#drafting patterns

[dolls-and-crafts]

This is my grail garment. A 1930s cape that I stumbled upon on Pinterest and fell in love with. The original image is from wondertrading over on Flickr (check them out! They have oodles pictures of gorgeous vintage pattern).

Unfortunately, I cannot find the pattern itself anywhere.

Solution? Make my own!

I have lots of courage and little skill. Started sewing clothes this summer and I still haven't finished a single one (though to be fair, I only need to hem the two skirts and modify the blouse slightly to be done. Unfortunately I don't want to, so we're doing this instead!)

Step 1: How It's Made:

I have made Barbie clothes from drawings before, so I have a method. Is it the most efficient method? No, but it works for me.

The first step is always to get the best possible picture of the garment and figure out how it's made.

Since this is the only image I could find of this pattern, I need to improve it on my own.

I'm using Paint Tool SAI's linework layer to draw on top of the image with my mouse. The result is this:

The point here is not realism, but simply to make it clear how each layer of ribbon is formed into the cape. The white lines are drawn on top of the more subtle highlights of the original drawing, to help me figure out where I need to ruffle the three bottom layers.

Clearing up the image and removing the original, I end up with this:

(The numbers were added in Paint, since SAI don't have a writing tool.)

We have five layers of ribbon-

Ok, let's stop there. The cape is clearly named "McCall Ladies' and Misses' Ribbon Cape", and while I have absolutely no clue about 1930s fashion, that doesn't look like ribbon to me. 

That looks like strips of fabric. Velvet fabric, to be specific.

I will have a different blog post on what material I think this is made from (tl;dr: silk velvet) and what I will use instead (I am poor and not skilled enough to sew silks). Stay tuned for that later.

But let's get back to the "how it's made". At the middle back (where the numbers are on the drawing) the strips of fabric seem to be equally wide, possibly narrowing somewhat where layers 2-5 meet layer 1. I will assume that the layers are equally wide all the way around, since that's easy to do, and it will be obvious in the finished product if I was wrong. It will also be easier to figure out where I should narrow the strips of fabric down, and how much, once I've made the first mock-up. So this is a "mañana" problem, aka. "make a note, but ignore for now".

Also, my method leads to the need for multiple mock-ups. That is because I would rather make it twice than spend days figuring out each step and still be wrong. Cheap cotton fabric is absolutely worth investing in if you follow my "fuck it, good enough" method of sewing.

From the original drawing I can see that the cape goes from the neck and down to about the shoulders, so I measure this area to figure out how wide each ribbon should be.

On me (a short woman with no shoulders) this is about 46 cm.

46 / 5 =  9.2 cm = 9.5 cm

(I'm rounding up to 9.5, because I am not fiddling about with millimetres when I'm making clothes for myself. Half a centimetre is close enough!)

But I can't just add on some seam allowance and start sewing. From the image, it looks like the top layer envelops all the other layers. Doing that will make it a lot easier to sew, and make the finished garment look better.

Therefore layer 1 will be width + width + seam allowance.

Layer 1: 9.5 + 9.5 + 2 = 21 cm

I set the seam allowance to a centimetre at each end, therefore 2, since one centimetre is clearly marked on my sewing machine. You can change this number to whatever you prefer. Main rule: if the fabric is thick or unravels easilly, make it wider, if it's thin or tightly woven you can make it smaller. For clothes to myself, I never go beneath 1 cm, but I am also a beginner.

Layer 2 - 4 are quite simple. Width / 5 + seam allowance.

Layer 2 - 4: 9.5 + 2 = 11.5 cm

Layer 5 is slightly different, since you need to hem the bastard. Hemming with a single centimetre seam allowance is possible (and can make a nice finish), but it's a pain so I won't.

Doubling the seam allowance on the hem makes the total seam allowance 3 cm, and the calculations:

Layer 5: 9.5 + 3 = 12.5 cm.

So now I have the width of each layer. Next step is how long each layer is. Unfortunately, this is something I will have to try on my body to figure out. The top layer will need to be tied in a bow at the back, so cutting that out and finding the right length should be easy-ish.

But I also need to keep an eye on how each layer is sewn.

Because layer 1 and 2 are both given shoulder seams on the drawing, while layer 3, 4 and 5 are all ruffled around the shoulders, but with unruffled backs and sides. That means that layer 3 will be quite a bit longer than the second layer, but how much is impossible to know until I've made the mock-up.

Also? Different fabrics ruffle differently. So if you sew this from a stiffer material, you might need fewer ruffles, while a more drapey fabric will look better with more. Since I'm making my mock-up from woven cotton and my garment from velvet, this will be something I have to keep an eye on when making the actual garment, since velvet and woven cotton drapes and ruffles differently.

So now all I have to do is cut meters upon meters of strips of fabric.

Start a podcast, put on the TV or phone a friend to keep you company, this will take a while to do.

[abitbatty]

Working on all the things

There are sewing pins and bits of thread everywhere. That is my newly finished Emotional Support Chicken, Jet. Their sibling, Jade is already on the needles. They will eventually be Craft Room Guardians. My in-laws were here for about a week in April. I put away all the sewing (and a fair bit of the knitting), stuff I still need to finish before early June, so the house looked all tidy…as long…

[delicourse]

end of spring🌸🧶🌱🧵

[prints]

[holocrone]

THE GOOD PLACE 4.13 | Whenever You're Ready

[badassindistress]

Sometimes you gotta look back to see how much you've improved:

On the left is my first lacy on a whim petticoat, made in 2021. On the right the one I made this year.

Three years can make such a difference in creating the level of lacy floofiness I want in my life!

[freckleslikestars]

Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun in FARSCAPE 1.03 | Back and Back and Back to the Future

[space-adora]

‘Don’t you leave him, Samwise Gamgee,’ and I don’t mean to, I don’t mean to!

[leomakeshistory]

I made Elphaba’s shirt from Wicked

When I saw Wicked I got completely obsessed with this shirt she wears during What Is This Feeling. The collar just absolutely blew my mind, and I kept trying to figure out how they did it.

I figured it was a classic shirt collar with the points lengthened and then folded back on themselves, so I experimented a little and VOILA!!

Additional little Gelphie nod: pink and green cuff buttons 🥹

[zarnzarn]

lamb who kills the one who waits when the time comes to decide, furious and betrayed at being asked to lay down their life after everything they'd done, after-

they kill him, and don't stop to see what happens to the body, carried away by their celebrating followers. They rejoice the whole day, of a final victory against evil, riling each other up to the heights of joy and mania until late in the night.

And then Lamb goes to bed and blows out the lamp and the their decision finally sinks in.

what have they done.

they wake the next day trembling from forgotten nightmares, overheating as they make their way through the day's chores, blank-faced and numb. the call to sermon is waved off in face of a headache, as they try not to think about how much of what they preach no longer is relevant.

the week passes in a haze- they unthinkingly leave offerings in the wooden chest until they rot in the summer noon; call out the rituals in Narinder's language and pretend the power isn't fainter than usual, go on a crusade to get their mind off things- except the last is the worst of it all, because the crown's eye is pale pink, pupil fat with power, instead of the crimson cat-eye that Lamb is used to, and there's no getting away from the fact on how silent it is when no one is watching behind it.

how silent it is because no one is there.

yet somehow worse still is-

"hope you feel better soon, leader!" a younger follower says, tucking a camelia into their wool. they know they've been distant lately, avoiding worries left right and centre. "praise the one! he'll make everything alright."

it's like a hammer to the chest, leaving them breathless and stunned, to realise- they never commissioned a statue of Narinder, after all these years. so stubborn in only leaving the crimson eye scratched around the cult grounds as his symbol until he found an artist worthy of Lamb sharing the image of the god of death, that-

no one else except the lamb knew what narinder looked like. they had no idea whose defeat they'd celebrated.

no one but Lamb remembers their god.

..

it gets harder after that.

Lamb isn't sure how many people have left the cult by the time the Mystic Seller's demand comes through, to save what's left of the Bishops from endless purgatory, before their violent shadows disrupted the fabric of the four realms.

They stare, speechless and disbelieving, at the outrageous ask, before it suddenly sinks in that-

The bishops.

The bishops.

They run through the lands once more with eagerness, sword slashing harder each time, ruthless and relentless in their kills. They reconquer Leshy and Heket brutally, curtly setting out the terms when they are diminished back to mortal and forced to stay in the cult. They agree, and agree to keeping their peace as well when Kallamar and Shamura join them, surrounded by a cult that's flourishing once more, waiting eagerly for a familiar stranger. Lamb tells stories around the fire about The One Who Waits, watches the smiles on their followers' faces reappear, the ones who had fled their anger and depression slowly making their way back to the flock, and the cult grows back to its full potential once more.

And then Lamb runs up the stairs when it's all ready and beautiful and welcoming, beams at the Seller as they wait for their instructions.

The Seller frowns. "Yes?"

Lamb tilts their head, rusted bell on their neck tinkling. It had broken the day after Narinder's defeat, the collar finally fluttering to the ground in tatters like a cloth of eighty years should; but Lamb had repaired and maintained and polished it until it wrapped proud around their neck once again. Their heart is beating in their chest, excitement running through their veins. They'd forgotten how it felt to be on the cusp of going to meet the One Who Waits.

"The last bishop still remains," They laugh, joy spreading through them. "I have to go get him too, yes? For the good of the universe and all."

The Mystic Seller... is silent.

"Narinder was not a Bishop," It says finally. Lamb's smile drops. "The Three-Eyed Cat had completed his ascension when he mastered the resurrection ritual. He was a God."

Lamb's heart drops to their stomach, stumbling like they've taken a hit. "What? So what? Can't I bring him back?"

The Mystic Seller tilts their head. "No."

"What do you mean no?" Lamb's nostrils flare, red crown sparking as they take a step closer. "I brought all those others back, why can't I-"

"They were the pillars of the very order of the world-"

"They were fucking MONSTERS!" Lamb shouts. "And what, death isn't?"

"It is," The Seller says, unaffected by the screaming. "But you are the Bishop of Death now. The cycle has begun again."

Lamb feels like they've taken an arrow to the chest. They stumble forward, and then to their knees. "No," they whimper. "There has- has to be some way to bring him back."

The Mystic Seller stares at them. "You were the one to kill him," They point out, and Lamb feels bile rise in their mouth as their breathing gets faster. "Why would you want him back? A thriving cult, an usurped crown, his spells in your hand-"

"Shut up," Lamb hisses.

"-you have all the power you could ever want, little sheep. Your revenge against the murder of your people."

"He wasn't the one to do it!" They shout up at the Seller, despite the hypocrisy- it had been part of their thoughts when they'd raised the axe again and again and again; the resentment of if it wasn't for you-

"No, no, no, no, no," They whimper, holding onto their biceps and shaking. "Narinder."

It is the first time they have said his name in five years. That realization is what makes the tears finally fall.

Their throat is hoarse when they finish, eyes swollen and blood pooled around them, skin already healing back to perfection where they had clawed through. The Mystic Seller stares at them and sways, silent.

"No," The Lamb finally says, and gets up, determined. Walks past the Seller, to the door behind, leading to the Gateway.

They wonder how they never realized. Or maybe they did, and were just lying to themselves that they didn't.

Lamb reaches the crater, with the rusted chains and wooden crucifixes rising out from the fog around it and comes to a halt.

Narinder is exactly where they left him.

Bones only now. Blackened by all the rituals he performed, he'd told them once; perfectly placed, like he had just fallen.

Lamb still has the ointment they made with their first cult sitting in the back of their cupboard, back when they were naive enough to think it would only take months. Ointment spelled to help grow back the fur on his rotting arms, worn to nothing by a thousand years of pulling at the chains and them tightening on him every time he moved in response.

The skull could be anyone's, now.

Two ribs are broken, where Lamb's axe went through. Straight to the heart.

Lamb exhales and shakily kneels to the ground, lowering himself to Narinder's side, careful to not dislodge a single bone out of place, and molds their body around the skeleton in a perverse mockery of a lover's embrace. Violently, abruptly, they want that, so much it burns- Narinder's arms holding the close one last time. It feels unbearable, to have- to have him lowered to meet Lamb at his level, to have him attainable instead of a towering, unreachable, terrible eldritch horror, and for him to be dead.

Oh, Lamb thinks, shaking as tears form in their eyes. Oh, I loved you. I love you.

"Darling," They choke out, tracing one cheekbone. "My baby. My one. My death. Come back, will you?"

Narinder opens his eyes and shoots them an unimpressed look. Lamb sobs, shoulders heaving, gasping as claws embed themselves in their throat- whole, complete, strong, paw soft as a cloud, faint markings on the fur Lamb never knew he had now drenched with blood.

They laugh, smiling through the tears as they push forward into the claws, flesh ripping and tearing as they push their mouth closer to Narinder's.

"I am sorry," They whisper. Narinder growls. "i love you."

"Traitor-"

"Fuck the crown," Lamb breathes back, moving to straddle Narinder to interrupt him, keeping the weight on their own knees to not damage his healing ribs. His claws are still in their throat, tangled in their stitches. "Fuck the power. Fuck the cult. Fuck religion. I only ever wanted you."

Narinder stills, looking up at them with sharp eyes. Lamb laughs around his beloved's fingers. "I only ever want you. What is life without you, Antim?"

Narinder studies them. Lamb waits, bloodied and grinning, patiently waiting, smitten to have those beautiful trifecta eyes upon them once more.

"I promised you," They whisper. "I promised to break you out of here. Let me, my one. My only one, who has waited so long."

Narinder takes a breath, tilting his chin down and then up. His claws twitch in Lamb's vocal chords, drawing them down closer to him.

Lamb whoops in joy and reaches up to toss the crown to the side, fitting their hooves to the last chain wrapped around Narinder's neck, binding him still to the Gateway, and splinters it into a thousand pieces, never to hold anyone ever again.

"Come," The Lamb whispers finally, moving back and gathering their lover up in their arms, still pressing their mouths together. "Let me take you home, Narinder. Mere jaan. Meri mrityu. My one."

Narinder sighs and buries his face in the crook of Lamb's neck as they start to walk away. "Turn back around, idiot. We cannot leave without the damned crown. And I am picking out the wedding decorations."

"Of course, my love," Lamb coos, and leans in again to kiss their greatest mistake.

[leo-fie]

For almost a year now I've been working on and off on a paper piecing quilt pattern of Astartes helmets. I just think they're neat.

I have given myself quite the challenge, not least of which is that the designs are not consistent across official GW artwork. But this one I think I nailed. It's a Noise Marine Helmet complete with the mohawk, made out of intentionally clashing patterned fabrics. The wall hanging is around 50x100cm, with free motion quilting. It's a gift for the wonderful @tagedeszorns.

The pattern is a bit of mess, but if anyone is intersted: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tpz0ypDM94BDMUfxoV7qrlkF5vLoJEmJ/view?usp=sharing

[c-kiddo]

this is autistic as shit but wee things abt how cad talks i noticed during my cr2 rewatch that i think are endearing and niceys :- )

makes grumbly noises like meehh weh hrmgn instead of acknowledging or replying to someone. example someone saying "wow thanks for dinner, cad" and he goes hrmgn and walks away

says n'morrow instead of tomorrow

stutters A lot . like restarts sentences several times pretty often. example i sent my friend when i was explaining it lol: “this is - this - this is - this is [giant spider food]”

he litrally loves to say Copacetic

[fiskael]

Lizard plushies am I right?

[getbreaded]

I just want to embroider and breathe, but instead I need to learn about deploying a full stack app with aws???? Cruel world.

[cauldroncreations]

Few lampshades I have knit btw. Tan was first green was last, I think you can see improvement as I went on

[vincentbriggs]

Do you usually draft your patterns directly onto oaktag?

I hadn't heard of oaktag until this ask, so no. I use builder's paper. It's not great quality, but it's cheap and stiff and pencil marks show up on it and it's what we used in college. I got my roll from the college supply store at the start of the fashion course, but it looks like hardware store have it too.

Mine's a bit wider than this at 92-ish cm. I think it was longer too, since I've had it for a decade and it's only now running out. I will definitely have to get a new roll sometime this year.

[wildwood-faun]

Patternmaking, both basic and creative: The Shapes of Fabric

Once upon a time I used to follow the blog of someone who worked in the fashion industry who would write irate posts on fitting and quality issues, teaching me in the process why ready to wear trousers never fit properly, exactly how to set a sleeve, and why T-shirts sometimes start to turn themselves into corkscrews once you've washed them. I'm pretty sure this is not that blog, but I think I found it when I was trying to find the aforementioned one again.

The Shapes of Fabric is a really cool blog with a mix of basic guides like drafting pattern blocks (a base pattern you can use to create more complex garments) and really fun patternmaking experiments that are basically practical geometry.

If you're going to use older sewing sources, it's often really helpful to have at least a basic grasp of what pattern drafting is and how it works, so I'll be linking to some tutorials on how to draft some basic pattern blocks (bearing in mind that I've probably not used this source in particular, but the idea is more or less the same however you explain it):

pattern making basics

how to use basic pattern blocks

bodice block

dartless bodice block

pants block

The site also has a bunch of helpful guides, like these ones:

welt pockets

fitting bodices

fitting pants and skirts

sewing plackets and collars

more on collars

jacket sewing

sewing sleeves

sewing pants

There's also some really cool posts on dart manipulation, flounces, ruffles, "patterns that create patterns" (if you want to go off in a retro futurist way this kind of thing would be neat to incorporate), funky things you can do with sleeves, tucks (v useful if you're into Victorian stuff), detachable collars. Basically, go have a look around and get inspired!