Category: Blog

Shelf Bust dress – creating the pleated bust Occasionally you can come across different sized circles on a commercial pattern to differentiate areas on the garment being made.  You will often see this when pleats or tucks are being created.  I am presently working on Butterick 5882 by Gertie, a reproduction pattern inspired by 1950’s ‘Shelf…
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Mrs Bowden’s top tip – constructing a dart Part 3 – pressing This is the third part of the dart construction story and this deals with pressing of the dart once it has been sewn and the end tied off. Quite often in commercial patterns you will be told which direction to press the dart. …
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This is the second part of the dart construction story and this deals with the sewing and tying off of the dart. Once you have prepared the dart by marking it, pinning and/or tacking you are ready to sew.  Remove the tailor’s tacks at this point.  It is very important to start at the widest…
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This is a stitch used to transfer information from a paper pattern to the fabric. On a commercial pattern you will see little circles within the pattern piece. These mark where a tailor tack should be made. You can use tailor tacks as a temporary way of marking fabric to show dart positions, pleats, pocket…
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Constructing a dart Part 1   Constructing a dart is a wonderful, useful and dare I say, essential, technique to master.  Many garments will feature some form of fitting and darts, as well as pleats, tucks, seam shaping and gathering are used to create shapes.  There are a few tricks I can impart to make…
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Mrs Bowden’s top tip – removing tailor tacks I am just off on a short break to the Latitude Festival and have been busy making plenty of lovely vintage style dresses for myself and friends.  I have been inspired to write this week’s top tip as have spent considerable time removing the dredges of tailor…
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One of the reasons we often are drawn to Vintage fashion is the lovely silhouette often seen on dresses from the 1950’s.  There is no better feeling, in my opinion, than swirling about in a full skirted dress.  I think we sometimes overlook the foundation garments worn at the time to help achieve that nipped…
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  If you are using a vintage pattern you will notice that it is precut to one size.  There may be a number of style options for collars and cuff variations, for example, but fundamentally you only have one size to deal with and the pattern pieces are already trimmed ready to use.  However, contemporary…
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Perfect dress straps We often have to create straps for garments – you can see I have almost finished this 1950’s sundress with crossover straps travelling from the back to the front. Getting them flat and even in width is what we are aiming for so this week’s top tip offers a few techniques for…
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There are many pattern symbols you will be familiar with but sometimes we can stumble across an overlooked or more unusual sign when using a commercial dressmaking pattern. I’m presently working on this little number, Vogue 8974. Here is the pattern piece for the front bodice. The circle with the cross in it indicates the…
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