>>I rarely use commercial patterns; usually I would draft them >>out of a book onto paper. >I trace out the pattern on muslin and put any marks that I may need on it. It >also saves time in the long run because you won't need to do any >pinning when you lay the pattern out on fabric.
Both of the above are true for me too. I'm a very lazy costumer for all that I like high-end results. I like to handle & fiddle w/ my patts, mockups & finished garment as little as possible. Part of this attitude is that I keep all my old mocks & drafts & notes neatly organized in 2 file cabinets in the garage. They're done on heavily starched muslin and/or butcher paper (comes in big wide rolls that last for years) and/or on the back side of D and E size mechanical drawings done on "vellem". It's not real vellem, it's the kind that CAD drafters use & goes in a plotter. This stuff will out last me. It's guaranteed 75 years archival quality, and I'm recycling. As for the starched muslin, I can draw on it, snip it to fit, pin it on a person and gather or pleat it, then press it back to flat. It will even drape a little, unlike any paper pattern. I love going to the pattern file cabinet, pulling out something I did a decade ago to use as a starting place. --cin Cynthia Barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume