Some shirts are patterned so that the fronts don’t close. Even if you put buttons all the way up, the front won’t fit or feel comfortable.
I found this nice pattern that felt really usable, and I’ve been looking for a darted shirt pattern that works with lolita for a while. I’m going to do view C, with view D’s sleeves, replacing the front ribbon with flat lace, and modifying this front piece. That sounds like a lot, but it’s actually really simple, except for this front modification. It’s still easy, but there’s a few more steps.
This pattern’s front is made of two pieces, so I stuck them together to work with them like one piece. I just stack them, remembering to leave overlap for the seam allowance, and trace.
Here it looks like it doesn’t match up, so I matched up the front. It would make more sense to match it at the notches or the arm seam, but, hindsight.
(smart me used an orange marker on a brown paper, so some of these are black and white to boost the contrast)
The first thing I did was to transfer the front pattern onto some paper, so I could work with it more easily. I used a tracing wheel for this, but you can also use thinner paper (or a product like Pellon Easy-Pattern), and trace it that way.
You can see at the top of the line on the right side where it curves towards the armsceye. This is what we’re going to change.
Take your straightedge and extend the straight part of your line upwards. Go up beyond the top of your collar. We want it too long here; we’ll shorten it later.
Here’s where a french curve comes in handy. If you don’t have one, you can download one and print it on cardstock.
Use your curve to extend you collar line to where it intersects with the line you just extended.
A lot of the time, it’s helpful to move the front of the collar down a bit. If the shirt’s patterned to be open in the front, it’s usually patterned to have a high neck. I markerd about 3/4″ down from that curve I just drew.
And then I drew it in with my curve.
Now it’s time to cut the two pieces apart. Mark a line 5/8″ from then line you marked where the pieces join. On the side that doesn’t have the seam allowance after you cut it, tape a piece of paper onto it and mark it on your new extension. Your other option is to remember that you need to add it on that piece.
Now, since we made the front longer, we need to make the collar bigger to fit it. Put your front and back together at the shoulder seam, and measure that new distance.
Then put the old front and the back together at the shoulder seam, and measure that. The difference between the two is how much you need to add on the the collar.
You can write it on the pattern, like I didhere, or you can take some paper and add onto the center seam.
If your collar is very curved or needs to have several inches added, you’ll need to redraw it, but for most things you can just add the total onto the center seam.
If you have a collar and a collar stand, add the same to both pieces, and then measure to make sure the collar andthe stand are hte same meausrement
And now you should have a pattern that buttons all the way up! Recalculate how many buttons you need and you’re golden.
Sometimes, it’s really difficult to find multiple bobbins that work in your machine. I’ve got more than one machine that has a single bobbin that works with it (btw, if you have a Wheeler&Wilson bagel bobbin for a 1901 D9/W9 that you’re interested in selling, message me).
But if your machine has standard bobbins (Class 66, Class 15, Class 15J) where a pack of 4 is 97 cents, this tip’s for you:
Before you start your project, wind yourself at least two full bobbins of your main color (depending on project size), and at least one bobbin of your lace color.
Here’s why: we all encounter times working on a project when we know we should switch colors, but that seems like a huge pain, so we don’t actually do it. Then you have pink or green or black topstitching on your garment, and you notice it every time you wear it, and it just annoys you, and then you put all that time and effort into a thing that you just don’t like wearing as much as you should.
So keep your accent colors ready to go and just swap them out. It’ll be fast and easy and you’ll love yourself for it later.
As for people using machines that only take one bobbin, find some other bobbins that fit your bobbin winder spindle. They don’t have to fit into your machine; they just have to fit onto your bobbin winder. When you need to change colors, put the bobbin that won’t fit your machine on your winder, and your existing bobbin on your thread spindle where you usually put your spool. You can now wind all the thread off your working bobbin, and save it for when you need to go back to that color. When you do, just wind the thread back off your dummy bobbin and on to the working one.
This only works once or twice before the thread starts getting damaged, so I mostly use it for if I have a bobbin that’s over half full and have to change colors in the middle of a project. It’s better than throwing away a bunch of thread.
Someone expressed interest with the Anoinu plush on how to precisely do machine embroidery over seams. Being able to embroider over seams is actually a consequence of the process which I use to align my pattern pieces for embroidery, so here’s a little picture guide on it. Long post/lots ‘o pictures ahead!
Struggling [to be] a[n] artist 