Drafting Patterns

I tend to draft my own patterns because I can never find ones I want, or ones that fit me. This goes for mostly sewing and knitting. With crochet, I'm still pretty inexperienced.

Not to say that I'm amazing in either of the three. My mother taught me the basics of sewing when I was little, and I had a sewing kit and fooled around making little purses and dolls. Then I stopped for several years. And when I was in my late teens and early 20s, (which I am now, being 20,) I have picked it up again, and have started patterns.

From my last post, I discovered that I found lolita when I was 13 or 14, but only liked drawing it. I feel now that I may like sewing it then drawing it. But I still love designing lolita themes and dresses.

With knitting it was the same way. I learned from my mother. I must have gotten bored with only knitting scarves, and how long it took, because I put them away until a couple of years ago as well. I then learned from youtube how to knit, purl, increase, decrease, knit socks, knit in the round, seam, and other fancy terms, that would allow me make actual garments. Now I have a ravelry account, and am working on designing my own patterns.

I find it funny that my mother wants me to teach her how to knit and crochet. Especially since SHE'S THE ONE WHO TAUGHT ME. I didn't know that's something you could forget. There are no hard feelings, it's just that that is somewhat strange/funny.

I've only recently started drafting my own knit and sewing patterns. Most of what I know I know from online searches and Youtube. Unfortunately I don't go to the library enough. The problem is, for most of the hours I am out of class, the public library is closed. It's such a shame.

I've learned to draft my own lolita patterns. I usually look at actual dresses, see what shapes the pieces are constructed in, draw them onto paper, and take my measurements. I also got a very rudimentary pattern for a jsk from egl on Livejournal. I just need to learn tailoring, which I've been getting much better at, being large-breasted. Bust darts are your friends, boys and girls. Burdastyle has helped me learn tailoring.


I'm working on a new steampunk corset styled tank top with ruffles. When I can, I will put up my preliminary picture and pattern. It will be my bust size range, with is 44-48. Right now, or soon, I have to finish up a paper and send it to my professor...
It will be knit in caron simply soft and is designed to be worn with a lolita skirt. I think lolita clothes should have more of a DIY aspect, and knitting and sewing your own outfits is moving into an untapped market.

I have some dreams about this.
I've always wanted to create a line of lolita clothing for American sized women and men. Making a line of lolita knitting patterns may be a great way to start. Victorians knit and did other crafting quite a bit. What can be more lolita than crafting your own clothing and accessories?

Themes I'm interested in: Aristocrat, regency, rococo, romantic era, medieval, ethnic, industrial, steampunk, pirate, sailor, fantasy, and to some small extent, visual kei.


How I learned:
Knitting:

Crocheting:

Sewing lolita:


-MNR

Technology age and Print, Part 1

Part 1:

I should be finishing my diff eq homework. But I am listening to NPR streaming. It is not bad but it isn't the best replacement for npr on the radio. I miss waking up gently to news stories with soft, british and foreign accented voices.

Print media is slowly phasing out with the onslaught of digital print. I for one would still purchase new and antique books.

But with this age of convenience, what happens when your device breaks? Or the company goes out of business, or whatever? You run out of memory?
I for one do not trust digital portable devices to keep my data safe forever. Print books can keep them safest longest. Because you never know when your storage device will decide it doesn't want to be compatible or listen to your player anymore.

I experienced this with floppy. Several times for papers. Twice, when the disc got physically stuck in the drive. A few more times when the computers suggested I reformat the drive to read the document. And a few more times when there were virus scares.

And my flash drives. There's a beautiful black one I have, 2 gig, made by cruzer. Had to go on another computer and transfer off my files, because
Another flash drive, 1gig, started bending and I was afraid it would break, and the data would be trapped on it.


You also lose a lot of traditional jobs from writer to reader. What about the publishers, and printers, and editors, and the people who work in the bookstores.
With the coming of technology also comes further desocialization. You don't have to go to the bookstore and interact with someone in order to purchase a book. You can just point and click. I fear that these simple interactions might become frivolous soon enough.


They are talking about copyright and electronic rights and publishers now.

I need to finish this work before 4pm. Last diff eq homework.... wanna do well. It's getting really tedious. 3x3 matrix determinants??? Really?? And matlab doesn't understand finding the determinant of 3x3 matrix that involves lambdas. UUUUUGGGH.

Anyway gonna run off and finish now. Might post more later.