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*Beh* I Hate Doing Toiles...

Started by NicoleBridget, June 02, 2010, 09:59:19 AM

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NicoleBridget

I'm drafting a pattern for a square neck smock with knife pleats and I'm sooooooooooo tired of making toiles...  I draft a pattern, make a toile, tweak the pattern, make a toile, curse the pattern, make a toile...  I want to cut into my linen already!  I know the importance of doing a mockup first, especially since I've never made a smock before, and I know it will save me stress and headaches in the long run but I'm itching to get to the final version already! 

I keep thinking...well maybe I could start it and I'll just be super, mega, ultra careful and think out every step before I cut and make liberal use of basting stitches...but I know that will end in having to order more linen because I've botched it somehow.  Sort of like telling yourself you don't need to change out of your good t-shirt or pants before painting a wall because you'll be super, mega, ultra careful not to slop paint all over...but do it anyway.

*Beh*  Hoping this last toile is IT.  End of rant, thanks for listening.

NicoleBridget

Oh and by the by, can anyone recommend any good books on pattern drafting and draping?  I'm almost 100% positive I'm making the process much more difficult than it needs to be but I can't seem to wrap my brain around anything different....

gem

Hee!  Where were you last week? (grin)

"Mockup Fatigue" thread


Happily, I had my smock pattern after "just" 5 versions!

I'm trying to picture a square-neck smock with knife pleats. Do you mean like a really full Italian camicia, where there's tons of fullness in the body, all pleated into band sewn around the neckline?

Lady Rosalind

I hate mock-ups, too! But, it really does save time in the long run, especially for bodices and corsets!

Here is something I learned from making smocks and shirts: The most important parts to fit are the shoulders, neckline (low-necked smocks only), collar, cuffs, and sleeve length. Everything else is covered, so if it is a bit big, it's no problem. For shoulders on shirts and high-necked smocks, you can always just cut the shoulder slit to fit, rather than redrafting the pattern. For example, my son's shoulders are only just starting to get broader, and he has a bit of a belly, so I used the pattern size that would fit around his belly/chest, and just cut the shoulder slit longer so that the sleeve seams would end up on the right spot, and not halfway down his biceps. Since the neckline is gathered into the collar anyway, this was a quick way to make it work. It also works for a woman's high-necked smock.  ;D Low-necked smocks are harder to fit, but you can always add rectangular side panels to the body if you have narrower shoulders and more in the chest area than the pattern calls for. ;) 

Good luck!

NicoleBridget

Oops...sorry to double post  :-X  I can't believe you're having the exact same thoughts right now, Gem.  But yes, I guess it's an Italian camicia I'm trying to do, I just didn't know that until you described it!  Knife pleating into the bottom of the neck facing, yup.  Can anyone recommend a pattern for that or even a pattern generator?  I don't think Eliz Costuming had one for this style...  The pattern I'm coming up with looks so silly, I'd love to double check myself against a professional smock.

Lady Rosalind, even with the few measurements I need to make this smock properly I'm still so kerbobbled with it, and it really surprised me.  I honestly thought...well, it's just a whole bunch of rectangles and it doesn't have to have an exact fit so how hard could it be?  *Peh*

gem

I haven't seen one that's pleated into a facing, but I am 100% positive I've seen one pleated into a square neckband (mitered corners, IIRC).  I will see if I can hunt it down this afternoon, but you might check Festive Attyre and Kat's Purple Pages (and maybe the Renaissance Tailor, but that seems less likely) to start.

operafantomet

Quote from: NicoleBridget on June 03, 2010, 11:05:00 AM
Oops...sorry to double post  :-X  I can't believe you're having the exact same thoughts right now, Gem.  But yes, I guess it's an Italian camicia I'm trying to do, I just didn't know that until you described it!  Knife pleating into the bottom of the neck facing, yup.  Can anyone recommend a pattern for that or even a pattern generator?  I don't think Eliz Costuming had one for this style...  The pattern I'm coming up with looks so silly, I'd love to double check myself against a professional smock.
I've used this in the past, and was very happy with it:
http://www.festiveattyre.com/research/chemise.html

gem

And that version at Festive Attyre does include the following notation:
QuoteFor a square neckline, miter the corners of the neckband where the sleeve pieces meet the body, and tack it down. To make this type of miter, I simply fold the binding in on itself and fiddle with it until makes an "L" shape. I know that is a horrible description, but it is pretty easy to figure out once you start messing with it.

gem

Nicole, here's a dress diary with a cutting diagram for a camicia with the neckline pleated into a square band:

http://www.songsmyth.com/1560camicia.html