In line with the massive tidying of my digital collection of inspiration, I’m dealing with my stack of printed works that are a bit.. much. I’m doing this so I can get both my Kunstlischbuch and Modular Frock systems back online. I took down my free patterns to make them over into a seamless series. I got kicked out of a group for sharing my very free work as apparently you can’t self promote. I have had my patterns uplifted before so the huge watermark was to at least limit that to someone who has the patience to digitally trace 😉
Anyway.
I spent the time in hospital writing instructions that work for both, as it’s about how to manipulate fabric. So it works for each era by pointing to the style and where more tension is needed etc.
But I’m also making a statement about how patterns systems fail people not the other way around. If you have ever used a dressmaking/tailoring book you would be lucky to find any stating that drafting is limited and so alterations are always needed. No matter your size or shape. Fabric just is not paper, and human bodies are not footless handless rigid mannequins.
This is more pronounced the more fitted a garment is as your fabric starts acting as support even over a supportive layer. You can see this effect in photographs of people from the 19thC. The outer layer isn’t fully supportive but you need tension as body heat does work through underlayers to outer to make them a little looser shortly after putting them on.
But I’m having trouble as I did not buy enough folders so I might have to use an enormous folder for all the drafting systems I have. They are separate to extant garment patterns. But it means putting a few hundred pages into protective sheets. Okay. I will. It’s for my own pattern book after all.
Oh and this brings me back to my personal patterns.
I am redrawing these in a graphics program so that I can share them. My hand drawn 1/10 patterns just don’t look great once you scan them and make them zoomable.
And I am very excited for my 19thC Modular Frock for bodices as my digital and physical collection of drafting systems show exactly what I see in photos. People who can afford to keep up with fashion every year tend to also have access to dressmakers who can afford the latest patterning systems. Those who cannot afford new clothes each year tend to be able to afford local dressmakers who don’t seem to be able to afford the very latest systems. And there is a definite market for reprinted patterns up to a decade after the height of fashion for the specific cut and fit.
So my collections of systems include patents to really help anchor these changes.