A Classic Shirt…with Color Contrast Details

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

This menswear shirt is of my original design, and was so much fun to sew because of its mix of design elements.  This shirt’s main design feature are the contrasting front button plackets. As you can see, the left placket is cut on the bias and the right placket is made from solid white fabric.  To complete the ‘contrast’ design theme of this shirt, the inner yoke, inner cuffs,  and collar stand were also cut from the same solid white fabric used on the right placket. Other design features include Curved Edge Cuffs, Bias Sleeve Plackets,  and a Rounded Pocket.

Before I  get to the sewing notes, let me apologize for the rather poor quality of the photograph. I only had  few minutes to pin the shirt to my photo-wall, snap the pic, then press the shirt again before packing it and getting to the Post Office before it closed

SEWING NOTES: Fabric is Swiss Cotton from my personal shirt-making stash,  PRO-WOVEN FUSIBLE INTERFACING and Buttons 
from ~Fashion Sewing Supply~

Oh…just one more thing. If you enjoy my blog, would you please vote for it ?
Just look to the left, and you will see a small black and red box with a place to “click to vote”. Thanks in advance for your vote…it will help rank my blog a little higher at Seamingly.com…Thanks again :)

Hot Off the Machine…Newest Shirt Design

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

This “Striation Stripe” Shirt is my latest original hand-drafted design,  made for one of my favorite clients.  This shirt’s design features include a Band Collar, French Front plackets, buttoned “Cigar Pocket”, cross-stripe Sleeve Plackets, and Wood buttons.

SEWING NOTES– Fabric provided by the client. Pro-Woven Fusible Interfacing from ~FASHION SEWING SUPPLY~

 

Tick Tock, Time Running out !

Submitted by Off The Cuff

Over 1700 yards of DESIGNER QUALITY INTERFACING already sold…most products are still in stock but selling VERY Fast….sell-outs possible.

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3 Shirts in 3 Days

Submitted by Off The Cuff

For me to sew 3 shirts in 3 days is not an unusual thing. Usually I can sew at least 3 shirts in a day, but with all the business duties on my agenda these days,  it’s extraordinary that I had the time to squeeze these into my schedule at all!  However, DH Roger needed a few more shirts, the fabric was there, so now there are 3 new shirts in his closet…

• Jalie
• Kwik Sew 
• Islander Sewing Systems

The styles and design features vary, but all the patterns are well drafted and each company provides good instructions.
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New York Fashion Week Fall 2010 - Day Eight

Submitted by The Fashion Informer

So the last day of New York Fashion Week has come and gone, and with it shows by Ralph Lauren, Isaac Mizrahi and Calvin Klein, where they had real models (of the individualistic Stella Tennant/Kristen McMenamy/Freja Beha Erichsen variety), along with the usual interchangeable modbots.

We were also supposed to have attended the Vogue & Norsdtrom Quicktake: Rodarte art opening party at the Cooper-Hewitt last night, as well, but inertia and exhaustion took over once we got home and, well…next time, Kate and Laura!

The good news is, our camera was recovered (from, errr, ummm, right under our desk where we’d dropped it last night).  So new blurry photos are yours to enjoy!

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New York Fashion Week Fall 2010 - Day Seven

Submitted by The Fashion Informer

And on the seventh day, you-know-who created style. And so it was at Michael Kors, Oscar de la Renta, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Reed Krakoff, Anna Sui, Brian Reyes and Proenza Schouler.

And had we not lost our camera (nooooooooooo!) we would have photos to share. But, alas, we did. So, alas, we do not.

We do, however, have a chic new manicure, thanks to Ginger + Liz at Robert Verdi’s “Future of Fashion” Luxe Laboratory, a Fashion Week swag-fest designed to relax frazzled editors by plying them with food and free shit. We’re here to report that it works.

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New York Fashion Week Fall 2010 - Day Six

Submitted by The Fashion Informer

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New York Fashion Week Fall 2010 - Day Three

Submitted by The Fashion Informer

More, more, more fashion shows!  From who, ask?  From Nima, Karen Walker, Alexander Wang and Boy/Band of Outsiders, I answer. And my favorite image of the day (courtesy of Boy/Band, who always does one of the most clever presentations of the week).

Photos © The Fashion Informer/Lauren David Peden

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New York Fashion Week Fall 2010 - Day Four

Submitted by The Fashion Informer

Some really great fashion today from, well, actually, everyone we saw. For real.  There wasn’t a dud in the bunch, from Tom Scott and DKNY to Juan Carlos Obando and Camilla Staerk.  And who new Victoria Beckham was such a sweetheart?  It’s official:  I have a new girl crush.  

Photos © The Fashion Informer/Lauren David Peden

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New York Fashion Week Fall 2010 - Day Five

Submitted by The Fashion Informer

And they keep on coming.  Today’s line-up:  Zac Posen, Zero + Maria Cornejo, Donna Karan, Thom Browne, Yeohlee, Halston and, of course, Marc Jacobs.  Which was your favorite?  

Oh, and don’t forget to check out the hot new fashion magazine/social network site, Vevant, which officially launched today. You’ll be seeing a lot more of The Fashion Informer on Vevant in the weeks and months ahead and,in the meanwhile, we invite you to become a charter member of the Vevant Network, which was designed exclusively for fashion industry insiders. If you join now, you’ll get a 45-day free trial period for V-Folio, the state-of-the-art portfolio management tool that allows you to upload images of any size to create a look book or portfolio, which can be shared online or printed and bound in a gorgeous leather-bound book.

Photos © The Fashion Informer/Lauren David Peden

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New York Fashion Week Fall 2010 - Day Two

Submitted by The Fashion Informer

Hope you’re having as much fun at the shows as I am.  Today, I took in the shows at Yigal Azrouel, Jason Wu, Preen, Cynthia Rowley, Doo.Ri, Rag & Bone, Julian Louie, Costello Tagliapietra.  Here’s a sneak peek at Louie’s very clever presentation and you can find much more New York show coverage at VOGUE.COM.

Photos © The Fashion Informer/Lauren David Peden
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HotPatterns Princess Shirt, revisited in wool tweed.

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

This is my first version of the up-dated draft of  HotPatterns’ Plain and Simple Princess Shirt.It was designed for shirting-weight fabrics, but because I wanted to make a simple “shirt jacket”, I used a lightweight wool tweed instead. And since I plan to wear this over another top, I added 1/4″ of ease to each side seam and the sleeve seams. I wanted to add pockets to this shirt jacket, but unfortunately did not have enough fabric.

Sewing notes: Facing and Collar interfaced with PRO-WEFT FUSIBLE from ~Fashion Sewing Supply~.

Denim Shirt…with Bias Sleeve Pleats

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

This Distressed denim shirt features deep bias pleats on the sleeves and pocket.
Its slightly rumpled look is entirely intentional.

———————

SEWING NOTES: This shirt is interfaced with PRO-WEFT Fusible,
a unique professionally quality interfacing found exclusively at ~Fashion Sewing Supply~

____________________________

Adding a pleat to any pattern piece is very easy 
when you use this method:

1.  Using the any pattern paper you like,  fold a pleat.  I folded a 1″ pleat.

2. Just place your pattern piece on top of the pleated paper, with the pleat where you want it to be on your garment. In this case, I placed my pattern so that the pleat (the pre-folded paper) would be on the bias, then I merely cut out my “new” sleeve pattern.

3. This is what my sleeve looked like cut from the fabric. I took the photo after the upper pleat fold was pressed, so you could more easily see how the pleat is formed.

4. This photo (#4) shows the completed pleat, with the folds edge-stitched. In this photo, as viewed from the right side, only the upper fold’s edge-stitching is visible. The under-fold (back side) of the pleat is edge-stitched too.  I like to edge-stitch pleats on shirts that I design not only because it is a nice decorative detail, but also because it makes pressing the shirt much easier after it has been laundered.

————————-

How to Control a Pleat…Invisibly !

When there is a bias or horizontal pleat on a garment, the weight of the fabric below the pleat will tend to pull it down, and the pleat will sag and gape open. When the pleats are small and/or the fabric is lightweight, this is often not a problem. However, with pleat depths of one inch or more on medium or heavy fabric, this sagging can be quite an ugly problem. But as you can see in the photo of the finished shirt (above), the deep pleat is not gaping or sagging. That is because the pleats have been “controlled”, by span-stitching done on the under-fold of the pleat (back side), as shown in this next photo–

To control this bias pleat, I made a series of  3 wide “V” shaped stitch spans on the inner pleat fold (that I highlighted in blue pencil so that you can more easily see them).  Each extend from the edge of the pleat to within 1/4″ of the first pleat fold. While it may be a little distracting to understand, if you make up a quick sample of any pleat from scrap fabric, and do this “V” stitching as shown, it will become clear how it works to control the pleat.  Please note that these pleats are NOT functional pleats..they are decorative only. So restricting how much they are allowed to open will make no functional difference at all. As you can see from the photo of the completed shirt, the pleats still appear to be quite deep. They are just “not allowed” to gape open because of this inner, invisible/hidden stitching.

Japanese Shirt Journey….the “Fitting Muslin” Results

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

Oh how I wish I had better news….

The tracing of the pattern was uneventful , as you would expect.  Cutting the fabric (oxford cloth), was equally uneventful.  The good news is that all the pieces of the shirt fit together beautifully, quite easy to sew…even with the unusual seam allowance widths. However, that said, I have sewn hundreds of shirts over my many years as a Shirt-maker. Perhaps some less experienced sew-ers would need to constantly refer back to the pattern and sewing diagrams to understand some of the sewing methods.  For instance, these patterns are drafted to use a version of the felled-seam technique that I showed you last summer in this post,
Felled Seam Technique.

Now, the not so good news.  While some aspects of the way the shirt fit were happy surprises, some important ones were not.  Take a look at the shirt muslin from the front–

Before I go any further, it’s plain to see that I only did a very light pressing of this fitting garment…a full press was not necessary for me to evaluate any broad fitting issues. Had the garment fit better, I would have given it a proper press and done another fitting.  This shirt is a size X-large, straight from the tracing, without any changes. Now a few words about my ever patient model. Roger is 6′ tall, about 178 pounds, and wears a size 15-1/2 neck, 34-35 sleeve sized shirt “off the shelf” from a store. He has a long torso.

Interestingly, the shirt fit perfectly at the neck, and the shoulder length was good. The fit through the chest was close, but with enough ease for him to reach forward and back without straining the fabric. Also, the sleeves were a perfect length. They may look long in the photo, but that is because I forgot to trim the seam allowance from the single-layer cuff…sorry about that. But take my word for it, the sleeve length is perfect.

But unfortunately that is where “perfect” ends.  As you can see in the photo above, there is a drag line at the armscye, and the sleeve is twisting.  It was twisting more before I fiddled with a a bit for the first photo. But my fiddling was futile (lol), as you can see in this next photo, showing the shirt from the back.

Talk about major fit issues !  ..and such a shame when the neck fits so well…sigh.  First of all, the yoke is not deep enough for a man of  Roger’s height, as you can see from the drag lines.  The sleeve is twisting because the armscye is not deep enough, and the curve of the armsyce is wrong for the width of Roger’s upper back.

These problems can be resolved by redrafting the yoke and reshaping the armscye, redrafting the sleeve to reflect those changes, and then making more fitting muslins to check the changes.  Am I going to bother doing that? No. Why?  Because I already have several shirt drafts that fit him perfectly. I also will not use this book to make shirts for my clients…unless they are very slight men. And even then, quite frankly it is easier for me to just hand-draft a pattern from scratch using their measurements.

What I might do is use some of the collar-stands, collars, cuffs, and pockets from this book, altering them a bit for size to use on my hand-drafted styles. But again, it is easier to draft my own than to “retro-fit” another designer’s draft.  And after comparing the collar style, stand, cuff, etc options in this book to David Coffin’s book “Shirtmaking”…well,  if you have David’s book there really is nothing much new to be found in this Japanese book.

So…should you buy this book?  Well, I bought it because I am a collector of books on menswear pattern-making. Perhaps if I read Japanese, I would be able to get more from this book.  The sewing-sequence diagrams are good, but a bit confusing since for 20+ years I’ve been professionally constructing shirts differently. There are no “A-Hah!” moments regarding collar construction, etc, in this book. So for me, it’s just nice to have among my collection of menswear sewing books. However it’s not one I am likely to use often, if ever again.  No doubt others who have this book will have different opinions. But for me this book will likely remain a novelty and nothing more…it’s going back on the bookshelf as soon as I finish editing this post.

The “Japanese Shirt-Making” Journey Begins…

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

 

I finally have time to make a shirt from this book, as I first mentioned several weeks ago in these 2 previous posts-

Exploring a Japanese Shirtmaking Book                                                                                        

Fabric and PatternChoices                                                

Having just spent an hour studying the dizzying sheet of traceable patterns and comparing them to various American shirt drafts, I have made some discoveries.  First of all, the Japanese Extra-large size in this book seems to compare to a close-fitting 15/15-1/2 neck Medium size American draft.  Secondly, the seam allowances vary in width from a bit less than 1 cm to about 1.5 cm. By studying the drafts and the very precise sewing instruction diagrams, these variances eliminate the trimming we are used to doing after stitching when using American patterns.  The seam allowances of these patterns may frustrate me a little bit, because when I draft my own patterns I use different seam allowance measurements. In fact, my first inclination was to just trace the pieces on the stitching line, and add on my own seam allowances. However, I am going to trace these “as is”, so I can truly evaluate the entire sewing method of this book.

Here is the Extra-Large Japanese Yoke laid over a Medium Yoke from an American pattern that fits a bit loosely.  I am encouraged that the Japanese draft has the same shoulder slope as the American pattern, and that it is only scant 1/2″ shorter in the shoulder length….because when this American pattern is sewn, the shoulders drop slightly. The back width of the Japanese pattern is almost exactly the same as the American pattern at the point where the bottom of the Yoke meets the Shirt-Back.  Note that the Japanese yoke has a center-back seam, and the American pattern does not. That is why you see the white Japanese Yoke pattern extending beyond the American Yoke pattern at Center-Back.

So here is my plan: Within the next day or so, I plan to trace an Extra-Large size pattern, then cut and stitch together a quick “fitting” muslin.  That way I can give you accurate “finished” measurements of the neck-edge, body circumference, and sleeve length.  If the draft is true and accurate (if all the parts fit together well), I’ll be going on to make a wearable shirt…along with showing you how to enlarge the pattern for bigger sizes. If not, well there are some nifty collar and cuff shapes that I can re-size and use for my hand-drafted patterns, so the purchase of the book will not be a total loss. But now, I am going to start to trace the pattern then sew the muslin…with a positive attitude!  

Draft a Fast and Easy Flounce !

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

 

I made this velour tunic for my niece this morning.
It is a variation of an Ottobre Design pattern (from issue 4-2006, #25),
and the pattern already included pieces for the flounces.

However, you can easily add a flounce to any pattern by drafting it yourself !

I’ll be using a sleeve pattern that includes seam allowances in this example of how to draft a flounce. First, make a copy of the sleeve pattern  to which you will be adding the flounce. Next decide how wide you want the flounce to be, and shorten the pattern from the bottom by that amount then ADD on a 1/4-inch. This extra 1/4-inch is what you’ll need to sew the flounce to the bottom of the sleeve.  Now, using the newly shortened bottom of the sleeve as a guide, draw a simple rectangle that measures the length of the sleeve bottom by the width of the flounce you want PLUS a 1/2-inch (This rectangle will become your flounce pattern after some manipulation). Again, this extra 1/2-inch is what you’ll need to sew the flounce to the sleeve with 1/4-inch left-over to hem the flounce itself.   The photo below shows these steps already completed.  It may sound a little complicated, but all that’s been done so far is to…
Shorten the sleeve length and add a seam allowance to it.   Make a rectangle and add a seam and hem allowance to it.

Now take your rectangular piece, and draw lines on it  that are about an inch apart, as shown below–

Next, cut along these lines, leaving a “hinge” of uncut paper along the top edge like this–

Place this slashed piece on top of another larger piece of blank paper. Now spread the slashes apart by about 1/4-inch, holding them down with tape as you go, as shown below-

Now trace over your newly formed flounce pattern, truing the curves as you go. Now we have a fast and easy flounce pattern…with the seam and hem allowances included…ready to add some design flair to the bottom of a sleeve !

Of course, you can repeat the same steps to add a flounce to any edge, like the bodice hem in the sewn example of the velour tunic at the beginning of this tutorial.

The Power of Personal Appearance

Your clothing and grooming affect the way you think, feel, behave, and the way others react or respond to you. A positive personal appearance allows you to think more positively about yourself and other people. You can’t afford to feel self-conscious or full of self-doubt. A positive personal appearance is a fast, effective way to boost self-confidence and overcome anxiety regarding ability or acceptance. When you appear attractively dressed and groomed you feel more comfortable, confident, and productive.

An image consultant provides image management services that help individuals understand the impact that their appearance communicates to themselves and others. Your appearance is the only thing immediately obvious to other people, you can’t hide it. If you want to change your life or the relationships in it, you need to do an honest assessment of yourself and the image your project. Don’t hold yourself back and take the necessary measures to project a powerful personal appearance!

Eco-Friendly Fashion: Fab or Drab?

The eco-friendly trend is important to the fashion world because it is helping to preserve the environment we live in. There’s a growing concern about toxicity from PBDEs (flame retardants) and other chemicals in clothing and products, organic and renewable materials, such as bamboo, silk, and linen are becoming more admired as alternatives to conventional fibers, produced with pesticides, herbicides and defoliates.

There are a growing number of designers and fashion consultants paying attention to this development and expressing it in their current and future fashion shows and client’s wish lists. Calvin Klein produced a hemp-based pantsuit for the “Future Fashion” show, while Michael Kors designed a dress made of recycled cashmere, and Donatella Versace made a hemp-silk gown. A designer named John Patrick launched “Organic” in 2004, when eco-fashion wasn’t a well known trend. His designs consist of sophisticated looking embroidered coats of organic Vermont wool, recycled silk scarves, vegetable tanned leather jackets and eyelet dresses from recycled cotton. Raina Byler used hemp and soy-cotton blends when she began her 2005 clothing line. Spring 2005 of New York’s fashion week saw big designers such as Oscar de la Renta present apparel made from corn, bamboo, and organic cotton. A new line by Linda Loudermilk consisted of fanciful couture made from organic materials like recycled bottle caps and wood.

Hemp has been around for decades and is part of the eco-fashion world. It can be used to replace many potentially harmful products, such as tree paper (the process of which uses bleaches and other toxic chemicals, apart from contributing to deforestation), cosmetics (which often contain synthetic oils that can clog pores and provide little nutritional content for the skin), plastics (which are petroleum based and cannot decompose), and more. The industrial hemp textile market is increasing quickly with new interesting fabrics being developed every year.

Snow and Sewing

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

Much of the 14″ of snow that fell last week has melted, but we still have enough (with more falling) to make for a pleasant winter landscape.  I just love snow !   …but perhaps that is because Roger does all the shoveling

This is the view from my front door, taken this morning as more snow was softly falling…

This is the view from my side door. The pine trees are so tall, there was no way to get their tops into the photo.  Oh, those thin “sticks” you see are driveway markers. We need them so that when several inches of snow falls, we know where the driveway is!

Now about sewing.  There hasn’t been much of that going on during the past week or so.  The sale we had at Fashion Sewing Supply generated 100’s of orders, which we are still diligently cutting and packing. The last packages will be going out in a day or so. For those of you who ordered…as always, thanks again for shopping with us. Your patronage is more appreciated than you can possibly know.

Another situation that has stopped me from sewing and bogging as much as I would like to, is a lingering injury to my hip.  I am going through some painful treatments, and it is just not possible for me to accomplish everything I need or would like to do. So please bear with me….I’ll be back with more sewing information as soon as possible!

Oh…one more thing.  If you “do” Facebook, feel free to add me as a friend. I am there as Pamela Erny.
Often my quick sewing projects that do not warrant a full blog post end up on Facebook, rather then here

Gathered Sleeve or Puffed Sleeve? …it’s All About the Seam Allowances

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

First…Since many wondered what I’d be making with that luscious striped Japanese knit (shown in a previous post) , you’ll see it pictured above, made into theHotPatterns Riviera AnnisetteTop . The Riviera Annisette Top has gathered sleeves, but I chose to alter the sleeve pattern and make long plain sleeves instead. Why? I just felt that there was enough interest in the fabric itself, and didn’t want to muddy it up with more details.

Now to begin this discussion of gathered sleeve caps, take a look at the blue top, above. It has gathered sleeves that are very subtle. When you make a top, dress or blouse with sleeve cap gathers, you have a choice to make them “puffed” or simply gathered into soft folds. It’s all about the way the sleeve cap seam allowances are pressed.
When the seam allowances are pressed towards the sleeve, you have puffy sleeves like the example to the right. In my opinion, puffy sleeves are usually better suited to the very young…but to each her own

Pressing the seam allowances towards the “body” (neckline) of the garment, results in sleeve cap gathers that lay “flatter”, and present more subtle folds. It’s a small detail, but one that is usually kinder to a mature figure.

Directing the seam allowances of gathers one way or the other can make a difference in other areas of a garment. For instance, pressing the seam allowance of a gathered skirt of a dress “up” towards the bodice will encourage the gathers to lay more flat, in smooth folds. Pressing those same gathers “down” (towards the hem) , will encourage the gathers to puff-up. It’s all about the look you prefer…and now you know you have a choice.

Sewing Notes: Yokes on both of the tops shown interfaced with PRO-SHEER ELEGANCE Fusible Interfacing from ~FASHION SEWING SUPPLY~

Empty Closet = Sewing New Tops

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

Prompted by the fact that I have almost nothing “nice” to wear this season, I managed to get some sewing done this week. Since I can only stand for limited amounts of time because of my injury, tracing new patterns is not an option for me for a while. So I used 2 of my tried and true patterns, HotPatterns Weekender Sunshine Top, and HotPatterns Metropolitan GoodTimes TopThe gray Weekender Sunshine Top, shown above, is made from a luscious wool/cashmere blend sweater knit. I made the neckband a little wider and lengthened the short sleeves to full length. I am thrilled with the way it turned out..it feels so luxurious! If you have this pattern, do try it with long sleeves for the fall/winter. If you don’t have this pattern, it’s really worth a try. It’s so flattering..makes your waist look tiny and that’s always a good thing! I made this style several times last spring, and wrote a step-by-step tutorial about how to sew it. It can be found HERE.
of the Metropolitan GoodTimes Top. The olive green version is made from a wool/cashmere blend sweater knit. The blue print version is made from cotton/lycra jersey, and features shirred sleeves. I am so happy to have some nice new tops…now I just have to muster up enough energy to sew a few more tops, some slacks, and I’ll be all set for this season…maybe

Sewing Notes: The band and yokes on all the tops are interfaced with Pro-Sheer Elegance Fusible Interfacing. The Sweater Knit yardage has been in my ’stash’ for a long time, it was from

Baer Fabrics, now out of business.

The Cotton/Lycra Jersey is from Fabric.com.

Happiness is a Box of new Fabric !

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

Oh…I just love when the UPS guy delivers

a box of beautiful fabrics!

Last week while browsing the Gorgeous Fabrics I just could not resist..and treated myself to some new goodies. The 2 striped pieces that you see are Japanese novelty knits that have a wonderful ribbed texture. And since they have stretch in both directions, design options abound. The vanilla chenille knit is so dreamy soft, and the olive stretch twill coordinates with both Japanese knits. Now can I tell you about the blue Stretch Denim? OMGosh this has to be the nicest denim/lycra blend I’ve ever purchased! The face is absolutely smooth, with none of the annoying slubs found with most stretch denims. Even after washing it’s as smooth as can be. I am so glad I bought enough to make 2 pairs of jeans..one pair that will fit me now while I am carrying extra water weight from medication I have to take for a while..and another for when I am back to normal The quality of this denim is so nice, I may have to go back and get some more….

How to Add Seam Allowances to Traced Patterns…the Easy Way !

Submitted by Off the Cuff Style

There has been some chat on various sewing lists and forums lately about tracing patterns and adding seam allowances to them, so here is a repeat of a tutorial I wrote several months ago that some of you may have missed and may find helpful…

For those of us who draft our own patterns, or trace them from the various pattern magazines, here’s an easy way to add seam allowances–
 

It’s very simple…and while not a new concept, I do it a bit differently.

The method is basic:
Add the seam allowance to the pattern by stitching around the pattern using an un-threaded needle the desired distance from the sewing line.

What’s different about the way I do it?

Well…I have discovered that by using a large Wing Needle, and a very close stitch (.5-1), the excess pattern paper just peels off. No need to cut out the pattern!

Some more information–

I run the pattern through the machine…the traced stitching line of the pattern on the RIGHT….making sure the stitching line of the pattern is on the seam allowance I want. Thus, the needle holes are punched to the left of the stitching line, adding the seam allowance.

I can see through the pattern paper easily enough to be able to run the marked stitching line exactly on the 1/4″, 3/8″, or 5/8″ inch line that is marked on the bed of my machine. If I can’t see through the paper easily, I just use a post-it or piece of blue “painter’s tape” along the desired depth of seam allowance I want to add.

After getting a few questions…here are some additional pictures that hopefully will make this process more clear:

1. Mark the desired seam allowance with painter’s tape to make it visible under the pattern to which you are adding allowances–

2. The blue line on the paper (shown below) is the traced pattern line. Run it along the desired depth of seam allowance you want to add (see depth of seam allowance pic above), using a wing needle. This punches holes in the pattern paper, adding the seam allowance (the distance from the needle to the blue traced line is the added seam allowance)–

Don’t Buy a Dress. Make one … at US$99 here.

Welcome to the $99 Arena of DressTailor.com!

Are you looking for a perfect evening dress? A custom made dress by your tailor should be the best solution. However, the traditional tailoring process could be troublesome, lengthy and costly. Now, at DressTailor.com, you can enjoy personal tailoring service online. The steps are very simple:

• Taking simple DIY measuring;
• Then choose the style, fabric and color you like;
• Then receive your made-to-measure clothes within 4 weeks.

100% Fit = US$99

The professional tailors of DressTailor.com will make you a perfect fit evening dress with high quality fabrics, at an incredible low price of $99. The dress will be made according to your body measurements. You can choose the color you like. You can choose any styles, without modification, from our site. We pass the savings from the simplified order processing to you. We even offer quantity discounts if you order more than one dress.

Stat Key Designer Keys

A designer professor once told me that the key to a good design was innovating on an existing one. Kinda like improvising and adding a new dimension to the product. Take the casestudy of keys; until now the focus has been improving the locking mechanism and safety features. I don’t think many (or any) have considered re-designing the styling of a key per se. Uber-cool transportation designer Greg has. His SUPER COOL Designer STAT KEYS collection are stylized blank keys that can be cut to fit majority of American locks and Kwikset locks.

Keys were handed out at the Emmy Awards, Virgin Unite, and will be in this months Better Homes and Gardens Magazine featured in the article. 

Designer: Gregory Scott Stoermer

-Yanko Design

http://www.statkey.com