So you think you can draft?

Posted on by Meris - The Fabric Alchemist

Look at me using a pop culture pun in my title! Can I join the ranks of the hip and clever bloggers? *smirk* I blame the heat (90 in Seattle!!) for this obvious lack in judgement. But that is my title and I am sticking to it.

Last night I tried something new. Well, two somethings really. I set out to draft a pattern for a corset (1) and I then I got the crazy idea to live-tweet it (2). There is so much potential in digital media beyond just posting photos of your meal on Facebook, but I admit I am struggling to find a consistent level of engagement.

Since you probably missed my unadvertised, late night live tweet “event” I have embedded the stream of consciousness below (with commentary):

I took the measurements on my own and in hindsight perhaps should not have been eating pita chips and hummus during the process. The tutorial is available from www.foundationsrevealed.com.

There was a great deal of erasing tonight.

This is one of those moments when a person can feel glad they paid attention in math class–geometry, fractions, and basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

The whole reason I am drafting a new corset pattern is because the corset I previously made, the pattern for which was drafted for me, does not reach low enough on my hips to match the corset worn by the video game character I am cosplaying as. But my attempts to draft a longer corset cause the curved edges of the corset to appear incorrect.

I pulled out my other corset pattern to compare and then I noticed that what I had always assumed was the waist line was not the narrowest part of the corset pattern. I put on the corset again and pulled it down so that the narrowest part hugged my waist. The hip portion of the old corset rested exactly where I need it to for the costume, but now my top of the corset is below my bust. However, for now I think it may be easier to extend the length of my existing corset pattern than try to finish the new pattern I am drafting.

I had been delaying the purchase of a metal straight-edge ruler and a L-square for the past year. I had been “making do” with the hip curve ruler and my trusty 12-inch see-through drafting ruler, but I craved something with metric measurements. Like many other tasks, metric units make pattern drafting easier to handle. I picked up the two new rulers at Blick Art Materials this weekend during a minor sale for less than $20.

Overall I have not progressed as far on my PAX Prime costume as I would have liked, but I do feel like I have solved the corset question and saved myself from the extra muslin fitting associate with untested patterns.

2 thoughts on “So you think you can draft?”

  1. I enjoyed catching some of your live tweets. =)

    For future reference, have you ever seen this book? You might want a copy if you can find a decent price on the used ones. (I swear I didn’t pay that much a few years ago! The best books go out-of-print too fast!)

    Reply

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