Back to School! - Week 3

So...I went back to college for week three of my Level 2 Pattern Cutting and Construction course and I am still loving it!

Honestly, I do not know how much more fun this course is going to become because it has already been so much fun.

Finishing our blocks

We started the lesson by finishing off the blocks we worked on last week.

I had already finished my skirt block, so I just needed to finish cutting it out and add the extra details we needed.

We added notches to the pattern pieces so we could match everything up properly, along with drill holes, grain lines and all the labels.

We also had to add our names, the measurements we had used, note that we had not added seam allowances and write down where the measurements had come from.

Because I had finished mine a little quicker, I had to wait for everyone else to catch up. In the meantime, we were given a couple of sheets to work through, including one about measurements and another where we had to identify different pattern cutting and drafting tools and explain what they are used for.

Things like a pattern master, flexi curve and all the other tools that I am slowly becoming much more familiar with.

Onto the next assignment

Once everyone had finished their blocks, our tutor explained what we were doing next.

We had to take the skirt block we had already made and turn it into a completely different skirt design which has a V yoke at the top and then a gathered skirt underneath.

This is the skirt we are working towards:

And this is where things started getting really interesting. because we were not simply drawing a completely new pattern from scratch. Instead, we took our existing block and started manipulating it to create the new design.

 

From block to master draft

We transferred our block onto dot and cross paper by tracing around it and once we had done that, it became our master draft.

And my master draft is MASSIVE!

From there, we started adding the style lines for the new skirt.

First came the V for the yoke. Then we added slash lines to the lower section of the skirt.

These are the areas that we will eventually cut and spread open to create the fullness needed for the gathered section.

We also had to play around with the darts.

The darts from our original block had transferred onto the master draft, but they were no longer sitting in the right place for the new design.

So we had to alter their position as part of the pattern manipulation.

This is the part I am really enjoying.

You start with something that looks fairly basic and then, little by little, you start changing it into something completely different.

 

I made a mistake

And of course, it would not be a week at college without me making at least one mistake.

I was working on the back skirt and somehow managed to measure one of my lines completely wrong. Well, not a huge mistake but still, a mistake. I was about 1.5cm out. I have no idea what I was measuring when I did it!

Thankfully, it was easy enough to fix. I just scribbled out the incorrect line and adjusted it.

And honestly, that is all part of learning.

I would much rather make a mistake in a classroom, where I can correct it and understand what went wrong, than somehow convince myself that it was right and carry on.

 

Making everything clear

Once we had finished all the alterations, we had to label everything properly.

We added grain lines, notches, information about where we were closing the darts and all the other details needed to make sense of the pattern.

Our tutor had given us specific measurements for some of the alterations because she wanted everyone to be working in the same way. Honestly, with a class of 17 people, I can completely understand why.

It makes it much easier for her to look around the room and see if someone has gone wrong and where they have gone wrong.

 

And then we used two colours

One thing we also had to do was draw over the different sections of the pattern using two different colours.

I used green for the top section and red for the bottom section.

The idea was to make it much easier to see the difference between the two parts when we trace the pattern off again.

We are not actually cutting our master draft. Instead, we will copy it and do the alterations on the copy which makes sense because I have already put quite a lot of work into this giant piece of paper!

I did discover that the pens I was using were not actually ideal for this.

I had some fine liner pens at home, so naturally I thought I would use those rather than buy something else.

I have children.

There are approximately 47,000 pens and pencils in my house already.

But the pens were actually finer than the pencil I was using and were not giving me the visual difference I needed.

So I think I am going to have to "steal" some of my daughters pencils instead.

 

I am really enjoying this

I genuinely cannot tell you how much I am enjoying this part of the course.

I really like the manual side of it.

Drawing everything out, doing the calculations, making adjustments and then seeing whether everything actually works.

There is something very satisfying about taking an existing block and manipulating it into a completely different design.

It is also a good reminder that knowing the theory and actually doing something are two very different things.

I have learned a lot through researching sewing, watching videos and reading about pattern cutting over the years.

But I have never actually taken a specific skirt block, added these particular style lines and then spread the sections to create this exact design.

Actually doing it is completely different.

 

The commute is still killing me

I am absolutely loving the course.

The commute, however...not so much. It is around an hour and ten minutes each way and then I am sitting in class for around four hours.

And this is all on top of my normal day.

I still get up in the morning, exercise, get the kids ready for school, do my normal work and then head off to college in the afternoon.

So by the time I get home, I am absolutely exhausted.

But I think it is worth it. Especially when I am enjoying the actual course this much.

 

I am starting to like the skirt

When the tutor first showed us the skirt design, my immediate thought was "This is definitely not my style". I do not really wear skirts like this.

But then I did what any sensible person would do. I went on Pinterest and the more I looked at them, the more I started liking them.

Especially the gingham ones.

Now I am thinking that a black and white gingham version could actually be perfect for my wardrobe.

The college version is being drafted to a standard size 12.

My waist measurement happens to match a size 12, but the rest of my measurements really do not.

So I am hoping that I get some time to draft my own block at home and make a version that actually fits my proportions.

I am thinking black and white gingham, although red and white is also tempting.

A black and white skirt would basically go with everything, so I think it could become one of those pieces that gets worn constantly.

 

So that is week three

And that was another week back at college.

We finished our blocks, started manipulating them into a completely different skirt design, learned more about darts and pattern manipulation, made a few mistakes along the way and somehow I have gone from thinking the skirt was not my style to planning a gingham version for my own wardrobe.

There are lots of things that I already knew the theory behind but actually sitting down and doing them properly is completely different.

And I think that is one of the things I am enjoying most about this course.

It is taking things I have learned over the years and giving me the opportunity to actually put them into practice.

I cannot wait to see what we get up to next.

I will be back next week with another update.

 

Thanks for reading and happy sewing!

Bye for now, B! xx