Clara laid a large sheet of pattern paper over her corkboard, and then laid the front panel of the jacket over the paper. Smoothing the fabric carefully to ensure the grainline was perfectly straight, she began the "rubbing" process.
With her fresh paper pattern cut out, Clara was ready for the ultimate test: the muslin toile. She cut the pattern pieces out of cheap unbleached cotton and basted them together on her sewing machine. Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit: Using the Rub-...
Taking her fine pins, she pushed them straight down through the seam lines of the jacket, through the paper, and into the corkboard below. She placed a pin every half-inch along the curved armscye and the collar. Clara laid a large sheet of pattern paper
She repeated this painstaking process for the back panel, the collar, and the complex two-piece sleeve, always checking that the corresponding seam lengths matched each other perfectly. 🪡 The Moment of Truth She cut the pattern pieces out of cheap
The next step was "truing" the pattern. Clara took her French curve and straight rulers to connect the dotted lines left by the tracing wheel, smoothing out the wobbles.
The art of dressmaking often feels like a conversation between the fabric and the form, but for Clara, that conversation had become a series of frustrating arguments. Her latest project—a vintage-inspired Dior-style jacket—was a masterpiece on the hanger, but on her own body, the shoulders pulled, the bust gaped, and the waist sat an inch too high. Clara was an expert at following commercial patterns, but she was realizing that her body did not fit the industry standard.