Quite possibly my favourite book ever...

At the end of my last post I told you that some exciting things were due to be coming through my letterbox. One of them was Cal Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes that I've been thinking about buying for a while now. Words can't quite express how much I love this book, but perhaps if I tell you that I stayed up until nearly 1am and read it cover-to-cover in one sitting that might give you some clue as to just how good it is. Cal advises you to dive right in and start making things, as her instructions will be clearer if you're involved in a practical task...but actually, her teaching technique is so fantastic that I was able to follow everything and understand her formula and techniques for doing things almost straight away...it all makes such good sense (and this is really saying something, as I don't comprehend complicated things easily).

The book's aim is to give you the ability to make garments fitted perfectly to your own unique body shape and size. The book is full of examples that you can follow, but you quickly realise that you can merge them together and add in your own details as the focus is on pattern-making (not how you sew the pattern pieces together), which gives you more freedom to introduce your own ideas. After taking 24 measurements from around your body (see picture), you learn to draw out an accurate pattern using these, as well as how to add in extra inchage for darts, ease, seam allowances and how to guesstimate your sweep circumference (that's the circumference of the hem of your intended garment). Cal shows you how to do everything in such a way that it quickly becomes instinctive as to the processes you need to go through to make a pattern work if you alter any one of the variables that you've already drafted in (such as a dart). It made me realise that I'd missed so many basics in my own pattern making - like the idea that waists and hems are not straight lines, but gently curve to flatter your own curves, or that it's essential that all the corners must remain square at 90 degree angles...and yes, you're shown how to blend these two things together. She manages to make complex tasks (such as 'slash and spread' - where you slash and spread your basic pattern to give a fuller, twirlier skirt) feel completely do-able.

I've felt horribly stunted by my own poor understanding of how to draft a pattern and so this book feels like an absolute gift. As soon as I'd finished reading it I was desperate to start making something using the techniques. The only suitable material left in the house for dressmaking was the half-metre remnant from the dress in the last post, so I decided to make a denim skirt using a side fastening (having seen it in action looking completely fabulous here) that features in one of her patterns as I don't own a denim skirt that doesn't go weirdly pouchy over the stomach area where the front zip is. I blended the fastening with Cal's method for making a basic A-line skirt and also drafted in my own internal (as opposed to patch) side pockets to add a bit of interest.

I bound the pockets with home-made denim bias tape and lined the inside of the pockets with a brown Denyse Schmidt print from the Katie Jump Rope range.

And then to add to the fun of dressing in the morning I bound the waist band with the same print...no you can't see it from the outside...but I know it's there and it makes me utterly happy.

I then added some more Jump Rope fabric to the bottom of the hem and used this as the turn up inside the skirt...you can see a peek of it when sitting cross legged...I wish all my skirts had this on now.

So the actual fit of the skirt...well, Cal's methods really do work. It feels like it has been made just for me. In a rare fit of patience I made a muslin (rough version of the garment using cheap material) to check the fit first and did end up adjusting darts and altering the waist size a little. The muslin was an old bed sheet...it's hard to assess whether you have the right balance between fitted and clingy when working a thread-bare bed sheet saved from teenagehood, but I do think it is so worth doing even with this poor stand-in material and now can't believe that I would ever have dreamt of jumping right in there (Cal advises that you use the same weight of fabric for the muslin as you intend to use for the final item...I didn't quite manage that bit).

Skirts can often be a bit gapey around the waist at the back, but this fits perfectly.

The thing that I enjoyed most was that with a new confidence that the finished item would fit I was able to pay more attention to putting in little finishing details, feeling that it was worth the investment in time.

This book has done nothing at all to dampen my new-found obsession with clothes-making and I'm already planning my next project which I'll make by adapting Cal's basic pattern for a t-shirt (it has a yoke and ruffles and all sorts...or is this a case of running before walking?). I'm feeling less confident about this as setting sleeves in isn't my strong point and I don't remember having worked with jersey either.

This is the final skirt - for those also taking their first steps with Cal's book my sweep circumference was 9" bigger than my low hip circumference here. I mention this because I would have found this information helpful as sweep circumference is a sort of guesstimated measurement, rather than an actual one and it's really hard to visualise just how big an A-line your final sweep measurement will actually yield.

I think out of every sewing book I've ever owned this is the one that I would recommend the most. Most of the craft books that I buy are for eye-candy purposes only. This one, however, is utterly practical and I have already written all over the pages with notes and measurements, making it feel akin to a well-loved cookbook that I can imagine eventually falling apart through over-use.

And just in case you are tiring of the incessant clothes talk and seeing pictures of my headless body I have some goodies to show you in my next post that I made last week for a custom order...I do love the odd things that people ask me to make and this one proved to be a welcome break from dressmaking.

Happy Monday,

Florence x