My Sewing Pattern and Rulers

One of these drafts is my old (uncomfortable) one and the other is the one I made after adapting the method in Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear (5th Ed.). The one on top is the old one (it has an orange outline) and the one underneath is my new one with seam allowances.

It's quite bizarre how different they are, especially the back pattern. What happened there? The bust dart is the right size though (not standard; I had adapted that far).

Now for the sleeve:

There is a profound difference in the size. The old one is on top. I'm not sure if I used this pattern (it's likely though). No wonder my old sleeves were so uncomfortable. But still, you can see that the neither sleeves is  symmetrical, which is good. I agree with Kathleen on that matter.

The benefit to having such a full back sleeve (even if there may be no ease) is that the fabric acts as a sort of gusset that lets you bring your arms forward. With that and the correctly drawn armscye, I can stretch my arms right out in front of me. (Of course the bodice comes up a little, but I have had much worse sleeves on a jacket from a book called Make Your Own Clothes from PatternMaker software. That jacket never worked for me...)

On another note, I've been designing and drafting a new blouse and I have two options. Option one:

And option 2:

At first view, the designs might not look that different. They're not. The only differnce is the opening. The first option is a standard button-up. The second one has a "closing under a box pleat" with instructions similar to those in A Nu-way Course in Fashionable Clothes-making from (I think) 1926. It was on Vintage-sewing.info when it was up and I copied and pasted to and edited on Word (that took a very long time, but it was worth it). You can find it on Google's Wayback machine now.

I think I'll go with option 1 because I drafted it before I figured out how to draft option two, and it uses less fabric anyway.

On a third note, have you ever had something for ages and only then realised how incredibly useful? I have, and this is that thing:

The Pocket Shoben fashioncurve. (6" ruler in there for comparison of size). I got it for my 19th birthday in set when I got my full-size Shoben Fashion Curve. It should come in handy when I go to college in September. Anyway, is useful for smoothing out small curves (like a French curve is) and it's also great for adding seam allowances to small places. It's much more convenient than using my full-size fashion curve on something like a neck-line. This is the full set:

The rectangular thing is mainly for adding button placements to patterns. The corner thing is a scale ruler in 1/4 and 1/5 scales and is very good for that. Also included are 1/5 scales master patterns on card, but I didn't take a photograph of them.

That's all for today.

Toodloo! : )