Onion Patterns

This is a very nice shape for a stretch top
Source: shoponion.com

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The other day I posted pictures of two draped t-shirts I made using an Onion pattern. Onion patterns are fairly new to me and I discovered them more or less by chance on one of my trips to Norway. I thought I'd give you a little introduction to this pattern company since they do have quite a few lovely patterns, especially for using stretch fabric. 

I could use one of each of these dresses in my wardrobe
Source: shoponion.com

Onion is a Danish pattern company and their patterns can be bought at shoponion.com and a couple of other online sewing and pattern shops as well as in brick-and-mortar shops in Scandinavia and Germany. They have their own website in Danish which shows their entire collection and is much easier to navigate than shoponion.com but their patterns can't be bought directly from the website. I bought my small selection of Onion patterns in a craft shop in Norway. 

Onion patterns are very simple to the point of being minimalist. Their instructions, packaging and paper patterns are kept very simple and straight-forward. There are no photos of the sewn-up garments on the cover and the instructions are printed directly onto the cardboard folders that hold their pattern sheets. The patterns are printed onto a sturdy paper, not tissue paper, and are intended to be traced as they are overlapping and printed on both sides of the paper. They do, however, have some patterns which can be cut out directly as I've seen in their shop.

I think their patterns are intended to be sewn quickly and to be practical and demystifying, which they really are. This what I like about these patterns. There is no faffing around about couture finishes or complicated alterations and fit and there are never too many parts to a pattern, meaning no unnecessary facings or linings. You may say they are ideal patterns for the practical Scandinavian woman.

Their stretch patterns benefit from this practical approach as they are easy and simple to put together. Where Vogue might be extra cautious and ask you to insert a zipper into a stretch dress, Onion would never do such a thing. But with other patterns this practical approach is a little lacking and even somewhat impractical.

The two jacket patterns I have both come without lining patterns and no instructions for sewing in a lining. In my opinion a proper jacket should have a lining so if I wanted to make these jackets I'd have to draft the lining pieces myself - which is a little annoying.

Love the detail on this knit dress.
Source: shoponion.com

So far I can really only recommend their stretch patterns as these are the only ones I have sewn with. They were easy to trace with only few pattern pieces and sewed up really quickly. However, you won't end up with couture pieces following their instructions but with quick and practical pieces for everyday wear. If this is what you are looking for Onion might be a good choice for you.

Many if not all of their patterns can be ordered with English instructions. Mine are in Danish as I can read Danish easily but I have seen that the shoponion.com site offers up their patterns with English instructions.

Have any of you had experience sewing Onion patterns? Would you recommend any of their patterns? I have only seen Onion patterns talked about on German language blogs so far, so the company might not be very known outside of the Germo-Scandinavian area. 

Me-Made-Mittwoch: The M. Müller & Sohn Purple Leopard Print Dress

Today is Me-Made-Mittwoch and after a long time I finally get to rejoin all the lovely seamstresses who showcase their Wednesday outfits via Cat-and-Kascha's blog. I will also grab this opportunity to write another bilingual post - which I haven't done in ages - because, frankly, it's quite a lot of work. I'm really amazed at how some bloggers can keep up the bilingual posting regularly and don't understand how they find the time and energy.

Heute ist mal wieder Me-Made-Mittwoch bei Cat-und-Kascha und ich schaffe es endlich wieder mal mitzumachen. Diese Gelegenheit nutze ich natürlich auch gleich um wieder einen zweisprachigen Beitrag zu schreiben, was ich schon seit Eiwgkeiten nicht gemacht habe, weil es ganz ehrlich ziemlich viel Arbeit ist. Ich bin beeindruckt von Bloggern, die es scahffen, regelmäßig zweisprachig zu posten und verstehe nicht, wo sie die Zeit und Energie dazu finden.

Today's dress is made with my recent M. Müller & Sohn block and is pretty much unaltered except for a deeper neckline with keyhole. Although I had made a muslin from the block first, it is quite another thing to wear the muslin/pattern. I think only through wearing a sort of test garment for a bit can you see if it's really comfortable, doesn't ride up awkwardly, wrinkle in unexpected places and know if it still needs tweaking.

Das heutige Kleid habe ich mit meinem neuen M. Müller & Sohn Schnitt gemacht, den ich selbst "geschnittzeichnet" habe. Ich habe zu diesem Schnittzeichensystem auch unlängst auf meinem Blog eine ausführliche (jedoch nur auf Englisch) Rezension geschrieben, die ihr hier, hier und hier finden könnt. Dieses Kleid entspricht dem Grundschnitt fast eins zu eins außer dem tieferen Ausschnitt mit Schüsselloch (sagt man das so?) und Masche. Obwohl ich vor diesem Kleid den Grundschnitt als Probekleid in weißer Baumwolle getestet habe, ist es doch etwas ganz anderes einen Schnitt oder Probekleid einen ganzen Tag lang zu tragen. Erst da merkt man, wo noch was zieht oder drückt oder unschöne Falten wirft und doch nochmal geändert werden muss.

Overall I'm really happy with the fit. I've worn the dress several times already and it's quite comfy.The only change I have made to my block is that I widened the sleeves at my upper arm. I didn't quite have enough ease there which made the sleeves feel a bit tight, but other than that I like my block and have already used it for another project I will share with you soon.

Im Großen und Ganzen bin ich mit der Passform zufrieden. Ich habe das Kleid nun schon einige Male getragen und es trägt sich sehr angenehm. Die einzige nachträgliche Änderung, die ich noch am Schnitt gemacht habe, war Weite zum oberen Ärmel dazuzugeben. Die Bewegungszugabe an dieser Stelle war nicht recht groß genug und der Ärmel hat sich daher etwas eng angefühlt. Ansonsten bin ich mit meinem Grundschnitt sehr zufrieden und ich habe ihn auch schon für ein weiters Projekt verwendet. Bald mehr davon!

Drapey Tees

I'm super slow when it comes to writing posts about the things I've sewn. My first stumbling block is usually taking the photos. I wish I had a paparazzo following me around all day - but a kind one who only shoots complimentary photos of me without me noticing it one bit and then sends me a professionally edited selection via e-mail. Wouldn't that be handy? But, alas, it isn't so. Instead I usually have to drag my boyfriend into our courtyard and perform quick wardrobe changes in the hallway of our building because I have about ten things to photograph which I have neglected for weeks and months.

The outfit photos in this post were shot under similar circumstances only many, many months ago when it was still reasonably warm in Vienna. I'm wearing two versions of the Onion 5035 pattern with my retro self-drafted jeans. I bought a second-hand serger last summer and then started experimenting wildly with stretch fabric. These shirts are some of the results. The green shirt is true to the pattern except for a minor FBA. I don't wear it much because I think it's a little tight, I don't like how I handled the hems and I don't like the fabric much either. It's become more of a lounge-around-the-house tee.

The purple shirt I like a lot more. I made it with a much silkier and flowier jersey, which seems much better suited to the pattern and I also altered the pattern to make the neckline drape deeper. I think this shirt is a lot more flattering on me and I get quite a lot of wear out of it. Might even make myself some more.

So, there you have it: a post about something I have actually sewn. Phew! (Patting myself on shoulder). There is more in stock where these came from & a new mega photo shoot is planned soon! Brace yourselves :)

M. Müller & Sohn Review: The perfect sleeve

Hello everyone, I'm back with my third and so far last part of the M. Müller & Sohn pattern drafting review. As with both my other reviews on how Müller & Sohn address ease and special figures, this one is also based on their book on drafting dresses and blouses and is entirely devoted to their genius way of drafting sleeves.

Before I get into Müller & Sohn's sleeve draft, let's have a look at one typical way in which sleeves are drafted. Below you can see a sleeve draft according to Modern Pattern Design from 1942 by Harriet Pepin. This draft is fairly similar to more modern sleeve drafting resources like, for example, Helen Joseph Armstrong's Patternmaking for Fashion Design. The sleeve cap is fairy flat and the length on either side of the shoulder line is the same. The slope and length of the cap is also not dramatically different on the back or front of the sleeve.

Source: Harriet Pepin's Modern Pattern Design (1942)

This type of sleeve draft suggests that our arms hang symmetrically from our shoulders, having the same slope from the shoulder point to underarm seam on both the front and back of the armhole. Below I've borrowed a picture from the Japanese Digital Human Resource Center, showing a new and more anatomically correct dress form to the left and a traditional not so anatomically correct dress form to the right.

Source: Digital Human Resource Center

I have drawn in a red line to suggest the hang of the sleeve perpendicular to the floor from the shoulder point. As you can see the not so anatomically correct form suggests that the sleeve cap is fairly the same length and shape on the back and front, whereas the more anatomically correct form shows that the sleeve caps are quite different in shape and length on the back and front. The less anatomically correct form pairs up nicely with the sleeve draft found in Harriet Pepin, whereas the more anatomically correct sleeve cap shape - i.e. as on an actual body - is much better addressed by the sleeve draft you can see below.

This is my own draft of a sleeve according to M. Müller & Sohn and shows how the hang of the sleeve from the shoulder is not centered. The back cap (on the right) is much longer and has a different shape from the front cap, much like a real arm and shoulder. Before I drafted my own sleeve according to M. Müller & Sohn I couldn't quite believe that this type of sleeve would actually allow for a greater range of motion for the arm but it really does. The difference is quite severe and I now find it hard to go back to the other type of sleeve found in many home-sewing patterns.

If you are a follower of Fashion Incubator I'm sure that you have read about this sleeve drafting issue before. This is how I heard about the different sleeve drafts first and started to become more interested in the German method of drafting. For a much better and more professional and informed explanation of different sleeve drafts and sleeve ease, here are some of the posts on Fashion Incubator which relate to this topic: the ever so popular Sleeve cap ease is bogus, a review of Patternmaking in Fashion by Lucia Mors de Castro, and an entry on Japanese dress forms. There are many more entries on Fashion Incubator that relate to this  topic but I can't locate them all.

Again, if you would like to draft a German-style sleeve but don't speak any German at all, Lucia Mors de Castro's book Patternmaking for Fashion, which I suggested in a previous post will show you how to draft this type of sleeve in English.

I'm planning on reviewing a couple more pattern resources in future posts. I really like writing these kinds of posts. Müller & Sohn's book, although being pretty comprehensive and very, very good, is not the be all and end all of pattern drafting books. There is so much more out there.

Hope you enjoyed this review and found it useful. Happy drafting everyone!