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Saturday, 8 January 2011

An "a-ha" moment!

Subtitle: Or, how I fudged my way around altering the size of the trouser waistband pieces!

Nope, I'm not becoming an *Alan Partridge impersonator, nor am I attending the pop concert of that 80's **Norwegian Pop Band LOL!

Alan Partridge Smash Hits Magazine - a-ha
Not what I am doing
 
I was staring at the pattern pieces for my trousers debating to myself about "properly" grading up the size beyond the maximum 88 marked on the pattern - when I noticed (and I'm sure I'm not the first person to spot this) that on multi-size patterns the increasing sizes align next to one another in a uniform sort of pattern (patterns within patterns - who'd of known it?!).

Pattern Piece 5 - Trouser Back Waistband

Multi-Size Patterns, Comparing Pieces
Multi-Size Patterns by different companies

So, to cut a long story short I did a teensie bit more some tracing et voilà! I have 2 larger-sized waistband pieces for Burda Style Magazine 07/2010 Pattern #127. So, I thought I'd share it here - and instead of my waffling on in writing, I spent a bit of time last night (well a lot really 'cos I got carried away making the pictures all pretty hehehe) drawing up some diagrams of the steps I took. BTW I'm also going to try lin3arossa's idea to measure the flat pattern pieces tomorrow evening & see where that takes me too!


Tracing & Overlaying to Add Increased Width to Pattern Pieces

Tools/Equipment:
Supplies/Materials:
• Pattern for your garment
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Rulers - straight & curved
   (depending upon the shape of the pattern piece)
• Flat level surface to work on
• Good lighting
• Tracing Paper

    01 Tracing and Overlaying

    02 Tracing and Overlaying

    03 Tracing and Overlaying

    04 Tracing and Overlaying

    05 Tracing and Overlaying

    06 Tracing and Overlaying

    07 Tracing and Overlaying

    08 Tracing and Overlaying

    Tracing For a Smaller Pattern Piece

    09 Tracing and Overlaying

    10 Tracing and Overlaying

    11 Tracing and Overlaying

    12 Tracing and Overlaying


    Oh, and here's how my pattern piece for the back waistband ended-up looking after my tweaking - not as pretty as the the colourful pics above eh ;) LOL?

    Final altered back waistband pattern piece

    **Mmmmmm.....Morten Harket is/was very lovely to look at though ;)
    Morten Harket (a-ha)
    at

    4 comments:

    1. MaggieJanuary 10, 2011 4:48 am

      Hi Claire,

      Just found your blog, which is apparently new, so first, Congratulations! Grading patterns always scare me, so that "cheat" is fantastic. And your pictures are so pretty :)

      ReplyDelete
    2. Melissa Fehr TradeJanuary 10, 2011 8:45 pm

      Great tutorial! Thanks for putting the time into this!

      ReplyDelete
    3. Claire (aka Seemane)January 11, 2011 10:31 pm

      Hi Maggie, Thank you for visiting my blog :)
      Grading looks scary - but I like a challenge, so I plan to use my book to grade-up a vintage 70's t-shirt pattern I recently bought on Etsy, so I will overcome the fear of grading soon (fingers-crossed)!

      Melissa, Thank you - I kinda got carried away with myself over the pics, but now at least I cannot say I forgot how I achieved this "trick" if I need to do it again in the future - it's on the blog and safely saved now :)

      ReplyDelete
    4. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2011 9:17 pm

      Beautiful pics! The Selfish Seamstress had put a tutorial on Burdastyle at some point about grading down using a similar method, but your pics are much prettier! ;) (PS, sorry I haven't been commenting along, I swear I added you to my blog reader list but apparently not! :( )

      ReplyDelete

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