Many tiny tasks

There are times when in theory a task seems simple, but when you get into the weeds of it it is crazy making.

I am making a Kittel for a client. My client is a woman who hates how the standard kittel makes her look like a tuber wearing a belt. Because she will be leading services in the kittel she wants the finished garment to be flattering but not sexy. I suggested a princess lined dress or lightweight coat.

After going through hundreds of possible patterns online I thought that this

dress would work best with some alterations. ( The dress would need to be lengthened by quite a bit, I would add a more dramatic cuff and of course a belt).

I ordered the magazine and got my code to download the PDF pattern. The pattern itself is divided up between 21 sheets of paper and several more pages of instruction. 

Each page needs two slivers trimmed off of the edges

so that you can properly align the sheets and piece them into the full sized pattern.

Each sheet has two spots that need to be properly aligned. When the two triangles form a diamond you can tape the pieces together. 

To save paper, all of the sizes and all of the pattern pieces are printed overlapping one another.

To use the pattern you have to trace the correct size onto paper and then used the traced off pattern as your pattern. Why, yes, following the correct lines is confusing.

I copied over the lines indicating the proper size in a highlighter.

Then I trace off each pattern piece.

It's hard on my eyes. I have done half of the pieces I need.

You may ask why I haven't just drafted this pattern from scratch.That's a good question. I normally just draft my own patterns for the clothing I make for myself. Here I am making a garment for someone whose body is shaped pretty differently than mine. When I make my own clothes I have a pretty good idea of the general geography of cutting out garment elements. I am not as familiar with working with my client's particular shape. 

This particular garment shape is one I have no experience with. Rather than darts shaping the garment  to the body, the shaping takes place in the cutting stage of the garment making. At this point that skill is above my pay grade.

I plan to make a test garment or muslin out of a pretty but inexpensive fabric and then adjust the fit on the muslin and then use the muslin- cut apart as my final pattern. It is a whole lot of pesky steps but we ought to end up with a pretty good fit.

And now changing the topic completely....

Last week I did something really stupid. I had written in permanent marker on thin paper on my kitchen table that was covered in a table cloth. The entire cloth was covered in writing in black permanent marker.  After a long soak in Oxy-Clean there are just two tiny black marks.  I know that there are tons of blogs that get paid to push products. I have zero relationship with the manufacturer. It's just a good product