in progress - part 1

I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment, some knitting, drawing and sewing. Above is pretty much the state of my work space, which is where the sewing project is living. It is a mess and it is also the beginnings of some new softie friends!

As I create these guys I thought I'd share with you the rough process I take. Rough because I make things up as I go along and experiment with new ideas from project to project, which you can do too. There are no set rules for me so long as I am enjoying the project all is good!

Firstly, I make sketches or write down ideas until I have something that I want to work with. I then draw up my design to the finished size. You could do this on the computer but for me there is something about drawing by hand that keeps the project organic, which I like.

Once I have the front and back of the softie drawn to size I use tracing paper to lay over the top and draw all the individual piece I need to cut material from. Remembering to indicate seam allowance where required, not a necessary step for everyone but one I take as I have been know to forget all together, realising when it's too late.

The picture above on the left shows my final size drawings, next to this is the individual pattern pieces on tracing paper (layered and in position as I was checking I had all required bits).

For example; arms would be made up of 4 pieces of fabric, front and back for both the left and the right arms. When I do the pattern pieces for arms I only have 1 piece which I flip when cutting out the 'back' of the arm from material. Reversed this for the the second arm. So you would flip the pattern piece for the 'front' bit of fabric. To keep track I write on all pattern pieces what they are and how many I need to cut from the fabric - 'Arm (x4)'.

With pattern pieces sorted it is time to move on to the fun part - fabric selection.

To be continued.