Today’s important lesson is
ALWAYS LABEL YOUR PATTERNS.
Otherwise, when you come to repeat a pair of trousers for a friend after eighteen months, you may come to find a cryptic note pinned to the pattern, with no clues whatsoever as to what it means.
I can hazard a guess that this is the amount I had to take out of the centre back seam of the trousers when I fitted them, but I can’t be absolutely certain.
Equally unhelpfully, the pattern is a completely different size from the block, so I obviously didn’t transfer my alterations there either!
As you may have gathered, I’m still riding the learning curve of pattern drafting. Having never taken any classes, I’m learning in the time-honoured fashion of frowning at books
I’ve also been reading through the archives of a few helpful blogs – notably Not Enough Thursdays, Fashion Incubator and You Sew Girl.
I need to do a great deal of work on my pattern drafting skills, if I’m going to get any further with developing my own range of clothing. There’s only so much you can learn from books though, so I keep looking at the short courses at the London College of Fashion, in case I can somehow miraculously afford to attend.
The Intensive Pattern Cutting Workshop looks ideal, as it combines flat pattern drafting and draping on the stand. It only runs as a summer school though, which means I’ll have to wait until next year. Ah well… more time to save those pennies!