I've Got My Lemon Tulip Lingerie Pattern Printed Out At Staples

I thought it would be taking me at least another month or so to finally get around to having my lemon tulip pattern printed out but what do you know,  I called Staples up to find out if I could do this online and... Well I couldn't because their system isn't set up to handle two different file sizes (poster and double poster size) but I could load the files onto a disk and bring it in for them to do.

On March 20th I had the money to do a little something and turns out it cost $13 dollars for the whole pattern print out.  Next time I'll be a little more efficient in my layout,  but I couldn't tell which size I could use by Staples' online restrictions that turned out to be irrelevant anyway.  They do larger sizes for example.  And it was like 36 cent a page,  not bad.  Here they are:  just click on it to get a closer look.

So now all I have to do is cut it out,  cut the pattern out in fabric and sew it up and put it on my dressform, then there'll be a piece in my portfolio to show off,  well,  the first and only piece till I've got more to show.  That reminds me though,  I forgot I can add the garment photos from my other previous client,  from last year.  That'll be great.

The other great news is that I'm a little over half finished with my client's 10 look collection,  she loves my work and would like to work with me over the long term.  I don't think there's a bigger confidence booster than someone liking to work with you (and of course liking your work) so much that they want to continue.  Hehehe,  she's in New York too,  fashion hub of America,  how cool is that?

Okay well when anything new comes up or I get a breather from my work and family responsibilities I'll be posting again.  I just haven't been able to get around to it.   I've got article rewriting projects to take care of aside from my patterns and money has been really tight.  Despite this though,  I want to set a strong moral tone for my son and start a monthly donation project with him.  Ever heard of Plan Canada?  I love what they're doing,  you can pick out "gifts of hope" to have sent to someone over seas.  So what I did is told my son how the program works,  and had him pick out two gifts that we'll be sending to someone... that is,  as soon as I get my payment for the last pattern I did.... still waiting for that one,  it won't be long though.  Even if it goes into the beginning of April I'm considering it March's donation and will be sharing the notification on Facebook then I'm going to let him pick another gift for the end of April.  For March, he's picked out 3 chicks and a mango tree.  He's a pretty smart little guy.

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

Sewing Your Own Digital Pattern You Drafted, Printed And Cut Out

I cut my lemon tulip lingerie pattern out yesterday and looked it over,  going about the task of sewing it in my mind (yes I'm a little apprehensive,  I haven't sewn in a while,  about 2 years and don't know how well my machine is going to handle the work).   Aside from that though,  working with a pattern you've drafted yourself is an indispensable learning experience and this won't be the only time I do it.   I'm going to sew my own samples once I get started.

So what did I learn about patternmaking for this exercise so far?  Okay,  2 things at this time:  Take a look at the picture below of my pattern's sleeve pattern...

1.  Most of the cap on the finished sleeve to this to-be bias cut block is going to be gathered to hopefully create a bit of a "puff" to enhance the tulip shape.  So;  The area to be gathered should be marked from beginning to end,  and in this case with the top of the sleeve cap being notched on both sides of the sleeve overlap.  And oh oh,  I forgot the little arrows at the ends of my bias grainline.  And where are my annotations?   Ughhh,  well,  the patterns I did for my client have been getting a lot more professional since I did this one a while back,  so I won't get too mad at myself.

Next lesson:

Take a look at the original pattern this sleeve was drafted from.  Because the spread from the central underarm area isn't spread evenly (see the highest notch on either side nearest the center of the underarm),  with the difference in the degree of the spread between the front and back of the sleeve cap,  there will be an uneven ratio of fabric to gather.  One side is about 8" and need to be gathered to 4 1/8" and the other side is 5 inches and need to be gather to about 3".  Next time I'll know better.  So the rule is this,  make sure there's a uniform distance between each spread so your gathers will also be uniform.   I do think I read this before,  but now it's definitely crystallized...nothing like hands on you know.

Now,  I spent the morning preparing for my first portfolio piece.  I want to get everything right,  so I pulled out all my sewing books,  organized my sewing equipment,  dug up some old sewing machine needles,  cleaned my sewing machine,  pulled out my lovely fabric and ironed out all it's creases (see the photo below, I didn't buy this non-eco fabric, however,  it was given to me about 15 years ago and I never knew what to do with it till now) 

Photography tip here,  to take a beautiful shot of a piece of satin jacquard hang it off of something and put another light source on it to show off it's double textures and shine.

So,  now,  I'm going to take the little bit of fabric I took off the ends of this material and figure out which stitch length,  thread tension and thread size to use.   I'm thanking God that I won't have any top stitching to do because I don't have any yellow thread.  I'll have to use one of my white threads.  All the edging and hem work to do is going to be faced for a clean smooth edge.  I'm thinking about blind stitching the facing to the garment if necessary though.

Oh,  yeah,  I also have to cut out the pattern blocks.   I don't want to tailor tack the darts though as I don't want the fabric marred,  so I'm going to make a piece of graphite paper and trace the interior of the darts onto the fabric,  lightly though so it won't show up in the finished garment.

Also,  because I want everything to turn out perfect,  I'm making this an industrial sewing exercise,  I've got my books out and open to make sure:

-  all the seams are sewn in the right direction in orientation to fabric grain and garment block
- all seams are graded to the correct width
- everything will be pressed properly
- and all the right finishes are applied

This little project may take me a while to finish though as,  hey I'm scared,  but I love this project so much,   I got to do it,  but I want to do it totally right.

I'll be keeping you posted

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

The Patternmaker's Update: It's Been A Crazy Week

Okay,  so on our holiday weekend I'd planned to get my first portfolio piece completed,  I was raring to go and then I sat at the sewing machine to figure out stitch length and thread tension that would work for this beautiful but thin and slippery fabric I want to sew the lemon tulip lingerie pattern out of and...

The little rubber wheel that creates the traction necessary for new bobbin thread to be wound around a bobbin had melted into a gross black goo around the wheel it was supposed to be on.  And that wasn't all,  there was a piece of broken plastic from the socket that held the top thread spool,  so there was only one thing left to do. Open her up and see if I could fix the problem(s).  I'd found a crayon in the machine as well as the clip of marker top,  my daughter's doing for sure.

I've fixed a sewing machine I had before,  several times,  with success.   And I also repaired a scroll saw,  on my own,  again with success.  I took time and patients and all but I did it so I had no inhibitions about opening up this Brother sewing machine and seeing if I could get it up and running again.   Well after all was said and done, with an attempt to fit the wheel with a quintupled rubberband and then when I decided it wouldn't work because it was getting shredded,  I headed for the toy box in search of a little car.    Have you ever seen them? Little hard black rubber wheels,  they might have been just the thing I needed,  I did find one,  and I did fit 2 of the cars wheels on the bobbin mechanism,  but when I tried to run the machine, they too began to melt.  Yuck,  you know?   Okay,  so maybe the Brother company has the right wheel...I'll just have to email them,  I thought.

Then,  the needle bar somehow got misaligned too,  so that the needle completely missed the bobbin case.  No luck at all trying to figure that one out.  I did what I always do, compare adjacent pieces,  look for what looks like it's fitted wrong,  was there something sitting in the plastic case the wrong way?  Nothing made any sense.  Why did this time have to be a problem I couldn't fix?

WELL,  my husband came to my rescue and told me he'd get a new on for me on Monday,  which he did along with a new computer to replace this beat up HP laptop that's been giving me a hard time.   He's been watching me work on these computer patterns and get article projects done and realized I'm dead serious about what I'm into so he's offered his loving support and got me a beautiful new Singer sewing machine and a cool new Acer computer.

So I've been setting up the computer with all the programs and things I use to work and getting a new client's pattern completed (I actually just sent it off a few minutes ago).  It was my very first corset pattern for a designer in Saudi Arabia.  I hope they keep me on as a client.   It takes me a little longer to do work for a new client because I usually need to first prepare a brand new sloper for them from scratch,  they don't give me one.  I'm not sure why,  I guess they don't know about it.  I did hear that companies and designers are supposed to provide the patternmaker with the sloper in the size they want though.

Any while doing a bit of research this week also had me discover the reason behind the necessity of perfection in a patternmaker's work.   Thought it was just a pickiness thing?   Think again.  A person familiar with home sewing could easily make this mistake (I did for a while and I am a perfectionist) but the thing about homesewers,  as Kathleen Fasanella puts it, " homesewers expect too much from themselves"  they're highly skilled,  where as the people working in a factory are not and don't need to be.   This is why the pattern has to be perfect,  flawless without so much as a 1/32 of an inch mistake,  yes I'm not kidding you,  don't even allow yourself a 1/32 of an inch mistake.

Because,  the people working the factory sewing machines only have a small part of the garment to sew and they may not be aware how everything else is supposed to fit together they also won't know if something is a little off.  And the mistake will go from one person to the next,  no one knowing how to fix the problem, with chances being that the one mistake will cause additional mistakes and you'll end up with imperfect garments.   The horror.   And everyone will know it was your fault,  you are the one who made a mistake!

Any way,  how do you solve/prevent this problem all together, simple,  when you're working on the computer,  (God bless these things) set your nudge distance to 0.031 (this is the 1/32" I was talking about)  and work under a microscope,  in CorelDraw 9 for example,  this means zooming in till 1" is about 5" or 6" on the screen.  Make sure all your points,  lines and curves match up everywhere under this "microscope" and remind yourself that this attention to detail is what will set you apart from the rest.

And just for the sake of reference,  should any of you be using CorelDraw 9 to draft patterns,  like myself,  when you've powerclipped something into a 'container' to be able to cut it up into separate,  perfect panels,  make sure your cutting path ( this can be a straight or shaped line) isn't closed.  If it is a closed path for some reason the interior of this path gets rid of the pattern piece you're trying to slice through.

Okay,  so now I've got another dress pattern to do for my client in New York and I have to watch the dvd that came with the Singer sewing machine so I can start sewing with it fairly quick.  Maybe this weekend,  I'm hoping,  unless something else comes up.   But my deadline is either by the end of this month of April,  or at the very least the first week or two of May.

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

Patternmaking And Pattern Alteration On My Design

I sewed the scalloped neckline facing onto the bodice yesterday.  To all us sewing moms out there, who haven't done this sort of thing yet,  don't do it with a wiggly baby in your lap, it's not going to turn out the way you want it.  Big No No.  However,  here are a few "to do" notes, sew sharp curves very slowly,  think of machine stitching as taking one stitch at a time,  one stitch at a time,  stop and go,  stop and go.

The result will be a smoother stitching line,  greater symmetry.  I also lightly marked my stitching line this time to 'see' better what I was doing (See Below).  I also loosened up the pressure foot tension on my Singer sewing machine,  just wish it could have been lightened up even more,  as the fabric still wasn't as free to move as I would have liked (my make of machine only goes so far though).

I was thinking though,  this type of sewing is why it would be great to actually have a manual sewing machine still.

Once I did the fitting,  I realized it had too much ease,  here a few pictures to show it...

eeek!  too much ease in the pattern

I would need to distribute the ease take up evenly between the side seams,  front and back darts as well as between the bustline and midriff level so as not to through the pattern off balance.  So I took

3/8" from the side seams and 1/8" from each dart which is actually a total of 1" and 3/4" ease take up.  I'll have to take the changes to the midriff band as well.

Here are the results after I made the necessary pattern alterations...

pattern alterations made,  much better fit

Will have to adjust the armscye curves too... what to do about the bias cut sleeve pattern?   I didn't want to have a seam,  but I'll create 3/8" underarm seam without cutting it open.  I'll just clip it at the soft foldline and turn it inside out (as the  bias cut tulip sleeve was cut on a fold to prevent it from having a completely sewn sleeve hem).

If I had the money,  I would have made a muslin out of some organic cotton or something,  like I was supposed to,  totally you know?  But,  I didn't,  and I would also buy some additional fabric to make a new version because this light weight yellow damask fabric is so delicate.

I need proper pressing equipment too!

I was looking at a Calvin Klein collection afterwards though from back in 1991,  that was a good year,  miss those days, Check it out here from Fashion Channel on YouTube:

  

...and it had me thinking.   I may choose a simpler,  clean,  fitted cut for my next portfolio garment design.   After all is said and done, if a 'promotional' project is to ambitious before it has the proper backing (in either knowledge,  skill or finances) it can do more damage in a way, then the good. it will do.  But only in a way.

I've learned a lot though,  still on,  and it felt good to finally produce something from a pattern I drafted on the computer.  In the end,  it wasn't actually my computer drafting that was even the problem.  Everything was fine there,  I just didn't know how to draft that kind of pattern correctly (cropped midriff lingerie style garment)  and which finishing elements would work best for that kind of design.  That's why I'm going to be buying that lingerie book though, "Pattern Cutting for Lingerie, Beachwear and Leisurewear" by Ann Haggar.  I can't wait.

I really should have used a fine hand rolled hem along that scalloped edge,  I was just hoping to get a crisp clean edge with the faced hem,  next time I'll clip the hem allowance and roll it in place along a pre-sewn guideline.  That should work much better.  However,  I think I'd still like to use the facing approach with the neckline because I really like how it "stands" on the neckline,  see below...  I just love that.

So today,  I'm going to hopefully continue work on the skirt portion of this outfit,  that is if I'm able to get a little time.  I've got to take my kids out again to the park,  can't miss that,  especially not on a day like this.


If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

My Lemon Tulip Skirt Only Needs A Button Or Two Now

I just managed to finish my lemon tulip skirt portion of my portfolio piece today,  I had to blind slip stitch the waistband to the wrong side of the skirt and then tack the hen facing to the inside of the skirt edge with the same blind slip stitch.  I have to say,  after seeing how it looks,  I think I change my mind about wanting a fine hand rolled hem instead.  I really like the way this turned out.  Take a look below...

I love the way it curves gently outward from the waist then tapers to a narrow opening at the hemline...just like a tulip.  So lovely.  Now,  I remember hearing on Fashion File,  years ago,  they were talking about one of John Galliano Couture collections for Dior had such fine craftsmanship,  but that it was done with such a fine hand "...the clothes didn't look beat up".  I was afraid that once I tacked down the facing to the inside of the skirt that it be weighted down and look overworked instead of looking like...a tulip,  but it turned out great.   Thank God.

 I just have decide on what kind of closure type I'm going to use.  In a Threads Magazine article,  I read that any kind of closure on lingerie should act as additional embellishment and treated like jewelry.   Okay,  I've got to look for the right buttons then and make sure I've got 4 altogether,  two for the skirt and two for the bodice piece.

When I'm finished with this portfolio piece though,  I mean the entire look,  not just this skirt,  I'm going to put up another Patternmaking ad and include my portfolio link,  I think I'll redo the url for that thing too,  it's not great for Google pick up with the words it's using now.   I think I'm going to offer my old deal again too,  4 patterns at $35 EUR each get the 5th one free.

On another note now though,  I've put together a Pinterest board in dedication to my mom who has passed away.   I haven't been able to think about much else lately,  it troubles me that not enough people got to know just how wonderful and loving my mom was.  She had an extremely well rounded range of interests and concerns for many things,  the kind of things that mattered.   I miss her very much and wanted to share what I could about her character.  Here is the link to the Pinterest I made for her:   http://pinterest.com/ayisha1978/all-about-mom/ and the photo of her that I'm going to use as the cover.

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

What Buttons To Use On My Lemon Tulip Skirt And Other Considerations

Okay,  I'm faced with the decision of which buttons to use on my design.  I don't have that many and don't want to buy anything that isn't eco friendly.  So here are the following options I've got to choose from coming out of my old button can...

I love these buttons,  and there wouldn't actually be a decision to make if I had two more  smaller versions of these buttons,  but I only have two and one large crystal flower button.

I like these marble,  crystal buttons but they're a bit heavy for the fabric and don't quite suite the design or the fabric color.

These metal ball buttons are a little quirky for the design,  but there's something about the combination I like a lot,  can't quite put my finger on it

These buttons match and all,  but they don't add any character to the design and all though they're the right size and weight,  I don't care for them too much.

After all is said and done,  I think I'm going to actually finish the bodice portion of the lemon tulip look before I decide which buttons to use.

I've got to decide how I'm going to go about trimming down the ease for the bodice bands,  however,  and then transfer the changes to the digital pattern.  I'm going to make the digital changes later,  as for the actual fabric pieces with the interfacing sewn in and things,  hmm.  I don't actually want to cut into that.  If I sew a seam down the center I guess that could fix the problem but there'd be a bulk issue and a new seam.  Or,  I could figure the amount to take off the sides,  cut off the necessary amount,  while making sure to include seam allowance. That way I could preserve the center notch.  This means I'll be taking off 5/8" off each side seam of the bodice bands.

After that I'll have to stay stitch the double sided tulip sleeves after taking in 6/8" from the under arm seam I'll have to create.  If I sew this pattern up again,  it won't have that seam though.  I'll be putting in the gathering stitches too and prepare to sew the sleeves into a french seam.   Can't wait to see how the french seam is going to work with the double sided tulip sleeve.  I hope the shape and curve of the sleeve will turn out the way I wanted too.

As for the interior closures for the design,  I'm going to leave it to a couple pairs of hooks and eyes since they'll be out of sight.

Any comments and suggestions about the buttons I should use are welcome,  thanks.

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

Only A Bit More Work Left On My Lemon Tulip Lingerie Pattern

Okay,  I've been letting depression getting the better of me,  but today I was a bit more victorious, putting aside everything to do a few hours work on my lemon tulip lingerie pattern for my portfolio.   I reminded myself this morning that when you're depressed an important thing to do is just conquer you fear by doing one of the things you're afraid of.   JUST DO IT!  Like in the 80s,  remember those days?  

Any way,  I sewed the curved/petal ends of the sleeves,  clipped and pressed the seams,  then went to work on the bodice waistband,  adjusting the length to fit the bodice's alterations I did a few weeks ago.  Turns out,  I had made it about in inch longer than I intended even if the pattern didn't need alteration.  A new rule to remember popped into my head at that point...that I better use CurveCalc to measure and compare all edges that are supposed to be sewn together,  I don't know what happened,  I think that when I was drafting the bodice's darts I must not have taken the amount out of what was needed for it's waistband.

I ended up having to make the center back seam anyway though and clipping the remaining additional amount away from the ends.  Everything turned out great though,  the sewing was a lot better than it was on my skirt as well.  Practice makes perfect.  The other thing to though,  that's always been on my side,  is whenever I'm not satisfied with my work,  I mull over it in my mind about how I should have done it and I'll do this over and over.  It seems to add to the actual practice I put in.  So now all I have to do is slip stitch in the wrong side of the waistband,  gather and sew in the sleeves then put in the buttons.  Then I'll be done :) . Here's a picture of the piece so far...

the waistband only needs to be slip-stitched in now

As for the buttons I'm thinking now that I want to use those light weight steel foil ball buttons.  I'm not going to be sure though till the other sewing is all done.

Now about my patternmaking portfolio,  I'm still thinking about what kind of pieces to put it together with.  So I was checking out JoeysPatterns.com of Joey Johannson freelance pattern making service,  taking a look at the kinds of pieces she put in her online portfolio called "photos of work".  She's got photos of the Dresses,  Jackets, Tops,  Skirts and Pants she did patterns for as they were worn on the runway,  beautiful shots.  As for the designs themselves,  they're a combination of simple to more complex pieces that demonstrate her ability to make a well fitting garment regardless of how many style lines needed to be drafted into the pattern.  

She's not a nobody either, she's worked for the likes of Betsy Johnson, Rebecca Taylor, LAMB, Alice and Olivia and many other big name designers.   A good example to model my own portfolio from.  She also included the flat sketches with the jackets she did.   I want to include design illustrations with mine though,  I think it reveals an ability to interpret a design better than a more blueprint flat sketch would.  Not to criticize her choices though,  I love her site,  her work and her story,   very inspiring.  If you'd like to check it out here's the link: http://www.joeyspatterns.com/

As for my own portfolio pieces, I've got to design something that illustrates those kind of skills, but doesn't require me to purchase anything other than what I have already.  Soon as I'm done with this I'll have to do some brainstorming about it.   Hmm,  that's kind of exciting...

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

Only The Buttons Left To Do On My Lemon Tulip Pattern

Okay,  I've got to fess up,  this post is a week late as I did all this work last weekend and simply wasn't able to write a post for the life of me due to housework.   It's a shame,  but here are the photos of my finished look. My only complaints about the finished design,  is that I think I should have made the waist and midriff band half the width (I just had to say that),  I wish there was at least an extra 1/2" of ease in the waistband and the sleeves,  although every bit as beautiful as I wanted them to be,  should have been a bit shorter by at least 2".  I'll be sure to put in all these tweaks when I re-work the pattern.

Other than that,  there are only the buttons left to put in and those are going to be the metal ball buttons.  I still liked them after I had the garments sewn up,  they're a little quirky for the design,  I know,  but I like them,  it fits anyway.  I'm not so sure about the lingerie part though actually,  lol,  after watching a few Tinkerbell movies,  great 3D movies there,  I think my design is more of a fairy costume,  so funny.  I'll have to do some serious lingerie another time, Oh hold it,  I had an idea for a piece a few months back,  I should work it out for my portfolio...!  Awesome idea there.  I think I want to do my jacket design anyway though.  Now to decide which one I'm going to work on first.   

It might have to wait till next weekend though because I've got a pile of dishes sitting in the kitchen (note,  I didn't restrict it to 'sink'  eeeck!)  and unfortunately my article writing suffered this week so I've got to make that up too.

I've got another confession to make as well,  out of all the "how to" fashion books I've read,  pattern making,  sewing secrets,  couture sewing,  designer details,  pattern grading and even various book on the fashion industry but .... after all is said and done,  I realized last week that I've never actually read a book on Fashion Design.  Isn't that crazy?   I've got to get another book on pattern making,  either dealing with women's suites,  specialty patternmaking or patternmaking for lingerie,  but my next book purchase will have to also include a book on Fashion Design,  as in the design process that goes into collection development.  I've already got a list of books I'm going to be picking from.

I'll have to choose between a book that focuses on the process itself from the perspective of a fashion school professor or another that focuses on the history of fashion design and the process.  (I'm a sucker for history so this is a tough choice).   Soon as I get my web cam up and running, or get a real camera,  I'll start making book reviews of all the cool books I've been reading,  or rather have read on fashion and patternmaking.

Any way,  I didn't eat anything yet since early this morning either so I better get busy with my non-fashion work for now :(

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

Lemon Tulip Lingerie Pattern Completed ! What To Do Next...

Here it is,  my pattern is all done,  anotations,  pattern markings, seams and print ready layout:

Now before I did the layout of the blocks I looked for a print shop that could make me a print out of the finished pattern.   I settled on Staples,  you got to love that place,  however,  unlike the Staples printing services that offer affordable printing for custom oversized print outs,  Canadian Staples only offer print jobs that fit into poster sized layouts.   This being 24 by 36 inches and 22 by 79 inches.   Not bad but I would have liked having the US oversized Staples options available.  Oh well,  this will be good too.

I decided to make the front blocks pink and the back blocks green just so it would look pretty on my blog,  but if I was sending this out to a client,  I think I'd better stick with black.  It's more professional,  unless of course they like the color idea.

Now I have to find out how much it's going to cost to get this printed out for the prototype garment.  If it's a bit too pricey for me right now,  I guess I'll 'cut' the layout up in Adobe Photoshop and print the little letter size portions out on my HP and tape it all together.   I'll only do that though if I get too impatient and someone isn't ready to send any work my way in the coming week.   

This is so neat to be sewing up my own pattern.   I know that it's going to be a big learning/thrill experience that will help me gain some terrific insight into patternmaking.   However,  I've got my worries too,  such as

1.  how relaxed and puffy will the gathers in the skirt and tulip sleeves look?  I want it to look really floral,  not tired

2.  will the darts in the bodice allow the bodice to sit nicely on the bust area?

3.  how will the wide,  deep neckline sit on the shoulders and neck?  (I took care of the gaposis issue following Connie's advice in her book "Patternmaking Made Easy" but you never know right with one this large,  I'll learn through this experience)

4. how will the hem facing affect the hang and 'puff' of the tulip skirt?  I hope it won't be too heavy

5. how will the bias cut effect the hang and puff of the tulip sleeves?  Again,  I want them to look floral not droopy, at the same time though I didn't want to give it a normal hem and stitchy up the edge of these "flowers" so I took up Roberta Carr's suggestion in her book "Couture: The Art Of Fine Sewing"

6. I cut the side seams of the bodice band at an angle matching the angle of the bodice side seams and I'm wondering if it'll allow the bodice to sit right and look okay while gently anchoring the garment just below the bustline?

So I'm apprehensive,  excited and even a little scared,  but my curiosity of course has got the better of me which is a good thing.

Soon as I have the esemble complete I'll post it here on my blog,  but that may be awhile so the next several posts will mostly likely cover patternmaking issues/discoveries I make through working with my clients and so on.

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