News — The Week in Patterning Storyboard

In a sort of Advents-Kalendar way, I will post 'red' for each day of December through Christmas and link the image as closely as possible to EvaDress Patterns (in pattern tour form)! Here is the twenty-fourth, as with ALL EvaDress Patterns, a design from the past but,  nod to the 2020 New Year, a red 1929 Evening Frock a customer in Australia! https://evadress.com/products/1929-evening-frock-e20-5941 Sew the look using our 1929 Evening Frock pattern, originally by McCall: See more customer creations and a little How-to for this pattern and as featured in a Pattern Tour Story Board here.

Think of the ever popular 1929 Evening Gown with Handkerchief Hem as origami in dressmaking. When sewing this design together, you will 'flip' the Lower Back and Side piece after joining it with the Front piece at notch '4'.  This ensures the piece will fold and drape to create sharp points in the hem as well as bring notch '6' in the upper edge of the Lower Back and Side piece to align with that on the Girdle.  Hopefully this paper mock-up demonstrates the point (pun intended):   Here is a creative twist put on this design as sewn by a...

This week’s pattern tour covers the Katharine Hepburn Ensemble pattern. It was 10 years ago I wrote the six-page article, ‘Working with Vintage Patterns’ for Threads Magazine focusing on this scarce pattern. It’s commemorative. So here is… Howard Greer designed the dress, jacket and hat ensemble Katharine Hepburn wore in her first starring role in RKO’s ‘Christopher Strong’ (1933). The costuming a great filmic narrative; in this case, she wears the kimono jacket with cut-away shoulders at the time she is really opening up with her love for Christopher. The dress underneath is a simple A-line yet touched with sophistication...

It was tough to evaluate the entries in the EvaDress Patterns Fabulous Forties Challenge because they were, well so fab! Lil from Oz took the finalist spot for her versatile ensemble of the 1945 high-waist trousers and 1945 beach tops! While she said she did not consider herself as a ‘1940s’, Lil sure pulled it off using a lovely combination of linen, wool and flowers! Extra meaningful, the trousers and braces are in lightweight wool from her mother’s cache of fabrics. She re-sized the trousers (currently a single-size pattern) to fit and added fun contrasting pockets. The inside scoop: plain...

Excuse my absence, been inundated with network issues and a dental procedure, as late.  As I touched on last week, it's often a better garment when cut on the bias versus the straight of grain.  This week, I demonstrate this in my improvement of a Big Four pattern, namely Vogue 8191 (OOP).  I cut the top front on the bias in two pieces, versus the one piece to avoid undesired asymmetry. Many may already know one side of a bias cut garment behaves differently than its opposite side.  Here, the armholes would have draped differently with the bodice cut in...