Any experienced dressmakers here?

I love the velvet wrap dress

Yes storynanny I love the Katie Morag books. My GS has a mainland granny but he's on the mainland too. At the moment his other gran is gran-in-the-box! (Skype)
mollie do let us know how you get on.

I did, too. The material was beautiful.

margaretx I buy linen clothes on Ebay too! I often buy dresses and cut them shorter into tunics. If the body isn't right I cut it off and just use the skirt.

I used to make jackets for friends in my teens for money. I made mockups out of my mother's old linen sheets, made any necessary alterations I needed for them to fit me later and then dyed them. One friend chose a Norfolk jacket with four panels in the back, a separate waist panel, two front panels on each side, flapped pockets all over the place and the sleeves were all panelled too. It took me ages. But everyone wanted one. After all these years I still reckon I could make one blindfolded.

Love these tips!

I am sitting here filled with admiration for you all. My mother always made my clothes, and those of DD, and your stories have brought back memories of watching mum cutting, tacking and fitting clothes. I wish she had taught me a little of her skill. I don't want to do it now, but still admire the patience and deftness that you are all demonstrating.

Now, I have two pairs of trousers that need shortening.....

Mollie, I'm about to start a 5 week shape fitting course at my local college, eeek! The idea is that we will each end up with a perfectly fitting toile from which we can then make anything to fit. That's the theory anyway, I'll let you know about the practice. Course isn't expensive and may save much wastage of fabric and also much swearing.

That sounds very interesting Sewsilver - you will have plenty of support to help you get the right fit to copy at home when you may have no-one.

MargaretX and those other skilled sewers. Respect!

Not all of us have that level of skill. I am well impressed by those with such talents and the patience to get it right.
I would imagine that to get really good results you need an adjustable tailors dummy to get any garment to fit really well.

That's just what I need Sewsilver! Either that or maybe you could pop round and sort me out when you've done yours? I just can't work out how anyone fits things to themselves without causing serious physical (and mental) damage! I found an adjustable tailors dummy that would cope with my dimensions but it's quite expensive (after having been reckless when buying a new machine) and I found myself wondering if I could buy a large stable dummy and using padding and duct tape to pad it out!??! Then I thought it might not really help with thing like shoulder width so I'm back to the drawing board...just watched Sewing Bee and am in awe of that girl who makes her patterns freehand! How does she do that???

mollie what about bidding for one of these on Ebay? Cheap as chips!

www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/dressmakers-dummy

Ive thought about getting a tailors dummy but I am short from neck to waist and I dont think they adjust that way.
I am going to try and find a pattern making course too if the tape job fails.

Many years ago (1972!) I bought a book by Helen Stanley called "Modelling and flat cutting for fashion" and worked my way through most of the exercises (at quarter scale and just on paper - I only made a couple of the things). It was not difficult and it did make it very clear how clothes are shaped and how to alter a basic pattern to do what you want, as well as how to make a pattern from scratch.

Then in 1986 I bought Ann Ladbury's "Simple Pattern cutting" - which came complete with a basic multi-fit pattern with lots of outlines that you cut to fit yourself after taking a lot of measurements (a truthful friend needed to help)

Both of these were excellent to learn from. and when I look on Amazon I see that a few of each are still available. (there are 15 copies of Helen stanley's book at 0.01p each!)

www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Simple-Pattern-Cutting-With/dp/0713443413/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394018528&sr=8-1&keywords=ann+Ladbury+simple+pattern+cutting

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Helen%20stanley%20modelling%20and%20flat%20cutting%20for%20fashion

My dummy does adjust at the waist. I have a short waist. It is made even shorter than mine, so it does mean that anyone with a longer body will have a gap at the waist between the upper and lower parts, but it's wonderful to be able to pin things to it. Unfortunately mine is elderly and is now expanded to its fullest width. If I can't be arsed to get changed it's great for trialling outfits on for days/evenings out. Seeing if long cardigans will be ok under coats, that sort of thing.

Thanks for the ideas folks, will look at ebay and amazon... at this rate I'll have so much 'stuff' in my little sewing room there won't be any room for me! Lol!

About 30 years ago I bought a kind of tailors dummy. It is made out of covered wires which warm up. ( probably no longer safe to use!) Any way we call it the cage and I get into it when warm, fit it to my shape, and when cool take it off again. It is in two parts. Then it goes on its dummy stand and I am appalled at how big it is! then I put a blouse on it and it fits.

I have made some lovely clothes on it. Its so nice to see how a collar fits. I made DD2 's wedding outfit. She didn't want white, it was a student wedding, and I made her a rasberry coloured shantung fitted jacket and she wore a muliticoloured sleeveless mini dress underneath, She had red roses in her dark hair and a bouquet to match. Not bad for a student, and not at all expensive. As a married couple they were then able to move on to the same university.
I am amazed at the women in the Sewing Bee and I have so much respect for their creativity. I can't design but can make anything designed by others. I like BURDA patterns.
Maybe I should get into my cage again. DH has to help me though..

I knew I should have done things in a different order this morning! Couldn't wait so went ahead and ordered an adjustable dressmakers dummy online. Best price I could find, free delivery, sold! THEN, I opened my new library book about pattern making and read that it's perfectly possible to pad out a dummy to the right size! Wah!! So many dummies on ebay for a fraction of the price I've just paid... never mind!

I've been having a re-think about this, and realised I've always just tried the cutout garment on myself at different stages. Made adjustments here and there, sometimes with help from others.
I've never had a problem with a bad fit.
Scruffy finishing, yes, and poor shaping and padding, but never a bad fit.

All I can say is that you must be more flexible than me, TriciaF. If you could have seen me this afternoon trying to put a pin into a dart at the back of my neck you'd have had hysterics. I nearly did, but because I thought my arm might get stuck, my shoulder just didn't want to move!! And I couldn't manage tucking a dart or two at the middle of my back so I'm going to just take a punt at that one when I start stitching. I'm doing a bit of my own adaptation on a pin tucked tunic that didn't quite work out the way I thought...the seam ripper has never had so much work to do!!

My 'relatively' cheap dummy still needed a bit of padding after adjusting to my measurements. When yours arrives Mollie try something on it that fits you well on it and pad if needed - I used polyester quilting wadding. Looking forward to hearing about your successes!

Oh I wish you could go back and edit posts - two 'on it' s unecessary!

I love the thought of margaretx's dummy. I have never come across one, but it sounds amazing.