This is going to be the first of two posts about the Creative Pattern Cutting course I did at Morley College last weekend. This was the second course I have done on both this subject and at the College - and so far I can readily recommend it.

The course is based on Tomoko Nakamichi's Pattern Magic 2 - the previous course was on the first book. 

Over the two days I managed to make up four of the patterns with varying results. I attempted the "Like a jungle", "Fundamentals", "Vanishing Pocket" and the Cowl neck. As before the course is really about drafting up patterns using the books as guidance - so the aim of the weekend was not to have wearable garments at the end. That said, this time I did make up muslins of each item.

Like a jungle

The aim of this exercise is to create a multi-stranded bodice which removes the need for any darts. 

So the basic bodice is split into sections - each of which the will make up a strand. One thing to remember is that no matter how spaced the strands get in the centre, they have to match at the edges where they will be reattached to each other to make up the bodice shape. 

I used a bodice front to make up the sections and it does give an interesting - if slightly drafty - effect.

You'd have to be fairly brave to wear it in this manifestation!

One of the other women on the course had a much better idea - do the same thing to the back of a top:

As you can see, it becomes instantly more wearable. I can imagine this as both the back of an elaborate gown (think Oscar night) - but it could also be the back of a casual summer tunic.

Cowl neck

Another lovely feature for the back was the cowl.  To be honest this wasn't the most arduous of exercises but I want to draft one as they are just so useful.  I'm a sucker for anything with a cowl so I knew it was a pattern I would reuse.

For this style the original back bodice is simply elongated across the centre and then the top is chopped off.

This is my version in calico - not the drapiest of fabrics so it looks little more like a gnomes hood than an elegant evening dress. But then again I'm probably more closely related to a gnome than to a film star!

This week is Pattern Magic week here at the Material Girl (I wish every week was). Over the weekend I have been on the second of the Creative Pattern courses at Morley college. I loved the first one which was split over two Saturdays - Day one and Day two.  If anything this second course (based on the book Pattern Magic 2) was even better.

However, I'm going to keep you at the edge of your seats and leave that post until tomorrow - basically I haven't had time to edit my photos yet! However a fantastic account of the weekend can be found on my fellow attendee, Melissa's blog - www.fehrtrade.com/article/570/the-pattern-magic-2-course-at-morley-college

So, today, I'm going to hit you with a follow up from the work I did on the first course.  

One of the items I loved the look of in the first book was the twist top which is rendered in a lovely looking brown jersey.  The basic block is given for an "average" size which you then manipulate. After some reworking to make it this woman's average size I was ready to twist the basic pattern.

The strange corrugation you see is because I'm using packing polystyrene foam. I have rolls of the stuff left over from a house move that didn't happen and it was the only thing wide enough fo the job in hand.

Once you have made you manipulations, you cut out two of the same shape and stick them together (cutting of one arm and putting it one the other side)

After that it's a simple case of cutting out your one pattern piece and sewing the sides together.

I used a ribbed, thick (ooh er) jersey, which was probably a bit too stiff for the project (ok, enough double entendres for one sentence) - however, I'm really pleased with the result even if it looks nothing like the picture in the book.

There's really  a bit too much material around the shoulders, but as the fabric is stiff it gives a really nice exaggerated effect. Also, the fabric does like staying in its twist and tends to travel around my midriff.

Rightio, that's your lot for today - more Magic soon.

I'm a fan of silent films (yes, even before The Artist became the year's big hit) and I'm also lucky enough to live in London where you can see these films as they are supposed to be shown - at a cinema with a live piano accompaniment.

The Prince Charles cinema, just around the corner from Leicester Square, is currently showing a silent film once a month and so on Thursday I went along with Andrew and our friends Rob and Jake to see The Cameraman - a Buster Keaton film from 1928.

Personally I don't think its one of his masterpieces but its interesting as it must be one of the first films to turn the camera on film itself as Keaton plays a street photographer trying to become a movie news cameraman. On the way he falls over quite a lot and gets the girl (and the cutest monkey in a sailor suit ever exploited for our entertainment).

It was also the first outing of a new blouse made from one of my Japanese Pattern books. The only translation I've been able to find for the book is the catchy "Lets begin to sewing the clothes, when we made decision of pattern".

I'm afraid the photos don't really show the blouse to its full advantage - but I think it shows our night to it's full extent!

It has a really cute sailor top effect - and next time I make it I will bring out that element a bit more.

And here I am eyeing up my next film - Nosferatu. The only problem is Andrew says he doesn't want to go and I think I'll be too scared to come home alone!

And finally, here I am channeling Jerry lee Lewis after the pianist had left.  If any of the Prince Charles ushers are out there - I did not really touch the piano!

One of my sewing New Years resolutions was to make an item out of every Japanese sewing book that I own. How hard can that be? Well, I hadn't realised I owned 12 of them - and that's not counting drafting magazines such as Cotton Time. The speed I make things there is now way I can make 12 things and still fit everything else in.

Well, out of those 12 book I have already made things from three of them

- the reversible top from Unique clothes anyway you wish

 - the heartbreak blouse from Simple Chic

 -the frankendress from Feminine Wardrobe an Simple Chic

So in my books I'm counting it that I have 9 left to make.

Here's the first - a draped front top from the book Kimono Remake.

Unfortunately its not my most successful project. This book is one of those where you draft the pattern yourself - and they only give instructions for one size.  It's also unusual in that it contains  patterns for recycling kimonos - so all the pattern pieces are below a certain width to take advantage of the strips of fabric from a kimono.

I did make a toile and when I couldn't get that over my head I remade it adding an extra centimetre to each of the body panel seams. This has still given a fit that is quite snug in the body but at the same time ill-fitting! Plus I think the fabric was a mistake - again it was just a cheapy from East Street market - and boy does it look cheap! 

I'm afraid its just iphone photos - therefore rubbish. Plus I can't smile and work a camera at the same time. On this front view you can see how badly it sits along the sides - various lumps and bumps become apparent.

The arms are a bit of a disaster too

I couldn't get the rolled hem on the fabric to sit flat  - the fabric is too thick.

All in all, not a great start.  Perhaps it would work in a thinner, drapier fabric - but I don't think it is for me.

Day 2 (the final day) of the Creative Pattern course saw even more creativity from the Pattern Magic books.

The course was very much based on creating your own patterns from the drafting instructions given in the book. Most of the time it was like a technical drawing class rather than a sewing class – but these outfits are what the fashion editors would call “architectural” so you have to concentrate on the patterns – the sewing is then the easy bit.

Working on from last week’s class I drafted the sleeve pattern – nothing weird and wacky on this but good basic pattern drafting practice.

This was followed by an attempt at the crossover front top – I’ve always liked this pattern in the book.

Here’s how it looks on paper halfway through the process – it’s a real leap of faith that it is going to turn into anything resembling clothes!

And here is it made up in muslin. I only did the front so it’s just pinned to my top – but I think you can definitely make out the beginnings of a wearable item.

I can really recommend this class - it has really transformed the books for me. Previously, even though I had read through them several times, I just didn’t “get” it. Now I feel I have the confidence to attempt any of designs – no matter how complicated.

The instructor – Mons (Monisola Omotoso) was great. A wonderfully experienced designer and pattern cutter who has had her own lines selling to the likes of Paul Smith. She really got me to see the “science” of the drafting. She is running another weekend class in February 2012 at Morley College. If you live in London and have always wanted to attempt these books, I would say BOOK NOW!

What a fab weekend! Saturday saw the first day (of two) of a course I am doing at Morley College, near Waterloo in South London. The course is Creative Pattern Cutting and is based on the Pattern Magic book - the first one.

I love this book - and have it in both Japanese and English (not for completest reasons - I just bought the Japanese one before the English was available). That said, I have not made anything out of the books as they just seemed a bit too complicated - yes, even in English. They are not like the other Japanese pattern books I use - there is not Burda-style pattern pull-out. You are meant to draft your own patterns.

The course so far is great - I have drafted out two of the patterns from the book - but more importantly, I have started to understand the terms needed within the book and so I should be able to cope a little better at home with them.

My only small criticism would be the class size (12) and the class ability range. We started the lesson going around the table and talking about our experience and I got nervous when a number of the people there were semi-professional. However, the reality was very different and I found some of the people on the course unbelievably slow - a pain when everyone needs to move ahead together. That said, the course is an amazing £48 for the two days including all our materials (although not the book of course!).

These are the two projects I've gone through the process for - 

Bamboo shoot front top

Stage 1 - the unaltered front bodice

Stage 2 - Adding the new cutting lines

I've managed to miss a photo of the pattern cut out and spread to recreate the new pattern.

My finished pattern

The Deppari Shirt

I'm afraid I was getting into this so much I forgot to take any photos as I was going along!

My next step is to make these up in muslin - so I will post more photos then. I have another day on the course on Saturday coming - but I will try to use that to draft out more of the patterns to get more practice on that rather than sewing up the designs in fabrci - I can do that at home.

They are running a follow-up to the course in February - I'm already signed up!

It was a bank holiday here in the UK – which means a lovely long weekend off work and the chance to go out on a Sunday night – how decadent!

I thought I’d show off a recent project of mine – another version of the reversible blouse from the Japanese pattern book “Unique clothes anyway you want”. The idea of the book is that all the items in it can be worn in more than one way.

I’ve made this blouse before in white silk, but I thought I’d crack out something nicer after my disaster last week with the vintage stuff. It’s a Liberty print – but I can’t remember what it is called.

The afternoon / evening started off quite respectably with a trip to the Whitechapel gallery, just off Brick Lane.
We saw the Government Art collection among a couple of exhibitions. It is a selection of art chosen by various government members – including Cameron (Mr and Mrs), Clegg and Peter Mandelson.  Call me a cynic, but I can’t help wondering how much the paintings were chosen because the person liked them and how much they were chosen based on showing an façade of being an “ordinary” person. I mean, Samantha Cameron chose a Lowery – working class Manchester being close to her heart growing up in a baronetcy.

After a couple of drinks, we headed over to Pizza East in Shoreditch.  Really nice pizzas but I didn’t really like the place – everyone was trying a bit too hard. Maybe I’m just intimidated by the cool gang!

Anyway, as you can see, the respectability deteriorated very quickly!

Anyway, back to the blouse. In fact it is the first time I’ve worn it that way around – buttons at the front. I think it looks better with the buttons at the back.  I’m afraid I didn’t have a decent photo of this – so you will have to bare with me and one of my awful, unsmiling iphone pictures. I just don’t seem to be able to smile and operate the thing at the same time – sorry!

This is my heartbreak blouse – the one that went very, very wrong. I still love it though – that’s what makes it worse.

I’d had my eye on this pattern in the book “Simple Chic” ever since I bought it. A great shell top for wearing with suits for work I thought. And what better start than to use a piece of fabric I’d been saving for best.

I picked up just over 2 metres of this thin fabric with a slight sheen from a vintage fabric fair in London at the end of last year. It cost about £15 I think - which is at the top end of my spending normally - but I really loved it. I assumed it was a thin cotton but in retrospect it must have been something far less robust.

I did not pre-wash the fabric. But it cut like a dream and was very easy to put together. Once finished, I put the top into a gentle machine wash cycle to clear all the marks etc. This is when disaster struck.

It literally fell to pieces. Every seam has just washed away in places and is frayed everywhere else. The worst affected is the neckline where it has completely come apart. It also shrank a fair bit.

It's completely unwearable – but I haven’t thrown it out just yet. I still love the fabric even after what it did to me.