Pre-Umlauted Codex

So Paris got out of jail free, but then someone must have found out she had a bogus card and they sent her on a return trip. Why am I even noticing this? Maybe because it is on all the real news channels, not just "E". I don't care, but I do have to say I am glad I am not on the road in LA these days with all these underage Mercedes drivers holding their wee dogs and snorting coke while driving and texting.

So today I am going to talk about patterns. I used a 20 year old Calvin Klein tee shirt pattern for the two tops I finished the other day. Granted I had to recut it to the larger dimensions, but it worked out fine. Patterns don't go out of style- you can simply change details, fabrics, trim and length to suit. Matter of fact I am going to transfer that pattern to muslin so it lasts another 2 decades, I know I can use it as reliable stand by.

Today I found a site where you can download a pdf pattern you like and then tape it all together after you print it up. I tried with a blouse pattern and think it is brilliant. Downloadable Clothes Patterns. I do hope the women who are doing this website add a few additional patterns because I will certainly be checking back to see what I can get. The blouse, BTW, took 18 sheets of paper- I tore up a notebook so as not to waste the good stuff. I guess I should mention they feature Burda patterns, a line I never used when I was doing garment sewing.

Also found a great site for a checklist of how to draft a pattern, in this case, a skirt. Pattern Drafting Tutorial People who have sewn all their lives can always use a little refresher on the correct steps and troubleshooting, and this is it.

And the third step is making patterns from clothes you already have and love. There are two books at Amazon that explain all the steps in detail, and they are really helpful for this kind of sewing. Hmmm, didn't mean for the links to be dead, but you can check out the books by title if you are interested- I'll fix them tomorrow.



And I got my first call on the collages I am working on- Cousin Jack spoke up and identified another of the elderly ladies in the 'Bathing Beauty' photograph- it happened to be TY's paternal grandmother (shared with Cousin Jack!). Sorry I didn't know but I have seen very few pictures of her.