DemonKia
Posts: 5521
Joined: 10/13/2007 From: Chico, Nor-Cali Status: offline
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Unfortunately historical patterns do not show up in thrift stores, that I've ever seen. Unless the 1950's counts, lol . ... &, yeah, historical patterns can be pricey. The Elizabethan stuff I did was out of a book on the topic, which had patterns. That's how I ended up plunging into pattern making, taking those little patterns & making them big & fitting (sorta) to me . . . . The library can have historical costuming books, & sometimes some of those will have basic patterns . . . . . &, never be afraid to buy some garment at a thrift store & take it apart -- voila, you have a pattern. & it's made out of fabric, too -- durable, lol . . . . . Or, just use a garment as a guide to draw a pattern from. Add seam allowance, & note & correct your pattern for tucks & that sorta stuff. When I made bodices I used vests I had, & the fit of which I liked, to draw patterns off for the bodices. Instead of buttons there are laces & stays . .. .. For my grand mad-scientist tunic thing I'm gonna use my favorite button-down shirt for the basic pattern. Instead of buttoning down the middle, they'll button along the shoulder & down one side, something like that ... . & it'll have a round collar . . . . . So, I'll make various adjustments -- I'm gonna use the shirt to draw basic shapes off of . . . . If you have the time & the transport, your local newspaper may sell 'bolt ends' of blank newsprint paper. Our local paper sells them for a coupla bucks apiece. The newsprint paper is blank & wide, 3 or 4 feet long heavy cardboard tubes wound with paper. The printing machines can't use the bolts when they get so small (they start out 6 or 12 or more feet out from the 4-ish inch diameter cardboard tubes at their centers). The 'bolt ends' still have an inch or two thickness of paper wound on, but that's a lot of paper once they're unwound. It's great for kids. & it's excellent for drawing patterns on, easier than taping printed newspapers together. But the taping trick works in a pinch . ... . & newspaper is cheap. You can drape pattern pieces on the intended body & adjust them to your heart's desire before applying your experiments to fabric . . .. . . Ah, another sewing thing I'm mucking about with is making 'muslins', kind of a practice run at a garment using muslin fabric -- inexpensive cotton or cotton-poly blend woven lightweight stuff that's pretty cheap. Our local Wallyworld has a selection of muslins for a buck a yard, usually . ... . So, the garment is first cut out of the cheap muslin & roughly stitched together & tried on & adjustments are made to the muslin pattern pieces, which are then used to cut out the (more expensive) fabric that the garment is really to be made of . ... I'd like to make several mad-scientist tunics (particularly inspiring: CO1 Tokyo, B09 Margarita, C08 Seoul, & B23 Lazise), so the muslin will serve as a durable pattern to use for multiple garments . . . . . Ideally I'm gonna figure out some flexible base pattern that I can vary the details on . . . .
< Message edited by DemonKia -- 10/14/2009 9:41:19 PM >
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