Lessons

Lesson Info

Working with a Non-Palmer/Pletsch Pattern

What we wanted to do is show you how to use a pattern that doesn't have the magic lines yes it's easier if the lines of there but if you don't have the lines, you want to be able to still alter a pattern so we have a pattern pin together just as our other patterns, but it is a vote pattern, so it doesn't have the power fletch lines and we're going to fit this on nancy again we're looking at the back first and this pattern has a yoke with a lower back section so it's a two piece back it looks like we still need to do the high round five eighths of an inch marta, can you explain what a yolk is? Okay? Ah yolk is a separate part that usually covers the shoulder sometimes there's a yoke that comes over the shoulder and its heart of it's on the front. This particularly oath is at the shoulder seems so the front is its own piece and it's just coming to the higher area of the back not the broad back area but higher and sometimes I can do the yolk and it comes the center back and we just need t...

o add to the lower back section to give a little more fullness across and I think we'll add a five eighths of an inch to the back but not to the yoke section but do the high round on the back if we turn to the front is your arm this's a to nick and you can see this drag line here saying I wish I was a dart really shows on this particular pattern and the center front is not at the center front we need to add an inch and a half on this pattern this is probably a little looser this one come small, medium and large and a member of pattern that small, medium and large is really only every other pattern size it is the size eighteen which we're using for nancy but oftentimes those styles are a little have a little more ease in them and this's the apex that's marked on the pattern and that's the correct level for nancy however to use that as our point for the dark it's too close to the front so if I bring the center front of the pattern to nancy center front I need to move the apex over about an inch so that's what I'm going to do I'm gonna move the physician of the apex that's marked on the pattern like I said the level was correct but the distance from the center front was wrong if I went with this I'm opening up a huge dart so by moving the apex over the dart won't be so long does that make sense would literally be too much of a dark okay now do these alterations this particular pattern has a front band that take sticking together, adds to the front with and add some detail. So whatever length things we add, we have to remember to add to the front band. Yeah, okay, so when the lines excuse me aren't drawn on the pattern we need to add them and we've been doing that with the high round on some of the patterns we've worked with, so you've already seen that done generally when? Because this is a real common problem for me. I have a broad back and I have to do this alteration all the time generally what I do when I have a lower section that has a pleat in it like this has a pleat I just simply lay my center back a half inch away from the fold on the fabric and I don't add any tissue but it's a habit for me, it's what I do if you don't have that habit, it's probably a good idea to draw a line and do the alteration. So what I'm gonna do is draw a line right to the middle of the pleat because we're going to just make the pleat deeper no, those in the audience who might be teachers and you decide you want to use a permanent marker like the red pen that marge issues things so your students conceived things better um nancy gave us a really good tip. I was getting the permanent marker all over my nice rulers, and I said, hey, marty used this uses old rulers, I brought an old rulers that all the lines were almost rubbed off of it, and nancy says, uh, you khun get permanent marker off of the plastic rulers, and I said, really? I didn't think so because they're permanent markers, so she went got some rubbing alcohol, doused a paper towel with it, and it wiped all of the permanent markers off my rule. And as a teacher, that was a wonderful thing because the rulers air expensive, a nice I don't want to be all marked up, it took us quite a bit longer to get it off the edge. This rule because it was so many layers uh, and now it's got it on again, but we'll take care of that when we get home. Amazing what you learn from other people. I like lots of room in my back and often times I only need a half of an inch, but I add an inch, so I have a nice I just add a please instead of having one please, I have to please because I like, I'm I like to move now, in this particular case, the pleats we'll just be deeper. Okay gathers to little please that's when you can have complete here you can have the pleat here you could do a box played at the center back it doesn't matter how it's yours do it the way you want and now the high round on the yoke if you have a yoke pattern piece that's one whole piece you do the alteration pretty much the same way we've been showing you it's just has a couple other steps in it and I really do prefer that kind of a yoke pattern piece because I like to cut two yolks and that way I could just cut to at the same time this case we have to move it I'm anchoring the bottom of the pattern I'm gonna draw my line for those who are in your sores when marty says two yolks when is the yolk that you see on the outside and the other one is the facing are lining that goes on inside and sort of tidies everything up across the shoulders thinks not eating the inside. Yes so I drew the line pretty much along the neckline of the pattern just down a teeny bit so I don't cut into the clips we made at the neck and I'm going to lift five eighths of an inch do high around it also moves the shoulder seen at the neckline into the correct position because if you need everything to be up a little higher it just needs to come forward a little bit which is probably what helps keep it on your you know on your body and not have the shirts go to the back that's why you have to do high round before you do any other shoulder adjustments or even full bus because you need to get it up there where it's going to be but you don't and you did the front first your darts wouldn't feel right now I have the high round adjustments the broad back adjustment that we've been doing on nancy you can't pin that together while you're doing the best in the air again shame on me it's just a short scene should be okay so in this case I'm going to move the apex over about an inch so that would be the point we're drawing too and I think I'm gonna just use the pencil so don't have the ink issue put the pattern on grain because I like straight lines draw a line this's line one we just have to draw the lines all the time but when the mccall's drew the lines for us it just made it so much easier so we go from the apex point to the arm hole about a third of the way approximately where the notch is not quite that general area so that's line one line to goes to the apex from the side where an under armed art would normally be can I make a comment here? Marta sorry to interrupt you if you have to add like three inches make this line somewhat slanted because it's gonna come down and if you did three inches and the line was straight across your dart would be pointing down line three I usually do where they have the lengthening in shorting line on the pattern and I like it when it's a little close double line like this because it allows me to matched up better so I'm going to cut on line one and swing at cnn you can you can see how this is lowering as patty was talking about if you do a full bust adjustment like three inches see what happens and that we have done full bust adjustments that far and cut online to make it even you all look so so serious. So this opening that we have is a new dark so we've added a dart to a pattern that didn't have a dart this is why I like the double line because I have a line on the tissue and I have a line there and I can bring it so it matches the line that's this place on the tissue you know there is a waste marking on this pattern just like most patterns it's often a circle with an x in the middle if the garment is straight like this one it really doesn't matter whether it's at your waist or not that's very different than the bodice that we fit on kanna and the rest of you too uh then you need to get the waist at your waist but here it's not to make that much difference because this is just no totally straight cut yeah if you had a pocket placement line you've either lengthen from the waist if you were long waisted or you could just move the pocket placement lines down which is what I would usually do so it's the same alterations we've just had the ad there fines and that really doesn't take that long so kenai you've seen the full bust adjustment a number of times now but you hadn't actually done it yourself before right could you do it now with your eyes closed e I wouldn't want to try with my eyes closed but uh yeah I mean I feel like it's starting to make sense specially in terms of what you're doing from a flat pattern to a three d body when you knew the repetition is really good yes and then but even better than that is doing it yourself but we haven't had you do that yet I know like come on tried way should it just how to do this I just jump it just go do it yeah I feel like I would be much more comfortable trying something like that now having seen it multiple times and and seen it work on different shapes in different people, which is really good so you said to me earlier that you're working on a play or a performance right now last night you had a rehearsal or something we had a performance last night but I did not build the costumes for that one, so I'm not responsible for sewing this time around, but I have in the past and probably will in the future. So what were you doing on this one? I was just performing in it were dancing uh mostly fighting fighting yeah it's it's a combat heavy play so oh yeah lots of lots of statesrights so you're dancing training has helped without it with very much yeah, you know it all comes together anybody else want to say anything while marty's finishing this? You're on the spot right? You don't have you don't have to say anything I just have a question about if you don't have that little circle that marks the apex um how do you mark the pics? That's a good question ah lot of independent pattern's those are people who design their own line of patterns and sell them because they like different looks and what they can find in the pattern books don't mark the bus level and so you're kind of on your own but there are a couple things you can use as a guideline if you know that you're going to be doing a say a one inch full bust adjustment the dart is going to lower and you actually draw the apex higher and what I know is going to happen on this one is because the pattern apex was her apex before the alteration level love it but now the dart has lowered an inch and a half so the darts now going to be in the wrong place then that's what happens before I take this off I want to bring the dart lines together and cut the dark leg here way talked about that the other day so what I would do if I didn't have an apex marked you have put the pattern on and mark the apex this is the apex level market an inch high so could drop an inch but you need to market from the center front remember this has that band on it so this is not the actual center front butt front center front to the apex distance from the center front and this one sort of might as well have not had the apex marking on it because visually martin I could tell that this is too close to the center front for most people so what marty did on nancy would be the same thing you do if there was no apex marketing and I find that for the most part, most women are about eight inches apart nancy's about nine inches, so for four and a half from center front apex apex this apex is about five inches apart that would be perfect for kima. Some people are closer yeah, and so that there's no there's, no rule and I know everybody wants rules because rules are nice, but we like to think of it as guidelines because everybody is different and some of the independent pattern people say this pattern fit everyone that only works if we're clones and we're not, so you can't have a pattern and just fits everyone. You have to make it yours, pin this dart and in the front to the back and put it back on. So what I'm using for the dart legs are the two cut edges, the patterns that don't have a horizontal bus start can end up with one if you need a full bus adjustment, meditate right here and I'm just going to pin on that those dart legs and then we'll decide if this is the dark we want or if you want to move it band since the center front is on the band putting the band on, I don't want to forget that reminds me that I need to add the length to the ban that I put here because by putting the band on it, didn't it you notice that calls tissue has changed a little bit it's got a little bit of shiny coating on back and many years ago susan fletch and I went into give a fit seminar to the whole entire technical staff of mccall's in new york and it was all about tissue fitting because by then we were and afterwards the vp of designs got up we were just going to next month go to a cheaper lighter weight tissue we won't now then they have changed it sense them a little bit but it's still pretty strong and tissue is strong I mean it's not as your tape the stress areas we've seen tissue over the years that you touch it it dissolves almost but mccall's is very and they only have bogan buttery and quick so also and they're very conscious that we're teaching tissue feeding more and more people are doing it and they have to be careful about quality of the paper you know cutting expenses sometimes that with the first thing to go but do you know we'll see okay back looks good front comes to the center front but the dart is down here now decided that a good thing it's actually not too far off because it's no things right here but I would probably do is just re angle the dart so it comes up there would be the end of the dark that looks like a good point here. Yeah the further back dart is sown the lower sort of points you get to keep that in mind if you're gonna put it here and then sew it further it's gonna be too high so keep that in mind the distance of the dark from the point so I'm gonna show you how to re angle the dark. A slanted dart is actually more flattering than a straight dark the only time I do a straight dart because I'm picky about funky things is if I have a stripe or check I want the dark to be chevron so I make the dark straight sometimes the dart on a pattern the waistline dart is angled and that's okay as long as it's not a plaid or a check or a stripe and then I change that our position for the same reason. So again, it's ok to change those things. So if I re angle, I'm using the same leg death, so I'm pinning the same point but pinning to that new apex point and then what happens is because this line this edge is longer than this edge I I'm short on tissue on the back side here, no, to feel that and in order to have the same come together if it's angled a lot, it'll happen more, but angle dart just is more flattering than a straight one and that you can actually angle a dart from here that's called a french dark you can transfer the dart in different places depending on what you like for fashion for a while they were doing darts coming from the arm hole so that's a place to put the dart as well you put the dark fromthe shoulder you can turn it into gathers from the shoulder so you can move the dark too have your own fashion style in a pattern and that's why it's kind of fun to have a real simple pattern to work with because you could make it more interesting by how you do the darts and there's even this start is about four inches deep altogether so even if I've seen it in ready to wear where they do more than one dart to divide so it's not a a big dart it's a smaller dart and pity make two darts instead so all sorts of things can happen when you have a pattern to get to be creative with are you going to show this way back tuck lines where you place those just above the waist that would be a good idea just has this way back well even if he doesn't we sold a show would you please have a suede bag? Well, you are very straight in the back a lot of times people there straight it hangs a little longer in the back it's hanging so great you know what does he created great yeah we'll pretend just pin it and don't take it in I think nancy's gonna take this home and so it gets great pattern it's interesting you just can't second guess everything you know nancy because she is very very straight from here down and a little hollow here in the flat derriere usually you take a sway backed up for that and she said she does normally but again what do we say? What you I only sway back about that at the time on me uh huh. So it's not an always thing yeah so you have to try the pattern on and let it tell you I think kind of two this's a pretty straight pattern on the back it's not really shaped like with that right princess seems you have to sort of shaped panels creates a longer scene, right? Right. Good point. So the sway back wines are generally above the waist and if you're pinching a half of an inch you would draw a sway back line an inch apart so here, whatever you pinch just double it and then you draw two no easier for you to see in a center. Those two lines I drew over a line and draw from two sides seem basically drawing a big triangle because it tux out to nothing so you're gonna fold on one line increase and bring it to the other line so it's a tuck at the center back tapering out to nothing at the side scene and if you have a pattern that has a two piece back like the princess shirt, then you would take that through both pattern pieces so there's a sway back tuck and if it's cut on the fold of the center back where you take the tough will not touch the fold that's okay, as little extra with but you really went top at the back on the bottom of the apt to be on the fold if the other doesn't touch. Okay, so it looks like this there's the straight line that's where that's the fold line grid mark so I'm on the grid here I'm on the grid here, but this way back kind of bends in its centre back, but it's ok doesn't hurt a thing doesn't do anything wrong. What it does is correct the back length so it's a good thing and one of the things they do want teo had about mccall's they've been amazing and working with us over the years on the alteration lines, I remember the first pattern that they ever actually did the alteration lines on, they had the alteration lines on the facing, the back neck facing they had swayed back lines on the lining pattern piece they just made sure that all the pieces recovered so that everything would match when you're done and you would have to do the same thing on this folk pattern if it had a lining, you'd do the same adjustments on the line that facing she did the same adjustment so don't forget that I'm going to lengthen this other piece right here so I don't forget if you want to end up with a short man, nancy would figure it out and you remember that if you need a reference point that you can use your alteration sheets a cz your reference points um the other one here find skirt one but um the lines are all drawn here, and if you just sort of follow these, that will help you remember what to do to a non palma pledge pattern and you all have that and also don't forget again the fitting order I sound like a broken record I know, but it's really helpful you'll be much less confused keep it out keep the guide cheat out keep your pattern pieces out until you're finished with the garment then you clean your sewing room altered and ready to go thank you all right, well, fantastic now we know how to work with patterns that do not start with the palmer pledge lines as well as if they don't have the lines for the darts too so, coming up in our next lesson, we are going to learn what to do when you don't have your fitting buddy right next to you. And you want to fit yourself using a mirror. So we look forward to that.