Thursday, July 23, 2009

Interesting Bra Sloper Concept

In my quest for bodice sloper instructions, I stumbled across a bra design, based on a bodice sloper for creating your own bras. Thought it was interesting and that I'd pass it along.

http://www.burdastyle.com/howtos/show/1707

Basic Bodice, Basic Sloper, Pattern Design

I have the HARDEST TIME trying to buy clothing - especially fitted clothing with nice seam lines. So I turned to the pattern world to attempt to make my own, but was SORELY disappointed that the pattern industry labels their sizes even smaller than ready to wear clothing, AND when you graduate up to "plus sized" clothing, they figure you must be a fat cow who needs to wear a tent. I like to think of myself as being a fairly average American sized person, I'm proportional, my bust and hips are bigger than my waist and while the charts say I'm overweight, I don't have too flabby of a body or anything unusual. I have bought pattern after pattern and even if I can find something in my measurements that is "supposed" to fit, the design is basedon a B cup - which I am not, so things never fit.



So I thought to myself, how hard can it be to draft my own pattern? Most patterns are based off a princess-line sloper garment and you change the design for the desired project. I started researching books on the subject and they all seem to be $100 texts, or more and I'm starting to feel like the art of sewing is so far gone into the craft world that those of us who rarely find something that fits in the store will be stuck paying a seamstresses custom sewing price -OR- having to take college courses where pattern design is offered.



And then I sumbled across a rare gem. In my search on amazon.com, I was all set to buy this $20-$30 book that teaches pattern design and the 9 reviews were all great except for one. A lady who seems to be an avid sewer explains what exactly she didn't like about this particular book. She gave several suggestions for other books that were better authorites on the subjects covered in this book, and one of them is an old book she stumbled upon at a thrift store.



Modern pattern design: The complete guide to the creation of patterns as a means of designing smart wearing apparel by Harriet Pepin comes HIGHLY recommended by Amazon user Jaqueline Kiffe, and based on the description, I bought the book from my mobile a few days ago. When I was able to get back to work and use the internet, I googled the book to see if anyone else had any information on the book and was pleasantly suprised to see that the book has been typed out for use on the internet at: http://www.vintagesewing.info/1940s/42-mpd/mpd-toc-long.html. Now, this book was copywrited in 1942, so you may not like all the design choices (unless you're in to vintage clothing), but the drafting information is amazing. Very useful.







I have not drafted anything yet, but I am SUPER excited to start. I feel like I could design my own patterns, if only I had the basic know how that it seems this book provides.