August 19th

Today was my first day for another session of classes aimed at Pattern Projects which either allowed you to make your own blouse or skirt and I opted to go for a skirt since it was easier and if I was done with the skirt, I could move on to something else.

The materials required for the class were:

Since this was my first time pattern cutting, my teacher Mrs. Stephanie Deaves started the class off by telling me what pattern cutting was and how to find my perfect size in the pattern to cut. Since I was the only student in my class, Mrs. Stephanie focused only on me and gave me the right instructions.

What is pattern cutting? In sewing and fashion designing, a pattern is an original piece of clothing from which from which other clothes of a similar style are copied. It is also a paper or carboard template from which the parts of clothing are traced onto fabric before cutting it out and assembling it. These are called paper patterns.

After gathering the required materials, myself and Mrs.Stephanie had to figure out what size skirt would fit me the best and it was a size 4 so first I layed out the skirt pattern and checked for the measurements of size 4. Whenever you are cutting a pattern, you always have to check the markings on the pattern for your right size of the clothing you are making. If you do not check it, you will not get the right sizes and will end up with a disproportional clothing item.

Once I found my sizes I had to cut out the pattern pieces according to the size and the pieces that I cut out for my skirt were:

Two patterns for the waistband

One frontside of the skirt

One backside of the skirt

The next step was to place all of the above pattern pieces on the pink fabric I had chosen and pin the pieces in places. I then had to cut the sized fabric pieces out carefully with a fabric scissors in long strides to make sure that I was not creating uneven and non-linear cuts. Usually when it comes to pattern cutting, you are allowed to cut it with a rotary blade since it is more effective and keep your cuts straight but Mrs.Stephanie told me that it might be dangerous for me to use it since it is a very sharp metal blade and even the experts’ end up getting cuts on their hands.

  
After completing that part, Mrs.Stephanie made me pin something known as the “interfacing” to the four cut out waistline fabrics. Interfacing is a textile used on the wrong side of fabrics to make an area of a garment more secure and stiff. Interfacings are usually used to stiffen and keep the fabrics in shape and some of the example where they are used are: shirt collars, waistlines in skirts, shorts, pants. The weight of the interfacing depends on the fabric. If the heavier the fabric, the heavier the interfacing. Most modern interfacings have heat-activated adhesive on one side and they are attached to a clothing piece using moderate heat and pressure usually from an ironing machine. This type of interfacing is known as “fusible” interfacing.

I then just cut out the interfacing and by that time, the lesson timing had ended so I packed away for the day and tomorrow I will be sewing up my skirt.

Overall it was a good lesson as I now know the basics of pattern cutting and this will be a valuable skill in sewing and designing. The only problem I faced sometimes was that the scissor did not cut evenly but I managed to fix that up cutting off the uneven edges.