I told you before about Cal Patch's online garment design course I'm taking...and how fabulous it is. Well, I have a finished product! A dress that I just adore. It is a simple tunic shape with long sleeves and a wide neckline.
Me mugging for the camera!
I could have chosen to make short sleeves, no sleeves, a collar...etc. That is the beauty of creating patterns from scratch. This freedom has rekindled my interest in garment sewing. Being able to make a pattern that is pretty darn close to my actual shape and then refining it even further on a muslin gives me a finished product that fits better than any commercial pattern ever has. It's more work on the front-end, but way less tailoring on the back-end.
My muslin taking shape.
What I love most about this class is that Cal starts with the basics of garment design. I feel as if I've learned the "best practice" way of drafting a pattern and fitting it properly. All without being snooty or too full of details that go over a beginner's head. I feel like I have a basis for doing more complicated designs.
The edging makes this dress.
The quilter in me wanted to use a bias tape edging around the collar as an accent. I made my own bias tape out of a coordinating (in my mind) fabric using this great tutorial. I did finish the edging by hand because I didn't want to see a stitching line on the front. But that was no big thing considering I recently hand stitched a queen-size quilt binding!
