Make Your Own Dress Patterns

574 Pages·2006·23.4 MB·English

by  Adele P. Margolis

To my editor and very good friend
HAROLD KUEBLER
who has borne up nobly through decades of darts
Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 2006, is an unabridged republication of
Make Your Own Patterns: A Primer in Patternmaking for Those Who Like to
Sew, originally published by Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New
York, in 1985.
Copyright
9780486132310
Copyright © 1985 Adele P. Margolis All rights reserved.
International Standard Book Number: 0-486-45254-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y 11501
Table of Contents
Title Page
Bibliographical Note
Copyright Page
Introduction
PART I - PATTERN WHYS
Chapter 1 - Geometric Gems
Chapter 2 - An Art to a Dart
Chapter 3 - It’s a Pattern!
Chapter 4 - Divided Darts, Added Interest
Chapter 5 - Control Is What It Seams
Chapter 6 - The Fullness Thereof
Chapter 7 - A Set of Slopers
PART II - STYLING
Chapter 8 - Notable Necklines
Chapter 9 - Easy Access
Chapter 10 - The Pocket Picture
Chapter 11 - Collar Capers
Chapter 12 - The Set-in Sleeve Scene
Chapter 13 - Sleeves in One with the Bodice
Chapter 14 - Sleeve Finishes
Chapter 15 - Remnants
INDEX
Introduction
For many sewers, creativity is often blocked by dependence on ready-made
patterns. One has visualized something that cannot be found for all the looking
in pattern books. There’s such a time lag between the moment an exciting style
triggers the imagination and that faraway day when a pattern for it is
commercially available—if it ever is. Some sewers give up and settle for what
they can get. Many begin apprehensively to take liberties with existing patterns.
Timidly, they attempt to combine one pattern with another but are too fearful to
make much progress. How they wish they knew more about patterns!
If you are one who has been scared to death to move a dart (you think it is put
there by an act of Congress) or one who is awed by the seeming complexity of a
pattern (the professionals in the field like to keep you that way) or one who
doubts his or her ability to create (“I’m really not an artist”)—relax! The basic
principles of patternmaking are neither too mysterious, too numerous, nor too
difficult for the home sewer. Anyone who can work through the labyrinthian
directions for sewing that accompany the commercial pattern can surely learn
the comparatively simple and clear rules for patternmaking. What’s more, the
rules work alike for skirts, pants, jackets, and coats and for men’s, women’s, and
children’s clothing. For the I-can’t-draw-a-straight-line-myself crowd, there are
plenty of helpful drafting tools.
Even for the sewer who prefers the timesaving use of commercial patterns to
developing one’s own, a knowledge of patternmaking is essential. Without it,
one is slave to the bought pattern; with it, free to make such changes as one
desires. Most important of all, understanding what you are working with will
give an independence in design, construction, and, yes, even in fitting.
It is my hope that the simple nontechnical instructions for patternmaking
contained in this book will open the door to a new world in which sewers may
find creative excitement in executing their own designs.
Adele Pollock Margolis
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PART I
PATTERN WHYS
Fig. 1