JAA Week 3: The Pattern

Scaling Up the Pattern

With the majority of the undergarments done, I can now move on to finishing the pattern, ready to make up the toile before I go and visit the dress again.

Thankfully, during the preparation stage of this project (over the Summer) I have already drawn up some of the pattern. For the competition, the garment has to be recreated to its original dimensions, which means scaling up Janet Arnolds given patterns to their full size.

To do this I have purchased some inch dot and cross paper and it is simply a case of counting the squares and using my eye to freehand the shapes across the paper, making sure the pieces look correct.

The dress has a centre front split from the hips to the collar (no CF fold), a large side friont with two long darts and a fish dart, a side back and a half split, half folded centre back with box pleats and bustle. There are also two part sleeves, a collar and large pleated decorative panels to add around the hem and finally, a train graduating from the side back to the centre back.

I quite enjoyed the challenge of scaling up the pattern, it is nice to finally get a feel for the real proportion and length of the pieces and also to be able to judge with better accuracy, just how much fabric I am going to require.

The patterns have been drafted minus any seam allowance, and at the end of this week/ next week when I construct the toile I will be giving one inch seam allowance and transferring the pattern to the toile fabric using a tracing wheel and transfer paper.

I will also be copying all the pattern pieces again to use for cutting out so I will be able to keep a master copy of all the pieces as there will inevitably be some discrepancies in the pattern that will need to be adjusted once the toile has been sewn together and recorded and changed on the master pattern.

I have only included one picture of the scaled up side front of the dress, as the patterns are hard to photograph clearly.