Practice Pattern Continued Butterick 5924

A couple of posts ago, I told you that I had decided to do a blouse with some inexpensive fabric as a practice pattern before I start the wedding dress. The pattern came in the mail on Saturday along with all of the patterns that will make the base of my Dear Daughter's dress. Of course, what always happens is you wait, wait, wait for the pattern (or any other long awaited object) to arrive and then when it does, you have other plans, have to work late, or have meetings to attend. This meant that I only just got to start cutting out the pattern tonight.

Following the couture method that I learned in my Craftsy class, I began by finding all of the pieces that I needed to use for view C of the pattern. This is the elbow length, in plaid in the sketch above. Because patterns come in multiple sizes now in order to minimize the confusion, the pattern makers only give you the cutting line and assume that you know to sew with a 5/8" seam. Couture requires a much wider seam line for the fitting and alterations. So it is necessary to draw in the sewing line on the pattern. I used my Sliding Marking Gauge to find and mark this line on each pattern piece.


When this was completed, I pinned the pattern pieces to the muslin fabric that I had prepared on Saturday. One of the things to which I paid careful attention was the grain of the fabric. I measured the distance between the salvage and the grain line on the pattern on both ends. I have to admit, in years past I have mostly just "eyeballed" it, but I need to have better habits if I am to make DD's wedding dress.


I did end up unpinning and unfolding the muslin because the pattern pieces were too wide for the folded 34 inch width muslin that I bought. I had to lay out most of the pieces single thickness and cut 2 pieces individually. Then I used another of the new toys -- er um, tools -- that I got at my local craft and fabric store -- the tracing wheel. With the waxed tracing paper beneath the muslin and the pattern still pinned to the muslin, I used the wheel to trace across each of the seam lines, grain lines and other identifying marks on the pattern. After assuring that all the marks were appropriately transferred to the fabric, I removed the pattern piece, flipped the fabric over and used the my wheel to trace those marks to transfer the same marks to the other side of the fabric.


In addition to cutting out and marking each piece, I took a marker and wrote the pattern number, size, and pattern piece (collar, upper front, lower front, etc) on each piece so that it would be easier to know what each piece is.

Sound tedious? Yes, it was a little tedious, but having the marks on both sides will make the fitting easier in the long run and the ultimate goal is to do a wedding dress with few (visible) errors! After a day working at the office, I only had the energy to cut out and mark a little more than half of the pattern pieces. I still have the sleeves and the 2 upper back pieces to cut out and mark. Hopefully, I can get all these pieces finished tomorrow and begin the next step. . .and no, that is not sewing them together -- yet!

Happy tracing with a wheel!!!