My creative space: adventures in pattern making

The more I sew clothing the more I am thinking about the patterns I use and the different results they give.  I used to accept the pattern pieces as ridged, fixed and mysterious in their own ways, I knew nothing about making adjustments to fit.  But now I see more about how they are shaped and how they work and I start thinking of changing this bit or that bit to please myself, and sometimes I am sure, an other times I am really unsure of what other changes might flow on from that.  It's an interesting learning process.

I have a pile of traced patterns in front of me today, I've been looking at things I've made in the past, things I've made more recently, and clothes I have bought from the shops.  I'm thinking about what I like about those garments, what I don't like...and I'm trying to morph two different patterns together to produce a top for myself to my own liking.

I'm adjusting sizes and making things less fitted and more roomy.  It's a peasant style where the sleeve pieces make up the shoulders of the top, but I don't want all the elastic around the neck to draw it in so I'm going to try gathering or pleats and some bias binding; short sleeves because that's what we wear for most of the year in our climate, maybe elastic in the sleeves, maybe not, I'll see how I feel about that as I start constructing it.

I kind of promised myself I wouldn't sew clothes from quilting fabric anymore, but when I found a substantial amount of this green and pink floral fabric in the remnants bin at the store I decided I may as well be wearing it rather than leaving it there.

After some sketching, measuring, calculating and eyeballing I've cut out the pattern, pinned it down and am ready to cut...

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