Tracing the pattern from a RTW garment

Have you traced the pattern of a ready to wear garment, one you bought in the shops?

It can be a great way to get a sewing pattern because it is a clothing item that you know fits well enough to want another one just like it.  Or at least with as few adjustments as needed. Preferrably the ones you know how to do.

I bought a lovely short-sleeved blouse with intriguing double layer ruffles from a charity shop.  I did realise at the time that I keep going for this very pale blue, chalky looking shade and then end up not wearing it because it makes me look pasty, to be brutally honest.  Do I learn from this and stop buying clothes or knitting yarn this colour?  Heck no, course not.

So it seems that I bought a pattern instead.

It took me a while to start taking this blouse apart.  I saw the great tip of leaving half the blouse intact so I can see how it goes back together - I only need one set of pattern pieces after all.  I'm glad I read that on a helpful blog somewhere, I'm not confident that I would have realised.  Start wielding a seam ripper and I keep on going...

This blouse fits fairly well.  The dart is not quite in the right place and I need to suppress a wedge of fabric in the underarm area, I am optimistic that I know how to adjust the underarm seams as well as the sleeve width. Fingers crossed.

I flattened each piece carefully, straightened what edges need to be straight (e.g. the centre back that will be cut on the fold), and weighed the whole down with my trusty pattern weights.  Also known as glass coasters in another life - I use them with the felt feet pointing up, they work fabulously.

I drew around each piece making sure that the shapes make sense: an armhole needs to look scooped and not jagged, no corner should look too sharp or seamlines lie in an undulating S-shape.  So far so good!  The test will come when I sew this up in a toile fabric.  I haven't got that far yet.

I did add more generous seam allowances because these were very narrow (the blouse was industrially made after all) and I may have to re-do the flounces. These are a circular shape that looks a bit like a Viennese whirl. Mine have an element of squashed doughnut to them, so I may compare to a commercial pattern I have in my collection. Just to sense-check.

I also traced some stretch fabric leggings that I loved but nasty moths had left a gaping hole near the knee, damn them.  I'm delighted that this worked really well too.  The pieces look astoundingly legging-like, just like a commercial pattern!  At least I like to think so.

I ripped apart most seams on one half only.  I ended up with the back piece and also a flat front piece that I left whole even though there is an internal seam that dissects it in a very intriguing style line.  That's the reason why I wanted to trace off this pattern.  I'd be looking for a pattern like it till the cows come home and not find it.

If I had ripped these pieces apart I'd end up with a very thin strip for the side panel. I think it would be very tough to lay this out straight.  A piece as narrow as this would go wonky as soon as you look at it.  Instead I traced the entire front piece, and then started to roll it back gently and marked the internal seam every couple of centimeters. That was a great way to prevent problems.

Have a look at the photo:

I reckon I've done well for not having traced off patterns in a pretty long time.  I haven't yet put these pattern pieces through their paces, but I live in hope that it'll go well too.

You may be able to trace a simple garment off without having to take it apart, as long as you can get each piece to lie flat.  But shapes would get distorted too easily if trying to trace off a complex item with multiple seams like my blouse.  I am lucky, I can't wear either of them so I didn't have to worry about it.

Have you sewn anything from a traced off pattern, how did the whole process work out for you? It would be really useful to hear of people's experiences - always good to learn from others. Please share in the comments!

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The woosh

I'm not sure why one of the pins sits diagonally? It was supposed to sit straight like the others

Are you a beginner?  Do you want to sew but don't find it easy to get started?  You fire up your machine and begin your first seams, but they could be nicer and better?

Here is a tip aimed at very new sewers: using your sewing machine so you get good results which in turn motivates you to sew more.

I still remember how difficult I found guiding my fabric straight through the machine. I did my best but my stitching line would still wobble from right to left and folds from the fabric would somehow get pulled under the needle and caught up in the stitching  it was driving my bananas.

Here's my tip:

For your fabric to move smoothly through the machine, the two layers of fabric have to run up as flat and even as possible. It all starts off so well but then things go wonky.  To make the fabric lie flat: put your left hand under both layers of fabric (I am attempted to demonstrate this in this photo: try and spot my hidden hand! That's why my thumb is showing) while holding the edge in your right hand (I would love to have three hands available for taking pictures!).  You can make the layers lie flatter by moving your hand up a bit (towards you) and then in a big sideway sweeping motion swoosh it all over to your left. I bit like a 'that's enough' gesture - if that makes sense.

I call that 'The woosh', I guess it's the sound of the fabric moving that makes me think of that.

Moving your material in this way makes sure that the stitching process hasn't dragged your fabric up in folds that will pull another layer into the path of the needle. A really big aside motion will smooth out your fabric the best. I have tried pulling at it from the left, or pushing from the top but neither of these work as well as letting the fabric layers run over your left hand.

Try it out, see what works best for you.

Some dressmakers swear by extension tables: the entire area around the machine's stitching area is flat and that makes it easier to move your fabric as a flat piece (thank you Pia for this tip!)

PS: my other tip about keeping the seam wobble-free: experiment with where you look to check in order to keep your fabric run through evenly. Do you look at your fabric only, or where it moves under the sewing foot? See if changing where you look makes a difference.

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Do you find this a useful tip?  Is this something you already do, do you do this differently? Please let us know in the comments!

The Tale of a Fishtail

Another pattern from Wendy Ward's Beginner's Guide to Dressmaking, the Fishtail Skirt.

First of all, from the photographs in Wendy's book, this is how it should look, shown in different fabrics, to encourage you to come up with your own  interpretation.

This skirt interested me as soon as I saw the photographs- an ordinary looking skirt from the front but with a quirky surprise from the side and back.  I envisaged myself swishing stylishly across a room and that fishtail adding much needed "omph" to my derriere.  The fantasies we have!  And it was for beginners so it must be simple- right?!
I really wanted midnight blue satin backed crepe so that the matt crepe formed the main body of the skirt and the sheen of the satin showed on the fishtail.  I thought, maybe, of adding something sparkly, such as scattered hand-sewn beads or glittery thin swirls of thread, to the inner fishtail.   Could I find midnight blue?- no, though I tried shops in Sussex, London and Devon.  I came across some lovely colours, subtle greens, pearly greys and lavenders, forget-me-not blue, and I thought that many of them appeared to have less weight to them than I deemed  appropriate although, in retrospect, these may have been more suitable.  In the end, with time running out as I wanted to wear it to a specific party, I settled for a black that I came across at an exhibition at Excel and, at only £4 a metre, it was good value.  I must try and check out the shop from which it came at some point, Stitch of Wanstead at 10 Woodbine Place, E11.  Anybody been there?  I bought 2 metres, the amount suggested in Wendy's book, BUT forgot that I wanted to make it longer than the the stated length- more of that later.
I traced out the pattern using greaseproof paper as usual.  Although the bust measurement for size 1 in Wendy's book is almost exactly the same as mine, the waist and hips are much bigger  so I calculated the amount by which I needed to reduce the size, divided this by four and took that amount off all the way down on the side seam for the front and for the back of the pattern piece.  I also extended the length as I wished.
Due to my droopy flat backside I always have to make an adjustment on skirts and trousers by taking a slice out from the back of a pattern.  This I do by taking a tuck from the centre back of the pattern above hip level graduating to nothing by the time the tuck reaches the side seams.  With patterns with centre back seams it is very easy as I just draw a line at the relevant level, cut along the line and then move the bottom part of the pattern up over the top until I have taken out the amount I want.  I hope you can see the horizontal adjustment in this photo ( the vertical line is just from sticking the greaseproof paper together to make it wide enough to trace the pattern).

 Cutting Out Then I laid my pattern pieces out on the fabric to pin and cut out and realised my first mistake.  The length I had bought did not allow for the extra length I wanted so I had not got enough fabric to cut out the front of the skirt on the fold so that the front was all in one piece.  I would have to cut it in two pieces with an allowance to make a seam up the front of the skirt.  I did not want a seam up the front of the skirt and cursed my stupidity in forgetting to allow more for the extra length  ***!!
Luckily an idea suddenly struck me- why not make it a feature?  I remembered an article Wendy wrote in the Sewing World Magazine about Decorative Seams.  At first I thought I would try a Slot Seam where a contrast colour of cloth is stitched underneath  the line where a seam would go to hold the two main pieces of fabric together and allowed a subtle glimpse of the contrast but I found nothing suitable in colour or weight, even among my boxes of stashed fabric, to use as a contrast.  However  Brainwave No. 1 came- insert a wider strip of the satin side of the fabric in the centre front to reference the fishtail at the back.  So I cut a strip 3 cm wide, plus an allowance for the seams to sew it to each side of the skirt front, to go down the centre front.  I was so pleased with the effect that I was glad that I had made the mistake.  Besides, by cutting it this way I was left with quite a bit of spare fabric, enough, I think, to make a top. 
Making Up The book has clear step-by-step instructions - I just didn't follow them exactly.  Here is what I should have done ( abbreviation of the much fuller instructions in italics) and what I actually did.
Step 1.  Neaten the seam allowances. -  I didn't do this until I had sewn the seams as I thought that I might need to make alterations to the amount of seam allowance when it came to fitting and I wanted to trim the allowance to an appropriate amount once the seam was sewn.
Step 2 & 3 .  Iron fusible interfacing to the front and back skirt facing and join the facings at the right side seam - I didn't even trace the pattern for the facings from the pattern sheet, again because I might make alterations to the fit.  My intention was to rub off a facing pattern after making any necessary alterations to the skirt.
Step 4.  Patch Pocket - Not applicable as not adding a pocket to the front of the skirt.
Step 5 & 6.  Joining upper centre back seam and slashing to pivot point - Done as instructed.
Step 7.  Insert zip into left hand side seam - I can't bring myself to put a centred zip into a side seam so I did a lapped zip, especially as I was doing this on a Sunday (Shops shut) and I realised I had not purchased a black zip for the skirt therefore I had to use an available purple one.
Step 8. Tack right seam and try on.  Adjust this seam by amount required for fit before machining. - OH dear, the skirt was too big at the waist, I must have gone wrong in calculating the measurements.  Adjusting it on the right side only, as instructed, would mean that my satin strip would be skewed off centre and, additionally, the grainline would no longer fall down the centre front of the skirt.  To adjust it equally on both side seams would mean having to unpick the zip and the side seam; this I was loathe to do, especially as I was working to a deadline.  I tried inserting darts, just tacked to try it out, but they looked dreadful and interfered with the drape of the skirt.  Then Brainwave No 2 came - I took a tuck all the way down each side of the central  and top stitched it.  I thought this looked even better than the plain strip(see photo below).

Step 9.  Hem using bias binding.- I didn't do any hemming  until I had completed step 10 and I didn't use bias binding.  I did a very narrow hem by hand on the main body of the skirt and a narrow machine-stitched hem on the fishtail.
Step 10.  Close the lower centre back seam. - This I did but left a small amount at the bottom unstitched to turn up the hem.  Below I am marking out the seam before stitching.

Step 11 & 12.  Topstitch the upper 3 cm of the upper centre back seam to the inner back seam. - I did as instructed but  a diagram with the text (Figure 8 in the book), that seemed to me to indicate that I should see a seam allowance showing on the outside of the inner part of the skirt back, puzzled me for a while as I thought that, as mine did not look like that, I must have  interpreted the previous instructions incorrectly at some point.
Steps 13 to 15.  Concerning the facings.- entirely ignored.  It seemed to me that the outline of the bottom of the facing would be likely to show through when worn due to the drape and fit of the skirt (a Visible Facing Line instead of a VPL) and also, as the weight of the fishtail made the back of the skirt drag down that facings would not give enough support to prevent this dragging down.  Thus I decided to put on a waistband, which I did with the satin side of the fabric out ( see the photo above).  I liked this effect even more than having facings BUT, since I don't like my waistbands skin tight as my waist definitely expands with eating and drinking each day, there was still not enough "grip" around the waist to prevent the fishtail pulling the back down.  Even though I had managed to finish it on the very day of the evening occasion to which I had planned to wear it, I was too unhappy about that drag to wear it.   Lesson- always have a Plan B- and that's where Brainwave No 3 came in but that's another story.
Trying to Right Wrongs.  Thus the skirt was abandoned until the New Year.  I took it along to the first LDC meeting of 2015, along with other makings,  for advice but no-one came up with answer for this problem.  A few days later- gosh, my brain has been working overtime!- a possible solution came to me.  I tried it out with some elastic that I had and some pins and it seemed to work.  When I had time to tacke it again I bought some strong black elastic, which luckily came in a width just slightly smaller than the satin waistband.  I made a rough belt out of this to fit my waist with the elastic slightly stretched by sewing fabric tabs on both ends of the elastic and fastening it with 2 hooks and eyes.  I sewed the middle of the back of this belt into the inside of the middle of the back of the waist band by hand so that the stitching does not show through on the outer side.  The belt fastens at he middle of the front of the skirt and I then fasten the skirt waistband over it.

The elastic belt grips me and helps hold up the fishtail but still allows room for me to expand. I've subsequently worn the skirt all day, on to dinner and then the opera as it lends itself to dressing up or down  But the back still drags a bit.  I'm thinking of putting in some cased boning at the upper centre back to see if that would work.  Perhaps I was wrong about not using facings and the dragging would not occur if I had stuck to facings.  Perhaps the problem would not have existed if I had gone for a lighter weight fabric.  If you have any thoughts about what I should do or have done please put your comment below.
So here's the finished product anyway.

And don't you think it looks great with the Zip Jacket I made earlier also from a pattern in Wendy's book blogged here  ?

How many mistakes is it possible to make in one sewing session?

Quite a few judging by the number made between us at the social sewing session on 6 December.  Here are some of them so you can remember to avoid them in your sewing.
1. Putting pins in the wrong place for machining the seam.  By this I mean not thinking about on which side of the fabric and in which direction you will be sewing the seam when you are putting your pins in. Thus you find that the pins are either (or both)  on the underside as you sew or not pointing in the right direction for easy removal before the the presser foot arrives at that spot.

2.  The iron not being hot enough for fusing fusible interfacing to the fabric.  Remember always to do a test first on a piece of spare fabric with a scrap of interfacing.  This way you can find out how hot your iron needs to be.. Always press, not use an ironing motion, and you must make sure that your fabric and interfacing are perfectly smooth and flat before you start or you could create permanent wrinkles in your garment .  Once fused then leave the piece to cool before picking it up and using it.

3. Forgetting that you should add a seam allowance before cutting out your fabric.  Some patterns, such as Burda magazine patterns or patterns that you have drafted to your own measurements, need seam allowances adding to them before the pattern is is used to cut out the fabric- Don't forget to add them! 

4. Not sewing in the right direction on a seam when you are matching up a fabric pattern, such as stripes, checks etc.  Always machine away from the point where you have matched the design otherwise your fabric might slip and no longer match when it reaches that point.  Consider tacking (basting) rather than pinning and/or using a walking presser foot on your machine if you have one.

5.  Finding that you cannot hand crank your sewing machine.  I'm not sure that this is valid for all machines but one sewer was trying to lower the needle by turning the handle of the machine by hand but it would not work.  She found it would not lower the needle when the bobbin winder spindle was pushed to the right to wind the bobbin.

6.  Sewing with no upper or lower thread.  Don't forget to check that your needle is threaded and your bobbin has not run out, or about to do so, before starting to sew again after a pause.

7.  Stitching down darts or seams without checking that they are lying the right way.  Pattern instructions usually tell you which direction  to press darts or seams once you have sewn them.  Make sure that when you come to stitch across them, for example when applying a waistband to a skirt, that they will be sewn in the correct position and not the wrong way around.

8.  Sewing in a zip with the zip slider pointing down instead of up.  When sewing in zips by certain methods you can get around the difficult bit of sewing by the head of the zip by moving the head of the zip past the needle- see the previous post for an example.  However you can only do this if you can grab the the zip slider which is easier to do if the zip slider is pointing towards the top of the zip.

9.Not concentrating all the time.  Be warned, don't think that, just because you have managed to do a difficult bit of machining successfully, you can relax.  That's when your lovely straight line starts to wobble.

10.  Getting the wrong bit of cloth caught into your stitching.  Always make sure that you are only stitching together what you intend to.  It's easy to catch up some fabric unintentionally, especially when dealing with gathered fabric or curved stitching.

11.  Sewing with a zipper foot in the wrong position.  Zipper feet are designed to enable you to stitch as close to the zip teeth as possible.  In order to do this, depending on the design of your machine, you need to move either the needle or the zipper foot to the correct position  in relation to the side of the zip you are going to stitch.  If you don't then you could find yourself either sewing on the teeth of the zip or too far away from the teeth.

I'm trying to think if there is anything I have sewn without making a mistake at all and I can't think of one.  What is your most frequent or your worst mistake and how did you deal with it?

Using stay tape at the waist

I blogged about bias tape last time.

I've since come across a technique that re-inforces the waistline to keep it from distorting. Using tape at the waist looks very interesting and it isn't complicated at all. In short it's the sort of thing I really like!

Re-inforcing any area with tape (or ribbon) makes use of said tape as something referred to as 'stay tape'.  The area "stays" in shape, so I suppse it's easy to remember.

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Good old Sewaholics put me onto the concept:

A Different Kind of Waist Stay

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Gertie from her Blog for Better Sewing has more about the whole thing:

The Wild World of Stay Tape

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It even turns out that Claire Shaeffer describes it as a couture technique in her book of the same name, I even think I have this book:

Couture Sewing

Sewing the tape onto a foundation layer is a whole different kettle of fish that I want to explore at some future point.


Have you used either bias or stay tape?  How did it go?  Please post some photos of your projects, either as works in progress (yes please!) or completed projects, in the appropriate photo album on the Meetup site.

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Can I make a Dress in a Day? Part 1- Tracing a pattern from Burda Style Magazine

Of course, I am addicted to reading Dressmaking Blogs and am always amazed when the blogger says how little time it took to make a garment.  I was prompted to try and make a dress in a day after reading of a top with interesting seaming and a peplum that took only 40 minutes to make.  I had a whole day when I thought I had nothing to do so decided to give it a go.
There was a dress that I wanted to make that appeared to be straight-forward with only 4 pieces - Back, front, sleeves and a facing strip.  It was designed for stretch fabric and needed no closures or fastenings.  It was a pattern in a Burda Style Magazines.  If you are not familiar with these magazines, issued monthly, they appear to offer Dressmaker's Heaven, that is a large number of patterns for a small monetary outlay: for example 17 patterns for £4.75.  However, you might not like all the patterns in an issue plus you have to trace the individual pattern from sheets inside the magazine.  This is when Heaven may turn into Hell so I am going to show how I do it.
Each garment is given a number (106 in my case).  On turning to the instruction in the magazine for that particular number you will see a box that tells you which Pattern sheet you want  and what colour the outline of the pieces will be.  It also shows you the pieces and the number that they are allocated on the sheet .  Below you see the information for my chosen garment (plus some pencil notes of simple lengthening amendments I intended to make to the pattern).

So I need to locate pattern sheet B, with a red pattern line, pieces 21 to 23 for style 106 with the type of line marking used for size 36.  Below is the confusion with which you will be faced (this is sheet B and the pieces shaded completely in pink are the ones for a featured garment in the magazine, unfortunately not the one I chose).
But persevere.  Once the pieces have been located I use highlighter to go over the lines of the size that I want and to highlight any pattern markings, such as grainline, notches etc.  You can see the outline of the first piece for my dress highlighted in pink  across the bottom of sheet B.

Here in the picture below  the pattern markings are highlighted.  You can see I am highlighting piece 22.  Should you decide to make another garment using the same pattern sheet make sure you use a different colour highlighter to highlight that pattern.

I highlight each piece one at a time and then trace it before going on to highlight the next piece.  To trace I use ordinary greaseproof paper, cheap and easily obtainable from supermarkets.  The drawback is the limited width but you can always tape a bit on if  the width is insufficient.  When tracing I find it useful to put something solid on which I can rest my tracing hand, this both helps to stop my hand from shifting the paper and provides an extra weight to keep the paper and pattern in place.  My grader's set square is ideal for this, see the picture below.

Below is the traced pattern on which I have marked details such as fold line, gathering points etc. and size, model number and which issue of the magazine it came from as I shall add it to my file of traced patterns in case I wish to use it again.

Patterns in the Burda Style magazine do not have seam allowances included so you have to add them yourself where necessary.  This does mean that you can choose the seam allowance you want, narrower or wider than the standard 1.5 cm for seams and the depth of hem allowance you require.  I use the grader's set square to mark the seam allowance for any straight lines and a seam gauge,as below, to mark the allowance on curves.

Then, at last, I have my pattern pieces complete and ready to cut out with paper scissors before laying on my fabric.  All this took one and three quarter hours, although that does include stopping to take even more photographs of the process than you see here.  And then I went for a tea break, as I am about to do now.  Part 2 to follow later.