I’ve started to get a bit more serious about my sewing recently. By serious I mean doing things like tracing all of my patterns off to my size, and washing and ironing fabric in advance. Doing this improves my sewing accuracy and results in a higher quality, better fitting garment. After being in a rut with my sewing, I am making an effort to tackle new patterns and new challenges. And as part of my new found sewing-seriousness, every time I do I make a toile.
When I was in my rut, wearing ill fitting makes was starting to get me down. A particular culprit was a jumpsuit I made for my holiday to see MLST. I followed the sizing on the back of the pattern – New Look 1335 – which told me I needed to grade from a small at the bust to an extra large at the hips to fit my body measurements. I’ve done this a few times for various makes, so it wasn’t a big deal. Away I went.
Because the pattern has an elasticated waist, I wasn’t able to judging the sizing as I was sewing. It was only when I had finished it and tried it on that I realised.
It. Was. Huge.
Now I’m not talking it being a bit big. I mean it was a SACK. And if you look at the photo on the pattern cover, it is clearly meant to be more close fitting than that.
Because it was only a couple of days before my holiday, I hastily made some adjustments to the shoulder straps, bodice side seams and outer leg seams to make it fit the best I could. But when I wore it, I was really disappointed as on top of the fit not being right, through all the alterations I had lost the shape of the garment.
[photo]
So I got home, shoved it in a box and tried to forget about it. But I learnt my lesson, and I started making toiles to check the sizing on all my makes using a new pattern. And it’s been a lifesaver. Don’t get me wrong, the fit hasn’t always been perfect. I made a toile for my version of New Look K6447*, but because I didn’t put a zip in the toile I couldn’t see there was some extra room around the shoulders and the arm pits. But it’s not a huge fit issue, and I can make these alterations for my next iteration of the dress.
But the biggest lifesaver was when I attempted to make the Annabelle dress, which was a free pattern with Simply Sewing some months ago. I bought this amazing dove print quilters cotton from my local fabric shop [link] (having gone in for a button!) and thought it would make a beautiful Annabelle.
So out came my old bed sheets, and I started on the toile. I even bought a special ‘toile zip’ to get the fit just perfect. However in making the toile, I realised how bulky the dress is around the waist (two layers of waistband fabric, and a heavily gathered bodice and skirt). When I put the zip in, I realised not only was I going to have problems opening and closing the zip with all the bulk, but the dress wasn’t going to sit well with it. So I decided Annabelle wasn’t to be, as I didn’t want to waste my beautiful new fabric on something that wasn’t going to sit right on the body.
And so, with all this learning, I was very brave last weekend and I made a toile of the New Look 1355 jumpsuit in a smaller size (Small, to be precise). And it was too big on the top, and too small on the bottom. No matter, I unpicked the legs from the bodice and drew new trouser pieces grading from a small at the waist to a medium over the hips. I sewed them up to check the fit, and it was perfect. So now I just need to re-draw the bodice pieces to take a bit of the width of the bodice out of the side seams and voila. Jumpsuit here I come.
So what have I learnt from my foray in to toiles? It is worth all the time and effort; to check the sizing of a new pattern, make garments that are truly made to measure and avoid wasting your beautiful fabric. It’s a good way to practice your skills too.
The problem is, I’m running out of bedsheets. Soon I’ll have to scour charity shops for them, so that I have a stash with which to make more toiles. 😊
* As an aside, my version of New Look K6447 was featured in this month’s Sew magazine, which made my week!
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