Clara laid a large sheet of pattern paper over her corkboard, and then laid the front panel of the jacket over the paper. Smoothing the fabric carefully to ensure the grainline was perfectly straight, she began the "rubbing" process.
Clara cleared off her large wooden dining table and gathered her tools: The target garment (her beloved denim jacket) A large cork tracing board Dozens of fine straight pins Translucent medical pattern paper A tracing wheel with a serrated edge A mechanical pencil and French curve rulers Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit: Using the Rub-...
With her fresh paper pattern cut out, Clara was ready for the ultimate test: the muslin toile. She cut the pattern pieces out of cheap unbleached cotton and basted them together on her sewing machine. Clara laid a large sheet of pattern paper
She then had to add what the rub-off method doesn't naturally give you: seam allowances. Using her clear gridded ruler, she meticulously drew a parallel line 5/8 of an inch outside her traced seam lines. She cut the pattern pieces out of cheap
The next step was "truing" the pattern. Clara took her French curve and straight rulers to connect the dotted lines left by the tracing wheel, smoothing out the wobbles.
Once the perimeter of the front panel was pinned out, she took her tracing wheel. She firmly rolled the spiked wheel along the chalked-out seam lines. As the spikes pressed through the denim and the paper, they left a perfect, dotted trail on the paper beneath.
Clara pulled her favorite, most perfectly fitting denim jacket from her closet. It was an old, beat-up piece from a thrift store that hugged her shoulders perfectly and nipped in exactly where it should. She couldn't find a pattern like it anywhere.
