Golden Gloves to Hemline: Pt. 6 Pattern Tracing

Image via The Graphics Fairy

Hello V² ladies….It is the I, seamstress( what the hell would the male version of that word be?) extraordinaire Chie’s faithful, lovable and relatively attractive husband Andy. Last time we looked at the Burda books pattern introduction. I got dizzy trying to understand and Chie make repetitiveness comments about my stupidity and general uselessness. Today we will tackle the actual mechanics of pattern tracing. On the list of lives lived to the fullest 1. George Washington 2.Puff Daddy 3.Andy Duncan.

How to Trace a Pattern:
Let us begin…Simple, easy and large flat surface are words used in the first sentence, I am already pleased. For this we need blank paper and colored tracing paper. Check. Does the color matter? Can I use something manly like magenta? Oh the possibilities of my colored paper are endless. We also need something called a tracing wheel which looks like a mini pizza cutter. I have never seen Chie wield this tool, I will ask if she has one when she wakes up from her drunken slumber (oops, I shouldn’t have said that). This set of instructions instructs us to trace every detail. Literally every detail. It screams in a very passive aggressive way “Trace every detail on the page you moron”. Is it realy that big of a deal or are there that many people who skip this step? This seams pretty easy to understand. white paper,tracing paper, pattern pieces, trace absolutely everything and do not for a second deviate from the pattern. It is like dealing with a very anal elementary school teacher.

What is Seam Allowance:
Here is a question that I am looking forward to having answered. I have no idea what that term means…”the space between my seam line and the raw edge of the fabric.) That’s all, kind of a let down.One very frustrating thing is that this book says that it does not include seam allowances. Why the hell not?!?!?!? I need specifics! It seems that I jumped the gun a bit with my screaming at the book. It tells me that I should use a 1/2″ seam allowance. I would still prefer it written down but hey, I aint scurrrrrred. On a side note, I cannot recall having seen Chie do this,…why is that? Is she just winging it or is she doing some stealthy Japanesey ninja sewing? Method one for adding a seam allowance involves rulers, french curves and measuring whereas method 2 involves a double pizza cutter tool and seams much easier….I’m sticking with the double pizza cutter method. Much to my surprise there are now instructions on how to cut. I really thought there were things in my life I could consider myself to be a master of, cutting with scissors was one of these skills, sadly Burda is informing me otherwise.

How to Test your Pattern:
This section opens up with the line “There are plenty of proverbs connected to sewing.” I don’t know where for my sarcasm to begin. One such pearl of wisdom is “A stitch in time saves nine.” I haven’t the slightest idea what tat is supposed to mean but apparently this Allison chicks heartless boyfriend beats her over the head with this saying when she screws something up. I don’t know that this man values his scrotum very much, which is too bad because as far as I know we only get 1. Ultimately this section seems to be telling me to make a muslin…this took a minute as I tried to process why I would want my fabric to have a religious experience….thankfully my iphone has a dictionary and now I know know that the muslin is a practice version of your outfit that you sew with crappy fabric. That kind of sucks that you need to spend time making 2 outfits, one of which is some throw away thing. Chie has a full time job how does she have time for all this crap? The next pages of this section lay out 12 steps for getting from pattern to fabric pieces to actual sewing of muslin and ultimately the real deal outfit. I can tell they meant me to take this section seriously because it was introduced by a quote in huge red font! Burdastyle is not screwing around with me here. Probably good to keep in mind, and Ill be sure to photocopy these instructions and place over me in my fabulous and enviable sewing space.

That was a good use of 90 minutes. It is now time to reclaim my masculinity and continue reading The Hunger Games series….oh wait that was a book written by and for 12 year old girls! My testosterone has hit a new low.