Monday, March 19, 2012

Beginning of a "tutorial" on how I made a dress from my vintage pattern

I will do my best to continue this tutorial & I will eventually finish the one concerning "turning a collar".
This is the original envelope that the American Weekly pattern (4890), ordered by Mrs. J.H. Knowlson from 'Everybody's Poultry Magazine Pattern Department'.





The dress pattern has 2 views, one with short sleeves and one with long sleeves. This type of pattern does not have printed pattern pieces - they are tissue paper with holes, notches, and punches for the usual markings - it is assumed one knows how to "read" a pattern. There are cutting layouts and construction directions printed on a sheet of paper - like those with which we are familiar.







STEP 1: To begin I carefully press the pattern pieces flat; a dry iron on a medium-high setting (don't want to burn the paper) being careful not to tear any piece, but also getting any tiny folded over edges. I then pin each piece to sheerweight fusible interfacing (Pellon 906F) with the fusible 'beads' against the back side of the pattern. For a pattern like this with no printing on the front side one can determine this by viewing the cutting layout or directions and looking at the cut or punch markings on the pattern.


Cut the interfacing around the pattern piece with a small margin.

Place the pinned pattern piece on a silicon pressing sheet with the paper pattern down and the non-fusible side of the interface on top.








Fuse the interfacing to the back of the paper pattern in a few places.Flip the piece over and remove the pins. Then re-flip so the paper side is down and then complete pressing the interface to the paper. Any fusible that is not on the paper will be on the silicon sheet and can be peeled easily from the sheet. Repeat with all pieces of the pattern, they will then be ready to lay out on the fabric.
TO BE CONTINUED

4 comments:

Kathy said...

Very good! I have some apron patterns of this type from the '40s and '50s that my mother ordered from the newspaper. I can hardly wait to see what you do next.

Hallie said...

Hmmm...this is a bit over my head. I'm unfamiliar with this fusible stuff. It looks like this gently adheres to the fabric to avoid shifting as you cut out the pieces? So, you're adhering the pattern to the fusible and then the fusible to the fabric. Is that correct?

This looks like a fun project! By the way, I haven't been by the blog in awhile and I love your new layout!

Kathy said...

Since Hallie is my daughter, I'll attempt to answer her. Pelon is interfacing, used to give a garment more body, so you'll find it in collars and behind facings. But I believe Dr. Molly is adhering the pattern pieces to the Pelon because she's using an old pattern. The Pelon will keep the old paper from tearing. Now -- we'll let Molly tell us if I'm correct.

drMolly, the BeanQueen said...

This is correct, but I also put it onto not so old patterns that I want to re-use. It helps to preserve that tissue paper. I use the lightest weight stuff I can find (get it by the bolt at JoAnn's with the 50% off coupons). I generally don't use the fusible type for garments, though, it has a habit of gumming up the sewing needles, I think. I generally use the non-fusible type for my garment sewing.
Thanks for the compliment.

drMolly, the BeanQueen