Planned Content 2022

Video Transcript

00;00;04;22 – 00;00;25;22

Hi, this is Maria from Dresspatternmaking. This video is to show you and give you some details about the content I have planned for my YouTube channel for 2022. Now the title on the slide, the top leftx says Variations On A Silhouette and in brackets, 30 dresses. There is a slideshow of 30 dresses at the end of this video, which will also be posted as a separate video.

00;00;26;07 – 00;00;46;13

I just want to flag that I will not be writing step by step instructions for 30 different different dresses. This video will explain how I will write instructions for different components of a dress in a certain silhouette that give you the necessary information for you to draft any of those dresses or any number of other dresses within the silhouette.

00;00;46;13 – 00;01;09;17

Now, I haven’t posted anything to my YouTube channel for about eight months now for various reasons. I do need to redo my Bodice Blockk instructions as there was a mistake in it. Now, even though it’s one mistake, it does mean I have to amend every slide after the mistake, and that does entail a lot of work. I asked subscribeers back then if they would prefer me to redo the Bodice Block instructions or write instructions for a pattern.

00;01;10;06 – 00;01;36;23

52% said they would prefer a pattern. However, as the pattern video has turned into ten videos and given the amount of work involved and how long it will take me to make these ten videos, I have made an executive decision to redo the bodice block instructions and the bodice block booklet first. The ten videos listed above will cover different options for the Bodice and different options for the Skirt within a certain silhouette.

00;01;37;08 – 00;01;59;08

And I will go into a fair amount of detail with a usual step by step graphics and instructions. As well as the different options for the bodice and the skirt, there is also a lot of important, often essential supplementary information. I will be covering things that I have learned and I think others can benefit from. As I’ve said before, I always create the content I wish I had had when I was learning.

00;01;59;19 – 00;02;17;00

I share things that I’ve had to figure out myself and sometimes I have to do a lot of testing to do so. Before I start, I just want to make two corrections. Throughout this video, I say that there will be a slideshow of 30 dresses at the end of this video and it will be uploaded separately as well.

00;02;17;10 – 00;02;41;02

I have in the end not included it at the end of the video. It will just be available as a second video. I didn’t want to have to go through and change all the audio and so I’ve just put the note here at the beginning. The second thing is I have throughout the skirt section incorrectly used “hem width” when I mean to say “hem circumference”, that is the fullness at the base of the skirt.

00;02;41;08 – 00;02;58;01

And I think the “hem width” means, you know, how much you turn it up, how much of a hem you give it. And that’s, that’s what I said, that’s not what I mean. Meant to say. So if you look at the little graphic, the red and the blue skirt to the red arrows, the red skirt has a smaller hem circumference than the blue one.

00;02;58;01 – 00;03;14;22

Obviously, this is just one pattern piece, but you can imagine that when you put all the pattern pieces together, when you sew them together, that the red one will have a much smaller hem circumference than the blue. And if you look at the two photos, the beige and red dress has a much smaller hem circumference than the blue one.

00;03;15;05 – 00;03;39;26

I think it’s pretty obvious that that’s what I mean in context, and most people would guess that’s what I mean. But I just wanted to make sure that I clarify that because there’s bound to be someone who says, “Hey, don’t you mean hem circumference, not hem width?” I also didn’t want to have to redo the audio as that would delay putting up the videos, the bodice instructions, and the bodice first before moving on to variations on the silhouette.

00;03;40;15 – 00;03;58;13

A bit later in this video, after showing you some of the detail about these videos that I’m planning, I will give you my guesstimate timeline for dates for when I’ll be publishing this content, when I’ll be uploading them to YouTube. So you need a Bodice Block to draft a dress with these instructions, but you don’t need a skirt block.

00;03;58;13 – 00;04;22;06

As the dress falls from the Empire Line, that is high waist under the bust. So I want to make sure that the bodice instructions are corrected first so that everybody who wants to can then draft a dress which they can’t do without a Bodice Block. Now, the basic silhouette, which will vary in design lines but not very much in shape, is a fitting bodice or semi fitting bodice with an empire line and a flared skirt.

00;04;22;16 – 00;04;46;02

Now, the pylon means that the bodice finishes just below the bust, or at least has a very high waist so that the bodice doesn’t go down to the waist. The flared skirt falls from the Empire Line. Now, strictly speaking, when you vary the hem width, you would be creating a different silhouette. But I’m playing a bit loosely with the definition of silhouette and I’m counting all of these hem variations shown on the slide, the different amounts of flair.

00;04;46;10 – 00;05;10;19

I’m counting all of those as within the silhouette. I want to clarify what I mean by fitting or semi fitting. I mean that the bodice will fit as per your bodice block everywhere except if you choose the Empire Line, you can choose to have more ease there, more than the minimum, so that you can have elastic and not need zips or buttons to get the dress on.

00;05;10;19 – 00;05;30;04

So for a looser fit in the waist. So the semi fitting relates to the and I say this in inverted commas waist because it’s not the real waist. So in future I will call that the empire waist or the high waist. So on the left hand side you can see three dresses that all have a very similar shape.

00;05;30;04 – 00;05;46;04

They are fitting in the bust and flare out from the under bust. Now, of course, one has sleeves, but taking that out of the equation, the basic shape of the bodice and the skirt is the same. Now you can see that the dress on the right hand side is completely different. It’s like that Sesame Street song. One of these things just doesn’t belong here.

00;05;46;05 – 00;06;01;04

One of these things just isn’t the same. Can you tell me which one doesn’t belong here? Of course you can. The dress on the right isn’t fitting in the bust, doesn’t have an empire line,it has a lot more ease everywhere. So the three on the left have a similar shape despite one having sleeves and the others not.

00;06;01;04 – 00;06;24;22

Despite one of them having a shoulder princess line and the other two having armhole princess lines. Despite one of them having a zip in the back, one of them having buttons down the front and one of them having neither zips nor buttons. Another difference is the skirts. One of them has a plain, A-line skirt, the other one has an A-line skirt with pleats in the Empire waist, and the third one has a six panel skirt.

00;06;25;12 – 00;06;46;04

And yet, despite all the differences, they do all have the same basic shape. So I’m just showing you the details of those dresses on the left hand side. Number one has an armhole princess line as well as the Empire Line and the basic A-line skirt. It has a zip in the back. Number two has a shoulder princess line as well as the Empire Line.

00;06;46;13 – 00;07;05;24

And the skirt has pleats and it has buttons down the front. Number three has an armhole princess line and a six panel skirt and sleeves. And the hem, which is quite larger than the other two. And so the only similarities in the right hand dress is the neckline, the V neckline and the length. But the overall silhouette is completely different.

00;07;07;04 – 00;07;34;17

So these are the options I will be covering within the silhouette, the semi fitting or fitting bodice. It will have both an empire line and a princess line. So the princess line will take the darts that are in the block and change that into a design line. So either an armhole princess line or a shoulder princess line. So the bodice will have sleeves or it could be sleeveless, as I’ve already mentioned, the armhole or the shoulder princess line instead of darts.

00;07;35;01 – 00;07;57;21

And another two options is crossover. And in the crossover that will be either a crossover with Armhole Princess Line or a crossover with Shoulder Princess Line. And I’ll show you some examples of this later. And the flared skirt can be in either a basic A-line skirt and A-line with more flare, a flared skirt with pleats, six panel skirt or a six panel skirt with pleats.

00;07;58;15 – 00;08;16;06

Now, I’ve got to say here that the sleeveless version is not just taking the sleeved option and removing the sleeves. You need to start with your sleeveless block, which has had some of the ease removed, and then you’ll need to do some contouring, which I’ll explain again in a few slides. Now I will also show you things that didn’t work.

00;08;16;16 – 00;08;36;04

I’ll show you things that I learn. And you learn a lot through making mistakes and patterns that don’t work out. Now, I tried to push the envelope and see how much width I could get in the hem. And so I’ve done a lot of testing and show you what I have learned. So this dress here, my first example, this dress has an empire line as all the dresses have an empire line.

00;08;36;05 – 00;09;01;06

That’s what makes it this particular silhouette. But it has an armhole princess line and a basic A-line skirt. Here, the pattern pieces of that dress. There are four pieces for the bodice and two for the skirt. It is fully lined, but the lining patterned pieces are exactly the same as the self pieces, although the skirt with the lining will be cut a bit shorter. Tt’s lined both to finish off the bodies and because the fabric is to see through without a lining for the skirt.

00;09;02;16 – 00;09;24;01

Now this one looks exactly like the previous one, but the bodice has a shoulder princess line this time rather than an armhole princess line. So the bodice pattern pieces are different because of the shoulder princess line and it also has some facing pieces. The previous dress was Thin Cotton Lawn and was fully lined. This stretch woven doesn’t need a skirt lining and I really didn’t want to fully line the bodice.

00;09;24;21 – 00;09;44;05

So you have to think about the fabric, obviously when you’re drafting the pattern. Now, the skirt on this dress might at first glance look like the previous three dresses, but as per the pattern pieces, the skirt looks significantly different because it does have pleats and because it has buttons down the front, it’s got a button placket, but there’s no lining.

00;09;44;05 – 00;10;05;26

It’s finished off with bias strips cut from the same fabric. So in the video on drafting the bodice, I’ll be covering the four options as shown. They will all have a lowered V-neck that leads into the crossover options. Now, all of these bodice options may have a zipper in the back or buttons down the front or neither, and the wrap can be added to a wrap skirt.

00;10;05;26 – 00;10;27;25

And I’ll also be covering that. So this slide shows the sleeveless options and all of those same options apply to the sleeved block. So looking at the list of videos in the series on the right hand side, I have already explained what will be covered in Number 2: Bodice, but I’m going back up the list. Number one, because contouring is essential before we do the bodice.

00;10;28;10 – 00;10;50;20

Now, contouring is necessary for low necklines and cutaway armholes. So most of the dresses I am showing you in the slideshow have a V-neck and most of the sleeveless ones have cut away arm(holes). Now the V-neck is not extremely low, but it is a bit low, and the lower you get, the more contouring that will probably be required. Though everyone is different.

00;10;51;06 – 00;11;09;17

Now, if you look at No.1., those little graphics up on the left hand side, No.1 shows you the basic outline of the pattern I’m drafting on top of my block. The blue is the basic pattern. So the blue shape is what I’ve drawn on my block, and I’m cutting away the green bit at the shoulder edge, and I’m cutting the orange shaded piece to lower the neckline.

00;11;10;08 – 00;11;30;09

If I just cut that out is and then do the dart manipulation and change the darts into a princess line and sew it up, it will not fit me very well at all. It will gape over the neckline and will have an armhole that does not fit properly. So the contouring video will show you why this is. Now gape darts for me are significantly more that what’ needed for the Standard Figure.

00;11;30;09 – 00;11;52;20

So there are standard amounts for contouring and I will show you the standard amounts. But really every every figure is different. Every individual is different and you need to work out your own contouring amounts so that you can make clothes with cutaway arms or lower necklines to fit you properly. And No.3. shows you the final shape of my pattern piece on top of my block.

00;11;52;27 – 00;12;10;16

Now, given that that the waist really should remain in a straight line, you can see what a difference to the neckline, to that main front piece, that that contouring has had on my pattern piece. Now, if a sleeveless garments, if you don’t cut away any of the armhole on the edge, then you won’t need to do any contouring there.

00;12;10;24 – 00;12;33;21

You just need to do the neckline. But be aware that if you cut in from the from the shoulder edge at all, you may need to do some contouring with the block, with sleeves, you don’t need to do it obviously for the armhole because it has sleeves on it, but it’s got a V-neck. So the contouring for the sleeved versions will still need contouring for the neckline.

00;12;33;21 – 00;13;02;05

So I’m continuing working through that list of videos just to show you what I will be covering in that. So we’ve covered contouring, we’ve covered the bodice. I’m actually just skipping over. Ease revisited. It’s just too hard. I know it needs to be revisited. I’ll just continue from skirts. So firstly, I’ll cover the basic A-line skirt with the minimum ease and I’ll cover what minimum ease really is for the A-line skirt, especially if you’ve got a very curvy figure. Now remembering that these skirts fall from the under bust, or at least a high waist.

00;13;02;05 – 00;13;20;19

So I won’t be using a skirt block to draft any of the skirts. You do need some measurements, but the skirt block is not useful and it’s not used. I’ll be covering adding pleats and in the graphic that’s shown in this flat, the fullness has been added mainly to the waist, though it can also be added all through the skirt.

00;13;20;27 – 00;13;42;04

But I’ll be covering those different options for changing an A-line into a flared skirt with pleats. I’ll be covering adding flare to the A-line skirt and see how much fullness we can add to the hem. As I said, I tried to experiment and push the envelope, see how much flair you can add and when and what problems you may encounter with that.

00;13;42;04 – 00;13;59;07

I’ll also be including the six panel skirt. Now I get a bit confused with this because when you add a seam line for a zipper at the back, or buttons down the front, then it becomes a seven panel skirt (question mark??) But I always call it a six panel skirt, even if I then add a, you know, split one of the panels into two.

00;13;59;07 – 00;14;25;27

But yes, well, I’ll cover that in that video. Then I’ll move to adding pleats to the panel skirt, either in the seam line or not in the seam lane, and which might be preferable. So then you can add any bodice to any skirt and you have a lot of different options. Now, let me just clarify that. When I say any Bodice to any Skirt, you have to make sure, of course, that the measurement at the under bust on the bodice matches the measurement at the end, the bust on the skirt.

00;14;26;08 – 00;14;44;14

So, for example, if one dress you have added ease in the Under Bust so you can put elastic and pull it over your head. But you’ve made another bodice to be well fitting under the Under Bust with a zip up the back. Well, the skirts, of course, that you put with those policies have to match the measurement at the under bust.

00;14;45;03 – 00;15;05;28

I will also be adding a wrap option for the skirts to go with the wrap bodice so you can make a wrap dress. I think only one of my dresses on the slide show is a wrap dress. It’s the blue polka dot one with the flounce on the hem and the flounce around the neckline. And it actually is a six panel skirt.

00;15;05;28 – 00;15;32;16

So it’s wrapped. It’s not a plain A-line skirt with a wrap. It’s a six panel skirt with pleats wrapped. Now, I just want to make a note about the bodice options. The options shown on this slide are the ones that I’m going to cover. But you could always, at a later stage replace the bodice princess design lines, which I’m covering, which are dart equivalent with other dart equivalents. That won’t change the fit or the silhouette, just the design lines.

00;15;33;19 – 00;15;50;28

So these are some of the other options. These are all dart equivalents. Actually, the Armhole Princess is No 4. on the first line and I don’t think the shoulder princess is there that I can see. But so instead of having the princess lines that I’m going to be showing you, you can use any of these other dart equivalents.

00;15;51;08 – 00;16;09;21

And of course, they will look a little different with a lower neckline, as in this image, they all have the same neckline as the bodice block. But again, if you use these, it wouldn’t change the fit or the silhouette. You would just be changing the design line on the bodice pattern piece. On my website, I have written instructions for all of these designs, but no videos.

00;16;09;29 – 00;16;29;25

So in future I’ll probably do a video and dart manipulation, but I certainly won’t go through all 38. Once you learn to do it and you’ve done ten or so, and you practice, you can apply the theory and do any manipulation yourself. Now I won’t be covering the circle skirts, but you could change out the skirt instead of using an A-line.

00;16;29;25 – 00;16;50;21

And the six panel that I’m showing you how to do, you can always change it for a half circle, three quarter circle or full circle skirt. Having said that, the A-line with flair that I show you how to do may end up looking very similar to the half circle and three quarter circle skirt, depending on how much flair you add and some other factors.

00;16;52;02 – 00;17;12;12

I will also be adding in a rectangle skirt. Although they are not flaired in drafting, the end result is they look wider at the hem than the empire waist, so it still fits in with the silhouette. The dress on the right hand side has gathered tiered rectangles and I think it fits the silhouette better than the left hand side dirndl skirt.

00;17;12;20 – 00;17;31;25

But really that dirndl skirt still is a bit wider at the hem than at the empire waist, so I’ve included it. Now I have to say that the dress on the left with a dirndl skirt is my least favorite dress. I could say. I hate it, but I’m including dresses that don’t look so good because it might look good on others and it is easier to draft.

00;17;32;13 – 00;17;51;27

Well, it is just a rectangle, but you do need that rectangle to be a certain width for it to fit you. Now having said that, I have another dress that I hated and I almost put in the bin, but in the end it fitted and it was comfortable and I started wearing it and I meant to wear it just around the house because I hated it so much and I didn’t think it looked any good.

00;17;52;13 – 00;18;07;01

But two out of the three times I’ve worn it out of the house, I’ve had someone tell me that they love it. I had a woman passing in the supermarket said, I love your dress, and someone else serving in the chemist’s told me she loved it and asked me where I got it. So taste is of course a very personal thing.

00;18;07;01 – 00;18;33;11

As I said, I hate the dress on the left, but that style might suit others and it is very easy to draft, if not to gather. So still working through that list, explaining what I’m going to be covering in those videos fabric and finishes number five and number six, you need to consider the fabric when drafting the pattern. You need to consider what finishes suit what fabric. I’ll cover drafting for zips, button packets, etc. in the Finishes video.

00;18;33;22 – 00;18;48;10

So for any of these silhouettes, you can add a zip in the back if you prefer, or buttons down the front. But of course you have to keep in mind the fabric. Now I have a lot of information to share about fabric and finishes, things that I’ve learned that others might find useful. And so they don’t have to make the same mistakes I did.

00;18;49;06 – 00;19;10;16

I might also cover how I now cut viscose or rayon. I used to find it very difficult until I worked out an easier way to do it. And I don’t mean just cutting with a rotary blade. Yes, you must cut it with a rotary blade. I wouldn’t dream of cutting viscose or rayon with scissors, but beyond that, there’s some other suggestions I have or another suggestion I have.

00;19;10;26 – 00;19;32;02

Now, I have to say at the end here, woven fabric. I’m only talking about woven fabric. I’m not talking about stretch fabric. That will be sometime in the future. Number 7 on the list is sleeves. When I say sleeves, plural, all the sleeves on the dresses shown in the slideshow coming up are really only two different sleeves, but with some small changes.

00;19;32;12 – 00;19;53;22

But I’ll also just to muddy the water cover, adding sleeves to sleeveless dresses just to confuse things, but you’ll have to watch the video for that. So in video number eight, I will draft one pattern from beginning to end. The simplest pattern, but really you should probably be able to do that by yourself before that. I will add in a video on flounces after that that can be added to the hem.

00;19;53;22 – 00;20;13;19

The neckline, the sleeve. I will cover flounces in detail. This is the element I’ve chosen to do a video on. For example, I could have done pockets or something else, but it’s going to be flounces because that’s what I have been experimenting with. And finally, I do a second step by step pattern, including some flounces. Now the blue dress showing the blue polka dot dress.

00;20;14;06 – 00;20;31;06

When I made this dress, I decided after I saw it the outcome, I decided that the flounce of the hem should be much deeper and go higher. It’s actually a wrap dress, and if you look carefully, you’ll see the flounce goes up at the side. I have actually redrafted the pattern with those changes, the wider flounce and coming up higher.

00;20;31;14 – 00;20;47;15

And I’ve cut out the fabric. But I haven’t yet sewn it. So I’ll have that sewn up by the time I get to making that video, and I’ll probably use that pattern as the number ten video. But that’s what happens generally. I make a dress and I think of ways it can be improved and then it ends up slightly different or a very different pattern.

00;20;47;15 – 00;21;09;28

And I move on from there. But you will see some of those in the video slideshow coming up. So now I’m going to cover the planned timeline of these videos very quickly to tell you when I should be putting them up. And after that, there’s a slideshow of 30 dresses to give you an idea of what you should be able to draft after working through the variations on the Silhouette videos.

00;21;10;10 – 00;21;32;11

Once you have the basic dress that fits, you could come up with thousands of very different, unique designs adding details that you like, such as pockets, making the neck higher and adding a collar, that means that you won’t need to do any contouring. You can change the bodice line, dart lines, as I’ve shown you with dart manipulation, and you can come up with thousands of your own unique designs once you have the basic dress and you know that it fits well.

00;21;33;25 – 00;21;54;23

It’s currently the very beginning of March. I will be aiming at one video a fortnight. As I said at the beginning, I will redo the bodice instructions first and the bodice instruction video will hopefully be up by Sunday, the 13th of March at night about a fortnight from now. I’ll then spend the fortnight doing the bodice booklet, the same as my pants booklet.

00;21;54;23 – 00;22;13;20

Now it’s not a video, but it takes time and I want to do it. I have people asking for it. But not only that, I would like to sell a few booklets because I need to cover my costs for the things I do. I don’t sell a million books and I sell a few, but they help cover the costs, so I will need to do that before I move on to the Variations On A Silhouette video.

00;22;14;21 – 00;22;37;18

Then every fortnight I should be posting the Variations On A Silhouette videos in the order shown. Contouring first. This series will take months for me to create all of this content, but given that people seem to like my step by step method, and if that’s what you want and that’s what I do, you need to understand it’s time consuming, and if you want that, then you have to wait for the time that it takes.

00;22;38;09 – 00;22;56;17

I also need people to understand that this doesn’t pay the bills for me. I have to put in my hours at a day job to pay my bills, and that job has nothing to do with pattern making. The money I get from the booklets and the copy people buy me barely pays the expenses of my website and the costs associated with writing the instructions.

00;22;57;16 – 00;23;20;08

I say this to explain that I only have a limited amount of time to spend on writing this content, especially since I’d really like to spend a whole lot more time doing pattern making and sewing anyway, the next slide shows the topics that I would like to cover after I finish this series of ten videos on variations on the silhouette.

00;23;20;08 – 00;23;56;24

So following on from the Variations on the Silhouette series, once I finish those not only in 2022 well into 2023, because it’ll take me a long time to do this. I plan to do pants first, jeans, stretch that stretch blocks and some patterns, some jackets, undies. Also known as knickers and panties, and dart manipulation.