It's not that I do heaps of sunbathing, but I do enjoy sunning myself occasionally, and I wanted to make a swim-style suit for this reason. I had a 70's bikini pattern in my stash!
I decided to make it out of a cherry print quilting cotton (the most water that this suit would ever see would be from the sprinkler). The pattern calls for wovens to be cut on the bias. Although this style has long since passed, the bottoms went together and fit pretty well after some minor fitting tweaks. I made several changes to the top in an effort to get it to fit. It "fits" in that it covers me, but it's neither flattering nor comfortable. I didn't like the results, so I decided to dive into (ew, terrible choice of words) working with stretch knits.
I read devoured all the information about pattern drafting for stretch fabrics on patternschool.com. I drew up the one piece sloper, drew a halter top pattern from that sloper, and I put things on hold for a while to work on other projects. I picked up the swimsuit project last week, enthusiastic to recheck my sloper to see if I had done everything correctly and dig back in to the swimsuit project so that I could finish before summer passed me by.
PatternSchool was offline! The domain had not been renewed, and I fear this blog is never to be heard from again. GAH! Maybe the pages were cached? Nope, not before the domain expired. I looked for other online resources for drafting slopers for stretch fabrics, and most appear to point back to PatternSchool. *Sigh* So, time to rethink what I'm looking for.
It's not that I want to begin from the beginning. I don't fancy myself a closet fashion student. I don't give two figs for the design-themed reality shows. I don't even claim to be a competent seamstress as I continue to learn more about the actual sewing end of things. I'm a hobbyist, an enthusiast, a curious, bumbling rube. Or at least that's the label that I feel best applies to me after reading Kathleen Fasanella's discussion of patternmaking, blocks, and slopers here: http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-we-make-patterns-in-real-life/ Eek. Maybe I should just go home. Er, wait, I am home.
The thing is, there isn't a block (using that term, as Fasanella does, to mean a proven starting point) for every body type. Yes, altering commercial patterns, designed by talented, experienced patternmakers, is a good idea. For a good number of people, that works beautifully. In my experience, though, I end up making enough alterations to just the bodice of any commercial pattern that I invariably feel that I would have spent less time on the iterative process of fitting -- because it's a cascade of changes, not a simple adjustment -- had I started from scratch.
This is not whining. It's a reality, my reality. I am 5'11" (length), I have a large bust (FBA every time, even for patterns including various cup sizes), I have a low bust point (one of the various symptoms of, as Leila at Three Dresses Project puts it, the bewb issue), and I have far from a waspish waist, but I'm not particularly heavy although I have been leaner in the past (I wear around a 14 RTW bottom). I fit the plus size nor the misses range for these reasons.
Further, I'm not frumptastic. As for swimwear, while I'm not interested in micro swimwear, I'm also not interested in granny's swim dress. Yes, I may be at the top of the socially acceptable size range of women rocking two-piece swimsuits, but who cares? I certainly don't, and from the look of the crowd at the mama-and-me swim class at the local pool, I'm not the only one with this self-image and attitude. I am, however, the only one wearing a halter top that I DRAFTED and MADE. I know that not because it looks home made but because I am the only one with a suit that fits my post-pregnancy body. Yes, my pattern and construction techniques could use some work. Yes, I went into the process of making this suit with more enthusiasm than know-how. But, my little swim project isn't hurting anyone, and I'm certainly not planning on entering the commercial arena. Please know, designers and pattern makers, that I am not a threat to you or your occupation. I buy a fair number of commercial patterns, both from the Big Four and from independent designers. I'm just the kind of rugged native of the western US who learns how to frame out and drywall her unfinished basement via YouTube. In the West, we just do that kind of thing.
It's not that I want to begin from the beginning. I don't fancy myself a closet fashion student. I don't give two figs for the design-themed reality shows. I don't even claim to be a competent seamstress as I continue to learn more about the actual sewing end of things. I'm a hobbyist, an enthusiast, a curious, bumbling rube. Or at least that's the label that I feel best applies to me after reading Kathleen Fasanella's discussion of patternmaking, blocks, and slopers here: http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-we-make-patterns-in-real-life/ Eek. Maybe I should just go home. Er, wait, I am home.
The thing is, there isn't a block (using that term, as Fasanella does, to mean a proven starting point) for every body type. Yes, altering commercial patterns, designed by talented, experienced patternmakers, is a good idea. For a good number of people, that works beautifully. In my experience, though, I end up making enough alterations to just the bodice of any commercial pattern that I invariably feel that I would have spent less time on the iterative process of fitting -- because it's a cascade of changes, not a simple adjustment -- had I started from scratch.
This is not whining. It's a reality, my reality. I am 5'11" (length), I have a large bust (FBA every time, even for patterns including various cup sizes), I have a low bust point (one of the various symptoms of, as Leila at Three Dresses Project puts it, the bewb issue), and I have far from a waspish waist, but I'm not particularly heavy although I have been leaner in the past (I wear around a 14 RTW bottom). I fit the plus size nor the misses range for these reasons.
Further, I'm not frumptastic. As for swimwear, while I'm not interested in micro swimwear, I'm also not interested in granny's swim dress. Yes, I may be at the top of the socially acceptable size range of women rocking two-piece swimsuits, but who cares? I certainly don't, and from the look of the crowd at the mama-and-me swim class at the local pool, I'm not the only one with this self-image and attitude. I am, however, the only one wearing a halter top that I DRAFTED and MADE. I know that not because it looks home made but because I am the only one with a suit that fits my post-pregnancy body. Yes, my pattern and construction techniques could use some work. Yes, I went into the process of making this suit with more enthusiasm than know-how. But, my little swim project isn't hurting anyone, and I'm certainly not planning on entering the commercial arena. Please know, designers and pattern makers, that I am not a threat to you or your occupation. I buy a fair number of commercial patterns, both from the Big Four and from independent designers. I'm just the kind of rugged native of the western US who learns how to frame out and drywall her unfinished basement via YouTube. In the West, we just do that kind of thing.
Non sequitur: And another thing! After all, my personal sewing (and pattern making) is a hobby, not a vocation. By definition, a hobby is a pleasant time-suck. Who in the world should care enough to scoff at my pride at having drafted a sloper to fit my body?
Back to the point about disappearing resources: After a quick Amazon search, I'm not sold on many of the titles on swimwear and lingerie, which seem not technical enough. I've taken Fasanella's recommendation of Connie Crawford's Patternmaking Made Easy seriously. I've also reread Judith Neukam's Threads article about pattern drafting (clearly targeted to the enthusiast), and gleaned some titles that I'll likely request through interlibrary loan this fall:
Pattern Drafting and Grading: Women’s and Misses’ Garment Design by Mayer Rohr
Pattern Drafting and Grading: Women’s and Misses’ Garment Design by Mayer Rohr
Modern Pattern Design: The Complete Guide to the Creation of Patterns as a Means of Designing Smart Wearing Apparel by Harriet Pepin
Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong (the book that Fasanella compares the Crawford book to)
Certainly I'm not shelling out the dough for these out-of-print titles sight unseen. I'm enthusiastic and curious, not crazy, people.
In addition to those, Lauriana at Petit Main Sauvage has talked about Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear and Metric Pattern Cutting for Menswear. I really like what she comes up with, and from her writing and the other reviews, these seem like very good go-tos, so they're going in my wishlist.
In the short term, though, because I had good results with Amani Adria's instructions for creating a trouser sloper, I'll likely draft a bodice sloper using her method, but at 88% width as in the PatternSchool method, to work from in order to revisit and hopefully complete my swim project. Neukam's bodice sloper instructions don't appear to account for cup size or bust point variations except as an afterthought unless I'm misreading something.
If anyone has any other resource suggestions for me, I'd appreciate hearing them!
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