sartorialdiy

[sartorialdiy]

Hi! Sorry, I'm not sure if I sent my question in the right direction earlier. I was wondering if you have your men's boxer briefs pattern available for purchase? I wanted to make my husband a few pairs of underwear for his birthday :-) Thank you!

Hi there,

That pattern is available on my old website: http://sartorialdiy.tumblr.com/post/4364689352/boxers-pattern-bxr-m01a

It's not available for sale, because it's free ;)  However, I do take donations if you want to show some love :)  Donate here

Joost

[sartorialdiy]

did you go to school for clothe making? or did u self teach yourself?

I certainly did not. I never liked school (ok, I'll be honest, I hated it) and I'm a college dropout.

I thought myself what I know. Last year I tried taking a class and went to a school to learn 'fashion design'. It was horrible and I dropped out after a few months without learning anything.

Everything is on the internet or in libraries these days. If you want to learn to make clothes, there is only one thing you have to do: try.

You will fail. As did I. Keep trying. Over time, you will achieve great stuff. But you will also still fail at things. So embrace failure and learn from it.

Nothing can stop you if you're not afraid of failure :) 

[sartorialdiy]

Hi, I have a question about the boxer... How do u sew the elastic on?

Well, since this needs to be elastic, you need to sew on the elastic with a stitch that stretches.

The optimal solution is to use a coverlock stitch. The bad news is that coverlock stitch isn't likely to be available on your regular sewing machine. Like and overlock (serger) it requires a different machine.

I have an overlock machine, so I'm lucky ;) But if you don't, your machine may have something that mimics a coverlock.

If not, try to find another stitch that stretches (zigzag does for example) or alternatively, use elastic thread and simple sew it on with a straight stitch.

love,joost 

[sartorialdiy]

I am closing this blog

Closed, a Creative Commons image by Refidnas

Hi there,

I have decided that I will sunset sartorialdiy.com. That means that this post will be the last update, and exactly 6 months from now (March 18 2013) the domain name will expire and this blog will drop from the internet.

Before that time, I will figure out how to give a new home to the posts so that they are not lost. At least the more popular ones such as my DIY dressform instructions. Read on to find out what will happen to the patterns.

This changes nothing

My decision to close this blog is not an indication of a diminished interest in making clothes. Much on the contrary. Ever since I've started this blog, making clothes has gone from a fringe hobby to a passion that is very much front and center in my life.

The decision is based on two principal reasons:

My initial reasons for creating this blog are no longer valid

I have a new project that I prefer to spent time on

My initial reasons for creating this blog are no longer valid

Although I had some previous exposure, my real journey into the wonderful world of sewing started in the end of 2010. I was recovering from mononucleosis and was forced to take off several weeks that ended up spilling into the holiday season. Bored beyond imagination, I decided to try to make trousers and I haven't stopped trying to make clothes since.

I started this blog a few months later as I wanted to reach out to and share with other sewers. I already have a blog that deals with what is happening in my life, so it wasn't obvious to start another one. But I did it anyway because I felt I needed a place to hide.

The truth is that I was insecure about outing myself as somebody who enjoys sewing and making clothes. Partly that's because I wasn't very good. But I'm still not very good so that's not the main reason.

The real reason is that I was a little shy about it. Or rather that some of the reactions I got made me wary about outing myself as a sewing nut.

One reaction that I often get is that people automatically assume that I am gay. Harmless, but it gets a little tired if you hear it all the time. I'm sure people mean no harm, but there's something profoundly saddening about having to convince even your family that you are not gay.

It went the other way too. People who assume that I'm only doing it to meet women. I don't really know where this comes from, but I should find a way to hook up these people with the ones who assume I'm gay :)

There's the people who flat out refuse to believe one would so such a thing, and there's those who ridicule it or somehow expect me to explain myself for trying to make my own clothes. I remember being put to the test about making my own muesli or yogurt. "Why not? You make your own clothes right?"

Yeah whatever.

Because I was insecure and wanted to avoid these reactions, I did not want to have my sewing articles on my regular blog.

I'm done with that. My blog will be about what's going on in my life and you can bet your ass a good deal of that will be sewing.

I have a new project that I prefer to spent time on

Last week, after working on it for nine months, I launched makemypattern.com. It's a website that generates sewing patterns based on your measurements.

It is a project that I have a huge personal investment in because it sits at the crossroads of some of the things I care most about. It blends my IT skills with my sewing skills, and the community-based attempt to make things better that sits at the heart of the philosophy of Open Source software. 

That community is the plethora of interesting, inspiring and absolutely wonderful people I've met (mostly online) who also make clothes. I am very hopeful about working with them to get us all some kick-ass pattern.

Finally, unlike my regular blog and this one (hosted on Tumblr) I also wrote all the code, so it allows me to scratch that itch too.

Basically, I love it and it means a lot ot me :)

Conclusion

From here onward, you can expect me to post a lot of sewing and pattern related stuff on makemypattern.com. My ambition is to post every day to put some of the work of my sewing peers in the picture. I also hope to add many more patterns to the list. One pattern that I plan to add is the one for underwear that is hosted on this blog.

Apart from that, my personal stuff will still popup on joost.decock.org from time to time, as I feel like it, as it's always been. 

Long story short: I am ending this blog, but I've already started something much better.

Maybe you should try it :)

Meanwhile, thanks for reading.

Love, Joost

[sartorialdiy]

Time to discover MakeMyPattern.com

Hey you,

I know that I haven't been very active lately, but I have a good excuse. I was actually working my ass of on this rather big project that I embarked on. And this time, it's not something I was making just for me, but you can benefit too :)

I don't know about you, but there's nothing I hate more but spending a lot of time on making something, only to find out that in the end it doesn't fit very well. Fitting is really hard!

Having a hand drafted pattern based on your measurements makes it so much easier, but those things take forever to make. 

Not anymore, because I've fixed that problem for you. Go to makemypattern.com, insert your measurements and boom, your pattern is drafted for you.

Sounds too good to be true? Maybe it is, but you should check it out just in case I mean it ;)

For now, I've put up 4 patterns. I hope to add more, so if you know of any good pattern drafting instructions, please point them out to me and I'll try to add them to the site ASAP.

Oh, and if you like it, spread the word :)

[sartorialdiy]

I don't have any questions, but I wanted to tell you that your DIY dressform was awesome!! I "pinned it" on pinterest. I did the lame version, with duct tape, about a year ago. I wish I saw this tutorial first.

Hey thanks, that's so nice of you. Actually, I may have something else that you could find interesting. I have published makemypattern.com today. You should check it out ;)love,

joost 

[sartorialdiy]

A babybag for Niki's birthday

With my friends Niki's birthday coming up, it seemed nothing but normal that this year her gift would be related to her newborn baby (full disclosure: he is gorgeous and also happens to be my godson).

However, I still wanted it to be a gift for her (it's her birthday after all) and after some brainstorming I decided what she needed was one of them big bags to carry all that baby stuff in and still look stylish.

I was strapped for time since I started late (I always do) but I managed to have it ready for the actual day. I used Amy Butler's Weekend travel bag pattern, but as usual I didn't really follow it down to the last details. I'm not very good at following rules.

The outside is a purple/pink floral design, and it's fully lined with purple (sorry, forgot to take pictures of the inside).

A few more pictures below, the rest is in the Babybag for Niki Flickr set.

[sartorialdiy]

So happy I found your Tumblr!!! I found your profile on BurdaStyle and it led me here. I LOVE those underwear that you made, You def have a new fan here! :) Hope to see more of what you make! ^_^

Thank you so much :)

[sartorialdiy]

A birthday tie

With my friend Jan's birthday coming up, I had set my mind on making him a tie. In part because it's one of those things you can make where you don't have to worry about size too much. But also because I never made a tie before and it seemed about time I started working on that. 

I got some splashing blue silk for the tie, and some plain black silk for the lining. For the interfacing, I gutted an existing (stained) tie of mine and recycled the interfacing in it. I cut it down to create a somewhat slimmer model of tie (since I was sure the birthday boy would appreciate that) and hand-drafted the pattern from there.

Opening up the tie turned out to be a good idea. I had some instructions on how to make a tie from a pattern I snatched up at burdastyle.com earlier (the osman tie) but I didn't like them that much. They construct the tie with a seam running all the way around the V-shaped tip of the tie. If you look at a store-bought tie, you'll see that they don't have a seam running around the tip, rather the fabric is simply folded around the tip and there's only a small seam running from the point of the tip up along the middle of the tie.

Maybe a picture is a better idea than a long rant on the subject:  

I wanted the store-bought approach. I'm sure that if I had searched the internet I would have found instructions on how to do that, but I like to take things apart and try to figure out they were put together :)

After a few tries in muslin I figured it out and I took the plunge and sank scissors and needle into the (pricey) silk. Here's the result after completing the tips:

After that, it's just a matter of joining the pieces, sliding in the interfacing and finally slip-stitching the entire thing together along the back of the tie. This is obviously something to do by hand, and takes some time, but it's worth trying to get in right. Oh, and don't forget that little loop to run the narrow end of the tie through. And the label, if you have one, like me:

That's it, this is the tie before I wrapped it up. I don't have a picture of the birthday boy wearing him, but I might add that later.

  And should you wonder whether he was happy with it:

More (and high-res) pictures are available on the Birthday tie set on Flickr

[sartorialdiy]

This is Akki, my godson :)  He's one day old and he's wearing a T-shirt I made. Impact of all problems in the world on my mood: none.

[sartorialdiy]

Gianna Ball made these for her husband and was nice enough to let me know about it :) Here's the project on BurdaStyle 

[sartorialdiy]

Houndstooth purple and black sweater vest

I can't believe I actually got around to finishing something for once, but here it goes.

I have a soft spot for houndstooth fabric, it's such a distinctive pattern and the tessallated structure of the weave appeals to my inner geek. The typical black/white houndstooth is a classic. So much that I can't imagine ever making something for me out of it. This is the kind of stuff that is typically reserved for grandma's coat, or mad girls in pretty dresses. Not for men though, not really.

But purple and black houndstooth? Now that's a different story. Whenever I'm in a fabric story, I pretty much snatch up anything that's purple, so when I spotted this in Pauli in Leuven, I carried around the shop the entire time worried that somebody would steal it from me.

As the fabric is rather heavy, it has more of a knitwear feel, so I decided to go for a sweater vest. Hey, what works for Rick Santorum must work for me right? Talking about Rick Santorum, as sweater vest can make you look like a real dick so I finished it with a purple (arms) and black (waist) border that gives it a more sporty look.

Obviously, by choosing to go for a sweater vest, I sentenced myself to making another V-neck, and boy do I have nightmare about those. The end result is acceptable, but I still wish I would be better at them.

  For labeling, I used the new ribbon that I got a while ago. Here's the upside of buying everything in black/purple. It matches!

[sartorialdiy]

Hello,I contact you from France.I'm looking for pattern of boxer like enclosed in different sizes.Will you have something like that to propose me. Thanks in advance. Sally

Hey Sally. You can find the pattern here: http://sartorialdiy.com/post/4364689352/boxers-pattern-bxr-m01a

It doesn't come in different sizes however. For that, your best bet would be to wait until I add it to makemypattern.com, my new hobby project :)

If you want to be kept up to date about when things are online, make sure to subscribe to the mailinglist.

lovejoost 

[sartorialdiy]

Yay for sewing! :)

[sartorialdiy]

A frankensuit for Clark Kent

I was invited to a 60th birthday party (Yay for Patricia!) and I only found out the weekend in advance that it was a costume party. The theme was retro/vintage, but superheroes were welcome too.

I didn't really have anything that fits that description, and a tour around Brussels' vintage shops left me empty handed (basically, there is nothing for men).

In the end, I picked up this old corduroy suit from the thrift shop. It must have belonged to a huge man because it was way to wide for me (and too short) 

Last weekend, I gutted the suit, and tried to make it into something wearable for that Clark Kent retro look. Here's the result:

I wore it to the party last night, and I actually liked it. Might make me a corduroy suit one day :)

[sartorialdiy]

Just a quick follow-up on my earlier post about Lady Danburry because after all this blog is supposed to engage men into sewing.

See that shirt. She made it.  Do I really have to say anything else? Didn't think so.

[sartorialdiy]

Look at that dress. Gorgeous isn't it? Made by Lady Danburry whos Thinking in Shapes blog is well worth a visit. 

She made two and she's giving away one in a giveaway. Now as she lives in Utah I don't think it's sensible for me to enter. But if you live in the US and want one of these, what are you waiting for. Go and comment!

To have an idea of how awesome this lady is, check out her shop.