Slopers, Day 3 (and a half...)

Okay, so after going to my 3rd 'Slopers' class I came home amped to put what I learned to work...
..... underwhelmed?... I understand.


But I kept at it and, after several stops and starts and more that a few cuts... and retapes... and re-recuts.... and, you guessed it, re-retapes....

Better, better.

So much so that I felt confident enough to cut a muslin..... Tttaaadddaaaaaaaaaaaa!!I was soooo proud of myself!!

I still have a lot of fine tuning I need to do. But overall, I'm very pleased. I'm eager to try my next one - a two dart bodice!! WWWWHHHHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

And you may have noticed that I added some measurement lines to my Duct tape dummy....
I found it invaluable in getting those measurements right.... (ahem... not that I got them 'right', per se... but you know what I mean...;-)


Now I have a question....

Is anyone actively using the Lutterloh pattern making system? I have been looking at it off and on for a few weeks now, but I'm kind of hot and cold about it.

I love the idea of being able to make 'custom fit' patterns. And I like that some of the pieces can be integrated together to make different styles from existing pieces (... and you know how much I love THAT!)

But, it doesn't come with any construction instructions (... not that I'm very consistent in reading and using instructions when they are provided...) and you also have to make your own/decided when you need facings/interfacing, etc.... that kind of scares me.


You may or may not have notice, but I have a rather vivid and detailed imagination. It's just that all that imagination sometimes gets lost in translation somewhere between my brain and my hands.

I can totally envision myself doing all these great things with this system.... only to actually get it and end up stuffing it up under the bed with all the other money pits I've invested in not using it.

It is a little more pocket than change at about 120$ for the entire kit plus around 18$ to 20$ for the quarterly pattern updates. But, thanks to the friendly message board over at PatternReview.com, I read a great suggestion about just buying the main tool kit and buying a pattern supplement as an alternative to the complete starter kit. That would add up to about 40-45$ and give me a chance to test it out without making such a big investment.

Any thoughts? Pros? Cons?

Holla!

Duct tape Dummie!

So, I had another great MeetUp on Sunday, this time with The New York Sewing & Fabric Shopping Meetup Group... we met up at Whole Foods cafe down on Houston and 2nd Ave. We had a good crew show up and we pretty much got right down to business...

I didn't take any pictures because, (a) as it was my first MeetUp with this group and I didn't want to be presumptuous. And, (B) it was pretty hard to move in what (I was told) looked like some kind of Greco-Roman battle armor...lol... I said I was going to go home and fashion a helmet and battle ax next!

....... hmph.

Of course, I rushed right home to re-work my dress form to fit its new shell....

Turns out, even thought my standard form fit my measurements, all the emphasis was spread out in the wrong areas... my side dials were way too high, but my bust and center back dials weren't high enough.

The shoulders were much too arrow and ... ((ahem)) the back waist was much to wide... hehhee!

But, then there was the stomach.... situation.

I will save myself the embarrassment of telling you how many bags and t-shirts I used to fill out the ....((ssiigghhh))..... hollow...... that my body left.... but now I know why men are always giving up there seat for me.

Here I am thinking they were just being nice.... turns out its cause I look about 3 months in .... AT LEAST!...

.... Man! I need to get to the gym... that's just embarrassing!

Holla.

Slopers, Day 2

I had another great class learning to make slopers with Shannon at Soul Collections.
I even stopped to take pictures (this time!)...

We went back over the basic one dart front bodice sloper as a quick review of the last class...

It actually fit!!.... so exciting!!

Here's our (kindly and uber-patient) instructor Shannon working on one of the pattern variations we did today, the Princess Seam (dartless sloper)....

Here's Shannon and my 'classmate' Pel going over the finer points of straitening out a waistline after adjusting dart legs (... a time or two.... or three, in MY case...)

And here's Shannon showing Pel exactly how the patten relates to a dressform and the myriad of variations you can effect once you have your basic sloper set up....

Meanwhile, in the opposite corner....
...ummm.... are you SUPPOSED to be cutting that?!?!?!?!

.... apparently not...((sniff))

Overall, it was another afternoon very well spent!

And when I got home... Look what was waiting for me?!?!!

.... The Simplicity 3882 that was listed on my pattern list.... All thanks to my most favorite Austin blogger, Antoinette, the Clevergirl!!!

Okay, now it's off to practice what I learned today!!

Holla!

Saturday, Hitting the Slope(r)s

So, I had my first Intro to Pattern Making MeetUp this past Saturday. It was great!! Don't quiz me, because I probably couldn't ( and, by 'I probably couldn't ', I mean 'I difinitely can't') make a sloper from scratch right about now, but I'm definitely amped for our next class.

I was so inspired by the time I got home, I made this handy-dandy carrying case for the smaller tools that came with the class fee...

I made it out of some scrap pieces of stretch denim I had on the table after cutting out the denim/exposed zipper version of M5701.

I didn't have any kind of pattern or even any real planned out idea of how to make the 'pouch'. I just kind of pictured what I wanted and kept making seams and stitches until I ended up with this...lol.

I couldn't decide how I wanted to secure the pouch closed, so I just used two pins to hold it for the time being. I decided I like the look and left it that way.

Holla!

Getting my feet wet...

Yesterday I decided to tackle the M5701, in effort to see how to go about altering it to make the D&G Inspiration Game piece...

I decided to make the pattern straight out, with no changes, so I could get a feel of the fit and how all the pieces went together...

So, after some creative pinning (I was afraid I was going to run out of fabric) on the black Italian linen I got at the Paron's East closing sale... and more than a few head scratches at the directions...

I ended up with this... Not bad.

I didn't do any fit alterations (with the exception of taking in the side seams, from right under the pocket down to the hem, to give it a more tapered look) but I think it looks pretty good.
It fits fairly close along the bust. But I don't think I'll do any FBAs. When adding the back zipper, I think it will make getting it off and on infinitely easier...

And this fine medium weight linen was giving me fits! It frays like crazy, and as I found out in the most heart breaking way, the notches are prone to tearing.... I had to patch up this beauty right after I tried it on (before I added the armhole bands).

I was reaching around to pull the dress up over my head and heard the softest, gentlest RRRRIIIPPPPPPPP!

Sigh. Really?!?

Overall, I really like the pattern, and will be making this one again, straight and altered to look like the D&G.

Holla!