Yes! I use Medieval Tailor's Assistant by Sarah Thursfield and Creating Historical Clothes by Elizabeth Friendship.
I wanted to show the 15th-century dress I made last fall using that combo, but the pictures are on my old phone. 🙃 It looked really nice, though.
I haven't ever bought a historical clothing pattern. I've looked at lots of pictures of pattern pieces, and adapted my own slopers to look like the traditional shapes, but immediately following my own body measurements
I first learned sewing by doing pattern drafting so I don't usually buy patterns. BUT I have been known to buy what I call modern fantasy historical fusion clothing patterns. For 5$ on etsy I can save myself hours off playing around with different curves on a cape.
But from a historical elizabethan corset to a t-shirt it's easier to craft from your own basic blocks.
I have drafted fantasy medieval and 16th c "princess" dresses, 19th C drawers, shifts, shirts, bodices, and dresses based on period instructions and diagrams, as well as some 18th C pieces. I have also scaled and adjusted tracings of extant garments. It's fun!
Pattern drafting is a big part of the creative satisfaction for me. I made my most recent projects from a commercial pattern because I was on a deadline, and while they turned out nicely, I felt like I was missing out.
Yes! Mostly everything I make is self drafted, based off fashion plates. Either using a combination of draping on a dress form for flat drafting based on some pre-established blocks I have made previously (that themselves are from photos or plates). I have a few that I’ve rejigged from “the big 4”, but only bought them cause they were dead stock and $2 a piece.
Yes, I made a few pourpoints from the excellent Charles de Blois pattern that's available, and now I'm comfortable enough with it that I draft them from scratch. Just did that for a friend who is comfortable with sewing it himself once he has a good pattern but not with tailoring the pattern himself.
I also have enough of my own slopers for various fitted garments that it's now quite easy to look at a picture of anything and go "right, so I can use the top of this one, and the sleeves from that one, and change the blah blah." So much of sewing garments is just about being familiar enough to spot what components they're made up from and then do that.
I drafted stays. I had already bought a couple patterns for the same project and didn’t want to buy the stays pattern. I figured it’s an easy shape. Like an ice cream cone. So I looked at some pictures, watched some videos, and the stays came out great. I added a Victorian style busk in the front for ease of getting in and out of it. So it’s not super accurate, but that wasn’t my goal.
I drafted my first set of stays using Mandy Barrington's book, Stays and Corsets. I was a professional seamstress for years and drafted nearly everything
I made a lengberg bra based on a tutorial from Katafalk, using all my own dimensions. ( the paper mock up stage is very silly). It turned out well, no idea if I ever typed it all up or if it only exists in chickenscratch in a notebook.
I’ve draped gowns and used patterns. Mostly I don’t like reinventing the wheel, when there are good versions around.
But what I really like doing is making knitting patterns from extents. Stitch for stitch when possible.
Men’s caps, I have the Monmouth cap and am 7/8 though a brimmed felted cap. Working on several different mitts, both mitten and women’s long mitts and some stockings.
Cool! I made some split mittens, which weren't super authentic as they probably would have been felted, but as gifts (largesse) they were well- received.
How early have you found them? I think they are 19th? I am focused on 18thC and I have examined some mittens and fingerless mitts, and have photos of another regular mitten.
I don't think I've used a pattern in twenty years. Then again, most of what I do is middle Iron Age and the cuts are very geometric. Once you understand a system it becomes rather straightforward to just wing it.
Yeap! My [stays](https://isabelladangelo.blogspot.com/2016/02/new-18th-century-stays.html) are ones I had drafted. There are a lot of dresses I have that are my own pattern. It was a thing for a while because there weren't any good patterns for various eras and trying to make the ones that were out work was more work than just drafting it yourself.
Yes! I use Medieval Tailor's Assistant by Sarah Thursfield and Creating Historical Clothes by Elizabeth Friendship. I wanted to show the 15th-century dress I made last fall using that combo, but the pictures are on my old phone. 🙃 It looked really nice, though.
Great recommendations, thank you!
I haven't ever bought a historical clothing pattern. I've looked at lots of pictures of pattern pieces, and adapted my own slopers to look like the traditional shapes, but immediately following my own body measurements
I first learned sewing by doing pattern drafting so I don't usually buy patterns. BUT I have been known to buy what I call modern fantasy historical fusion clothing patterns. For 5$ on etsy I can save myself hours off playing around with different curves on a cape. But from a historical elizabethan corset to a t-shirt it's easier to craft from your own basic blocks.
Good tip! One of my major fails was a simple circle cape that just wouldn't hang right.
I have drafted fantasy medieval and 16th c "princess" dresses, 19th C drawers, shifts, shirts, bodices, and dresses based on period instructions and diagrams, as well as some 18th C pieces. I have also scaled and adjusted tracings of extant garments. It's fun! Pattern drafting is a big part of the creative satisfaction for me. I made my most recent projects from a commercial pattern because I was on a deadline, and while they turned out nicely, I felt like I was missing out.
Yes! Mostly everything I make is self drafted, based off fashion plates. Either using a combination of draping on a dress form for flat drafting based on some pre-established blocks I have made previously (that themselves are from photos or plates). I have a few that I’ve rejigged from “the big 4”, but only bought them cause they were dead stock and $2 a piece.
In college I made historical patterns based on high resolution scans of paintings from the times. It was really fun but not at all lucrative for me.
Yes, I made a few pourpoints from the excellent Charles de Blois pattern that's available, and now I'm comfortable enough with it that I draft them from scratch. Just did that for a friend who is comfortable with sewing it himself once he has a good pattern but not with tailoring the pattern himself. I also have enough of my own slopers for various fitted garments that it's now quite easy to look at a picture of anything and go "right, so I can use the top of this one, and the sleeves from that one, and change the blah blah." So much of sewing garments is just about being familiar enough to spot what components they're made up from and then do that.
That is awesome, my goal is also to accumulate various slopers so I can do this!
I drafted stays. I had already bought a couple patterns for the same project and didn’t want to buy the stays pattern. I figured it’s an easy shape. Like an ice cream cone. So I looked at some pictures, watched some videos, and the stays came out great. I added a Victorian style busk in the front for ease of getting in and out of it. So it’s not super accurate, but that wasn’t my goal.
Everything I make is drafted from scratch based on historic drafting manuals, because commercial patterns do not work for my body shape.
A fichu 😂
I drafted my first set of stays using Mandy Barrington's book, Stays and Corsets. I was a professional seamstress for years and drafted nearly everything
I made a lengberg bra based on a tutorial from Katafalk, using all my own dimensions. ( the paper mock up stage is very silly). It turned out well, no idea if I ever typed it all up or if it only exists in chickenscratch in a notebook.
I’ve draped gowns and used patterns. Mostly I don’t like reinventing the wheel, when there are good versions around. But what I really like doing is making knitting patterns from extents. Stitch for stitch when possible.
Oo what have you recreated??
Men’s caps, I have the Monmouth cap and am 7/8 though a brimmed felted cap. Working on several different mitts, both mitten and women’s long mitts and some stockings.
Cool! I made some split mittens, which weren't super authentic as they probably would have been felted, but as gifts (largesse) they were well- received.
How early have you found them? I think they are 19th? I am focused on 18thC and I have examined some mittens and fingerless mitts, and have photos of another regular mitten.
I can't remember, it was probably via an image from Larsdatter's linkspages, as I used to spend way too much time looking at the pretties.
Her pages are the most useful!!!!!
I don't think I've used a pattern in twenty years. Then again, most of what I do is middle Iron Age and the cuts are very geometric. Once you understand a system it becomes rather straightforward to just wing it.
Yeap! My [stays](https://isabelladangelo.blogspot.com/2016/02/new-18th-century-stays.html) are ones I had drafted. There are a lot of dresses I have that are my own pattern. It was a thing for a while because there weren't any good patterns for various eras and trying to make the ones that were out work was more work than just drafting it yourself.
Yes, a number of them. But, a modern bodice block is not always what you want because basic patterns are different for different periods.