Lessons
Instructor & Class Overview
06:04 2Materials & Tools
15:37 3The Sylvie Dress - PDF Pattern overview
06:04 4Choosing Your Size
07:52 5Cutting out the Fabric
06:22 6Interfacing the Waistband
05:39 7Stay Stitching the Bodice
06:35 8Creating Darts
18:34Sewing the Bodice
11:22 10Adding the Waistband - View A
31:41 11How to Make Piping
07:15 12Sewing the Piping to the Waistband
05:32 13Adding the Waistband - View B
06:09 14Sewing the Pockets
17:33 15Sewing Skirt View A
31:59 16Sewing Skirt View B
12:24 17Adding the Invisible Zipper
29:10 18Making Your Own Binding
03:46 19Applying the Neck Binding
23:14 20Applying the Armhole Binding
11:41 21Hemming the Skirt
06:04 22Modeling the Skirt
01:57Lesson Info
Choosing Your Size
Once you have all of the elements pulled together you've chosen your fabric you've put together your pdf pattern the next thing we need to do is figure out what size to make I always like to remind my students that nobody fits the size right out of the envelope everybody has pattern changes they need to make and nobody's body is just what you want to say perfect so we're just going to let that go right from the beginning numbers air just data it's not a judgment there's no you know ego or baggage placed with it right it's just a number so we're going to let all those hang ups that maybe we've been carrying with us since junior high out the window from the beginning that's always the first thing to remind yourself so once we have a nice calm mindset and no judgment place on ourselves we're going to take the tape measure and collect that data that we need to figure out what size to make first thing we're going to do is of course good or take measure I'm going to take some key measurement...
s on our body we're going to take our bust measurement of course you want to take that with the tape measure level across your back first off I would mention that you want to do this with this little clothes on it's possible but supportive undergarments so maybe put on just your broad your underwear it's also helpful to have someone help you so someone that you're comfortable with in your brown underwear, of course, so we're going to take our bus measurement it's going to be straight across the face fullest point of your bust, that's going to be your bust measurement? We also want to take your high bust, and that might not be something that you're used to taking, but that's actually going to ride above the bust and it's going to be more or less under your armpits and above your actual bus. So that's going to tell us the difference between ah high bust and our full bus and that's going to inform us on whether or not we need to do a full bus adjustment or a small bust adjust moment. We also want to take our waist measurement. The way to find your natural ways is actually toe then to the side. A lot of people think their waist measurement is a lot lower than it really is, and that's, because we've been wearing jeans or pants really low on our hips, but our natural ways, there's actually a lot higher than most people think. This dress sits, as you can see on me up on your natural waste, so we want this seem right here where the gathering or the skirt attach is to actually be at the natural waste. So if I'd been to the side and I crease, you can see that my skirt is attached right at where my natural waste is that's where my crease is happening and that's where I want to wrap around to take my waist measurement right at that point after we take our waist measurement, we want to take our hip measurement. Most pattern makers designed the hip measurement on the pattern to be eight inches below the natural ways, so if you're ever unsure how far down to drop it's going to be give or take about eighteen inches depending on the pattern design but that's a really good ballpark as to where you know that they have taken that measurement, you want to make sure that you're at the fullest part of your hip, which is probably at that eight inch mark and you really wanted to be snug but not too tight, especially at the waist I want to take it so that it's snug in tight, but that is not actually cutting off any circulation, but do keep in mind that I'm taking my body measurement, not what I want the dress to be or not what mike our current garment is this is why it's a really good idea to do it with his little clothes on it's possible because I really want to take an accurate measurement of what my real body measurement numbers are once I have all of those numbers, I'm going to use those and reference them against the size charge there two charts on the pattern we have our body measurements and are finished garment measurements so we have here at the very top body measurements these are the measurements that you just took. So what is your actual body? You're probably not going to fall all into one size that's totally fine. Some patterns are going to be a lot easier to make those adjustments and some are going to be a little bit harder this one is actually quite simple to go from size two size which is called blending sizes we also wanted then look at our finished garment measurements which is down here and those are going to be a different number than our body measurements. What the difference in between those is called ese so the ease of a garment varies depending on the style of the garment and what it's made out of. So this is a woven dress that I'm wearing so it's gonna have positive ease that ease in the skirt is a lot. So the ease in the skirt which is the distance between my body and the garment there's quite a lot of these here right? This is a full skirt but the ease and the waistband is not very great it should be fit in but it shouldn't be like super super skin tight sausage, right? I want to be able to breathe, maybe have a drink, maybe eat a pizza I want to still be ableto wearing my dress now ease is definitely a personal choice. I have some friends who like really tight clothes that's fine, but that might not be was built into the pattern you might need actually size down because you like it to be more fitted than the designer designed it to be and mitt garments now we're not working with a net, but if you are working with the nit garment it's really important to understand that a lot of net garments have negative ese meaning like if I stretch a t shirt and put it on, that t shirt starts at a smaller size than my body, so that is really can vary a lot depending on the style, the fabric that you're working with and what you're made game. Once you've decided what size you belong in, you want to make sure that you're making any pattern changes to a muslim. I cannot stress enough the importance of making a muslin and maybe you don't know what a muslim is muslim actually refers to the fabric this is actually muslin fabric it's, a cotton it's a little bit stiff and it's usually unbleached like this or bleach, which would make it white so muslim is not only an actual fabric, but it's also in view, a word used to reference a type of thing that you're making. So this is my muslin for the sylvie dress, so I actually made my muslin out of muslim, but you could make a muslin out of any fabric that makes sense, so you want to just make sure you use some sort of inexpensive fabric? I prefer to use muslim because I often like to make marks on it. So if I market this with a sharpie, I could tell I don't even care what color zipper goes in it it's really? Just to check the fit, and if you find that you need to make some pattern changes, there are a handful of them that are on my block, ready for you to access. So you, khun, make all of those pattern changes for yourself on my block, which is city stitching dot com you'll find a full bust adjustment, a small bust adjustment, how to shorten and lengthen the bodice and how to blend between sizes for the silver dress pattern. Once we've made all of those changes, we made our muslim fits perfect. Now we can go and cut our precious fabric, of course, we want to pre wash our fabric that a super super important as well. Because we want to make sure that it's been treated in the way that we intend to care for it later. And that will equal success. In the end, it won't shrink afterwards. We've made all our pattern changes. And it fits us perfectly.
Class Materials
Bonus with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Esther Gonzalez
Great lessons, very detailed and explained clearly. Patterns are easy to work with. Highly recommend it to anyone who loves sewing or is even new to sewing because it won't leave you confused
Maureen Nevers
I loved Christine's clear, pleasant style of instruction. Unfortunately I had to stop watching 1/2 way through - is there really a dog barking in the background through the whole video recording?! Even if I could tune it out (it was pretty faint mostly), my 2 cocker spaniels were not fooled! Perhaps I'll try to resume watching with headphones ... Wish that had been addressed at the time of recording or editing, though 😐