I have done custom clothing along the way; like skirts, a casual dress, and a wedding dress. Re-purposing of thrift store finds to make aprons and purses is probably a step between alterations and custom clothing.
I just got a call from a customer who would like some summer blouses made. She's giving me a try and brought over a blouse that a student started to sew for her and gave up. During the to figure out how I could rescue the blouse, my customer mentioned that if this works out she might like some more of the same style and would I be making a pattern.
Sure I could make a muslin (trial runs of a garment so you can fit it to the person before you sew it in the fashion fabric). I remember reading an article in Threads Magazine by Susan Khalje, a couture sewing teacher, and perused through the back issues until I found the right one. Okay, I'm up for a challenge.
Instead of using actual muslin fabric I pulled a thrift store sheet from my stash. First step, iron. I haven't ironed a sheet since I did odd jobs in high school! Okay, you're thinking it was before they invented polyester. I'm not that old but there were ladies who didn't like wrinkly sheets. I won't bring up the aunt who used to iron socks so that they'd fit in a drawer.
After ironing I laid the pattern out and marked the seam allowances with a pencil. With all these multi-sized patterns there are no markings for that any more. Then I took my colored transfer paper and a tracing wheel and marked the sheet with all the necessary information.
Before this article I just cut out the pattern in the muslin/sheet and went from there. With the couture method there are a few more steps. Since you can only see the markings on one side of the fabric I needed to sew with a basting stitch and contrasting thread on all the seam allowances. You also cut at least an inch beyond the seam allowance just in case you have to let it out more than 5/8 of an inch. I don't envision that with this customer but it's good practice.
Now with that done it's time to sew it together. This time I use matching thread. Don't want to be pulling out any of the seam allowance thread since it will be used in making a pattern later.
Like most things, once the prep work is done it goes together pretty quickly.
However, I do have a concern, The customer doesn't like back seams so I took that out. It's not going to be made out of a knit fabric and without that stretch I have no idea how she's going to get it over her head. I've loosened the shoulder seams so she'll at least be able to get it on. Then I guess we'll go from there.
Another mystery in the making.
