Pattern Drafting Wonderland

Well, I've made a commitment. A commitment to work on my pattern drafting for at least the next six months. That doesn't mean I won't keep using Ottobre magazines nor Patrones.  It just mean I want to hone my skills and wear the sort of clothes or styles that are essentially me.

I'm tired of buying patterns, usually, they don't fit and I have to adjust anyway.  The sleeves in patterns are usually too short and so is the neck to waist measurement. So, I always have to adjust anyway.  My, I'm making my body shape sound like I'm a monkey!

I use a pattern drafting system called SitamAB. A number of years ago I did some study in pattern drafting.  Getting back to it is hard.  I tend to use a mix of this system and knowledge from traditional pattern drafting.  It's going to take me a while to get the hang of things again.

I have been wanting to make a shirt for a while.  I guess I was inspired again by the final episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. In this episode contestants made a men's fitted shirt. I obviously wanted a women's fitted shirt with a sleeve placket done in the same way as this episode, and french cuffs on the sleeves to accommodate cuff links.

Cuff links on a women's shirt? You'd want cuff links to if you had bought these vintage cuff links:

So, I really liked the way a placket is done on a men's shirt.  I'd never done this before.  Good old Google found me the perfect set of instructions at http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/25307/how-to-make-a-precision-placket/page/all  the first placket took a while, but, oh, the second sleeve placket came together so, so much more easily.

Here's the first placket:

Eat your heart out The Great British Sewing Bee, actually thank you, for being an inspiration.

Google, Google you are a sewists dream come true, we are able to ask questions and get answers to our many questions; we are able to tap into other people's experiences.  What a grand time to be sewing.

Here is my toile, yes, I know it's not in calico.  My first one was, and I was about to do it in calico again after I'd made some adjustments; but, in the corner of my room lurked a piece of cotton twill I'd destashed and decided "what the heck, if I mucked it up, too bad and if it worked - bonus!"

So, here's the toile, I do need to make some minor adjustments to the pattern, but I am happy with it:

Now to make another...

What have you been challenging yourself with?

Happy sewing.

Sandra