Trouser Fit Corrections in the Right Order, Then the Twist Dress in My Own Size

Two halves this week. First a trouser fitting: a loose waist, a baggy back and a front crotch pulling in, and the order those corrections have to be done in, because changing everything at once tells you nothing. Then back to the twist shoulder dress. I drafted it flat from my own measurements instead of draping it again, cut it in jersey, sewed it up and tried it on, and then worked out where all that extra drape needed to come out.

Draping a Twist Shoulder Dress From One Closed Tube of Jersey

This week we started the black draped dress that came second in your voting. It begins as nothing more than a closed tube of jersey, a giant pillowcase, and everything else happens on the form: the neckline, the armholes, the twist at the shoulder, the shaping down the side that shows the body, and a little ruching on the sleeve seam. Then I laid it flat and worked out the mathematics, so you can draft it for your own size from your hip measurement and your waist to underarm distance.

Finishing the Knot Front Top: Pattern Corrections, First Sample, and How to Draft It

We finished the knot front top this week. I transferred the drape to paper, corrected the shoulders, armholes and side seams so both halves matched, cut a first sample in rayon jersey and sewed it up to see it on the form. Then, because somebody asked how to make this pattern more easily, I went back to my knit block and gave the actual measurements for drafting it flat, without draping it first.

Reverse Engineering a JW Anderson Knot Front Top From Your Own Block

You voted for the JW Anderson knot front top, so we started it. Rather than draping from nothing, I worked from my fitted jersey torso block: traced it, relaxed it, cut a quick working muslin and refined it on the form. That is the method I want you to take from this. A designer top like this is not out of reach once you have your own blocks, and the front knot turned out to be the easy half. It is the back that changes everything.

Making My Own Royal Ascot Dress: Pattern, Fabric, and Where the Finishing Matters

I went to Royal Ascot this year and made the dress myself, the first proper dress I have ever made for me rather than for a client. I talked through the whole process: sketching my own body to see its real shape, choosing a simple pattern deliberately while I learn what suits me, padding a form to my measurements, and then all the finishing decisions on a brocade that frays. The design is the easy part. The sewing and the finishing are where it is won.