Ok, for the sewing newbie (or those of us that have trouble drafting a pattern), a paper pattern can be a great way to learn garment construction with minimal cloth waste. You get a tape measure to find your size, cut close to the measurements you need, and even get helpful tips to make the garment last longer and launder better. it should save time, especially if you know what your clothing size is. Well, that's why I got a 2010 wrap dress patter (original price:$18.95), only to ask why I came up between 3 children's sizes with some pretty radical line variations on the simple printed patter made for women. As it turns out, I will have to cut a whole muslin version, mark all the angles I really needed, then go to the pretty cloth and cut a whole second dress. Am I just ridiculously pear shaped? No, my closet still says I wear the same size 3/4 women or 12/14 children that I have shopped for since 2001. I only look like I have radical size differences when I measure for McCall's Patterns because the dress size I wear and standard commercial clothing sizes have nothing to do with their size chart despite most women being able to rattle off their commercial sizes. To make things even more rediculous, the 2010 pattern for the dress is not even in the McCall's computer system for a phone operator to help with, not that she would be able to help me out of a paper bag. Apparently, not only is the 4 year old pattern out dated despite the company offering vintage reprints, but there is a massive amount of ego attached to THEIR size charts. They also have no interest what so ever in how other pattern companies or commercial clothing manufactures size, and why would I waste their time when I should be a good little monkey and just make the scrap dress. How inconsiderate of me. So I get mad at the overly fussy redrawing steps I will need to find my actual dress pattern and shelf the project for now. I will instead make a nice clutch bag, thinking the company may have a better handbag pattern. Only to find the print of the clutch pattern has 3 copies of the exact same pattern piece included for the hand bag. Well, lining, fusible interfacing and heavy canvas are all different thicknesses, so maybe... it's 3 different sizes of the same piece, made for 3 different types of cloth. Nope. It's a whole sheet of paper wasted on a printing of the same sized pieces, some just have fewer lines. Apparently us costomers are smart enough to completely re-tailor a dress, but not smart enough to cut 3 or 4 copies of one hand bag pattern on different types of cloth. No, we need 3 separate printings of one piece, labeled interfacing, fabric, and lining in the same exact size because re-pinning that one template on 3 types of cloth is too complicated. So for all the waste the company feels the need for the home tailor to generate, what is the point? Lining the corporation's pockets. For this company, we are actually further ahead getting a book or website on pattern drafting and starting from scratch, despite the dent in our fabric pile this method can make.
Wrap Dress: M6024 Messenger bag/backpack/clutch pattern: M6424 I checked the messenger bag, and it also has ridiculous duplication of the same pattern with different labels. I was hoping to reduce wasted cloth with the bag pattern since I suck with curves, but ended up killing trees instead. On the bright side, by the time I sort out the parts I actually need to cut, I will build a bag that may outlive me.
