SWAP Diary April 30th, 2009 Done!

Yikes, it has been almost a month since I last posted! April has flown by.

We had a lovely vacation in Barbados, We rented this house, complete with pool and a car, in Holetown. It was a block from the beach. My husband found it while doing Internet searches for rental villas. It had rave reviews from previous renters and they were accurate.

It was a lovely base to explore the island. The beaches are very different depending on what side of the island they are on. My sons preferred the waves of this Atlantic side beach, to the tranquil scenic and tourist populated Caribbean Sea beaches.

We were the only people at this beach and the waves were quite strong. I sat on the sand admiring the view and at the same time praying I did not have to use my rusty lifesaving skills.

We toured caves, watched monkeys swinging through the trees, went sailing, swam with enormous sea turtles, and ate a lot of fresh fish. We ate in a couple of nights and I cooked some of the unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, like christophenes, and breadfruit ,we found in the local grocery store. I downloaded recipes off the Internet (the rental house had a computer with high speed access). I especially enjoyed that.

Barbados is one of few Caribbean islands, of the 17 or so I have visited, that has fabric stores. I had hoped to visit the stores and write about my visit. Unfortunately with the limited time, and being the only vote for "fabric shopping", I wasn’t able to visit any of them.

I returned from the beautiful tropical weather, and the bright colors of the houses and flowers, to the task of finishing up the jacket for my SWAP. A jacket made of brown wool. It was a bit of a chore. I so wanted to be sewing summer clothes in bright colors and light fabrics. But I got it done. The instructions are in the Dec 08 issues of Lady Boutique magazine.

.The jacket style is a slight variation of the jacket wearable muslin I made earlier. The same collar, which goes with the tops beautifully, but more fitted, with a piped sewn on belt. I also added piping to the front edge. I originally made the piping out of a weathered leather look vinyl, but the belt with the vinyl piping proved to be so heavy, it affected the hang of the jacket. I made more piping of brown silk dupiani. It worked much better. The jacket fits fine and coordinates with all the other garments in my SWAP. Now I have to take pictures. The clothes in my SWAP are winter clothes. Last weekend, which would have been a great time to take pictures, the temperatures were in the low 90’s. I have a tentative agreement to pay my teenage sons to take photos of me wearing the garments in locations or doing activities where I would wear them in a typical week. But I didn’t want be red faced and "hot and bothered" in the outside pictures. So I pushed my luck and put off the photography sessions, hoping for some cooler days before the submission deadline. Looks like my luck is good, as it is in the 60's today. I hope the cooler weather will continue tomorrow, which I have off for the company "Derby Day" holiday. A tradition left over from the time the company I work for had a plant in Louisville, Kentucky. Rather than deal will high absenteeism, and on the job intoxication the Friday before the Kentucky Derby race, they closed the whole plant. The Louisville plant is long gone, but hurray for traditions!

SWAP Diary April 3rd

I finally finished the next item in my SWAP. A pair of brown denim jeans. In preparation for drafting a jeans pattern, I did a lot of reading and research which included the following;

1. Measured favorite well fitting jeans.

2. Studied the instructions for drafting jeans in various pattern drafting sources to see how patterns are drafted for different shapes. These included;
Weekend Designer Jean Draft
Metric Pattern Drafting for women’s wear, by Winifred Aldrich.


3. Took my own personal hip and waist circumference measurements in front and back segments, not just full circumferences. Anna Zapp describes this in her book “The Zapp Method of Couture Sewing” and sewing instructor Cynthia Guffey also demos this in her pants fitting classes. But Cynthia advocates takes measurements every two inches from waist to hip. From this I learned I need more fabric in the front at 2 inches below my waist for my tummy, and then back equals front until 8 inches down from waist when the back need more fabric because of my butt. This is shown below on a dress form. Put a piece of tape on both sides from waist to hip. Mark 2 inch increments.on the tape starting at waist. Measure from centerline of tape on one side to centerline of tape on the other side, on both back and front at each 2 inch increment.

4. Turned a few pairs of well fitted RTW pants inside out, with one leg inside the other, so I could look at the shape of the crotch seam as well as the amount of space between the center back and front seams.

5. Re-read Threads magazine articles "Making Jeans that Fit" (Mar 2004) and" Design Your Own Jeans" (May 2008), The lengthy answer to a Fitting column question about crotch length in the March issue was very helpful too.

I made a muslin of the pattern out of a red and tan checked fabric so I would have woven vertical and horizontal lines in my muslin. They looked like clown pants. During one fitting session, DH happened to see them and asked diplomatically "Where are you going to wear those pants? I assured him they were not going to be worn in public. My personal shape is a low flat butt, high rounded tummy, and no leg curvature below the widest part of hip. Many RTW pants, and especially McCalls and Butterick patterns, which fit in the waist, have too much fabric in the butt and outer thigh. Sure enough the muslin had excess fabric in the outer thighs, and at the top back center seam. There were issues in the crotch area and I ended up adding 3/4 inch to the front and back crotch length at the crotch point. On all the LB pants pattern drafts, the center line of the pant leg is equal distance from the crotch point and the side, and it is used as a reference for all dart and styling detail. So I also had to re balance the leg patterns around the new center line and redraw the darts and pockets. I really need to draft only the basic shape and fit it, before drafting style details. It would save me a lot of time and effort.

The finished jeans fit okay. I think they need some tweaking; scoop out the front crotch to address the wrinkles there and remove even more excess fabric in the back side legs. They are a little long in the crotch, but I can’t change that easily with all the top stitched yokes near the waist. I may slim down the legs even more.


But all this will have to wait for a couple weeks, until after we return from our spring break trip to Barbados. Right now, I need to find out if my bathing suits still fit, check the expiration date on the sun block lotions left over from last year, sort through the snorkeling gear,…….later guys!

SWAP Diary Jan 27 2009

Blouse 2 - Pleated Back Collar.

This pattern uses the Lady Boutique rounded bottom sloper as the basis for the drafting instructions. I had previously drafted this sloper to my personal measurements.

I drafted the blouse pattern pieces using the diagrams in the magazine. I shortened the shoulders by 1.5 cm. and raised the armholes 2 cm. on this blouse too. I see a trend here with LB drafting instructions ….. Either I will have to do this for every pattern I draft from this magazine or working backwards I can adjust my personal sloper to factor in the assumtions that there will be an armhole enlargement in all drafting instructions.

I was still not feeling confident enough to skip a muslin. This one was made in a cotton blend. A tie dye print with multicolored couched threads on top. It was one of those fabrics that I bought because I thought the color and texture was interesting up-close. I really need to remember to step back and view fabric from a distance, like it would be seen by someone else if it were a garment on a body. After I got the fabric home, it turned into one of those “what was I thinking” fabrics

When I tried on the completed muslin I got a bit of a surprise. With all my measuring, it hadn’t occurred to me to make sure the sleeve cuffs, formed by sewn pleats, would fit over my hands. They didn’t.



So the pleats are a little skimpy on the muslin and the appropriate changes were made to the sleeve pattern. Once I could get the muslin on, I was pleased to find that the neckline fit well. The neckline worried me the most going into this project.

The fit in the torso was loose. I had envisioned a semi fitted over blouse because the fabric I planned to use was a stiffer silk dupianni.



So to get the shape I wanted, I shorten the bodice pattern pieces by 2 inches to end at the high hip, and deepened the darts in the waist area extending them down to the hip to get a smoother look. Since the dart now took up fabric at the hip area, I had to add the same amount to the side seam. I took out about 2 inches in the bust area at the side seam. And because I did not want to change the arm hole shape (requires redrafting the sleeves) I pivoted the arm hole from the shoulder point to match the new side seam. (A technique found in Nancy Zeiman’s Busy Woman’s Fitting Book) I also added a center back seam for more shaping and faced the hem edge instead of using a turned hem as suggested. I am not a neat pattern drafter/modifier. When I got done with all these changes, I had so many different lines and bits of tissue paper taped to the original pattern, it is a real mess. I have to work on being neater.

The blouse turned out just as I envisioned.

The fabric is a rather light weight silk dupiani print purchased back in 2005 from www.fabricmartfabrics.com according to my Stash Inventory database. Because of the weight of the fabric, I decided to line the bodice with camel colored Bemberg rayon to prevent wrinkles and reduce stress on the seams.

SWAP Diary Jan 14 2009

I decided to start with a simple blouse for my first SWAP drafting attempt. It is semi fitted with front and back vertical darts, a stand collar, and long sleeves with cuffs.



There are several different ways the patterns are presented in Lady Boutique (LB) magazine.
1. Instructions that specify the pattern measurements for each size
2. Pre printed patterns in limited sizes on a tear out insert
3. Drafting instruction which give dimensions for style details (collars, sleeve type, darts, pleats, etc) that you add to one of the 3 different slopers you have already drafted to your personal measurements.

This blouse was type number 1. The drafting instructions were specific measurements for Japanese sizes 9 and 13. (Not to be confused with US Jr. sizes). Based on a comparison of my body measurements to those in the size charts, I was a combo of Size 13 on top and 15 on bottom. But when I added up the finished pattern measurements in key spots, like bust, waist and hip, I found there were huge amounts of ease built into the pattern. Over 6 inches in the bust. Way too much for a fitted blouse with darts in my opinion. My favorite RTW blouses have at the most 4 inches of ease in the bust. So I used the dimensions for a size 9 on top, and a size 13 below waist, lengthening the torso and sleeves. I drafted all the pattern pieces including sleeve collar and cuffs. When I tried on the muslin, the torso fit great. The darts hit the waist and bust correctly. But the bottom of the arm hole was below my arm pit.


I measured the arm hole opening on some RTW blouses and a BWOF blouse and found that LB pattern arm hole opening was about 2 in (5 cm) larger and almost an inch lower. So I extended the side seam up and redrafted the armhole opening to be about the length of the RTW blouses. Then I had to redraft the sleeve pattern. I checked that the drafted sleeve in the bicep area was as wide as my RTW blouses and long enough to reach my wrist. Everything looked good.

An important lesson I learned from this experience: Draft and fit bodice patterns before drafting sleeve and collar. Believe me at this point the urge to go back to my TNT ( Tried n’ True) patterns was strong.


The fabric for the wearable muslin was a floral print of a roughly 50/50 blend of wool and cotton in a twill weave, which I believe is called Viyella. This was from my stash. It was purchased from Imaginations fabric club (some of you will be able to date it using with that info). It was very soft, surprisingly wrinkle resistant, and a real joy to sew. I am surprised that more of this type of fabric is not available now.

The completed wearable muslin fit well. But I felt the collar stood away from my neck in the front too much. So for the official swap blouse I raised the center front neckline to be closer to my neck, and because I did this, I had to redraft the collar to fit the new neckline.

The SWAP blouse is made of a silk print and was quick to sew once all the pattern alterations were complete.

I actually like the muslin so much I plan to add a different collar to it and use it for the SWAP. Not the same experience I had with the next blouse. More on that soon.

SWAP Diary Jan 11 2009

I started sewing my 2009 SWAP garments during my 2 week holiday vacation. I spent a lot of time and effort planning prior to that. Some of it wasted on daydreaming about the lifestyle and the clothes I would like to make versus what my lifestyle really requires.Digging through my stash for coordinating fabrics, and perusing pattern magazines. I was ambivalent about churning out 11 garments for my current lifestyle and size again this year. I decided to incorporate a personal sewing/development goal into my SWAP. I want to improve my pattern drafting skills, so I challenged myself to draft all the patterns from instructions in the various Japanese pattern magazines I have accumulated. I chose the challenging "SWAP Trail". Most of the garments I chose came from issues of Lady Boutique, a Japanese monthly pattern magazine that features garments for the "housewife". The styles in Lady Boutique are a bit more conservative and traditional (Western style) than the other well known Japanese pattern magazine Mrs Stylebook. The quality of the photographs and printed pages are not as "glossy", and the age of the models is older (30, 40 and 50’s). There are lots of jackets and skirts, with a smaller number of knit tops, blouses and pants. The styles I selected are similar to those found in the big four pattern brands; Vogue, McCalls, etc., and that is actually my safety net. I wanted to be able to compare my drafted patterns to ones I had already made or that I knew would fit me based on past experience. And if I really start struggling with the drafted patterns, I wanted the option of abandoning them and switching to the big four patterns. Here is my storyboard.

and my fabrics.


Drafting instructions and pictures from the magazine are in my Flickr SWAP 2009 folder (link is on sidebar)

So far I am doing well. I have made wearable muslins of 2 blouses, 1 pair of pants and the jacket. And have completed one blouse and pair of pants. All were "learning experiences". More to come in the near future.