cloak patterns, imho, are more like guidelines or suggestions than instructions.
for smaller cloaks I just use a circle skirt calculator and make the hip opening my neck measurement. half circle patterns are almost perfect for fighting cloaks
idk if it will work for full-length cloaks but for fighting and waist/hip length cloaks it works fine but def make a mockup first
It Must Be Fall, I Have Black Threads in My Serger
The fall sewing patterns are out and Vogue Patterns have decided to feature plaids in their new patterns, and offer a detailed article on working with plaids, the kinds, the ways to match them, etc. You can see up top a cape in a bright plum plaid from Mood Fabrics, Vogue 8959 which also comes in a cropped and a full-length version. The cover too features another bright plaid Vogue 8884 in a trench-coat look. But if you are new to plaids, I would suggest trying something a bit easier, such as the cropped jacket–part of the Vintage Vogue 9082 pattern ensemble. yes, It does requires you to match the plaid at the center front, the lapels and make sure both front pieces and back are identical so far as the placement of the plaid along the sleeve portion. But, honestly, for a plaid garment, that isn’t as much as some.
There are also plenty of evening looks for the parties of the winter, including a brocade top of multi-colors against a black background which is, once again, part of the Vintage Vogue 9082 pattern ensemble. That pattern was originally issued a while ago and was shown in its original vintage conception, a top, strapped dress and a short jacket all the the same solid fabric. But like many patterns, it’s chameleon. In brocade, the top is for evening; in plaid, the jacket is sportswear. A nice lesson in how the fabric changes the occasion that a pattern will suit. Look again at the patterns you’ve got with that in mind.
Last, we have the Vogue 1505 by Zandra Rhodes in blue burnt-out evening look. Notice that a simple shape makes for a dressy ensemble if made in a dramatic fabric.
There are some technical articles, including a hand tailoring lesson by Kathryn Brenne, and one on using chains to weight coat and jacket hems by Claire Shaeffer. This magazine has pattern information, but does not contain the patterns themselves. For those go to your local fabric store or the Vogue Patterns website: https://voguepatterns.mccall.com/
First time tiling the new versions Borromean Rings patterns. Really get to see how the individual strips work together to make the larger pattern. One of my original pattern designs. Nice to have it as true Yosegi; each strip is planed off the master pattern block as 0.10mm thin shavings.
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#wood #woodwork #woodworking #yosegi #yosegizaiku #geometric #geometry #topology #geometricart #pattern #tiling #borromean #borromeanrings #yesiAMtheartist #PGCFineCraftFair #paguildmasterartisan (at Silver Spring, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn6SWLHgeoQ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qgyjcjvs2r30
Last night I started and ripped out 2 new projects. That’s ok, it was only about 3 hours of my time.
I end up ripping out over half the projects I start – Most of them (like last night) are undone before too much of an initial investment. However, when I spend weeks on something that ends up misshapen and/or ugly, I want to cry.
Most of the things I make will take me weeks (sometimes up to 8 or 9 weeks) to complete. And that does not include the time it took me to figure out what the heck I was trying to do.
Here is my latest disappointment:
A skirt that looks like unflavored oatmeal tastes.
It took me over a month and I had such big plans. I even sewed a lining thinking it might help. Clearly, it did not.
Another disaster:
This pattern just let me down – I wanted a pattern that looked like leaves. I got a pattern that looked like acne.
I managed to rehabilitate this one: BEFORE
I put this one in a time-out, and then reworked the bust to make a decent design.
AFTER:
Rarely do the time-outs work.
I have projects that have been abandoned for years, sitting in bags and boxes waiting to be unraveled or continued. I call these: Schrödinger’s Sweaters. They are both a completed project and a ball of yarn simultaneously.
Every completed dress I make, every pattern I come up with, every original design represents months of failures. And those failures are totally worth it when a project works out.
OK these glow in the dark scales are really cool. #crochet #scalemail #dicebag #dnd #dungeonsanddragons
Third pattern reiteration. I’m getting tired of looking at it. I’ll finish writing it out this week and hand off to my testers. Maybe they can find my mistakes 😥😧
Hello Crochet. It’s been a while. I’m sorry I abandoned you. Inspiration was lacking. I promise I will release this pattern soon. Testing it out once more after not touching it for a year.. #crochet #scalemail #dicebag #crochetdicebag #scalemaildicebag #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #tabletop
It really depends on the complexity of the project. An argument could be made that this dress was five years in the making from the time I purchased a 2.5 yard remnant of the print on a whim one day till one Monday a few weeks ago when the idea for exactly what to do with it struck me and I patterned and completed it in two days:
A more “in-between” length of time would be my next upcoming project for NYCC, it took me a while to narrow down which character/costume I wanted to commit to but I ended up going with Margaery from GoT and that deadline is in about a month and change. The first few days usually involve me sketching out pattern lines and panels on paper before I translate those into style lines on a form, then I start draping in muslin. The fabric shopping portion of it tends to be a bit lengthy especially when I know exactly what I want to use for it, but can’t find the material I’m looking for.
As for original designs, I’d give it on average a few months, but I would need some kind of deadline to keep me on track otherwise I get distracted by other things. There often tends to be the initial rush of excitement where everything moves quickly, then it slows down a bit while I try to gather my bearings and figure out the best method of executing the idea and then when I know the deadline is coming up, it’s back to burning the candle at both ends. Both pieces in my Vintage Schuyler Collection are a really good example of that exact kind of timeline. Lots of that “I got time, I got time I got- WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S IN TWO DAYS AND I’M DRESSING FOUR SHOWS IN THAT TIME??”
OH! Is there a particular pattern you use for shirts? because I’m having exactly the problem of finding shirts that fit my hips that don’t absolutely drowned me everywhere else.
That’s a good question! To start with, I listed a bunch of shirt pattern options in my dapper sewing post for Autostraddle that you should check out! But, to elaborate a little, and to speak from personal experience more:
1. It depends on what your body shape is, and how much you’re interested in altering the pattern with slightly more complicated pattern fit adjustments
2. No matter what, you’re probably going to grade between sizes. The good news is that this is pretty much the easiest pattern adjustment to do, with big impact on fit. (Never done it before? Here’s a pretty basic explanation – this is for a specific pattern, but the diagrams will apply to shirt patterns in general)
I’m a busty, wide-hipped US women’s 18-20, and my most frequently used patterns are Simplicity 8427, for a more “menswear” look and Cashmerette Harrison, for a more fitted “womenswear” look. Both I’ve adjusted to fit my particular body, the Simplicity significantly more than the Cashmerette.
If you are shaped like I am, i.e. busty and hippy and generally wear a bra rather than bind, fitting a menswear shirt will likely require some variation of a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA), which adds room and shaping across the bust. I’m working on tutorials to add the necessary room while minimizing shaping (that is, without adding a dart that basically says BOOBS HERE), but I’m afraid I don’t have any resources for that right now. This is a SERIOUSLY underserved area of pattern-making right now.
My partner is AFAB nb and has had top surgery, and is more petite than I am, fitting a men’s small-medium on top. The shirt pattern I use for them is the Colette Negroni (first one I made; second one I made; variation with a standard collar), which is a really good starter shirt pattern for the problem of fitting hips in particular. I grade between sizes for them, starting with a small at the shoulders through waist and grading to a large at the hip. This strategy works best for folks who are small chested, have had top surgery, or bind regularly.
(Just as a note, I’m working on developing tutorial ideas for a sometime soon-to-be-launched Sew Queer blog, and would love to know more about what folks are interested in seeing related to queer sewing. LMK!)
Spitfire Alice A Gra 
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