A Pattern Language, lost in translation

I enjoyed reading a SG post about a 17 year old guy sewing. I was that guy too. The post makes me think of being a junior in high school, To paraphrase Janis Ian, at seventeen I was frustrated by the seven pages that contained the "Unisex/Mens" patterns in almost all the pattern catalogs. How many vests and pajamas did they really think I needed? I improvised. I bought thrift store Levi's bought for the leather labels. I bought RTW, took it home, pin traced it, and then returned it for a refund. Back home to start the trial and error, the learning curve. A Guess? denim jacket comes to mind. It had massive sleeves with leather straps to cinch the sleeves and waist, horsehide overlay at the yoke, big shoulders. It was The Cure and Van Halen intersecting in the form of a jacket...it was 1984. I had to buy the jacket for the straps and the hide, then draft the jacket, buy the denim, put it together. I did it. It looked great. It fit perfectly. It cost a fortune. Luckily for me, my mother, following what was a great idea from a Eunice Farmer column, gave me the ability to purchase the yardage and notions I needed with the arrangment that she would reimburse me the cost of goods when I'd completed the project. I blew the budget on this one I'm sure. And my mother was on a girl's weekend when I finished the jacket. I had enought in this jacket to buy a well-made suit in the end. It was Saturday and I had all my money, and them some, tied up in this jacket. I'll never forget touching up the pressing before I headed out the door. My father walked into the sewing room, pulled out his wallet, and asked me how much he owed me for my jacket. How cool was that?

All this improvisation certainly made me a better drafter and a more determined sewer. I was going to do it or die. I had the benefit of input from my mother and, when I was really stumped, the 70-something year old retired tailor who worked two days a week at our dry cleaner. It was an ongoing lesson. That jacket was the lesson that wouldn't end. Everything had been pre-shrunk. I'd done everthing right. And after the first dry cleaning, when it was all too evident that the sleeves, cut on the same grainline in this ring-spun denim, had two areas of warp threads that were, until now, impreceptively off-grain and now were trying to be spirals, the jacket ended up deconstructed and reconstructed with leather sleeves. Lessons learned.

Right now you'll find an interesting Chaddo by Ralph Rucci designed dress in the current Vogue catalog; forward looking with great use of details. I'm not going to need it, thanks. I do appreciate the idea of fitting with those large pintucks - and all the details on the linguini, double cloth seams, etc. in the Threads article on Ralph Rucci. I'll work that into something, I hope. $16.50 is all you need to have a go at that dress. I can save $1.50 and pick-up pattern 2836, Vogue Men, jacket and pants. Loose-fitting jacket, full and very straight legged pants with pleats and cuffs - it would be a trip back to 1990. That suit was, for me, that Ralph Rucci dress; fresh, stylish, on trend. I drafted one. I wore it to a wedding, and the bride had leg of mutton sleeves, sleeves as big as her hair. M.C. Hammer had just released "You Can't Touch This". Paula Abdul had a hit in the top ten with "Opposites Attract". People didn't drive SUV's. I had long hair, really long. I had hair. And how well I remember 52 inches at the chest and 35 1/2 inches at the waist, the loose jacket with the lower armsyces; a great look for me, the tent jacket...and, of course, I didn't need a muslin because I was in a hurry and didn't have the time and knew what I was doing and it was going to work out so well with this great wool I'd spent too much money to buy on a trip to London. and was still trying to fix it as I walked out the door to get to the church...maybe a thread on expensive lessons learned at SG is in order...how could I forget that suit. What, dear reader, were you wearing in 1990. Can you identify it in the latest Vogue catalog? Not quite vintage, yet. I bet Vogue pattern number 2836 will still be in print when it becomes so.

I just checked the BWOF site and found, in the new for spring 2009 section, a (a, not a few, not some...LOL) pattern for men. A jacket. Jean jacket variation, with zippered pockets on the chest? Michael Jackson, I recall, had one of those, and parachute pants. (Note that I'm on record as NEVER WEARING PARACHUTE PANTS, NOT EVEN ONCE.)

Maybe the economic woes will create a bit more demand for Mens patterns. They can have the "Unisex". Who wants to wear something that doesn't know what it is. Mens patterns, maybe ten pages, or eleven. That would be great.