Saturday, November 17, 2007

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.

7 comments:

Angelia said...

Hi! I found your blog thru someone elses sewing blog. I enjoyed it very much! I'll stop by another time...

Lori said...

Thanks for the comment on my podcast, I purchased a Project Runway pattern yesterday, too. I will have to go dig it out of the sack and take a look at it. I love the other pattern you purchased, too.

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Nancy ~ I like your pattern choices and the fabric sounds amazing. Thank you for showing the inside of the Project Runway patterns. I have to admit to being intrigued by them even after reading some negative reviews of them.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Thanks, Nancy. Like Carolyn, I am glad to get an "inside view" of the PR patterns. The cliche regarding judging by books' covers applies here.

Tearsa Smith said...

Okay I love your little dress you made. I know what you mean about the maternity thing. I don't have children yet but a lot of the styles popular now make me feel like I am expecting! Makes people ask me at work. LOL. As for the Project Runway collection. I found it confusing. That's a good idea to lay it out first. I can't wait to see what happens.

Linda L said...

Nice dress. Glad you wrote about the Project Runway patterns. My initial reaction to seeing them in the Simplicity pattern book was not positive. I am thinking I may have been to quick to judge.

Andrea Grimaldi said...

Hello! Could you please please help me? I'm looking for a Simplicity-Project Runway whole catalogue, and I can't find it anywere. I don't want to purchase the patterns separately but the complete catalogue. Do you know if this catalogue exists? If it does, where can I find it? I'm desperate!!

Regards, thanks already,

Andrea.