Clothes Have To Function 1st For You

The 1st F; Function.

Your clothes have to function. They have to work for you or ’serve’ you as defined by a dictionary.

How do clothes become functional then? Earlier I’d posted a technique for discovering your body silhouette. This is important because when you know your silhouette you know your ‘ body shape’. When you are armed with the knowledge of knowing your correct body shape you will be able to browse through pattern catalogs, style reviews or shop ready to wear with confidence of what will work for you and what won’t.

There are many stylist specialists out there that will work with you and prepare a wardrobe plan for several hundred dollars but for just a few cents on the dollar you can do this yourself. All you need to know is 1) how to determine your silhouette and 2)then understand what style lines work best for your particular silhouette, and there is already a great deal of information available.

This is freedom. You will begin to start reviewing your pattern collections now with a critical thinking cap. You will start clipping ideas from fashion magazines, searching out designs that will work for you, and on occasion may get caught up sketching something of inspiration when you find something special at retail. Fashion sewing will not be so intimidating and will start to become fun, just as it should be!

See my post for determining your silhouette.

http://sewingforlife.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/determine-your-silhouette/

To keep things as simple as possible we will use the shapes which the pattern company’s use. Here is a link to a Vogue Patterns publication.

http://www.voguepatterns.com/vpm/figure/figurem.htm

For my shape, I can take an objective eye and see that I am a wide, slightly short-wasted hourglass — (okay…that sounds a little bit like a surfer or snowboarder describing the next wave or slope!). But now that this is done I can go through all of my patterns and start putting together a collection that work for my body shape.

With the analysis in place and a few patterns in hand I’m now ready to move on to the 2nd very important F – Fit!

Where do I start?

At the very beginning of course!

Before purchasing any fabric, patterns or notions it’s important to understand where to begin when it comes to sewing clothing for yourself (or for others for that matter).  The place to start is in understanding your body shape, size and personal features.  It is a simple process but often too many times overlooked by the home sewer.  By studying each of these separately and in great detail you’ll have compiled an incredible resource available to you that will save you time, energy and most of all money as these resources will help you tremendously in your sewing purchasing decisions. 

These first steps of understanding your body shape, size and personal features have absolutely nothing to do with learning how to actually use a machine, install a zipper, serge a seam or select the right needle and stitch length for your project, but they are extremely critical to achieving sewing success.  I like to think of this part of sewing as Sew-Prep.  Very much like learning and mastering the scales in piano or technical drills in sports this is a process of preparing a foundation that will ultimately improve your sewing success.

To have success with your fashion sewing your projects must be functional, they must fit you and they must flatter you.  If any of these are off your clothes won’t look right.  They may be out of proportion, uncomfortable and certainly not something you’d want to tell people you made!  You will have wasted your money, discouraged yourself in the art of sewing and most of all have wasted countless hours of your time. 

So how do I begin?  First of all, I’d like you to begin by having some patience.  I say patience because the process, although simple, will take a little time.  Secondly you’ll need to do some scientific analysis by working through what I’m going to call the three F’s; Function – which will be the process of determining your body shape, Fit – which will be the process of determining your body size and Flattery – which will be the process of analyzing your personal features.  The last 2 steps will be in constructing a fitted shell for yourself that will be used to pad your dress form and finally you’ll create a notebook to record the results of your analysis.

Follow along with me as I blog and post photos of this process.  You will be able to find all posts under the tag 3Fs.