Welcome back
sewers!!!
Glad to see you all ready to
dissect a pattern envelop back.
If you
have one, please pull it out and if you don’t, no worries, photos will be
provided as we walk step by step through all the information on the back.
Pattern
envelop backs are a little different as each company has their own “style” but each one
holds the same information. Most of the
patterns I will reference belong to the McCalls/Butterick/Vogue/Kwik Sew
company, not that they pay me (ahem, that would be nice) but the Simplicity
brand confuses me slightly because I grew up using McCalls and Butterick
patterns. Simplicity patterns tend to have you
make several different pieces of the item sew them all together and then you are
done, but it does not lend itself to seeing the item take shape as you sew
which helps me a lot, I know people who swear by Simplicity and find the
McCalls “technical” and “difficult”, so it is a preference thing. Many of the items you can sew with the patterns are similar by both
companies so go with one you find easiest to understand. Also as a side note, I do not own a dress
form. Always wanted one…
Anyway, back
to the task at hand; pattern envelop backs. So
you may have had the opportunity to flip through those big books at the fabric
store and look at the articles of clothes that one can make with the
corresponding pattern. If you haven’t
had the opportunity, please go, it is a fun thing to do and it gives us ideas
and inspiration!!! If you want to run
out now, I’ll wait….
OK, so
patterns in hand and now what?!?!? Well
let’s start with the front, it is WAY simpler than the back, the front shows a
couple different things you can produce from the enclosed pattern, also gives
you the size range of the enclosed pattern.
Most patterns these days are very true to size so pick the size you
usually wear. Some used to be
notoriously small, but I think those days are past.
On to the
back you will see several different
sections; I will identify each and have the most common companies
pictured. Once you are familiar with
these sections, you will able to pick up a pattern produced anywhere and
understand what is needed. You may also see more than one language as well as
the instructions on the inside which we will get into later.
Let’s start
with McCalls:
The VERY top
left corner is the pattern number, while looking through the big pattern books,
this is the corresponding number to item pictured. This pattern happens to be a little girl’s
dress pattern. The number of items mean
how many individual pattern pieces are in this envelop. Patterns are printed on massive sheets of
thin tissue paper-type paper and are quite fragile. When unfolding the pattern, be gentle!
The
highlighted box gives a brief description of what can be produced from the
pieces in this pattern. It appears this
girl’s dress can be made with a staggered hem line (think train of a wedding
dress), that is dress A or an even hemline, dress B. Dress A also has long sleeves while dress B
is short sleeved, there may be instruction if you want Dress B to have long
sleeves, but this isn’t the time for that … yet. Towards the very bottom are sketches of the
front and back of a finished garment, these can also appear down the side of
the pattern envelop as you will see with some of the other companies.
The next box
down highlighted below is where we find out if we need a woven fabric or a
knit.
Once you are more used to this
whole process, you will be able to look at the photo and kinda get a feel for
woven or knit.
Not being able to see the
front of this envelop, I know this will call for woven fabric because it is a
“formal” dress (Christening or costume) and generally those will be woven.
So let’s look at the “SUGGESTED FABRICS”:
As you can
see, this pattern calls for Satin, Jacquard, Shantung, silk organza, and
chiffon for the different view.
Confused? Let’s look into this a
little deeper, because this box is VERY important. Pretend that you want to make dress A, so you
would disregard everything that mention for “B”. So for Dress A you will need Duchess Satin,
Jacquard and a pleated chiffon, plus a no-cling lining. How much of each is explained in the
following box and that may also get confusing so let’s look a little deeper
into it:
Now fabric
GENERALLY comes in 2 different widths, 45” and 60”. Both are folded in half at the manufacturer
and are put on “bolts” those cardboard pieces that the fabric is wrapped
around. Cotton generally is 45” and polyester
is 60”, with the exception of upholstery fabric which ranges 54 to 60” wide (or
more sometime) and that fabric is hung on rolls or tubes. While you COULD use some upholstery fabric
with this pattern, let’s stick to what the pattern actually calls for! So, across the top, you see sizes which means
the finished product, for this example let’s say our girl is a size 6 and
remember we are making dress A. So the
main fabric we need is Duchess satin which is similar in texture to Satin peau,
both 60” wide and we need 3 and 3/8 yards of the 60” wide satin. Notice the pattern calls for 54” wide fabric,
this does not matter much because it is better to buy the wider fabric, gives
you a little more “room” while laying out the pattern pieces than a 45” piece
of fabric. Dress A also has 3
contrasting items, whether a different color or texture they are as follows;
contrast #1 ¾ yard of 60” jacquard, contrast #2 1 ¾ yards of 45” wide pleated
chiffon and contrast #3 5/8 yard of 54” or 60” duchess satin. Where did I find the pleated chiffon and
satin? In the suggested fabrics section
of the pattern, just above the size box.
Next on this
particular pattern company comes the “Notions” sections, please do not overlook
this!!!
I understand it is on the
bottom, but it is equally important as the fabric suggestions and the amount of
fabric you need because this section will tell you what else you may need to
finish off the garment like what length zipper and such.
Let’s look closer at the notions box:
Almost all
notions suggestions will begin with “thread”; while this is a no-brainer to
most, they are probably obligated to put that here, because once upon a time
some use black thread on the white dress because thread was not in the
notions…. OK, so past the thread, we
will need a 14” zipper either invisible or regular, looks like the finishing
lace is optional, a hook and eye and assorted beads and pearls are also
needed. Now notice that after the
assorted beads and pearls, it breaks down again to Dress A and Dress B. For this example we are still making dress A,
so we would purchase the desired lengths of everything listed prior to the
Dress B.
The last box
is the finished dimensions, that is pretty straightforward, so no reason to
delve into that section.
**Side note,
while this pattern is GREAT as an example, I would NOT recommend this for
beginners. Rule of thumb; the number of
pieces is a good indicator of how complicated a pattern will be. This particular pattern is 24 pieces and
while I’m undaunted by this, I would recommend a beginner to stick with 10
pieces or less until “horsehair braid” is a regular item at the bottom of the
sewing box….
Let’s look
at another brand so you can see the difference, here is a Simplicity pattern
envelop back:
Hopefully
you can see an immediate difference in the set up of the information; however,
also notice the similarities in the information. This pattern is for a ladies’ top, with a
couple different combination of long sleeves, short sleeves, no sleeves and a
gathered waist. Once again, begin at the
top left, pattern ID number and under that, number of pieces, this pattern has
10 pieces enclosed.
This Pattern
company goes right into suggest fabric and does not give a description of the
finished items:
This is also
a woven pattern because the suggested fabric starts off with a cotton, the next
couple fabric choices are all a polyester blend of woven in varying degrees of
weight, but this looks like the softer and more drapey the fabric is the
better!
So touch the fabrics and if it
is very stiff, walk away!
Next box on
this envelop is the notions, remember the other company had this box at the
bottom?
Well, Simplicity has this box
towards the top:
Of course
Thread is first again! LOL! Then all the options in this pattern need one
pkg of single fold bias tape, then option A, C and D need 1/4” elastic and
option D needs buttons in addition to the rest.
Let’s take
one second to look at all the sketches down the side of the package BEFORE we
look at the fabric requirements, because this is where some novices get into
trouble. Please notice that option A and
Option C are listed with the same drawing with the exception that option C is
sleeveless. Both A and C are very
similar in construction, but A is the only option with full or probably ¾
sleeves, but I don’t have the front of the package to see the finished
garment. Similarly B and D are short
sleeved with a slightly different necklines, D looks like it may have a collar
and it looks like the sleeve hem on B is flat while D looks like it is puffed a
little. E and F are again very similar
with E having a collar similar to option D’s collar. Got it??
Great!!! Let’s move on….
Next come
the fabric requirements, or how much fabric you need to make the item:
OK so the
pattern sizes are a little further down on this back, past your measurements in
case you are unsure of what size to buy.
Generally you want to sew the size you wear most often. Let’s pretend again we are making a size 12
top using option B. We will need 1 and
5/8 yards of 45” wide fabric or 1 and 1/8 yards of 60” wide fabric. Simple enough, don’t forget those
notions! And we are done with this
shopping trip.
The finished
measurement of the garment appear toward the top of the envelop back unlike the
McCalls where they appeared at the bottom.
Getting
easier to understand? I hope so, it
isn’t as hard as most people think it is, let’s run through a couple other
patterns just for the fun of it!
Here we have
a KWIK SEW pattern. They used to be a
stand-alone company but at some point they magically became part of the
McCalls/Butterick/Vogue conglomerate.
Let’s take a look:
Now across
the very top you see the familiar pattern ID number and what this company calls
this pattern, a misses Jelly Roll Jacket.
Notice the number of pieces is not printed on this envelop.
Next box down is a brief description of the
item.
Then KWIK SEW varies a bit from
the others and states right there between suggested fabric and the item
description that this pattern is designed for woven fabrics.
Remember when I told you that KIWK SEW seems
to be the only pattern company that tells you straight off the bat whether the
pattern is for knit or woven fabric?
Well, there it is!
Now, on to
suggested fabric:
This pattern
calls for cotton, batiks, linen, lightweight denim and rayon blends. Again probably not a jacket I would recommend
for beginners because of the jelly roll detail on the front of the jacket, but
is was a good example.
This pattern
company prints the measurements next, those are self explanatory along with the
finished measurements.
Remember, McCalls
has the finished measurements at the very bottom and Simplicity has the
measurement at the top and finished garments measurements at the bottom.
Same information, different locations.
Let’s move on… to amount of fabric needed or
sizing:
We are going
to use jacket A for this example because the B option has the pleating or Jelly
roll and that is a bit much for our purposes.
So, let’s make a size Large jacket A.
How much fabric will we need? If
we 58-60” wide fabric, we need 2 and 5/8 yards for the white parts and contrast
which is the light gray color in the sketches we need 7/8 of a yard. If we are using fabric that is 45” wide we
need 3 and 5/8 yards of the main fabric and 1 yard of contrast. Make more sense?
**Side
note** some of the patterns have mention
“fusible interfacing”. This is narrow
webbing that is ironed onto the unprinted or “wrong” side of the fabric to
provide softer fabric a little more stiffness when making cuffs or collars. There are a myriad of interfacings, different
weights, colors and sew in and iron on.
The iron on kind is called fusible while the sew in kind is called
non-fusible. This pattern needs ¾ of a
yard of iron on (fusible) probably for the collar.
Now let’s
not forget notions, KWIK SEW has their notion requirement at the bottom and of
course thread is #1 again!!
All this one
seems to need for jacket A are 5 buttons.
Seeing the
similarity?
I was going to say, do you
see a pattern but thought the better of that!! LOL.
Now one last pattern company which is
Butterick and I was very pleased to find a knit pattern to show you:
This is also
a Misses tops pattern with quite a few choices, but I want to call attention to
the blue arrows along the right hand side of the envelop back.
This is required stretch of the knit needed
to make this pattern correctly.
Unfortunately this isn’t the best quality image, so I have a woven
pattern to dissect:
Biggest
difference in the Butterick patterns?
Anyone spot it??
The pattern ID
number is NOT printed near the item description.
It is barely noticeable it the top right hand
corner of this pattern and if you look at the above knit pattern
it is in the extreme left corner.
Otherwise it is looking familiar!!
Top box is
the description, notions and fabric suggestions all in one.
The information begins with brief item
description of Misses dress and stole, a more formal wear type item which
requires?
WOVEN!!
Right!
Next are notions required, interestingly
enough this does not have thread first or mentioned at all, maybe they believe
we are smart enough… who knows?!
Both
dresses require the same notions of a zipper, decorative buttons, seam binding
and hook and eyes.
Fabric suggestion is
next within that same paragraph:
This one
specifically mentions the incompatibility of a striped fabric with this
pattern, some will mention if the pattern company has not had good results with
certain patterns. All these companies
have people with varying skills make these patterns prior to printing in
production to ensure we will be able to make the item as pictured.
Next is the fabric
requirement:
Ok so we all
know by now that if we want to make a size 12;
dress A which appears in the sketch to be more knee length and dress B
will be full length, we will obviously need more fabric to reach the ground
than the knee.
Hope this is beginning to
make sense…
Size 12 Dress B will need 3
and ¼ yard of 45” wide fabric and 1 and ¾ of 60” wide fabric.
The stole (or wrap) require 2 and 5/8 of
either width.
There is interfacing
mentioned but does not specify on envelop whether fusible or not.
I hope we
are all a little more familiar with the back of the pattern envelops now and I
hope this post made it a little less scary to delve into those books at the
fabric store.
Later we
will go through the instructions included with patterns because those are also
critical in success!!
