I have quite a lot of sewing and pattern books, and the Pattern Magic books by Tomoko Nakamichi are obviously among my favorites. Especially the three of them that contain designs for woven fabrics.
I’ve already gone through books 1 and 2. This post will be about book 3, which is the last one.
Although I’ve had these books for years, I hadn’t leafed through them in ages. So, now I’ve taken another look to try out the various techniques and see if they’ll inspire new designs. The previous two yielded quite a few ideas, and this one didn’t disappoint either.
Wearing a Polyhedron
You might’ve noticed that the polyhedrons is my number 1 favorite technique. Probably between all the Pattern Magic books. I even participated in the World of WearableArt Competition with a piece made entirely of polyhedrons!
Well, here they are, in book 3.
I contemplated not making another design with polyhedrons, as I’ve already written about them so many times (for example, here). But in the end…
I tried to come up with a different way to use these shapes and decided to play with their size. Either tiny or extra large. I went with the latter and created a skirt sculpture.
The Sculptural Polyhedron Skirt: Pattern
As a base, we have the basic skirt block. I rotated the dart so that it could be absorbed into the polyhedron seam. Then, I divided the skirt length between three polygon shapes. Two of them have four angles, while the middle one has only three.
I picked the center point for each polygon. The first one has to match the dart tip. Then, I drew lines between the corners and the center points. Name the sections A-D.
Then, we measure: first, the outer edges of each section. Measure the curved sections with straight lines, too.
After this, the diagonal lines you drew between the corners and the centers. These will need to be converted. Otherwise, the shapes will remain flat.
Decide the height for each polyhedron.
At this point, I will show you why you should use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the final measurements. You might vaguely remember this formula from school. Who knew it would turn out to be useful for drafting sculptural patterns!
The original measurement is for a flat shape. The new measurement you’ll obtain by using the formula will turn the flat shape into a 3D shape.
I’ll use easy numbers to demonstrate.
Original measurement: 5cm
Height: 4cm
Calculate 5 x 5 = 25cm and 4 x 4 = 16cm
Then, 25cm + 16cm =41cm
And finally, use the square root button √ of your calculator to get the measurement: √41 = 6,4cm.
As you can see, the original 5cm turned into 6,4cm, and it now takes into account the height of your shape.
So, convert all the diagonal line measurements like this and redraw the sections with the new measurements. After this, trace the sections in correct order to finish the pattern pieces. Copy the curved lines back where they were. There will be an opening between sections A and D.
In this case, there are only three pattern pieces, and they will all be cut twice. The back of the skirt would probably be plain.
The Sculptural Polyhedron Skirt: Sewing
Here are all six pieces that will form the front of the skirt. I’m just making a toile, so I used a midweight cotton. But consider fabrics such as cork and faux leather if you’re making an actual wearable piece.
Check out the detachable sleeve post I linked earlier to see how to finish the folds using these materials.
Sewing is quite simple: start by closing the only seam of each polyhedron. Trim the seam allowance, turn the right sides out, and press all the corners. With faux leather, etc., you’ll sew the folds instead of pressing.
Once you’ve completed all the pieces, arrange them in the correct order and sew them together.
Here’s how my skirt sculpture came out. Naturally, you don’t need to make the polyhedrons so high. In this case, I wanted to exaggerate.
Sculpting a Surface
Here’s a technique I had never tried before, but I enjoy creating textures, so I was interested in making something with this. The idea is to shatter a larger pattern piece into more pieces and add a bit of extra volume to the seams so that the resulting surface no longer lies flat.
I decided to make a balloon sleeve.
The Textured Sleeve: Pattern
First, we need to make a balloon sleeve pattern. Here’s how.
This one won’t be very large, so I only added volume at three points. There will be gathers at the top and bottom. You’ll also need a cuff piece, which is simply a rectangle.
Now that we have the balloon sleeve base, we can divide its surface into smaller sections. Each should have a polygon shape. I tried to keep mine rather organic and didn’t aim for too much symmetry. Which is difficult for me, as I love symmetry.
Draw notches in the center of each line, as shown. Copy the grainlines parallel to the center of the sleeve.
Then, one by one, trace each piece onto another piece of paper and add little protrusions at the corners. The new shapes start at the notches you drew. 2cm turned out to be quite a lot, so feel free to add less.
Match the lengths between the pieces that will be sewn together.
Here are all the pieces. I didn’t add any protrusions to the area under the arm.
The Textured Sleeve: Sewing
There’s really nothing much that goes into sewing this sleeve. Just keep your original draft close by so you know which pieces will be sewn together. And don’t lose the pattern pieces, of course. Cut the notches.
Sew the pieces together in the correct order. Trim the seam allowances, especially around the tips. Press the seams open.
After completing the piece, sew gathering stitches at the hem and the sleeve cap between the armhole notches. Gather to match the armhole and the cuff.
Mine is just a toile so there’s no cuff. But here’s how the sleeve looks. It’s definitely textured! Almost like a face. I think this would look cool made in something soft, such as neoprene.
Making Waves
Let’s continue with techniques I had never tried out before. Similar to the previous example, this technique creates a texture by adding a 3-dimensional element to the flat surface. In this case, it’s applied to wavy seams.
I wanted to test with a larger surface, so I chose an A-line skirt.
The Wave Skirt: Pattern
Here’s how to turn the basic skirt block into an A-line skirt pattern. We’ll need the whole front piece, as this is an asymmetrical design: Once you have the A-line shape, mirror it.
After this, we can draw the initial waves onto the pattern. I drew three waves that divide the skirt into four sections.
Then, I drew a second wavy line that covers part of the original lines’ lengths and creates overlaps. These cannot cover the whole length, or the pieces will collapse.
Mark notches at the start and end points of the overlapping lines. And one or two in the middle, depending on the length.
Next, we’ll slash and spread from the lower edge towards the top edge of each piece, in the areas of the overlaps (=between the notches A-C/D). This will raise the wave and create more depth.
To do this, you first need to trace each piece. Choose which wavy line will remain on top; that will be the bottom edge of your piece. For example, for me, it was the pink lines. So, the first piece starts at the waist and ends at the pink line. The second piece starts from the black line and ends at the pink line, and so on.
Trace the notches, too.
Draw lines where you want to slash & spread. Cut and spread by 1cm at each line (for example). Redraw the bottom edge. Piece number 4 will remain flat.
Then we only need to draft the facing pieces that go between the sections. Start by measuring the distance between all the notches, for both edges of each piece.
Obviously, the measurements won’t match, as we added volume to the bottom edges.
Now we get to the point where I was lazy and didn’t test and measure. The book says you need to arrange your paper pattern the way it will be sewn so that you can measure how far apart the overlapping sections remain after adding the volume. This would then be the height of your facing piece.
Well, I just decided the measurements randomly instead! You can see the numbers in the illustration above.
Start by drawing the bottom edge of the facing piece, which is straight. Use the smaller measurements of the piece below. For example, piece number 2’s upper edge measurements for the first facing. Mark the notches.
Draw the curved upper edge, using the height measurement, either one you randomly chose or one you measured.
Then, see how much you need to increase the top edge to get to the larger measurements. This won’t be a lot. Slash & spread at a few points. Redraw the lines.
After this, the pattern is finally ready.
The Wave Skirt: Sewing
Here are all the pieces along with the pattern. Remember to cut the notches.
It takes some time to sew this, but in the end, it’s not complicated.
Start by attaching the lower edges of the facing pieces to sections 2-4, matching the notches. Then, attach the upper edges, uniting the sections. Finish the rest of the seams, always with the valley curve side on top. You might need to make cuts to the seam allowance for steeper curves.
Press. The seam allowances should point away from each curve.
This skirt looks really odd! I guess it’s a success in that the technique worked. But I’m not sure where I would use it. It’s a bit like tree trunks with mushrooms growing.
Serrated Lines
The situation requires pleats. Pattern Magic 3 presents a technique called serrated lines, where fabrics of different lengths are sewn together with a zig-zag shaped seam, creating 3-dimensional pleats.
So naturally, I needed to make a pleated skirt.
The Pleated Skirt: Pattern
You’ll need the basic skirt block. We’ll trace a shaped waistband at its top edge. Mine is 7cm high. Draw the line parallel to the waist. Close the dart and redraw the lines to remove any angles.
Add a bit of flare to the side seam. Measure the width of the skirt pattern below the waistband, ignoring the dart. We’ll double the width by adding 50% at the c-front and 50% in the center.
Next, divide the lower edge of your waistband and the upper edge of your skirt into nine sections evenly.
Then, draw the zig-zag shape between the guide marks. Start with the skirt’s upper edge. Lower the tips by 1cm only. Otherwise, the waistband will have really long tips; you need to match the lengths, as these two will be sewn together.
Finally, mark notches for the pleats also at the hem so it’ll be easier to press them. They will be further apart towards the side seam due to the flare.
You’ll also need a facing for the waistband, but you can use the same pattern piece without the zig-zag shape. Cut all the pieces on the fold. The back piece will be drafted the same way.
The Pleated Skirt: Sewing
The zig-zag seam will need to be sewn little section at a time, always cutting the seam allowance at the corners so you can turn.
After completing the seam, you’ll have something like what is seen in the left picture. But when you press the pleats, the skirt will take shape. Match the pleats with the zig-zag seam and the notches you have at the hem. Attach the waistband facing at the waist.
And here’s the skirt on my mannequin. So pretty!
Paring Down and Opening Out
The last design. This is my second favorite technique in the book. The idea of this one is to flatten a pattern that was originally meant for a 3-dimensional form, thus making it too small to cover the shape. And then adding extra layers to the area that will open up when worn because of the tension. Not sure if that makes sense, but you’ll see what I mean.
I made a bodice with three extra layers.
The Bodice with 3-D Layers: Pattern
The starting point is a basic bodice with darts. First, we must remove the darts.
You need to rotate them so that they point in the direction the layers will go. In this case, my layers will end up diagonally across the bodice, so I rotated the darts towards the armhole. After that, you draw new darts on top, as shown, and close them. The lowermost dart tip ends before the c-front, so it needs an extra cut.
As a result, we get a dartless bodice that is too small.
Then, we’ll draw the curved layer shapes on top. I added an extra layer just because. Notice how the curves cover the same area the darts did.
As usual, each layer also has a facing (see the colored areas). My facings were 3,5cm wide.
Together, the layers and facings will cover the volume we lost by removing the darts.
Next, trace all four layers. Each starts at the base of the previous layer’s facing. Mark the notches, too.
In the end, you should have these kinds of pattern pieces. Only layer 4 will be cut on the fold. The rest will be cut twice each.
The Bodice with 3-D Layers: Sewing
Here are the pieces I cut. The fabric used to be a bodice toile. I took it apart and pressed it with a steam iron, but the wrinkles refused to go away. Oh well.
Pin the facing pieces to the layers’ upper edge and sew.
Trim the seam allowances, turn the right sides out, and press flat.
Then, close the seams at the bottom. The ones that unite layers 3 and 2. Press the seams open.
Sew layer 3 to layer 2 facing. Then, attach layers 1 and 4 to complete the piece.
And now all that’s left is to reveal the last look. As you can see, the tension opens up the layers so you get this 3-dimensional look. The uppermost layer that’s right on top of the bust opens up the most.
The only thing I’m wondering is what’s going to happen when wearing a piece like this. Will it continue hiking up or stay where it should? The side seams shouldn’t be an issue, as there will be the back piece keeping them in place. Let me know if you test or have tested it.
So this was the last post in my Pattern Magic series. I recommend checking out the books for sure to see the original designs as well. For me, the most interesting aspect is applying the techniques and perhaps even modifying them slightly to suit your needs. That’s why I didn’t replicate any of the exact designs presented in the books.
I hope you enjoyed the series. 🙂
