Garment Construction for the lost and confused - Part 1 (Patterns)

The world of garment construction is a little confusing for the uninitiated. Everyone has an opinion on how to start, the equipment you should use, the patterns and pattern books to buy and its a cacophony of opinions, technical terms and advertisements. So, like a good blogger, I'll add my two pence, but in the typical Hammy Dressmaker Style: with humour and gifs, always gifs, and maybe some swearing. I don't know yet...we'll see. You might look at bit like Old John Here...but with any luck I'll at least be entertaining with it....without affliate links because...well.... google stuff. I'm not your mother.

Now, I was fortunate enough to have been treated to a set of sewing lessons when I first treaded shyly and, fairly disastrously, into my first garments. I entered like a drunk, newborn giraffe, trying different stuff, seams askew and parts the wrong way round, attempting things far, far beyond my knowledge but, by Jove, it was fun. My sewing teacher was gamely encouraging despite the avalanche of blind optimism that I would be making couture level work suits in a year.

Now, no matter how good blogs are, it really doesn't beat someone really showing you how to do something and having a bit of a giggle with you. If, however, you are either too skint or too skinflint read on. Let's break down some of the components of garment construction starting with the pattern.

Picking a pattern:

What you are looking for is a beginner pattern is a line drawing with as few features as as possible. Loose fitting and woven fabrics are your kings here. Stretch fabrics are not a scary or as difficult as you might think but to ensure this blog is short and engaging, woven is what we are going to concentrate on. Woven fabrics examples are cotton, viscose, rayon. Avoid fabrics which are glossy like satin and silk, they are a different level of crapness for a beginner. Lets take some tops and analyse the line drawings for how much difficulty it would be.

This is a good candidate for a beginner project. Simple lines, no buttons, darts, no frippery. Just a cut and go. You don't need anything more than a bit of common sense and a simple grasp of the basics

This looks more complicated but the extra details here are bust darts and some minor pleats. The pattern will look a bit more intense but with a bit of staring at the drawing and some good instructions, this is a slightly harder, funkier project for those cocky types. The fabric is likely to be described as drappy, this means that when you hold it up it moves easily. So the challenge here is the fabric, not the pattern.

This is a project for a experienced sewist or those ballbusting take-no-prisoners beginners. The features I can see here are concave darts (the lines in the middle of the back), bias binding, set in sleeves, buttons, buttonholes, gathering, might be stretchy fabrics and the pattern will look like a crime scene body outline if an octopus got shot.

The goal here isn't necessarily a good looking garment for your body type, it isn't to dive head first into fitting, the idea here is that at the end of it you have something that resembles a garment. If it is a good looking garment, well, congratulations, you did it. No one expects Monet, when you have only drawn triangles. This is your baby step. Repeat the making a couple of times. The first is confusing, the second you will notice the difference, the third you will be able to complete it in half the time. Boring is good here. Also, one with 1-2 metres of woven fabrics would be economical for disasters. Try not to spend anymore than a fiver on the pattern here. You are looking for matt, woven in plain colours. Avoid cotton lawn. 100% cotton and cotton poplin are decent enough fabrics which are comfortable to wear and easy to sew. Expect to pay up to £7 a metre on ebay for these. Or use duvet covers. If I was a purist I would say Calico or muslin. They are plain fabrics but, by Queen Debbie, they are boring. We make clothes to wear them, enjoy them. These fabrics suck the joy from the room. Great for intermediate sewists doing draping or fitting but not you, not yet.

Sizing

Ah, my personal bug bear. Sizing, this is part 2 of picking a pattern. Sewing sizes are very small, various, confusing and different when you are looking UK to US. You need to look at the packet carefully. MISSES are smaller sizes unto size 18 (around a size 46 inch hip) Numbers followed by a W i.e. 26W are for curvier figures. YOUR CLOTHES SIZES BEAR NO RESEMBLANCE TO SEWING SIZES. Say it with me. YOUR CLOTHES SIZES BEAR NO RESEMBLANCE TO SEWING SIZES. THIS IS NOT A MEASUREMENT OF YOUR WORTH, YOUR ATTRACTIVENESS OR ANYTHING IMPORTANT. Your measurement will be bigger than your clothes sizes. What is even worse, if you are a plus sized beginner you will be tempted to buy a very well known pattern company book. In the sewing community, this pattern company is revered to the point of worship. Now, the information in the book is very, very good, but the sizing frankly is a bit cack. They recently "extended' the sizing. They might as well have not bothered. In the UK, getting these W patterns from Simplicity, McCalls, Vogue, etc etc are quite difficult and to import them just isn't worth the cost. So buy INDIE. I like The Foldline, you can search by size and buy direct a lot from the site. And you are helping a number of small businesses by doing this. The instructions are way better, there is a community surrounding the individual pattern so hacks, hints and tips are easier to find. Some of my favourites for plus sizes are Helen's Closet, AK patterns, In the Folds/Peppermint Magazine. Measure your waist, bust and hips. You ideally find all these numbers on the same pattern but if not try looking around some more. I'll do a blog on simple adjustments in the next blog: That will be simple adjustments, darts, and sewing pattern symbols.