Autumn/Winter Back to Basics

I guess this isn't a sewing update, but today I noticed that there is hallowe'en fabric in the fabric shops. And that means one thing, autumn's nearly here!

Fortunately I am the proud owner of  4 metres by 2m wide beautiful swathe of tartan, plaids and tweeds to boot. I love sewing for autumn, it's just cold enough to get away with wearing something warm and cosy, warm enough to see occasional exposed calves under fantastic tweed miniskirts.

I guess now is the time to mention that I've only made something from a pattern I have bought maybe three times in my life. Pretty quickly I realised that being nearly six foot and leggy wasn't ideal for commercial patterns, and in that in the time that it took to make the necessary changes to them so they would fit me I could draft my own from a block, or a sloper, from my own measurements, using a book I happened to have tucked away in my bookcase.

Sloper: (noun) a basic pattern, developed on paper by drafting, or on cloth by draping, but with seam allowances omitted, used as a tool to create other patterns. (Dictionary.com)

Now it has been a long time since I've drafted myself a bodice and a skirt block, so before anything else I really think I need to get that sorted out, don't you?

My drafting bible is a beautiful book - it's Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear by Winifred Aldrich. I think the first edition was published in the mid seventies or something, but I've not come across anything out of date yet. Genuinely, this book has saved me from packing sewing in completely. Many times. On your next pay check, get yourself one. You won't regret it.

I'm going to get started on my blocks now, if you want to try one out yourself go try this link. I think it's the same as in the book yet I think the waist shaping is a little different. It will give you a rough idea about how to draft your own blocks, which will fit you a lot better than any other pattern you can buy if the increments used by the pattern makers don't fit you very well. Drafting a block is time consuming, especially as you have to draft yourself a pattern from it afterwards, but if you put the effort in and you do it right, you'll be rewarded.

And if you don't grow anymore, unlike some, you can keep drafting patterns off of that block for life. see the appeal?

Toni