Monthly Archives: November 2014
Lutterloh the verdict
Now this hasn’t been a complete success, but it also hasn’t been a complete failure. The fit was good, unfortunately the choice of pattern was a bit ambitious.
I managed to get the front lying better in the second version than the first version, probably if I made the dress a few more times I would get the stitching right.
I can’t get the front to line up properly, the two fronts curve up under the bust, one side following back down the other, just in case you think it’s because, it’s too small across the chest, it didn’t matter what I did even just laying it on the bed with nothing in it it wouldn’t lay properly.
As you can see the back looks good, I think I probably should have taken an inch out of the skirt length as it is laying a bit low across the hips.
I might fiddle with the bodice size as I didn’t have much movement in the shoulder area, but for once I wasn’t swimming in fabric under the arms and across the bust.
This picture shows the hip problem quite well.
The verdict is that I will make more dresses from the system, but will be more careful in my pattern choices. I was very impressed at how easily it was to create the pattern, practice will make the curves (sleeve head) better and I have noticed that the later the pattern the more information you are given for making up the garments.
Lutterloh part 2
I’ve put the test dress together, one thing I have discovered is 1940s/50s women have stick arms I don’t know how they managed to lift anything
The fit isn’t too bad, it’s a bit large around the hips but that, it turns out is user error, I measured my hips wrong so I’m about 6mm out size wise I don’t know how that equates over the whole pattern yet.
the sleeve head is a bit puffy, but I’ve redrawn that using the curve tool that came with my pattern book, its now an inch and a half smaller.
I’ve measured out the new skirt pieces and it equates to about 5 inches over the whole skirt
Lutterloh
since getting back into sewing last year, I have been hearing whispers about Lutterloh pattern books, what I read was quite interesting, I found a couple of books to download, which i found quite fascinating, how you take this iddy bitty patterns and make full sized clothes from them,
then a couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win on ebay my very own pattern book, I’m not sure which year it is, late 1940s early 1950s completed with measuring tape and pattern ruler, it looked untouched.
now a lot of the things I read about the system suggests you should work on a vest (waistcoat) pattern until you get the fit right then you will be ready to try a proper pattern, where is the fun in that?
I picked a dress, from my scanned book, no particular reason it just caught my eye. looked sort of easy two skirt pieces two bodice pieces and a sleeve.
To be fair it was easy, I created my pattern pieces I cut them out on an old sheet, then there was the hard bit. the bodice comes to a point on the center front, the center back point was easy, but at the moment I have a weird I’m not laying down properly lump where the bodice is attached to the skirt. Then there is the sleeves, I was under the impression that they marked the back of the sleeve with an ‘A’ shape I have this symbol on the the other pieces just not the sleeve, it shouldn’t be too hard to work out but even so….
This is what my dress looks like so far
With the best will in the world I don’t think anything will make the skirt look like the pattern, cutting it on the bias might help but there just isn’t the material to get that kind of drape. I am quite happy with it so far though.
Tower of London remembers
as you read back in September I saw the Poppies at the Tower of London with my Mum, yesterday I went back there with Simon, he hadn’t seen it and as it was getting close to finishing we thought we would take a trip up to London to see it.
From Southend depending on how many stop the train it takes about 50mins from Southend Central to Fenchurch street station, we caught the 2pm train and by 3 o’clock we were taking pictures of the Poppies.
I decided to take my Canon 450d with the long lens this time, before I had my new Panasonic and although the pictures are good, the long lens on the Canon is better.
There were definitely more people this time and loads more Poppies. You can find out about the installation here http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/about-the-installation I’ll warn you now there are going to be a lot of photos……
Although the Poppies on the ground are amazing just for the sheer amount of them, where you see the “waves” of them are something else.
As you get round the back of the castle you can see where they are still putting them in
Here are some close ups
new patterns
this post was written last month and for some reason was never published, which is why the post seems slightly out of order…..
I’m getting geared up for winter, I feel that skirts and blouses will be easier to layer than mainly cotton dresses. with this in mind I have brought some more skirt patterns and a blouse pattern.
I love etsy.com it makes buying patterns so much easier and mainly the postage costs aren’t too bad.
I’m not sure about the patch pockets on view 3 but I do like the pocket flaps on view 2.
I thought the waist detail was something different.
I do love me some pintucks….
more pockets.
stripes and no instruction pockets
Remind me to stay away from stripes, I can’t match them and they irritate me. don’t get me wrong I like stripes as long as I don’t have to work out how to make them look right on the front of, say a skirt. exhibit one
to be honest now I’ve looked at it again, I think that the problem might not be my pattern matching so much as my stitching accuracy.
I cut out this pattern earlier in the week just before I discovered it had no instructions for how to put the pocked together, how hard can it be I asked my self you have a front skirt, pocket facing and a back.
so started with attaching the pocket facing to the skirt front.
then snipping clipping and overstitching
at which point I was in a bit of a quandary not realising that the pocket was supposed to gape slightly, (if I had realised this I definitely would not have gone for stripes) that was when I understood what these makes were for…
they were the pocket opening marks
you can just see one marked in yellow in the photo. once this was pinned in place it was quite easy to stitch round the pocket.
You would have got this post last week but the photos wouldn’t play the game
But you have a bonus close up of pocket and a sneak preview of the hideous blouse without the collar and neck gathering (which already makes it look better), the sleeves are pinned behind.
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 