This month I've turned the focus to fitting knits. I have covered the topic to some extent previously so if you want more information on this topic, just click on the "fitting knits" category in the sidebar of the tutorial section of my website inhousepatternsstudio.com. If you're already on my website, just look to the right and you'll see the topic category there.

As you likely already know, I believe that understanding the balance of a garment on your body is the key to achieving good fit. I've shared this rather extensively in The Perfect Fit Guide as well as in all of my online courses and workshops. While I usually talk about this in relation to woven garments, it is a useful tool in assessing fit in knits as well, so last week I showed you how to find the balance lines on the In-House Patterns Jenny tee in the hope of helping you understand how to assess the fit of the pattern.

Since we've already determined the position of the balance lines on the pattern, I thought we could...

If you're familiar with my fitting methods and have downloaded your copy of The Perfect Fit Guide, you already know that understanding the balance of the garment on your body is the key to making a pattern fit you. As a result I get asked this question all the time:

"How do I find the balance lines on a sewing pattern?"

I do give you some general guidelines about finding these important lines on other sewing patterns in this video but since we're talking about knits this month, let me show you how to find them on the In-House Patterns Jenny Tee.

I'd love for the Jenny Tee to be your go-to t-shirt pattern and I know achieving a perfect fit is the key to making that happen. If you already have a copy of the pattern, I hope you'll follow along because locating the balance lines on the pattern and transferring them to your sample will give you the guidance you need to assess the fit and solve any issues that may arise. Watch the video for all the details.

Next week we'll...

Here we go with video #4 of the Pattern Fundamentals series!

In the last three videos we've practiced lots of dart manipulations.  Each video building your pattern making skills and hopefully giving you the confidence you need to make pattern adjustments for fit and style.  I guarantee that you'll find something new and inspiring in each one of the previous videos so if you missed any of the lessons,  just click the links below to watch.

PATTERN FUNDAMENTALS: Two Essential Skills for Successful Pattern Manipulation

PATTERN FUNDAMENTALS: How to True Darts and Manage Dart Volume

PATTERN FUNDAMENTALS:  Three Ways to Manage the Back Shoulder Dart

This week we’re going to take everything we’ve learned and apply it to the basic skirt block. I’ll show you how to manipulate waist darts to create flare, how to balance the flare so that it hangs evenly all around the hemline, and talk a little bit about grain lines so you can understand...

Every year in May I offer a Skirt Block Mini Class. When you sign up during the month of May you get access to the drafting instructions and 5 email lessons that guide you through how to use them.

This mini class is only available during the month of May so if you missed out on the opportunity to sign up, I highly recommend you add your name to my mailing list so you won’t miss out again. You'll get a copy of The Perfect Fit Guide and weekly emails that will build your pattern making and fitting skills.

If you were lucky enough to get access to the mini class, you might just be wondering how to finish off the waistline of your skirt. It’s the natural next step so today I’m going to show you how.

Watch the video to learn how to draft a basic waistband for your skirt. Once you know how to create a basic waistband you can use the information to make a waistband for any skirt, short or pant that sits on or near your natural waist.

If...

Every year in May I offer a Skirt Block Mini Class. When you sign up during the month of May you get access to the drafting instructions and 5 email lessons that guide you through how to use them.

This mini class is only available during the month of May so if you missed out on the opportunity to sign up, I highly recommend you add your name to my mailing list so you won’t miss out again. You'll get a copy of The Perfect Fit Guide and weekly emails that will build your pattern making and fitting skills. Sign Up Here.

If you were lucky enough to get access, I hope you enjoyed the drafting process and have sewn up a test sample of your draft and are ready to assess the fit because in this video I’m going to share some important tips to help you get the fit you want.

Fit Tip #1

The skirt has been drafted to include 1" (2.5 cm) of ease in the waist and 2" (5 cm) of ease in the low hip. Your draft may have turned out to have more or less ease than this. The difference...

The Fitting Essentials course is currently in full swing. If you missed your opportunity to enrol in the current session but would like to get a peek inside one of our Live Group Sessions, this video is for you.

This session ran at the end of our third week of the course so the students have worked through the first three steps of the Fitting Essentials process. They've chosen their pattern size, completed their pattern measurement worksheet and were in the midst of finalizing their initial pattern adjustments.

Since these three steps happen before the first sample is created, I thought it was a good time to review and summarize the lessons to paint a full picture of everything that can be learned an accomplished when you approach the fitting process in a step by step methodical way.

If you'd like to put the guidance I've offered in this video into action, get your copy of The Perfect Fit Guide. In it you'll get the Fitting Essentials framework which outlines all the fitting...

No doubt you've heard this cliche before: "practice makes perfect". Although this is generally used as a form of encouragement, I prefer the phrase practice makes progress.

Of course in order to make progress it's important to practice new skills mindfully, with focus and attention. As this author states: 

"An hour training session with a wandering mind can drastically decrease the learning process. Eight minutes a day of mindfulness has been shown to be the minimum amount of time to start seeing physical changes in the attention centers of the brain."

Eight minutes minimum. I point this out because, based on the "minutes viewed" data on my tutorials, most of us struggle to stay attentive for more than 3 minutes. While this could say something about my ability to create engaging videos, consider how much information you may be missing in those remaining 5 minutes.

Of course this equation becomes...

Last week, I shared the four stages you generally go through on the path to fitting mastery.

As you move along the path through the four stages you'll undoubtedly be confronted with failure. While we all try to avoid it, failure is an extremely important part of achieving mastery in a subject, as long as you are able to consider it a helpful friend.

I know you've heard it before, but have you embraced it?

If you're not quite there yet, the key is to learn from the failure. Take a step back, zoom out and consider what may have gone wrong and how you might approach it differently based on the new knowledge the failure brought to the surface.

Those who succeed are those most willing to experience failure first.

With failure comes new knowledge as long as you move through the process like this: develop a hypothesis, test it out, analyze the results, develop another hypothesis and continue until you succeed.

This looks alot like the sample...

As we approach the beginning of a brand new year, my inbox has been filled with "year in review" emails. While I do feel it's beneficial to look back on what you've already accomplished, it's important to use that knowledge to make decisions about the future you want to build so you can keep learning and growing.

Learning and growing leads to mastery which is something I constantly strive for as someone who teaches others about pattern making and fitting.

Mastering any skill can be a long road so I googled "the path to mastery" and landed on this article. It certainly provided some insight-especially about the 10,000 hour rule. If you're not familiar with that rule it basically states that if you spend 10,000 hours doing any one thing, you'll achieve mastery of that subject, but here's another perspective.

The author of the article makes this statement:

"The number of hours is arbitrary, and what really matters is "deliberate practice" where we are highly focused, have integrated...

In order to make the most of the sewing patterns in your collection, it’s a good idea to review them from time to time and consider styling tweaks that can modernize or refresh them, especially if you have achieved a particularly good fit. All you need is a little creativity and some basic pattern making skills.

This week I am sharing a little styling tweak that I’m making to the Belle sewing pattern. My plan is to remove the pleats from the front and back of the pattern. I think this small styling change will make the top a little more versatile. You might think that this is just a matter of leaving the pleats unstitched but in fact there is a much more effective way that will also increase your pattern intelligence.

Watch the video to see how it's done.

There are definitely other styling changes you can make. You can raise the front neck drop to shorten the collar, change the collar width and shape or remove the collar entirely. These are all ways that you can tweak...