I just wanted to say that a great class with an incredible amount of work deserves a reward; very little homework!

 Yesterday Andrew did an AMAZING job with his pants, in FIVE hours he completed a pair of pants with pockets and a front fly zipper and they fit perfectly!  This young man will have a promising career as a bespoke tailor without a doubt he is going to be a great tailor, the passion and excitement is so evident when he is close to completing a task it's infectious!  Good job!! 

Homework is to finish the pants hem, tack down the belt loops and remove all the tailor tacking AFTER THE PRESSING LINE HAS BEEN PRESSED. 

Hello ladies, sorry for the delay in writing your homework this weekend has been a bit crazy with the whole family here for some fun in the sun!  In any case your progress is mind boggling!  The bodices you have made are wonderful, the fit is as close to perfect as one can get with only a few classes on Skype and no hands on training.  Can't wait until the intensive class you will learn so much!  Your homework is below, enjoy your week off! 

Homework is to draft a new pattern with a front overlap using personal measurements.  This is to be a draft only. 

• Miriam
  • is to draft a new pattern for the princess lines using personal measurements,
    
  • Do the neckline adjustment as discussed;
  • do not remove any fabric from the sides to accommodate the excess on the front as a result of the adjustment.  The mock up will tell the tale as whether/how much needs to be removed or not. 
• Janet
  • is to add to the side dart as pinned then compare the front and back to see if they still meet, if not re-draw the underarm on the back, the difference will be minimal.  The other option is to make a larger base dart at the beginning by 1 cm this might fix the problem altogether.....
    
  • Do the neckline adjustment as discussed leaving the excess fabric in place or at most remove 2 cm from the side seam but only at the hemline and start the line from the widest part of the hip.  There is no magic trick use your eyes and see what looks correct it will usually be the right decision. 
    

 
You were shown how to create a free form Volant to use in place of a sleeve for use in a formal dress, this is a lot of fun to make and wear, accomplishes what a sleeve does with minimal work!  I'm sure your garments will look smashing :)

Great class today!  You did all that was expected and now there is homework! 
Andrew has been working on a pair of dress pants for himself with great success I might add, take a look at the picture in one of the previous posts to see for yourself how the mock up fit. 
So today we cut the fabric out and now comes the task of tailor tacking.....
Homework is to complete tailor tacking on the pant legs to include the pressing lines on both front and back, pocket placement, zipper placement, centre front and back lines.  Cut interfacing for necessary spots ei: the pockets and front fly zipper.  Next class will be a double class to start the construction process so everything must be ready to go.

See you next week! 

Well ladies your sewing prowess amazes me!  The mock ups you did of the basic bodice were AMAZING!!! You seem to have grasped the concept very well and understand the principles of the draft very well.  The fit was almost perfect the first time. 
For all the other readers out there here is what Janet had to say "this is the best fitting pattern we have ever had bar none!"  Miriam added " we have been taking classes for the past NINE years trying to find a well fitting pattern"

This is an absolutely wonderful assessment of the drafting technique.  I am very proud to be teaching this!

So the homework for this week is to draft one master pattern with the front princess lines as shown on page 44 then trace the pattern pieces for the princess and mock princess dress using both the generic and personal measurements.  Draft ONE back only with the mock princess lines as shown on page 60 in both measurements. If there is time sew together a mock of these styles, one doing the princess and one the mock princess. In the end you will have one master pattern and two styles of dress/top!  How cool is that????

So yesterday I was raving about Andrew and his mock up, how well it fit him and how he did it in under 2 hours.  Well today I have the picture to prove it!  I took it for Andrew to see his back and how the changes we made to the pattern worked well so I asked him to send it to me if he would allow me to post it.  He very graciously agreed to my posting his picture on my blog so here it is:
I may not be the best photographer on the planet but I think you will agree that Andrew is a very good model :)

Ok so today was a very productive day for Andrew, in a two hour class he completed a pants draft, cut and sewed the mock up to fit on him AND he continued with the storyboard for welt pockets!  I have to say the mock up was PERFECT on him!  I am so impressed with this young man he is going to make a great tailor when he is finished the program.  It does take a bit of time but in the end perfection cannot be rushed, I would rather take a little extra time to teach people the correct techniques by using the storyboards, which are the best learning tools ever, than just skimming over things and hoping for the best. 
In case you are wondering what storyboards are; they are techniques that are broken down into steps that students actually sew or draft and are used much like a flip-chart showing each step in the process.  They are time consuming with all the repetition but in the end it's the repetition that re-enforces and helps the muscle memory remember what to do.  This is my own system of teaching devised with students in mind so they can have a 3D reference at home when I'm not around to help but I digressed......

Andrew your homework is to draft a new pair of pants complete with front and back pockets and front fly zipper.  Keep the master pattern intact as I showed you in class today and trace the pattern pieces complete with all the markings, labeled etc.   Also do another welt on the storyboard with the tab to add the pocket sack next week.   

Well I have to say Nita showed me some of the cutest baby outfits with gorgeous roses on them that she made by burning the fabric to curl like real roses!  Nita used to teach how to make Dior roses once upon a time, I hoping she will share her techniques when she comes for the intensive class in October :)
 
In the meantime there is work to do so your homework is to draft a front bodice in both the generic measurements as well as your own measurements as shown on page 44 -45 using one pattern to draft two different styles of princess lines, from the armhole and from the shoulder.  I did a quick demo on how to do this and you seemed to understand the process very well.  We only discussed the back as shown on page 60, the mock princess from the armhole to the bottom of the fish eye dart.  I will show you how to do the princess lines on the back next class, it requires a little time to wrap one's head around the procedure. 

Have a great week! 

So the town crier outfit is taking shape all I have left to do is the jacket!  The waistcoat and shirt are done!!! 
I am very happy with the end result, the only thing missing from the waistcoat are the buttons, waiting to see the jacket before making that decision. 
Should the buttons on the waistcoat be smaller than the ones on the jacket? 
Will I have difficulty finding the right ones? 
These are questions I have to answer before venturing into the button department.  In the meantime here are some pix showing my progress: 

Hello all sorry for the delay in writing, it has been a crazy week here with the grandchildren visiting, making home-made lasagna with my daughter and there were a couple of functions on the weekend in addition to all this! 

Anyway you are all doing amazingly well, Janet and Miriam you totally outdid yourselves last Friday!  I was not anticipating getting as far as we did on the bodice!  I shared the secret cure for gaposis on Friday LOL!  I'm sure you will find it very useful in future drafts so with that in mind your homework is to draft and shape a front and back sheath using personal measurements, if there is time to create a mock up to fit the body and we will "read" it during the next class.  I know how excited you are to learn this wonderful art especially how to fit the body, I think you will be very pleasantly surprised as to how this minor adjustment works wonders!

Andrew you are no slouch either, I find it hard to believe you don't normally take notes, it seems during our time you never put your pen down :)  that's a good thing!!! 
Your homework is to draft a new pants pattern to reflect the changes made to the mock up, trace the pattern pieces and cut a mock up of only the pants without the pockets or zipper.   We will sew it together in class so you can learn some more sewing techniques.  Please bring back the welt pocket storyboard as well to complete the pocket. 
That's all for this week folks, have a good one!!!

Well once again this dynamo of a gal has surprised me!  She understands the drafting so well, she was actually guiding me when I drafted a back plus she is getting really good a quantifying cm even on Skype!  Fantastic job Nita keep up the good work!
Homework for this week is as follows:  draft a front and back using generic measurements as well as personal measurements with the ½ shoulder width 18 cm back adjustment as well as the front adjustment.  Add fish eye darts on front and back, adjust armhole circumference, shape side seam. These are the generic measurements we used;

• ½ bust 46
• ½ waist 40
• ½ hips 52
  
• Front neck to waist 43
• Back neck to waist 41
• ½ shoulder width 18
  

adding on the armhole circumference of 47 cm

have a good week!