Category Archives: Pattern Drafting

Drafting Patterns with the Moulage

My personal sewing projects have ground to a halt, because of two classes I am currently taking at City College of San Francisco.  But I am not complaining; both of them have been exciting and enriching.

The Moulage is a class taught by Lynda Maynard. She is an expert in couture sewing and fitting techniques, and the author of two books: one on couture sewing techniques, and a self-published book on fit.  She also has several Craftsy classes available, and I’ve just purchased her fitting class.

What is Moulage?

Moulage is a pattern-drafting system that aims to produce a skin-tight garment that fits your torso from neckline to hip, based on measurements.  I am told the word “moulage” translates from the French as “mold”, a way of molding a garment to your body.

The finished moulage can be used as-is for certain types of garments, including those for knits. But typically you use it as the starting point for making patterns of other types of garments. More on this later. Continue reading

The Pink Shirt, Part 2

For this installment of the Pink Shirt project, I’m covering (almost) all of the style decisions that are going into the project.

As was apparent from Part 1, if I want a nice pink shirt Brooks Brothers is happy to sell me one for $49.50 – probably less if I can find a discount coupon somewhere.  So, I’d like to come up with a unique item that distinguishes itself from something I can buy off the rack at the store.  That, along with a custom fit, is one of the advantages of being a home sewist.

(You can click or tap any picture for an enlargement).

Pattern and Fit

The Brooks Brothers shirt is a sport shirt.  In the online photo, it has some pretty straight sides.

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I’m planning to use my dress shirt pattern from the Blue Gingham Shirt project, with no major changes to the silhouette.  Coming from a dress shirt origin, mine has more tapered sides (see the screenshot below).

I’m thinking some of the styling will place this shirt somewhere between casual and dressy. Continue reading

Fitting the Tuxedo Shirt

For the second post in my series on the Tuxedo Shirt, I delve into fitting.  As I had mentioned previously, fitting took longer than I had expected, even with a headstart in the form of an existing garment.

First Fitting

For the first fitting, I traced a pattern from a RTW shirt provided by the client. I produced a bodice muslin, lacking sleeves, collar and other details.

Overall, the RTW shirt already fit well. The client said the collar was slightly too tight on the RTW shirt.

IMG_20160106_182811 Continue reading

A Sleeve Starts to Form (Holiday Shirt, Part 4)

In Part 3 of this series, I summarized all the fitting work I’ve done on fitting my muslin to date.  What I hadn’t done was actually try out Muslin F, the very latest fitting garment that is the culmination of all my alterations.  So before we go on, I wanted to share it with you.

How has it turned out? Pretty well, I think.

Muslin F, Front View

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Continue reading

The Holiday Shirt, Part 1

I’ve had to come to grips with the fact that I am a slow sewist.

It’s not worth delving deeply into the reasons why: I have a busy professional life, I spend a lot of time researching sewing techniques, I go out of my way to make projects complicated….

But the fact is that by the time I finish a project, it’s usually out of season. And sometimes projects can be delayed by more than a year because I’m tied up with some other project and cannot start a new one at the right time.

But right now I have the opportunity to make a holiday shirt, one I can wear to parties and occasions during the month of December.  Starting now, I have a hope of making my goal.

But first, let’s make matters complicated. Continue reading