Building the pattern - Sewing book thoughts

Hello,

This is something new that I've never done before: thoughts (or a review) about a sewing book. So I hope my thoughts help those who are wandering if you want to buy this book or not.

In the spring I made myself a trench coat and after countless of different variations a decided on Named's Isla. I also bought their first book "Breaking the pattern" last summer. I've been sewing this year a lot, maybe because I've had the time and the inspiration to do it (honestly I've wanted to reduce my stash, but that is another story). 

So when I saw that they were publishing a new book, Building the pattern, I actually preordered it. I have never done that before, but their pocket pattern for trousers looked pretty and I totally fell in love with the wrap skirt pattern.

And this past month I actually had the time to make two projects from the book: the Sorja Wrap skirt and the Luova shirtdress. You can see all the different patterns and the variations on their website. Both are sewn from cotton poplin, bought from Marimekko's Outlet.

The book has three parts: instructions on how to make adjustments to get the fit right, general sewing instructions and then the patterns.

My first thoughts:

The book is visually nice and the pictures and diagrams are nicely done. It has been written with much attention to details and includes so many things that people who sew like. I think that only thing that was missing was a blank sheet for your own notes :) But the pages have empty space so you can write down notes in the margins if needed.

The pictures show the general idea on how the clothes are supposed look like when worn. It has shots of the details in different variations and even showing the back of the garment when worn. It actually helps a lot, when you try to imagine what the finished garment looks like if you sew it. 

(My rant: so often sewing magazines feature a nice pose of the model with no thought on the garment itself. For example if you are making a jacket and the model is striking a pose with the said jacket open and little bit bend over, it impossible to try to figure out the fit of the shoulder seams in that photo. I appreciate good photos in the pattern that tell you how that garment is supposed to look like)

The book feels heavy, because the paper it is printed on is thick, so the pages turned when opened and placed on the table. I had to flip through pages when sewing a project, should've used post-its, makes the flipping quicker and easier.

Instructions on adjustments:

Absolutely my favorite part of the book!  The book has good pictures and diagrams with simple explanations on how those adjustments are made to different pattern pieces. The diagrams are clear with color codes and the explanations are kept short and simple.

In the end I didn't need to make any special adjustments to my clothes. I shortened the dress from the hem by few cm and moved the pockets a bit higher. The patterns are designed for someone who is 170cm, and me being 164cm requires some adjustments of the length. I also added pockets to the skirt.  I actually read that section tgrough after flipping through my book and I learnt a lot about adjusting the patterns from it and I'll definitely return to that section, if I ever need to make adjustments to the patterns.

The general sewing instructions:

I think every sewing pattern has these I guess. I skipped through most of them and only read the bits that were relevant for my projects. 

The sizing chart was easy enough to read and it has different sizing systems from over the world included, so figuring out your size was pretty easy.

The patterns:

The idea is to build a capsule wardrobe from the clothes and the book has 6 patterns (plus a bag) or pattern blocks that give you twenty different variations in the end, at least according to their website. There is for example a pattern that you can make into a top, dress, wrap dress and wrap skirt or a pattern that you can sew into trousers, shorts and jumpsuit.

The patterns are step-by-step instructions with pictures and illustrations. The written instructions are simple and even I as a non-English native was able to get through the instructions with the help of the illustrations quite easily. I liked that there was the chart of finished measurements of the sewn garment, because some of the patterns have a lot of ease and I definitely would've made the dress too big for me without the instructions pointing that out.

Because there are so many different variations and all instructions for the variations are included in the pattern. I had to really be careful (at least with the dress pattern) that I was following the right variation instructions/illustrations at some steps of the pattern. Some of the variation instructions are at the beginning of the pattern (like the hidden snap closure for the dress was in the overview of the pattern), so reading the pattern (very) carefully before (and when) sewing helps a lot. 

The pattern sheets are stored in  the back of the book )in an attached box, which I liked.  There is also an option to download and print the separate patterns in size that you are making (if you like that), but I'm so used to tracing patterns that I didn't use that option. 

The placement of the patterns on the sheets was okay, but somehow I felt that I was moving the pattern sheet a lot to when tracing.  Sometimes you even had to turn the sheet around when tracing and change pattern sheets. I didn't like it, but I guess the reason for that was to keep the sheets clean and nice-looking and not too crowded (/having the same same patterns pieces, like pockets, in every sheet) like in some magazine pattern sheets.

The different variations were marked on the sheet quite ok and were easy to distinguish from each other, when you read all the markings carefully. 

I think the book was worth the money I spent on it, because I actually made something from it (I haven't made anything from their first book yet...) which for me is an important criteria for a book. I think I might make another wrap skirt if I find a nice viscose, I liked that pattern so much.

I like how the book has been put together with the sewists in mind: good visuals, simple diagrams, easy to read charts and the instructions on pattern adjustments, and the quality of the product. 

At some points the written instructions could've been clearer/placed differently on the page to make it easier to follow.  Maybe using numbers in illustrations to match the step in the pattern or I could've used a pencil to highlight the variation I was making. 

Would I use these designs as a basis for my capsule wardrobe? Probably not, not all of the designs are my style or something I'd like to wear, but I like the idea of making a pattern that can be modified into many different clothes. If I was sewing a capsule wardrobe for myself, I'd probably pick a few of the patterns of this book to be included in that, like a loosefitting shirt and a detailed jumpsuit, or use some of the details used in this book, like the pockets for trousers. 

So these are my opinions and thoughts about the book, I hope you found them helpful!

-Minttusuklaa

Isla trench coat - my trench project

Hello,

I finally got to post about my huge project from the spring: The Isla trench coat

This post has been in the making for a long time and I hope you can learn something, if you plan on making a trench coat someday.

I don't know where I got the idea to make a trench coat. I own one that I bought secondhand and it is okay to use, but somehow I decided that I needed a one.

I bought this lovely dark forest or army green fabric from Marimekko's Outlet a couple of years ago and planned to make overalls from it at first. But then I just changed the plan and wanted to make it into a coat instead. My problem was that I had only bought 2,75meters of it so I knew there was no extra fabric,

I think I spent countless of hours thinking about the pattern and the features the coat should have- I even started to watch a trench sew along from YouTube just to be sure that I could actually sew it without destroyin my fabric. 

Then I started to search for the pattern and that took months to decide. I had some patterns from the 90s or early 2000s in my stash and those were a no. Then I bought a few of Finnish sewing magazines second hand and traced three different trench coats and made two muslins. And those just didn't fit right or there were some features that I didn't like in the patterns. After the second muslin that wasn't quite right and I was back to square one, I almost gave up on the project. 

I had gone through different options that I found as PDFs and Named's Isla trench coat had been modified by so many people on Instagram and in sewing blogs that I decided to give it ago. The pattern itself wasn't the cheapest, but I had seen so many wonderful coats on Instagram so I knew that you could end up with a fabulous coat. The pattern was totally worth it. Even though it was a lot of work to tape all the patterns together (and I figured out the layering when printing out the lining section). I chose the size 40 and then adjust the pattern from that size if needed.

Modifications I made before sewing the muslin:

The original is a long trench coat, but I wanted to shorten it. I shortened the original pattern by 23cm, if I remember correctly it was 4cm below the bust darts, 6cm above the hip line. And 13 cm in the hem.

This shortening solved one problem for me: I have wide shoulders so my size was 40 based on the bust measurement, but my waist and hips were smaller in size. When shortening the pattern, I ended up tracing the pattern to a smaller size in the hem. It worked really well, otherwise the coat would've been too wide to my taste. I had to remember to do the same for the lining also.

The pattern is designed for 170cm and I'm shorter (164cm), I changed the place for the pockets by moving them upwards by 2cm and a size smaller inwards. This way the pockets sit comfortably and not too low.

I also added some length, maybe 1 or 2cm to the sleeves just in case. So often when I buy a jacket that fits otherwise, but the sleeves are too short.

I shortened the vent also. I don't remember how much, but quite a lot. 

With these modifications the muslin fit really well and didn't do any other modifications in the end.

The cutting part was easy, except my orange viscose lining. I had to cut some parts twice, because it was just so slippery and moved when cutting. I absolutely wanted an orange lining from viscose, and there was only one place in Finland that sold it. 

There was just enough fabric for the coat, I think I still have about 40cmx30cm piece left. 

The sewing process:

It took actually quite long, almost a month, because I only had a bit time here and there to sew. The difficult parts were the welted pockets, I almost cut too much when turning the openings inside. Luckily I had some textile glue that used to prevent the fabric from tearing. And there was so much ironing, after every step. 

I didn't have too much trouble when sewing otherwise... I even figured how to sew the vent with the help of YouTube (just insert: "how to sew a vent" and watch couple of videos). Some sharp corners aren't as pointy as I would like and my topstitching isn't always even, but I can live with that and it really doesn't show since my thread matched the fabric so well. 

I was worried about the sleeves, but I didn't have trouble when inserting them into the armholes. I had paid extra attention to the seam allowances and the shape of the pieces while cutting, so the prep worked well done paid off.

Even the lining was quite straightforward to sew and didn't give me headache. Only when I turned the coat, the lining tore at the opening a little (there was too much fabric), but I was able to fix it. At first I made the buttonholes too small and had to continue them for a few millimeters, but they turned out fine.

The pattern was well written. Even as a non-native English speaker, I was able to sew it. I haven't sewn that much from English patterns, but Named's website provided a glossary for Finnish-English. That helped and also the illustrations in the pattern are quite good and simple.

The details of this pattern are quite amazing, the only thing missing are probably the eupalettes on the shoulders, but I guess this coat doesn't need them. The strap collar is pretty and shapes of the capes are just perfect. 

I found my buttons from a online second hand market place, after a few weeks of waiting and checking if someone was selling buttons. I had visited a few shops and checked a few online shops for buttons. It was so hard to find matching buttons in different sizes from one place. The coat needed different sized buttons and most places only sold one size that was good enough or were just so expensive, so it was a real find in the end. 

I'm so happy with the result and it was worth going through all the trouble when choosing the pattern and making all those muslins and tracing all the version. I already am planning some other projects from the magazines I bought for the pattern and the shirt in the first picture is actually from one of those magazines, so even that money wasn't wasted.

I ended up with a coat that I totally wore in May almost daily, even when the weather got a bit too hot for a lined coat.

- Minttusuklaa