Simplicity and Project Runway

If you listened to Episonde 12 of the Podcast Sew Forth Now, you heard the news that Simplicity has teamed up with Project Runway. Yesterday, I purchased one of the PR patterns. What's different about these patterns?


Each pattern comes with the basic pieces and then variations of sleeves, necklines, etc. just like most patterns. The difference is that the layouts and the yardages are give for each design element separately. So, if you want to make a short sleeve dress with a yoke, you add the yardage for the dress + sleeves + yoke. The problem with this is that you can end up buying a lot of extra fabric that you don't need. I plan on laying out my pieces first before deciding on the yardage.







Another thing different about these patterns is that they come with a croquis. A croquis is basically a line drawing of a body that you can use to see how the design elements of a garment will look together. They also come with line drawings of each garment piece, so you can trace them and put them all together if you have no drawing skills. I think this is a neat feature and will make it easier to play around with pattern ideas. The pattern sheet has suggestions for embellishments and how to use the croquis.

Now ideally, you want your croquis to look like you, so I will have to "pad" this woman up a bit! There are lots of good articles out there on how to use a croquis, in fact, I believe there was one in a past issue of Threads, but I don't remember which one. Here is a link to some premade croquis's. I recently saw on one of the boards at PR that someone had their husband take pictures of her in her underwear. I believe she then used the "sketch" feature in her photo software to make a customized croquis. I think this is a fabulous idea. It really will show if a style will look good on your particular body shape.

Fantastic Fit for Every Body by Gale Grigg Hazen begins her book with a whole chapter on how to make a custom croquis and why you need one.







Yesterday I was at Hancock's in Fresno and found one wool and 2 wool blends that were superfine and beautiful. The wool is about the weight of broadcloth and has a wonderful hand. It only came in one color, kind of a light brown, so whatever I make from it I will trim with some dark brown. The two blends are dark gray and deep violet. The violet is so dark that it looks almost navy or black. I plan on making this sleeveless dress from the dark gray. I am going to add a lining. I think this will be my next project. I really need some dresses.