Author: MaisonFleurPatterns

June 23, 2015

8101 Swimsuit Alterations Part 1 – Style Changes

I know you lot are a creative bunch and I can’t wait to see some of your own amazing swimsuits!
In the mean time, part 1 is focusing on a couple of extra style changes you might like to make. Jen (Grainline Studio) pointed out some lovely Madewell swimsuits that have a similar silhouette and I saw they did some nifty strap options on the back. I think it would look great on Version 2 with the low cut back, so here’s some how-to’s for playing around with strap options!

Criss Cross Straps on a Low Back

Here’s some swimsuit backs to give you inspiration on how to play around with the straps.

Source from top right, clockwise: Asos, Madewell, Kooj

To recreate this look, make longer straps for the neck ties, around 30-35″ should be enough to go across the back, but to be on the safe side you can sew the straps the full cross-wise length of your fabric & trim after you’ve tried it on.
You’ll want to sew up two small rouleaux straps, each about 2cm (3/4″) long and fold them in half to make loops. Sew these into the sides, just below the seam where the cups join the bodice. To recreate the Kooj back, take the back back from Version 2 and remove 2.5 cm (1″) from the centre back. Then follow the pattern instructions for finishing the ends of the bikini band in version 3.
Tune in for the next post which will go into some basic fit changes.

June 19, 2015

Fabric Inspiration for the 8101 Swimsuit

If you’re making the 8101 swimsuit I thought I’d provide a little fabric inspiration to get you’re creative juices going for the 8101 swimsuit. I had a lot of fun doing some virtual fabric shopping picking out different styles of print and colours!
Let’s start with some solid colours – I really like having contrasting straps and ties, especially with a solid colour, you’ll only need 1/5 yrd of fabric in the contrast colour.

Source: 1. Coral & Mint 2. Gold 3. Scarlett Red 4.Mermaid Scales 5. Milliskin Matte in Purple and Gold 6. Mint & Navy
*Yes I realise that number 4 isn’t a solid, but it’s just so pretty and reminiscent of a mermaid, don’t you think?
I like milliskin for solid colours as one side tends to be shiner than the other, even with the milliskin matte so you can play around with having the straps made from the reverse side to the body of the swimsuit. I would note that it can be a little less than opaque when fully stretched, so if you’re going for a light colour you may want to line the whole swimsuit to ensure coverage. I also find milliskin tends to have more stretch to it – it usually has 20% spandex in it’s composition compared to more regular nylon lycra that usually has around 10%, so if you do get a milliskin I’d check the stretch and see if you need to size down for it.
If you’re more of a print kind of gal then check out some of these below. The leopard with the black band contrast keeps catching my eye.

Source: 1. Blue Stripe 2. Cheetah Print 3. Colour Streaks 4. Stripes & Fruit 5. Green Plaid 6. Honeycomb 7. Liberty of London 8. Pink Gingham 9. Stars & Stripes
I couldn’t resist the 4th of July themed one as the holiday weekend is only a few weeks away in the USA.
They all use the 8101 sewing pattern as is with the except for the blue diagonal stripe, where I decided to add a centre seam to create a chevron pattern with the diagonally printed stripes. It screams original Barbie to me, so I might have to make myself one just like it now!
Please note that the prints aren’t 100% to scale in these illustrations and that I haven’t actually seen or handled most of these fabrics in person, so make sure you order a swatch to check suitability before buying. For more information, the fabric requirements, supplies list and sizing chart are all listed on the 8101 Product Page.
What fabric are you going to make your swimsuit in? i can’t wait to see them pop up in the wilds of the internet… Happy fabric shopping!

June 17, 2015

Introducing the 8101 Halter-neck Swimsuit Pattern

Sploosh! That is the sound I hear in my head every time I see this swimsuit!

The local lido’s (outdoor community pool) are about to open in the coming weeks here in Brooklyn and I’m so very excited about sporting this bad gal whilst splashing about in the pool. I’m even tempted to take it down to Coney Island and dip a toe in the sea!
I was actually working on an entirely different pattern, but sometimes no matter how much you try and make a design work, it just doesn’t want to play ball. Whilst struggling to accept that not all designs are meant to be, I had an irresistible urge to get this design onto paper. It wouldn’t leave me alone, so one day I got up and gave in to it, expecting it just to be a cathartic exercise of releasing my demons and getting out onto paper. But somehow it just worked, the first sample looked amazing on my fit model and with a few tweaks here and there, it fell into place. I think it was a lesson in itself that sometimes you’ve just got to listen to your gut, let some stuff go and embrace other ideas.
So at the 11th hour I decided to shelf the other pattern and work on releasing this swimsuit pattern that was getting me so excited. All THE FEELS!Enough of the touchy feelies, and onto the pattern itself!
The overall design concept for this swimsuit was based on the tie strings. This swimsuit has a lovely shaped décolletage with double rouleaux straps for the halter-neck ties. The bust cups have soft gathers for shaping and are fully lined. The leg cut is low but shaped at the front so it doesn’t cut straight across your hips horizontally and flows round to the back with full coverage for your bottom. The ties at the side seams on the hips allow you to either leave it smooth with a low-cut leg or to scrunch it up and have soft gathers at the sides.
The pattern comes with 3 variations. The first version is a one-piece that comes with a higher back, providing a little extra coverage, which is good if you’re keen to add support with a shelf bra under the bust, as this version makes it easier to have the elastic going all around your torso at the same level.Version 2 is also a one-piece but with a lower cut back that joins up just above the waistline at the side seams.
Version 3 is a bikini, and in keeping with the retro feel of the low-cut leg I decided to make it high-waisted. The bikini top has a partial band that shows off your beautiful back and uses the halter straps as a part of the back closure. You can play around with how you tie them up at the back. I quite like the criss-cross look myself.
This pattern comes with 3 cup sizes – B/C, D/DD, DDD/E so you can really tailor this swimsuit to you curves. I also want to note that the measurement chart in the pattern takes your under-bust measurement, instead of the traditional bust measurement, so you can fit the bodice of the swimsuit to your torso and then pick the cup size that’s right for you, much like when fitting a bra.
The swimsuit is designed for spandex with four-way stretch and needs 50% stretch on the crosswise grain and good recovery. Which means the fabric usually contains a minimum 10% spandex/Lycra. For the lining generally a Poly/Spandex or Nylon composition is best.
The format of the instructions with this pattern has been set up to make it as seamless experience to sew as possible. I’ve broken down the detailed instructions into 3 separate sections – one per variation – and there’s a hyperlinked menu so you can skip straight to your version and sew!
The pattern pieces for each version of the swimsuit are group together in the pattern file, with a ‘map’ and list of the pages you need to print found in the instructions booklet, so you can print the specific cup size and swimsuit version you want to make. The pattern pieces are whole, which I find makes it easier to handle as there’s not cutting on the fold.
I hope you love this swimsuit as much as I do! I think it has a lot of potential with different prints and I’ll be following up with some posts on some pattern changes you can do with it in the coming weeks.
You can get the pattern here.

June 9, 2015

Printing Specific Sizes: Using the Layers Feature

Hello!
I thought I should write a little about printing the PDF patterns at home, as there’s a nifty little feature in Adobe reader called ‘Layers’ I’m utilising for all the patterns that I think some of you may like! Not the most adventurous of topics, I know, but I think it’s helpful none-the-less.

The Basics

You can print these patterns on both A4 and US letter sized paper. The pattern pieces will need to be assembled in tiles, and I always provide a ‘map’ for this within the pattern file you print.
I always recommend that you use Adobe Acrobat Reader (free to download here) to open and print the patterns, for some reason not all PDF readers work alike, and that can affect all sorts of things like it not printing to scale, bits cutting off! In the print options review your print settings to ensure you’re printing the pages at 100% scale, you don’t want any ‘page scaling’ or ‘fit to page’.

Printing Specific Sizes!

Now I’ve heard from plenty of people how it can be confusing and frustrating when you have a nested pattern with a zillion dotted and dashed lines and they all converge on curves and you don’t know what the hell you’re meant to be cutting. So with that in mind I’ve utilised the layers functionality in Adobe Reader for the print at home files, so that you can reduce the amount of sizes you print and get a clearer sense of the lines you want to use. So that means, for all Maison Fleur patterns, if you are between size 6-8 on the size chart, you can choose to only print sizes 6-8!

It’s very liberating when you try it out, I can tell you!Okay, maybe not that liberating.

Here’s how you do it (psst! there’s a video at the bottom): Once you know the size(s) you want to use, open your pattern in Acrobat Reader. There’s a side bar on the left with a bunch of icons, including one called ‘layers’, which looks like 2 horizontal diamonds on top of each other, click on that icon to open it up.
Now you’ll see all the layers listed in the document with an eyeball next to each one.
You can click on the eyeball icon to turn size layers on or off as you need to.
Leave the bottom layer turned on! I label it an aggressive “leave on” as this contains vital pattern information such as the page outlines, page match-points etc that help you tape it all together. Trust me I’ve accidentally printed without it on and it was a real pain in the arse to match up the pages afterwards! Learn from my silly mistakes. *I’ve also just started locking that layer so in the near future this won’t even be an issue!
Then just continue to the print dialogue as usual, and hey presto, less nested pieces appear!
Here’s a short video I put together for those of you who prefer to see things in action:

May 26, 2015

Pattern Alterations for 6101 Skirt Pt.2

Here’s part two to last weeks post on pattern alterations to the 6101 skirt. It’s dedicated to adding length after a question I got through Instagram. The skirt is designed to fall above the knee, but sometimes you just want a little more coverage (getting caught over a windy subway grate is a good reason for me!). There’s a few different ways you can approach lengthening the skirt, depending on how you want it to look and also how much effort you want to put into it 😉

Adding Length

The first decision is where you want to add length: Do you want to keep the hip and front panels the same size and just increase the length of the rest of the skirt? or do you want to extend the whole silhouette?
For the first option, mark halfway down the centre front seam and the side seam. Then fold the pattern piece in half vertically so the side seam meets the centre front seam, mark the middle point on that creased line. Now join the three marks together in one horizontal line (it won’t be straight) and cut.
Spread the pieces down by however much length you want to add and secure in place. To balance the length with the volume of the flare; take the top part of the pattern piece, draw a line that extends down from the side seam. On the lower panel piece, slash along the middle crease line and spread that piece out so it fits against the continuing side seam line. Repeat the same process for the back pattern pieces. Now you’re ready to cut and sew.
If you want to lengthen the whole skirt proportionately, start by marking the halfway point on the side front pattern piece – the easiest way to do this is by folding it in half vertically so the top and bottom edges meet. Then mark it’s corresponding depth onto the centre front panel. Slash along this line and spread to extend the length. I would personally only increase this section by 1/3 of the total desired increase as the side panel are designed to fit against the body stopping just above hips/widest point of the body. Then repeat the process I described above for increasing the length of the lower skirt, but only extending it by the remaining 2/3 of your total increase.
You could get really fancy and add an additional slash line that cuts across the top portion of the lower panel and the lower portion of the centre front panel. This would extend the length of the front panel proportionately along with the length of the lower pieces. This change entails more work as you need to ensure you re-draft nice smooth curves and ensure the corresponding seam lengths match at that point too.
If you want to shorten it then you would follow the same slash and spread methods i’ve described above, but instead of extending everything down, you would overlap the pieces by the necessary amount.
Don’t forget to lengthen your lining pieces as well! The simplest way is by folding the pattern piece into thirds horizontally and slash and spread at the two points.
Make sure you keep the height of the side seam slits the same so that you don’t restrict room for movement, and if you’re lengthening the skirt substantially you may want to make french tacks to loosely hold the lining to the skirt on the inside so you don’t have too much separation.
So that’s some of the techniques you can try out.