McCalls Spring Line

And, to continue the new patterns that are out now, here's some winners from McCall's Spring Line:

McCalls 6940: Game of Thrones Cirsei pattern

McCalls 6941: Game of Thrones Daenerys pattern

Simplicity Spring Line

It took so long for Simplicity to post their Early Spring line that the Spring one is out already too!  Here are some interesting new patterns:

1406: High-Low skirt pattern

1426: Bra Tops.  Dunno how they will fit other cup sizes, but if it works well it's totally unique!

1427: Tulle skirts.  Good for both skirts and petticoats.

1444: Leotard.  Knitwear is rare, too bad it doesn't have sleeves.  Perhaps if they sell enough of this one, though, they'll start making sleeves and other variations.

Simplicity Spring Patterns

Simplicity has finally posted their spring patterns!  Few surprises, but here's a look:

Not sure about the quality of the "amazing fit" system, but the seam lines are interestingly placed. 

The Game of Thrones pattern we were all waiting for. Looks like it has accurate seaming, and Andrea Schewe has some suggestions on how to improve it on her site! 

Adorable!  I might need to make some of these for the niece and nephews.

Vintage, so I mention it, but it looks pretty standard. 

Standard looking as well, but that collar might be useful sometime.

Spring Patterns

Of course as soon as I post about Spring Patterns they change.  Here is the new Butterick patterns just out:

Retro Butterick 6022.  I LOVE this dress!  I don't know what I'd do with it, but I want to make it up in a ton of colors!  So pretty!

Retro Butterick 6018.  Not incredibly exciting, but I do like the funnel skirt shape.  That should be useful for some things.



Unfortunately there are no costume patterns for Spring, but this is not unusual.  They did give us some good stuff, and hopefully we'll see more from other companies!

New Patterns for Spring

McCalls

6911 is a Steampunk pattern.  It looks like it has some great costume separates, including a bolero (which is hard to get nowadays), a bustier, a short bustle skirt, and a long back-swept skirt.  I'm not sure what kind of crack someone was smoking when they made this up in these colors/patterns, but I think the base pattern looks pretty good.

6897 is a bog standard princess costume.  I do like that it has the option of a collar like that on little girls, though.

Butterick

5985 is a dress pattern, but I can imagine it being steampunked pretty easily.  It's a more unique shape among patterns right now.

5987 is a grecian dress pattern.  Is one-shoulder back and no one told me?

Vogue

8973 is the first Vintage Vogue pattern this season.  I find it pretty boring, even with all those tucks.

8974 is a sundress with a jacket.  So-so.

Simplicity

I gave up on waiting for them to update their catalog.  Andrea Schewe pre-posted about her Not-Game-of-Thrones pattern, so we know about that at least.  I'll post here when they finally put up patterns online.

Patterning

In working on my Morning Coat I was faced with a dilemma.  There really are no Morning Coat patterns out there commercially.  I could take a suit coat pattern and modify it, but it would need heavy modification and I didn't want to take the time.  Then I found this pattern in a 1920's German tailoring manual available online.

It was perfect,  but I didn't want to take the time to draft it all up to my size.  Enlarging patterns is time consuming.  So instead I took it to Fed Ex and had them enlarge it and print it up on their printer.  I didn't waste a lot of time trying to get it exactly the right size.  Instead I concentrated on the length, knowing it would be easier to adjust the width.  The printout cost less than $10, so it was comparable to a commercial pattern.

Once I got it home I cut it apart and worked on making it my size.  My preferred method of enlarging a pattern like this is slash-and-spread.  Trying to keep the length and shoulder seams the same size, I slashed the width of the pieces and taped them back together when they matched my measurements.

There are tons of books and tutorials that can teach you how to do this, maybe I'll look for some good online resources later this week.  To end, though, I cut the pieces, adding seam allowance, out of my mock-up fabric.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my coat fitted and start on the real one!

Pattern Update: Simplicity Early Autumn 2013

Am Disappoint with this collection.  Hopefully Autumn will have all the costumes.

Retro blouses with kimono sleeves.

Flowers.  Andrea Schewe has been featuring these on her blog, they look like they could do some neat things.

Pattern Update: McCalls Fall 2013

New Patterns are up!

Cute boys' Wizard of Oz.  Too bad there's no matching men's, I can see this being versatile.

Not crazy about the apron, but its a cute purse!

Not a costume, but I love this coat.

Merida pattern.  Not bad, really.

Once Upon a Time costumes.  These look versatile, too.

Generic boys' stuff in many variations.


In all not a bad set of costumes.  At least they're nothing like what they've got, and I bet you can make a lot of cool things from those coat/dress/pant outfits.