Multiplying patterns

The fit is nearly perfect on Autumn Splendor now – I made the last adjustments yesterday morning.  Which means it’s time to adjust the design line in the back, and create the lining pattern.  The pattern pieces are multiplying rapidly!  Here is a work-in-progress shot of the patterns in Illustrator:

I have a separate pattern piece for every panel (primarily because I don’t trust myself to remember to flip over pattern pieces where appropriate), and am now working on the lining pattern pieces (the blank sections).  If you consider that each of the artboards (rectangles in the diagram) requires about 8 feet of printer paper, the fourteen panels will come out to well over 100 feet of paper!  I’m glad I bought an extra 1000-foot roll of printer paper – I’m going to need it!

Anyway, the lining pieces shouldn’t be too hard, only somewhat tedious.  The side seams will all be 1/8″ bigger (to allow for movement), and there are adjustments at the shoulder and the hem, plus a pleat for the back.  Fortunately the one design line (center back) that may be changed won’t affect the lining at all – it will be cut in a single piece, unlike the outside, which is cut from two panels.

I suppose I could skip the lining muslin, but you know me – I don’t like to leave anything to chance.  I don’t feel I understand drafting the lining well enough to proceed with confidence, so I’m doing a practice version.

Meanwhile, I have been fiddling with the design line in back, with mixed results.  You may recall that this is the current version:

I felt the curve in back looked unbalanced and awkward.  So I spent about half an hour fiddling with it this morning.  Here’s one of my experiments:

This one doesn’t work for me.  Design-wise, I think it’s valid, but the dark is dominant, and I’d rather have the gold be the defining line.  The top curve looks like the top of a roller coaster, not like the drift of an autumn leaf.

I fiddled around some more and came up with this:

The line here is very similar to muslin #9, but with somewhat more gentle curves and a little more of the gold panel up top.

I’m not crazy about it, though – it lacks the vivacity and movement of muslin #9.  In fact, the more I fiddle, the more I like the design line in muslin #9 – so I may just stick with it after all.  Or at least use it for muslin #11, which will be the one that mocks up the colors.

Meanwhile, I have been weaving away, and am now about 1/3 of the way through another light panel:

That’s the last of my pre-dyed weft, but tomorrow is dye day!  In one grandiose orgy of dyeing, I am going to dye:

• twelve panels of flannel for muslin #11, hand-painting a range of colors across each panel
• two light panels’ worth of knitted blanks, for weft
• three dark panels’ worth of knitted blanks
• six yards of 60″ cotton broadcloth, for the mermaid jacket class coming up at the end of January.

That is more than a single day’s work – especially if you include the post-dyeing surface design I intend to do on the mermaid-jacket fabric – but fortunately I have nothing else slated for the weekend.  Next week I will cut and sew the muslin, and after that I will focus on weaving the remaining light/dark panels.  That should be plenty to keep me busy through the end of the year.