I don’t know if it is because I used to be hella into geometry and bio or the years as a theatre tech, but I love diagrams. Normally when I sew from scratch I don’t begin by sketching the finished product. That stays in my head and the first thing put to paper are my primary plans for the pattern pieces. In normal circumstances I label them much more meticulously, but I’m working under time constraints here. So you’ll have to forgive me.
Ah, there is nothing quite like the simple math of pleats or freehanding curves for the arm and waist from rulered rough measurements. Pattern plotting done on a break at work (10 minutes):
Pattern drafting done while watching old episodes of the Sarah Silverman show (40 minutes):
Project Runway contestants get a day to make their look, I’m calling it 24 hours. So, total time left to finish the look—23:10.
Glad you’re posting your draft stuff, the process always fascinates me.
The finished project looks awesome, once again. But I love seeing these sketches and such.
I’m impressed by the ease with which you seem to be able to translate such sketches into 3-dimensional images. It’s something I’ve improved at over time, but only after years of working in an environment where I am forced to make boxes and continually think in terms of how to make a flat piece of cloth fit around various sized and shaped objects. Better late than never, I suppose!!
I’ve been sewing a bunch lately too so I’m particularly interested in seeing more from you!! okishutupnow.
I am such a process nerd. There would have been more process shots, but my partner just got back 16 rolls of 120 film, so the editing computer was busy scanning and scanning and scanning.
Translating things between shape and form is so just a result of practice. Again as a process nerd, it’s just making things from patterns and seeing how those work and then reading lots of pictures and looking at old patterns (which made lots more assumptions about what you knew, like how old recipes are super basic outlines) and it starts to make sense. There seem to be only a handful of basic pattern shapes, and what one adds/subtracts from there alters the end form.
If you’re interested in pattern drafting, the best resources are 1940-1960s books for young girls about wardrobe and sewing. Especially in the ’40s & ’50s there’s a lot of “making basic pieces more useful” and looking at permutations.
Which—I went to double-check my definition of “permutation” and found combinatorics, which seems like something you might dig.