Fashion Incubator » Tutorial http://www.fashion-incubator.com How to start a clothing line or run the one you have, better. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:36:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Tutorial: one piece neck & sleeveless facing http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/tutorial-one-piece-neck-sleeveless-facing/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/tutorial-one-piece-neck-sleeveless-facing/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:02:00 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10435 11sp_skirtFollowing up with last week's spiral dress challenge, has anyone given any thought as to how the dress can be put on? The neckline is too small to pull over the head so a zipper will be required. Meaning, making a one piece facing to finish off the armholes and neckline of this style just got a little more complicated. Actually, it's not that hard. Luckily enough I've I've done it before and by way of example, have a leather skirt to show you that I designed in the mid 90's (when I thought I might sell copies of patterns). The skirt is made of pig suede (a proto of course) with 8" brown fringe. I like blue and brown together. This skirt is really cute on. Anyway, like our spiral dress, it has an inside facing and zipper closure. The zipper is set at an angle. Below is a photo of what the zipper looks like. ]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/tutorial-one-piece-neck-sleeveless-facing/feed/ 10 Pattern Puzzle: Spiral dress http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/pattern-puzzle-spiral-dress/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/pattern-puzzle-spiral-dress/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:57:13 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10382 spiral_dress_steptwo_smFor a change of pace, I thought I would post a pattern puzzle in the making. I don't know how well or poorly it will come out but who cares? One manages to learn something in the process. It has been a good exercise to practice my pattern making skills with StyleCAD. I don't have a sketch of it either but one of you can create one from the pattern pieces if you're so inspired. If your pattern skills are such that you can't tell what it will look like yet, this should also be a learning experience for you too. I started with a very plain block, a child's size 5 dress (hopefully this will become a real dress and then a present for my niece). I picked a child's dress for two reasons. One is to minimize fabric loss if this project ends up as a wadder (wadder=only suitable to wad into a ball and throw away). Two, I made one of these before for myself and it got very complex with darting and what not so this style won't complicate things unnecessarily. Step one: Lay the front and backs together, marrying the pieces along one side seam. Step two: draw the spiral lines. The lines will become cut lines, where the pieces will be separated from each other. Gee, that notching tutorial I wrote last week will come in handy, eh?]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/pattern-puzzle-spiral-dress/feed/ 11 Notch maps: suit sleeve & armhole pt.2 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/notch-maps-suit-sleeve-armhole-pt-2/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/notch-maps-suit-sleeve-armhole-pt-2/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:33:15 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10296 clock_notch_positioningPerhaps this entry should have come before the first one but as is so often the case, I don't realize it until after the fact. Since there can be an endless variety in armhole and sleeve notching (some better than others) we should clarify the four positions for notches and why we need them which is not as obvious as one would think. The four positions are:
  • Shoulder seam (12 o'clock)
  • Under arm seam (6 o'clock)
  • Front (4 o'clock)
  • Back (8 o'clock)
So why do we have them placed in these locations? If you say it is to provide guidance for sleeve setting on the basis of making segments evenly divisible, it would make more sense to put the back armhole notch at 9 o'clock and the front at 3 o'clock but instead, these are placed at 8 and 4 o'clock respectively. So why is that? It may not seem logical unless you've sewn a bit or analyzed sewing to some extent. Here is the explanation:]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/notch-maps-suit-sleeve-armhole-pt-2/feed/ 12 Notch maps: suit sleeve & armhole http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/notch-maps-suit-sleeve-armhole/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/notch-maps-suit-sleeve-armhole/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:58:40 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10263 EXACTLY. Not near by, not there abouts, not in a given direction, not kind of sort of near by but EXACTLY. If a notch is off by a whole inch, it is on the order of the bank calling in a loan or the police showing up with a search warrant or something equally horrible. It is an automatic halt to anything going on, this is an emergency and you're at the front of the line. A notch being off a whole inch is not something you just let slide by. So, if you're sewing something and notches are off that much, you need to pick up the phone immediately. Phone. Not email. Not later. Now. Are we clear on this? Anyway, my client has sleeve fitting issues to include length (she sewed the mock up). We still don't know the final result but the sleeves need to be re-set to match notches. The other issue was sleeve length. She was not aware that notches are used to indicate sleeve hem fold lines. Again no problem unless -picture this horrible scenario- what would have happened if I had not inspected her mock up jacket? I would have shortened the sleeve to match the designer's instructions and then the style would later have been sewn by a contractor who did turn the hem at the notch and then all of the sleeves would have been too short and the contractor would have been blamed. Or the contractor would have blamed me because they were following the pattern and me, I'd be absolutely baffled because I did what the client said. Somehow, half an inch of sleeve length would have evaporated into the ether.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/notch-maps-suit-sleeve-armhole/feed/ 20 A tale -and tutorial- of three collars pt.2 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/a-tale-and-tutorial-of-three-collars-pt-2/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/a-tale-and-tutorial-of-three-collars-pt-2/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:24:01 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10140 the first entry. First up is Sarra who asks:
A home sewing book I have suggests cutting the under collar 1/8″ or so smaller lengthwise than the upper collar and then stretching it to fit the upper collar while sewing, so that once it is sewn it will curve inward, i.e., around the neck. Is this a good idea, or an example of poor pattern drafting?
If you think about it, taking out a bit at center back of the under collar is a variation of method #1. The only difference is that you're taking out of the center of the (under) collar rather than the ends. As to whether it is a good practice, sometimes it is your only option. By way of example is Renee's comment:]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/a-tale-and-tutorial-of-three-collars-pt-2/feed/ 10 A tale -and tutorial- of three collars http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/a-tale-and-tutorial-of-three-collars/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/a-tale-and-tutorial-of-three-collars/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:28:20 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10115
  • Why ignoring this advice can make you a target for a knock off.
  • Why home patterns will not work in production.
  • How the pattern governs product quality and prevents sewing mistakes.
  • Why pattern makers and sewing contractors ask you questions that make you paranoid.
    • By way of introduction to today's post is Deconstructing a sewing class:
    [One example of a planning workaround] was the instruction on how to press collars so the seam would fall to the underside. The way Leslie showed how to do it was what a presser would do in a lower value product. A contemporary or better quality product would have the turn of cloth feature built into the pattern and executed by stitchers before it got anywhere near the pressers. My point is this: a work around is defined by workers having to bail out a failure in a process upstream from them. Since the collar example is so easily defined, I will write an entry about this to explain more fully.
    To open, we need to discuss collar pattern drafting. I've made it simple so non-sewers can follow along. No pattern or sewing experience is needed. In school and in books, we are taught to do whatever shaping by whatever means to come up with our collar's shape. The type and shape is immaterial for this example so our collar is represented by this rectangle. control_collar_draft]]>     http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/a-tale-and-tutorial-of-three-collars/feed/ 26     How to remove sleeve cap ease pt.2 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-remove-sleeve-cap-ease-pt-2/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-remove-sleeve-cap-ease-pt-2/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:10:27 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10054 sleeve_body_measures_chartContinuing from part one, the first step is analysis which is done objectively and subjectively. Objectively is measuring so you know where you are. The second is somewhat subjective in that your eye must gauge the objective measures. Objective: I draw a little chart before I start to map the differences. The chart for this style is shown at right. The measures of the front sleeve and front body are pretty close; the sleeve is 1/16th smaller than the body. If the sleeve is a hair smaller, that is fine. I have a colleague who shakes her head over these discussions, she can't believe we even debate the point. She cuts all of her sleeves to be slightly smaller than the armholes they are sewn into. But I digress, 1/16th is nothing to worry about at this stage.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-remove-sleeve-cap-ease-pt-2/feed/ 10 How to remove sleeve cap ease http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-remove-sleeve-cap-ease/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-remove-sleeve-cap-ease/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:57:31 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10049 how to reshape armholes. Reshaping armholes is the first step to a nice fitting sleeve. It is only once the armhole is shaped to fit a human body and the normal range of motion (see pgs 166-168 of my book), that the sleeve can be reshaped -because as I've mentioned, sleeve cap ease is bogus. The latter amounts to a work around to compensate for a poorly designed sleeve and armhole. Truthfully, well designed sleeves are difficult so I can understand why they're given short thrift particularly in value priced lines. In suits and coats though, it becomes more critical regardless of price point. In the forum I updated the ongoing thread with a screen capture of the new armhole design. A picture of the result -courtesy of my new software (doesn't this look so much cleaner?)- appears below. There is also a slightly larger version of the image. smaller_armhole_before_after]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-remove-sleeve-cap-ease/feed/ 14 Tip for checking your patterns http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/tip-for-checking-your-patterns/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/tip-for-checking-your-patterns/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:56:47 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9936 walk_sample]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/tip-for-checking-your-patterns/feed/ 8 How to re-shape armholes http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-re-shape-armholes/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-re-shape-armholes/#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 23:11:31 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9641 add_CF_to_sidepanel ...and if you don't know what the above is, that is one ugly armhole ...after which I decided I had something -anything- more pressing to do. Like, going to see if the dogs were out of food. Or checking my email to see if anything interesting came in. Maybe somebody will call me? Yes! Sean did (that's why I was really long winded Sean, I didn't want to do this). So now I'm back with this ugly armhole staring me in the face.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-re-shape-armholes/feed/ 43