Jacket with dramatic shawl collar

We are very grateful to Gabrielle Stanley for her continued support in sharing her projects with us to post on our blog.

Chiffon Jacket With Dramatic Shawl Collar
Someone recently asked me about this chiffon draped jacket, so I thought I would put together a tutorial on how to create a similar garment.

I started with a Standard Top, using the Oversized style with Sloped shoulders. The neck is Shawl Collar, Basic Shawl. I used sloped shoulders. The sleeves are Attached, Kimono 2.

I first adjusted the curve of the kimono sleeve to get a smoother line where the sleeve joins the body by nudging the curve control points.

Before going any further, I switched off F/B symmetry. I also checked my dimension units in the Project Options – I will be using Inches, Decimal for this project.

To make a deep inverted box pleat at the centre back, I selected the centre back seam and added an Extension of 3 inches.

I then switched my attention to the centre front, moving the centre front seam outwards to make a very wide collar. I displayed dimensions so I could watch how wide I was making it, adding 15in to the width of the hem. The shawl collar became a very strange shape but I ignored this for the moment.

I checked the seam length of the back neckline and the collar, then made the neckline vertical by moving the point at the top of the collar, keeping the seam length the same. (I got a warning message during this operation to remind me that the two seamlines needed to be the same.)

I then adjusted the collar itself to give me a straight front edge and a right angle at the top. This involved moving both ends and both control points for the shawl collar.


I decided I wanted the length of the jacket a little lower than my hipline so I adjusted the Top Length to 32. I dragged the bottom point of the centre front down to get the dramatic point at the bottom of the collar.

I added seam allowances all round both pattern pieces – I will make a folded and topstitched edge around the edges. As the pattern pieces are so wide, there will need to be a centre back seam. Before trimming the back neckline from the printed pattern, remember to fold the box pleat in place behind the neckline and trim all 3 layers together

I used French seams on my chiffon, though this isn’t suitable for the back neck/collar seam. This can be clipped then bound with a bias strip instead.
Sew in this order:

• Two fronts at the centre back of the collar.
• Stay stitch and clip the corners where the collar meets the front shoulder.
• Make a tuck in the collar at right angles to the centre back seam This is 2in wide, i.e. 1in finished width, and is centred 3 ¼ in from the back neck edge of the collar. (You can use a facing on this line to mark the position if desired). It should extend across the back neck and about 2 in in front of the shoulder.
• Two backs down the back.
• Two backs at the centre back to waist level, making the box pleat. The box pleat is sewn together to about waist level, but is supported from the neckline rather than trimmed away.
• Sleeve/shoulder/back neck, catching the box pleat and the bias strip into the back neck seam.
• Underarm/side.
• Sew loops on the front points at the hem, and put buttons on the centre of the shoulders to allow for draping of the fronts.

If you have any questions please feel free to comment below, someone else might have the same question.

~Gabrielle Stanley

http://gabriellestanley.blogspot.com/

Customer Spotlight...Ginny Schweiss

Ginny Schweiss, like many knitters, learned to knit as a child, on dime-store needles and Red Heart yarn. Forget Barbie dolls and her store-bought dresses--Ginny’s collection of Breyer horses wore the fanciest hand knit blankets in the country. Her first wearable design came out of necessity years later, when she had a dance to go to in high school and needed a top. It didn’t occur to her to look for a pattern. It didn’t even occur to her that it wasn’t normal to just sit down and knit a sweater, her first. While one might think this smashing, early success would lead to a long, illustrious career in design or any other fiber related industry, one would be way off target. Instead, she chose a route of physical therapist-turned-novelist, which prompts most people, upon hearing this, to pause, look confused, and wonder how one possibly led to the other.

Today, she still uses the same needles, and two grandkids play with the horses. Her office has made a visible transition from that of successful novelist to adventurous knitter. Research books peek out from behind the usual stash of colorful cones and skeins. Walls with writing awards are lined with knitting machines.
Her Butterfly sweater is the first project she designed on Garment Designer. She says the hardest thing for her is to keep anything simple, as once a design is underway, her imagination is always striving to make it unique, maybe memorable, definitely perfect, but not over-the-top. She loves designs that fit, texture, colorwork, and beads. Stitch Painter is on her wish list.

Ginny lives in St. Louis, MO. She can be found a few places on the web:
www.ravelry.com  - Beaded Pony Designs 
www.novelsites.us   - maintaining websites for other authors and knitters
www.jennamcknight.com  - her Jenna McKnight author website
http://jennamcknight.wordpress.com - occasional blogs about knitting and favorite rants

Zip Top Handbag in Garment Designer

Garment Designer Project submitted by Gabrielle Stanley. If you would like to submit a Guest Blog Post that uses Cochenille products feel free to email Sonia at info@cochenille.com

 Zip Top Handbag

This handbag is a good size for everyday use, providing you don't carry the kitchen sink.

You need: (all measurements in inches. Seam allowances must be added.)

Sides:
Cut 2 inf fabric, 2 in lining and 2 in fusible wadding. Mark Center points at bottom and top.

Base:
Cut 1 in fabric, 1 in lining, 1 in fusible wadding and 1(with now seam allowances) in plastic canvas (or other rigid stiffening). Mark center points of each side and also corners where seam lines intersect.

Top:
Cut 2 in fabric and 2 in fusible wadding.

Strap:
Cut 2 in fabric.

Additionally you will need 2 small scraps of fabric, and a zip. I used continuous zip and cut it 11 inches. The finished opening is 10.25 inches.

To Make:

1.     Fuse the fusible wadding to the sides, base and tops.

2.    Take the straps and fold them in 1/4 along the length, so the raw edges are enclosed. Topstitch down both edges.

3.    Sew the two sides together along the sloped seams.

4.    Position the handles so there is one per side, 3 inches in from the ends, and tack in place. Make sure they are not twisted.

5.    Sew the two small scraps of fabric to the ends of the zip.

6.    Sew the tops to either side of the zip, continuing the stitching onto the scraps of fabric, but leaving the ends unsewn for 1 in. Fold the tops down and topstitch where you have sewn. You will now have a rectangle of fabric with a zip in the middle.

7.    Fold this in half along the length of the zip, and sew the two ends together. Now fold the ends back along the zip, and sew across the triangle formed. Open the zip.

8.    Place the top inside the sides and sew together around the top. Turn right sides out and topstitch around the edge.

9. Take the base and align the middle of the short ends with the seamline of the sides. Pin the rest of the short edges to the bottom of the sides. Sew between the corner markings ONLY.

10.    Clip the sides to the ends of the stitching.

11.    Sew the remaining long edges of the base to the bottom of the sides.

12.    Trim a little from the edges of the plastic canvas and place it inside the bag.

13.    If you want an inside pocket, sew it to one of the lining sides.

14.    Sew the lining sides together along the sloped edges.

15.    Sew the lining base to the lining sides using the same method as sewing the fabric base to the fabric sides.

16.    Place the lining inside the bag and hand sew it around the edge of the zip tape.

If you would like the Garment Designer 2.5 files for this pattern, feel free to email sonia at info@cochenille.com and put Zip Top Handbag in the subject, and a .gds file will be emailed back to you.

~ Gabrielle Stanley
Cochenille Design Studio
UK Educator
http://gabriellestanley.blogspot.com/

Using Collars in Garment Designer

There are a few things to keep in mind when using the collars in Garment Designer.

The first thing is where to find them. Most are under the Extra's menu located along the Top menu bar:

There are a few collars that get added to drop down menu's when you buy Style sets, like the Shawl and Tailored collar from the Style set 2 get added to the Neck Group.

Second to bring up a collar from the Extra's menu you must click on either Joined at Front or Joined at Back. Note that the word "Collars:" will always be ghosted it has a colon behind it to denote a Title. There are other Title menu's like this in Garment Designer, it means the functions are beneath the Title.

Third the Collars are separated into Stand, Full Roll, Partial Roll, Flat and Hood. You will need to know the construction of the collar pattern pieces to find the correct collar you are looking for. Susan has done a great job in the manual of explaining the terminology of the collar. Chapter 8 page 25. If you need additional help you can also purchase our Fun Fashion collars PDF booklet. It has more detailed and in-depth information regarding collar construction.

With those key points you are well on your way to be able to add a collar to any design. Please feel free to call or email if you have any questions.

~Sonia Barton
Cochenille Design Studio
858-259-1698
info@cochenille.com

New Educator Gabrielle Stanley ... Guest Post

If you are part of any of our groups, you have seen Gabrielle Stanley's name and may have realized she is very knowledgeable about Garment Designer, for both Sewing and Knitting. She runs Gabrielle's Sewing Studio and has her own blog at Gabriellestanley.blogspot.com

She is now our newest Educator (she's in the UK), you can find her contact information on our Educator page. If you are an Educator (or not) and would like to do a blog post please email Sonia at info@cochenille.com.

Here is her Guest Blog post:

The story of a cardigan

On holiday a couple of years ago, I wandered into a yarn shop and fell in love with a colourway of Noro Blossom. I bought up what the shop had in stock, even though it was not enough for a complete garment, then sourced some more from a couple of online sites. I felt with such a variety of colours in the yarn, a mismatch of dyelots would not notice too much.

After researching the available patterns, I did not like any enough, so I looked at pictures of other garments, and finally decided on a sidew

ays knit cardigan with an asymmetric front opening.

Since the yarn is self-striping, I decided I would need to ke

ep the widths of the pattern pieces fairly even to reduce the amount the stripe widths varied. This led to my choosing to design a pattern with separate sleeves, and a separate front and back. To make the garment fit together easily with the stripes, I decided on square shoulders, and for such a garment I felt darts would be unnecessary.

With such a basic garment shape I was able to use a Simple Fit sloper.

So the choices were:

Top Group: Basic

Top Style: Average

Shoulder: Straight

Neck Group: Round

Neck Style: Standard

Darts: None

Sleeve Group: Separate

Sleeve Type: Drop Shoulder

Combo: None

Armhole: Standard

Sleeve Shape: Tapered

Sleeve Length: Long

Looking at the on-screen pattern, my first thought was that the sleeve was too wide at the top, so I changed the armhole depth by selecting the underarm point and nudging it upwards using the up arrow key.

Next I worked on the front opening. Changing the L/R Symmetry to Give/Take, and switching off F/B Symmetry so I didn't affect the back neckline.

I selected the centre front segment and moved it to the right using the right arrow key. When I had moved it so the left neckline was almost straight, I changed the Display to Actual Size and was able to nudge the line using the arrow kes until I completely got rid of any jagged sections of the neckline. (I often change the display scale to get an exact measurement or straight line.)

I then turned L/R symmetry off completely, made sure I only had the right frontís centre front segment selected, and moved it further over to obtain an overlap for closure.

My cardigan was now ready for the yarn information. I hand knitted a test swatch on the needles recommended on the ball band, measured it, and recorded the information:

Next came the conversion to sideways knitting. I generated my Pattern Pixel-Per-Stitch Graphics.

Selecting each front piece in turn, I pressed 'Z' once to rotate them clockwise.I then selected the back piece and pressed 'Z' 3 times to rotate it to the same position as going anticlockwise. The sleeve did not need rotating as I planned to knit it in the conventional direction.

I now changed from displaying Dimensions to displaying Stitch Counts.

Because I was planning to knit by hand from the left side, I set the cast on points to be the bottom left of the fronts and the top left of the back, by clicking on the numbers at these points. I also decided to work the sleeves top-down to allow for easy length adjustment, so I set the cast on point at the top right of the sleeve.

The shaping instructions were fairly straightforward. In order to work a moss stitch edge, I needed to manually add instructions to start and finish a moss stitch portion around the neckline as well as the opening edges at the fronts and the bottom edges of all pieces. I also needed to manually add the buttonhole.

I started knitting with the left front, so I could check my tension, and also weighthe finished piece to determine the stitch count by weight to determine if I had enough yarn.

I finished the cardigan with a large button at the top of the asymmetric opening, and press studs down the rest of the opening to prevent it flapping open.

~Gabrielle Stanley

August News

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Hi Everyone,

New:

Mac has released a New Operating system 10.7 Lion, our programs are not

currently 10.7 compatible, but we are working as fast as we can to get them

compatible. We will send out an email as soon as we have more information,

thank you for your patience.

Cochenille on the Web:

Blog: If you are interested in doing a Guest post, please email us. Lots of

you have wonderful information to share. We could really use the help of

some aspiring writers. http://cochenilledesignstudio.blogspot.com/

Facebook: Wow, Thank you all for your support and participations, we love

seeing all those pics.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Encinitas-CA/Cochenille-Design-Software/241040118585?ref=ts

Where We'll Be:

http://www.cochenille.com/events.html

August 5 - 9 Cochenille Design Retreat, Cimmarron, NM

August 18 - 22 American Sewing Guild Conf. Los Angeles, CA

August 25 - 28 Stitches Midwest, Schaumburg, IL

August Specials:

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Back to School Sale

We hope you are all enjoying the last weeks of Summer before going back to

school. For all of you Fashion students, Design Students or just students of

Life type your field of study in our Promocode: field and receive 10% off

you entire order. That makes a Garment Designer $179. instead of $199.

Thank you all for your support!

Susan Lazear

http://susanlazear.blogspot.com

Sonia Barton

http://modistamodesta.blogspot.com

Business Blog

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Cover for a Dress Form

I picked up a dress form out of a dumpster a long time ago. She was missing her legs, which I fixed quickly I just put her on a stool and she became the perfect height also strong enough to hold the heavy wedding gowns.

When I picked her up I just figured I would sew her some very tight fitting clothes.

I took her measurements:

Entered them in Garment Designer:

Brought up a contoured style, and then moved all of my points in to mimic the sloper. I bought a stretch knit fabric, so I needed no ease.

Printed it out, sewed up my seams on the serger and Voila she has her first outfit!

Because Garment Designer shows you the Sloper (body Measurements) under the pattern pieces you are drafting, it's easy to see what kind of ease you are building into your pattern pieces.

~Sonia Barton