Entries tagged with pattern drafting

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: The Invincible Spirit - Push! (Live at Electropolis)

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Bodice pattern done.

I made a pattern for the dirndl bodice, at long last, but I can't decide how to solve the front closure issue - buy one of those regular, wimpy busks to put in it, since the heavy-duty ones I generally use for corsets are definitely overkill for this project, or hook-and-eye tape, rely on an actual, functioning button closure, or simply skip the front closure altogether? Having to pull anything corset-like over your head is a pain in the ass, for several reasons, but what with the low-cut front and buttoned shoulder straps on this one it would work, if not as well as a front busk. It feels like a very lazy solution, but I decided that I'm going to have the side panels overlapping the center front panel instead of the other way around, like I first planned, and that complicates things a little. A couple of extra layers of fabric will be needed if I'm putting in a busk, and a lot of extra work.

I'm not sure I have enough of the grey leather for the entire thing, but I was lucky enough to find a matching fabric that I can use for the underarm panels if necessary. I had a look at the local leather shop a few weeks ago, and they had nothing that was even close to the right shade of grey, so it was a relief to find a nice fabric - it's a stiff cotton with a woven stripe, quite similar to that black cotton I used for the Red Cross button corset. One side is a silvery medium grey, the other side is more of a dark taupe, slightly darker than the leather but otherwise quite close in colour, with the same brown undertones. I have enough of it for a skirt, too.

The hat issue is still bothering me as well. I have looked at hundreds of dirndl, tracht and landhausmode pictures without coming up with anything good, and just hair is boring. Any input is appreciated.

Current Mood: exhausted

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Gloves.

The first attempt came out quite well, I think. Obviously, this is all just basted together, and obviously I need to make some adjustments - the index finger is too tight, which I counted on, but I didn't think of the fact that it and the pinky would only have the extra fourchette width on one side, and would have to be adjusted to make up for that, until after I had cut out the pieces. As it turned out, it wasn't that much too tight, and the pinky is just fine; the other two fingers could do with having some width taken our of the fourchettes, they are verging on too loose.

The thumb needs some adjustments, too; the base of it is a bit too large and wide, it's also a little too long and too tight - but now I do get how this way of cutting the thumb area works out, and I can make the gusset that goes up the thumb along the web longer to give some extra width there, and make the thumb itself a better shape. I also made the curved cut where the pointy gusset bits fit deeper as I went along, to make the thumb fit into the cutout. Some of the extra width in the thumb is rather messily eased into the seam, though; doesn't look good.

The fabric used is a thin, close-knit jersey, a cotton mix, I think; it's soft and drapey but not as stretchy as some looser jerseys can be.

All in all, though, I'm pleased. Even with the fit issues this mock-up has, it still fits better than any other glove I've ever worn, and it all worked out much better and much easier than I expected. Fun!

Current Mood: productive

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Gloves?

I'm anal about a certain kind of details. This is a bit of a handicap sometimes - I got a pair of those H&M/Tretorn rubber boots earlier this week, to survive the very surprising, not to say shocking arrival of winter weather here in Stockholm, Sweden; totally didn't see that one coming. Since then I've been pondering whether I can really live with pairing shiny black rubber boots with leather bag and gloves, or not. I definitely can't wear anything patent, vinyl or pvc with leather; but I think I'll have to let rubber slide, because rubber gloves wouldn't keep my hands warm, and where the hell would I find a rubber handbag? - ok, I do know where; but I still really need to keep my hands warm and protected. And all my patent bags are of the tiny evening variety, the kind that doesn't even have enough room for a wallet stuffed full of... stuff.

(Maybe fabric or knit gloves and a rubber purse would work? Hmh!)

Anyway, details.

On to the actual subject of this post: I've been wanting some nice evening gloves to go with a few outfits, and I'm not excited about the gloves that are available in local stores - they're nasty, shiny polyester satin, nasty, glittery matte polyester satin, or just wrong in some other way; too much detail, bad fit, bad material or too expensive for my limited budget.

So I started researching how to make glove patterns a while back, found some excellent resources and now I'm good to go; I started sketching a pattern off of my own hand earlier today, with what I remembered of the instructions (didn't have access to them at work) and by looking at how my own leather gloves are constructed. The real trouble, for me, turned out to be the hole for the thumb; I couldn't quite figure out how it's cut in my gloves. I think it's something like this, but I am honestly not sure, and I can't quite wrap my mind around it; I realize that all those little pointy bits and strange shapes are there to create shape and width over the fleshy, muscular part at the base of the thumb, but exactly how it all comes together is still eluding me.

I'll try this out tomorrow, and see how it works. Hopefully, it will explain itself when I put the pieces together. If it doesn't, and if I can't get it right, I'll probably fall back on this way of constructing the thumb instead - that one I do get, at least.

Once I have a working pattern, all my short-sleeved wiggle dresses will get matching gloves in the same fabric, with long rows of buttons all the way up above the elbows - oh, yes they will!