Different Pattern Companies

I haven't tried the Click and Sew yet, but I look forward to trying it. Still working on the two McCall's and Simplicity dresses. The Simplicity seems to be taking a lot more work than the McCall's. Go figure.

I can't afford it now, either--which is the only reason I'll be getting the upgrade. If I'd had the $$$, I'd have taken the plunge, because I don't have much self-control 8-(

That's a good analogy, and it makes a whole lot of sense to me. I think that's why it's better for me to have to learn fitting basics before getting the program. (Not that that's my choice, mind you, but I think it's better for me, in the long run.)

I see what you mean. I'm glad to hear that you're so satisfied with it.

With the aggravation I've had with the Simplicity pattern I've been working on, I can understand why you feel that way.

I don't know if it does or not. I'm only familiar with the Simplicity, Butterick, McCall's, and Vogue. I think I bought a Burda pattern 10 or 12 years ago, but I never got around to making it.

I've not seen those, either.

Thanks for the feedback. It helps.

Karen C./KY

In working with the two patterns I've been working on (Simplicity and McCall's), I'd have to say I see what you mean. Quite a difference just in those two patterns.

That does make sense.

NOW you tell me .

Thanks for the feedback.

Karen C./KY

Yes, but I was a far more experienced sewist when I started learning this than you are.

If I recall correctly (ha! IIRC), Style was a European division of Simplicity, which would account for the difference in fit.

I liked them, because they always had multi-sized patterns. That was especially good for children, but I always liked it for my "multi-sized" body. LOL Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

I found pants with no waist band to be

Mmn - sounds interesting. I've never yet tried trousers without a waistband.

Sounds lovely, and a tad like the Anne Klein II waistband from the aforesaid Threads article. I bought some grey jersey jim-jams from La Redoute, with a drawstring waist, and they're incredibly comfortable. I am really tempted to copy these for day wear.

:) Trish

It's hard for girls who don't want to look like nymphets. And you never know what she's heard that affects how she feels about herself. My best friend at age 8 was mistaken for a boy, and now, even at age 40, she wears an amazingly bouffant hairdo to prove she's a girlie. I heard really quite normal legs called 'fat' at about the same age, and have covered mine ever since, to the extent that a workmate once asked me if I had any, or did I run on wheels...

:) Trish

Help!? In my sewing book, stay stitching is done with a shorter stitch than normal, thus providing extra hold against the blasted stuff stretching. Is my book misleading me?

Sarah

Larisa,

I'm afraid your post has just made me swear in horror! To hear that other people considered you a plus size when your measurements were 38-27-40 makes me very worried - because those are near enough my own measurements!!!

I have NEVER EVER considered myself plus size, or even been called that! In the UK, the waist measurement equates to about a size 12 (or did before the re-sizing) and the rest to a size 16/18. Which, as you noted cause a right pain in the arse to get clothes to fit (see my earlier post responding to Trish). I always found if a RTW straight skirt fitted my hips, I could get my waist and 2 fists in the waistband, and to get a RTW skirt to fit my waist, I had to buy full skirts or pleats.....

This sizing of clothes business is all relative - after all, it is mass market clothing for a variable size market. Those of us who don't conform to the majority shape have a difficult time finding clothes.

At the end of the day, you can never be smaller than your underlying skeleton and musculature, and sometimes these stick thin tall skinny models frighten me - because you can see their bone structure clearly! They are just 1 step away from famine.... I personally think that as long as you are happy with the way you look, get enough excercise, and eat a mostly healthy diet, then there is nothing to worry about.

Sarah

Oh, I've been sewing, off and on, for about 30 years. I just haven't made that many things that were suitable to wear out of the house 8-(

I want to be able to make things and NOT have someone say, "Oh, did you make that?" You know what I mean?

Karen C./KY

Thanks! I'll be sure to stay-stich automatically, from now on.

I think there's something wrong with me . .. we're due to go on a week's vacation tomorrow, and all I want to do is stay home and work on those two patterns . . .

Thanks, again!

Karen C./KY

Could be. But, knowing this kid, it didn't necessarily have to be anything she heard. She's a peculiar one, that one .

covered mine ever

on wheels...

Come to think of it, I have bow legs and prefer pants too. Maybe that's why I do prefer them. Hmmmm . . .

Karen C./KY

Kay: I got a chance to take a closer look at the Kwik-Sew catalog yesterday. I like the looks of some of the garments, and I am planning to get a pattern to try for myself after I get DD's dress patterns situated. Thanks for the tip!

Karen C./KY

Karen, be sure to calculate the cost of that against the cost of a C&S pattern (GD&RFC)

Judy Neukam, one of the Threads editors, has been at the ASG convention this week and is giving highlights to The Creative Machine Newsletter group at quiltropolis. She ducked into Sandra Betzina's class yesterday, and noted that SB said for Burda, Stretch and Sew, Kwik-sew, Style and New Look, buy by the full bust measurement. For Vogue, Butterick, Simplicity, McCalls, buy by high bust measurement. Vogue Today's Fit (SB's own line), holds the shoulder grade after her size F... the shoulder length does not get longer. (This is also true of Connie Amaden Crawford's patterns

-- none of them expect moreshoulder length than "average", unlike most plus-size grading schemes).SB suggests cutting side seam and sleeve allowances at 1" instead of 5/8" --construct the garment, then adjust the side and sleeve (I assume shemeans lengthwise sleeve seam, not armscye). Kay, your secondhand reporter

Wise guy . I'd still have to know the basics of fitting, even with the C&S pattern, wouldn't I?

(Besides, between having to go on the family camping trip this week AND having to buy a new transcriber (at $381.55 yet!) yesterday, I may have to wait till next month before taking on any more added expenses.)

Karen C./KY

Well, aside from the fact that I am still working on getting the fit just right, even when I know which problem I have to correct, it still seems to me that I should be experienced on fitting the commercial patterns. (Remember, I'm a cynical person, by nature.)

Is there a C&S one like the Simplicity dress that's been giving me so much grief?

For real! I have three stupid Lanier transcribers that are giving me fits, and I can't get local service on them anymore. (To have one of them repaired, I'd have to send them to Atlanta and pay $90 just for them to look at it.) I have an Olympus that drags, and a Dictaphone brand that bit the dust a while back. I have three others, but they're standard units. But I had to have another micro to get the work out, so I didn't have any choice. Needless to say, it

*really* irked me to have to fork out $$$ on yet another transcriber! (But I bought a Sony this time.)

Karen C./KY

Thanks Kay, I've copied this info. I always have trouble getting them to fit. Now maybe it will be a little easier.

NO WAY JOSE!

Weeellll, when I was making Samara's graduation dress, we bought that one pattern and when we made the sample bodice it looked like it needed a ton of fitting to make it fit right. So I did the intelligent (for someone with pattern drafting software) thing -- I talked her into letting me take her measurements for PMB, and the bodice fit practically perfectly -- only needed an inch more across the top of the back.

If you draft a perfectly fitting pattern, you don't *need* to know how to alter commercial ones, unless you are planning on continuing to buy them or planning on using them otherwise. (hint: I got rid of 3/4 of my clothing patterns when I got PMB, because I knew how to make them with PMB and I didn't need to use a commercial pattern that didn't fit and get it to fit any more.

Yes, that's the same pattern I'm working on. (Actually, it's comforting to know that we're not the only ones who have had to do a ton of fitting to make it fit right.)

I talked her into

perfectly -- only

That sounds wonderful, but I didn't see anything in the C&S that looked like it might work for me, unless it would be the "Custom Casual Blouses" (the blouse with the jewel neckline?). It's hard to tell, for sure, from their drawings, though.

Well, between me and DD, we'd definitely need more than one style of dress pattern. And we'll want blouses/shirts too. I can see where PMB might be just the ticket. But it'll have to wait for a while longer.

Karen C./KY