i believe the term you’re searching for is “seamstress” (or perhaps a “seamster”?). but i’ve also heard people just use “sewer” (not to be confused with the pipes containing sewage, haha)
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I vote we make “sewist” a real word, though, because it’s close to artist, clearly about sewing, and it’s gender neutral. It might not be in the dictionary yet, but we can get there from here.
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Sewist is a popular term as well. (I find it kind of cringeworthy myself.)
Mrs Ficus does some occasional garment making, but usually it’s paper straight to fabric (she’s not designing her own patterns or anything).
I would guess muslin is pretty standard when drafting patterns since it’s relatively inexpensive and drapes well, but it probably all depends on the garment type.
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Unfortunately my home-grown artist has not been helpful.
The thing I will say is that organza is very inexpensive: a few bucks a yard. It also IS a fabric, but not a particularly stretchy one, so it’s a useful way to have something that can be used as a pattern but it also drapes on your body (unlike a paper pattern, whether tracing or craft).
So if you’re trying to copy something, you can place the organza (which is sheer, and pliable) on top of the garment and use a chalk pencil to mark out the borders (remembering to include seam allotment) in a way that is more accurate than if you use paper. Not sure how you’d allot for darts, pleats, etc. except by adding in that part of a paper pattern with those special elements afterward to create a hybrid organza-paper pattern.
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silk organza is at least eight or nine bucks a yard plus shipping. Polyester organza is cheaper, but it’s awful to work with.
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Art students do not make things with silk organza!
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Well, I discovered that the expert on the technique, has discounted his class…
There’s a video that shows part of the process.
Here are some,( unfortunately poorly cropped) photos of the garment I’m interested in documenting…
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I am quite certain a top like that has a ready-made pattern available already. Maybe look under Halloween costume?
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Or, historical costumes.
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Simplicity has a whole line of historical costumes:
https://www.simplicity.com/simplicity-storefront-catalog/patterns/costumes/historical/
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It’s not for halloween. Or for anything with a deadline. It’s just that I have a collection that I’d like to fully document before the silk shatters.
Sooooo… the historical collection might help then? Given that I didn’t say anything about Halloween or deadlines, and given that I will now add the Simplicity patterns are used sometimes by historical re-enactors?
ETA: I used to work with someone who collected antique silk items, and she said the truck was to periodically fold them along different lines. That way they wouldn’t break on the fold lines.
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