Advent Calendar: Day 3

By Circe -

Back in 2020, one of the ways I tried to keep myself from going bonkers was sewing. I always have a stash of fabric, if not from the local discount fabric store, then at least from various dead and dying garments I've disassembled for the raw materials. I started ages ago making bags and purses, and oddly enough, small plushies. Normally, those aren't novice projects; plushies can be small and fiddly and get into odd bits of 3D design that apparently most people have trouble with? I always just think of the seam lines like a wireframe model, but I also have an equally-amateur background in 3D CAD modeling, which most sewists don't.

Eventually I did get around to making actual clothing, for myself and others. I started those with commercial patterns, but didn't stay there long. Commercial patterns are drafted for a standard body with standard proportions, which is decidedly not me. So by the time I adjusted things for a full bust and hip and a short torso and wide shoulders and short rise... well, the original pattern wasn't very useful anymore. Learned a lot about gussets, though!

These days I mostly copy extant garments, or just drape things on myself in front of a mirror. But if you would like to do things in a more technically-correct, mathematical way, I recommend the Closet Historian. She has actual technical training, and here I have embedded her video on how to draft a basic bodice pattern that actually fits you. It's magic.

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