Self-draft

For a very long time images of the elizabethan shirt as a pattern or garment have fascinated me.  I've always favoured patterns that use every bit of fabric as they speak of a time when textiles were considered to be of great value.  A time when your household was valued by the quality of the textiles produced in the home and worn by the family and often sold to generate income.
 

Inspo from Butterick 4486 - especially the lace-up front.

To begin, a quick recap of previous posts for the Gil Brandao, Conjunto Pratico.  You can start with the first post, the self-draft instructions for this vintage bodice.  If you think you'd like more detail you can download my detailed worksheet - Vintage Style Pattern Making.  The instructions in the worksheet include information for drafting different sizes, from 6 to 22.  If you're unable to access the worksheet there is a post where I outline the grade rules to make the original draft in to other sizes - Grade Rules - Gil Brandao Conjunto PraticoTaking the vintage bodice further I have a post with the instructions for adding a skirt to the vintage bodice to make and wrap style dress -Vintage Bodice as Dress - Fist Sample.
Vintage Style Pattern Making

The beauty of this Folk to Fashion zero-waste pattern is that you can select your fabric width to determine different sizing outcomes in the final garment.  And the length of your available fabric will determine the final length of your garment and sleeve.  This garment is an historic pattern called a Eura, believed to be worn as an undergarment around 500-1,000 AD.

I've seen this fabulous dress idea on Pinterest for so long now, I finally had to try it out.  I'm not entirely sure that I'd get it made in one hour, particularly if you include making the pattern.  I tracked the inspiration down to a fabulous blog called Festive Attyre.  You should pop over to their website and checkout all the great ideas.  There are two slightly different versions of this dress on the blog.  In this case, I've tried only one of them and I'm seriously impressed.  In this sample I've used a cotton voile, that would need a petticoat underneath if I planned on wearing it.  I think it would make the best high summer frock ever.  Loose and cool, all at the same time.

Trawling through the samples on my rail I see so many garments that I haven't posted to follow on from the original pattern puzzle.  So to re-cap I cut this first sample based on a folk costume pattern for a Mantle Dress, Inner Garment referred to as a Eura Costume.  Like many folk costume designs it uses all the fabric and qualifies as zero-waste.  It's from a time when all textiles were considered of great value and no amount of cloth was ever wasted.

In this post I hope to link up some of the illustration and patternmaking resources I have on the website so you can plan your pattern making creativity over the summer break.  These suggestions are a combination of free access blog posts, PDF worksheets with pattern making instructions and Digital Garment Blocks to begin all your pattern making projects.

Following on from the Skirt Block and Design Options post I've separated skirt designs that use a stretch skirt block to start your pattern development.  You can use my skirt block to make a stretch skirt block to use with all these pattern puzzle posts.  Some of them have been sampled and those sample posts are also included here.

When I look at the vast amount of pattern making posts I've blogged since 2013, I'm overwhelmed!  So I've no idea how you're all coping out there.  I'm going to make an attempt to curate some of the posts into different categories so you can use them for a little gentle pattern making.  Many of you ask for online training, so this isn't a bad place to start by working your way through the accumulated knowledge in these posts.  I'll be Highlighting some of my posts that are particularly friendly for the beginner pattern maker.
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