aperiodic check-in!

[yhlee]

Howdy!

What have you sewn lately? What are your plans for April? Any extremely pettable fabrics or interesting patterns or techniques?

I have aspirationally picked up a pattern for boxers and plan on tormenting my Long-Suffering Husband by making him be my guinea Joe. :) I've never sewn knit fabric before so this will be an adventure. Also considering a jacket pattern (McCall's M8474) although possibly basting it up in muslin will reveal that I AM NOT READY. I aspirationally picked up the matching pants pattern as well, but in looking at the fabric, uh, apparently I'm okay with my black-with-silver-glittery-things fabric for a jacket but not pants?

In a completely different direction, I am semi-seriously considering making a plush felt model of, uh, the muscles of the arm, complete with detachable velcro'd muscles and color-coding, because I am going to remember the coracobrachialis if it kills me. I took a figure drawing/anatomy for artists online workshop earlier this year and I loved it, but I have no visual memory so diagrams are hard. And this is the "for artists" version where they group things together and it's only surface anatomy!! But I have tactile/kinesthetic memory just fine, so I'm wondering if constructing a model would cement the anatomy in my head?? Y'all may now all flee. :)

Comments

[ewt]

Readers of this community might enjoy freesewing.org which has free printable patterns that adapt to the measurements you put in. It's all open source and free and no ads etc.

[yhlee]

Added to the resources post, thank you so much!

[shermarama]

Oooh, have you tried this, and does it actually produce viable patterns? I've heard about this a couple of times, but am always sceptical that software like this will accommodate unusually-sized people, and don't want to be disappointed again. I recall we're about the same height, though...

[ewt]

I have meant to, and made a pattern, but not actually yet tried the pattern that resulted. There is a fairly active Discord where you could probably ask about it.

I think Joost is pretty tall...

[shermarama]

Ah, nice, I should get Discord going again...

[nou]

I’ve made the Freesewing Bruce boxer briefs and they fitted very well. (They’re designed to not come all the way up to your waist, and I dislike that style, but I just extended the pattern up at the top and it worked fine.)

I’ve also attempted the Simon shirt both for myself and for bob and that worked much less well; in particular, the armholes were comically large. Joost (the designer of both Bruce and Simon) has said on Discord that Simon doesn’t work properly for all body shapes, but I do wish they’d put a disclaimer on the website too.

As ewt said, Joost is tall (and he designed a lot of the patterns), so the patterns are likely to adapt better to tallness than to fatness, but I can certainly sympathise with not wanting to be disappointed again (I wish I could get back all those hours and hours and hours I spent trying to make Simon work).

[shermarama]

The tallness is a good start, though I'm expecting fail around anything involving boobs, frankly, which tends to affect armholes too. I'm taken with the Cornelius breeches, though, and my measurements are likely to fit into typical ranges there...