Monthly Archives: August 2015

Tailor’s Tacks, #2

Just in time for the weekend, it’s a new episode of Tailor’s Tacks – Issue #2.

Sarah Veblen in Threads Magazine

If you’ve been enjoying my fitting articles and would like to know more about Sarah Veblen’s fitting techniques, you can find an article from her on skirt fitting in a recent issue of Threads Magazine (June-July 2015).

Just about everything you learn about skirt fitting directly applies to pants fitting. The article had some great information about darts I used during my pants fitting. Continue reading →

The Road to Pants, Part 3

When I left you all at the end of Part 2, I had just printed out a pattern I digitally traced in Wild Ginger’s Pattern Editor. I left you with the impression I was ready to cut out fabric and start sewing.

That was when I encountered The Problem.

The Problem

I figured it would be a good idea to take the prinout and compare the pieces to the original tissue I scanned into the computer. This would be a sanity test to see just how faithful the digital version is, compared to the original. I overlaid the tissue atop the printout, and lined them up.

And – they didn’t match.

Let’s take the back pattern piece, and align the tissue and the printout at the bottom hem and the grainline. Right away you can see a discrepancy – the printed pattern seamlines are about 1/8 of an inch narrower than the tissue.

Continue reading →

The Road to Pants, Part 2

In this article, I’m covering my experience using Wild Ginger’s PatternMaster software to digitize my pants pattern and to create detail pieces such as a new waistband.

I originally thought this series of articles on digital pattern drafting would run for two parts, but it will be at least three – especially since much of this article is a capsule review of Wild Ginger’s PatternMaster software.

About Wild Ginger

Wild Ginger Software has been in business for over 20 years developing their fashion design software. Their main product is PatternMaster, and its professional cousin Cameo. Cameo has a four-digit price tag, so I’m working with PatternMaster – their product for home sewers. Continue reading →

The Road to Pants, Part 1

This past week, I’ve been doing the pattern work to move from a fitting muslin to a working pants pattern.

My original intention was to scan my paper pattern and move it into Wild Ginger software on the PC for the remainder of the pattern work. That was not to be; the monitor on my PC decided to go defective, and it took a week’s worth of on-and-off troubleshooting to conclusively narrow it down as the source of the problem. My PC was unusable during this time.

So, I went ahead and made most of the pattern alterations by hand, with paper and pencil. I started by making a fresh tracing of the pattern for Muslin G. Continue reading →

Muslin G is the Charm (“Vogue 8940”, Round 7)

I’ll bet you’re all enjoying my pants-fitting saga so much, you’re wishing it will never end!

So I hope I don’t disappoint you by presenting the final (?) chapter in the story.

Muslin F

Picking up from Round 6, I prepared Muslin F, based on all the changes I had hacked into Muslin E. Let’s take a look.