Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello and welcome to Professor Pincushion. In this tutorial we are going to be going
through the Kwik Sew Lookbook. If you are a beginner and wanting to get into commercial
patterns then you want to check out this tutorial as we show you how to read and understand
the LookBook. This book is a catalogue of available patterns for a particular brand;
in this case Kwik Sew and can usually be found at retailers that sell patterns.
Kwik Sew focuses on offering a large selection of baby, children, doll and craft patterns.
They also offer garment patterns for men and women including a good selection of active
wear and lingerie. Kwik Sew also offers the Ellie Mae design patterns. Now when you look
at it at the store, you are going to want to make sure that you are looking at the correct
updated copies, so you are going to look right up here underneath the name Kwik Sew and you
will see it has the season, in this case Summer and Spring and then the year. So 2013 so I
am making sure that I am looking at the most recent copy with the most updated patterns.
We also see that most Kwik Sew patterns are all going to be the same price which is nice
so there is no guess work, and also everything you see or pretty much everything you see,
there is going to be a pattern available. So if for example, I really like this dress
that's on the front cover, you will see down below they'll have the information
on what pattern it is and on which page you can find more information about it.
When you open up your Kwik Sew LookBook you are going to see something that looks like
this on the first page. So we have a couple of different images and then you are going
to see off here to the right all the pattern types have been separated into categories,
and each category has it's own color. So it's all color coded each category has its
own unique color, and sometimes if they need to add a little bit more description to the
category they will go ahead and add it underneath the heading here.
Now the color coding is very important because it helps us to quickly locate that category
without flipping through all the pages, although that's fun too if you want to do that. But
if for example you want to go straight to a category, let's say Crafts, you can see
it's purple. You can look at the edge of the pages and here's purple right here,
so then I can quickly go to that and go directly to Crafts, instead of just trying to flip
around and find it. But you can also do that and you will see that the categories and the
colors are right here on the edge of the pages.
Now if you want to go ahead and take a look at the most recent things added to their collection,
those are going to be the pages that are in front of the first category here. So if I
go ahead and flip through these front pages, it's going to be all the newest patterns
they have to offer. Also if I want to go ahead and do one of these new patterns they are
going to have the information on the pattern number and then also what page it can be found
on.
Patterns will come in envelopes such as here is an example right here. Now if you look
through the catalogue what you are doing is you are trying to find what style of garment
or craft you want to make, and then you are looking for the unique number that is associated
with that envelope. Usually each page will be dedicated to one or two patterns and you
know that because you are looking at the individual number. So this number is for this pattern
which in turn goes to the pattern envelope. If we look at this one, you will see it's
a different number than this one over here. So this is its own pattern which has its own
envelope. If we look at this again our pattern you can see here, we have a unique number
because it's just for this particular pattern. The K stands for Kwik Sew which makes it a
little bit easier.
Now this one is a little bit easier because there is one pattern per page, but sometimes
they will fit two, you can see here is one here with the number and then we have another
number on this page and the same thing on this page over here. Now just because you
are picking up one envelope doesn't mean that you won't get different styles in that
same envelope. So for example if we look at this one, you are getting one pattern but
you can do two different individual styles. So we have version B which is a square neck
and then this is kind of hard to see but we have an A over here which we kind of have
this back that comes to a point right here. So it kind of gives you a little bit more
flexibility. So not always are you making one single thing, but sometimes you can do
variations with the same envelope.
So now we are going to just get a little bit closer so I can focus on this area and see
what we need to get from it. You can actually get a lot of information from the product
page of your pattern. So you can find out what type of fabric you need and how much
and all that kind of stuff. So we are going to go ahead and break all this down, first
again we have our pattern number so this is unique to the envelope. And then remember
how I told you that sometimes you can have different versions in one envelope. Well for
the pattern companies, they call these views, so here you can see View A and View B and
you can clearly see in these line drawings the difference in the neckline. So here we
have this scoop neckline and here we have the square neckline, but they both have similar
skirts, there is just a small variation and they also show you the front and back of each
view. So this is what B looks like in the front and this is what it looks like in the
back clearly the difference is, is that the neckline is a little bit higher in the back
than it is in the front.
Let's go ahead and focus on this box now. So the first thing, let's just start at
the top. It's going to tell us what it is. It's a misses dress and then underneath
it's going to tell us the size that this pattern comes in. So for this particular one
it comes in sizes extra small through extra large. If for example you want this pattern
in extra extra small you are not actually going to be able to purchase it. You are going
to have to either purchase extra small and do alteration or find a different pattern
that'll work for you, because they only come in these specific sizes.
Underneath that we are going to look at the suggested fabric so they are telling us that
this dress was designed for these type of fabrics that they are suggesting. In this
particular case, it's lightweight woven fabrics and then they give some examples.
So even if you pick a fabric that's not one of these four examples but it's still
a light weight woven fabric, it will probably still work fine, they are just offering some
suggestions, but then if you come and you want to make this dress and say a knit fabric,
it's not going to fit and work the way that you imagined because it was not designed for
knit fabric, it's only designed for the light weight woven fabric.
Next we are going to go ahead and let's go ahead and look at this size. So again they
are showing you the sizes here and everything that falls under this column is going to be
related to the thing that's on top. So everything in this column relates to a size small, it's
the same thing over here. So that's how they keep everything organized. The very first
thing is going to be a finished measurement so there it is telling you that when the dress
is completed if they are both are and you say View A and View B when it's done we
will say for size medium if you were to measure the dress from the center back to the waist
it ends up being 24 and a half inches. So inches in the top in centimeters is on the
back. So it kind of gives you a general idea beforehand if you need to make alterations.
And actually they show for all sizes that is the length from the back of your neck down
to your waist so if you have a longer torso or a shorter torso than normal you can go
ahead and make the alterations you need. Also it's nice as we already know straight away
that this dress has a lining, so if you want a good quality dress with a lining then this
dress is for you because you know there is a lining in it. And they are telling you not
only how wide the lining needs to be when you purchase it at the fabric store so 45
inches in width, but then they also break it down and tell you how many yards you are
going to need of lining. So if I was doing View A dress and I am doing a medium I only
need one yard, you can see yard is here on the top row and down here, we have meters.
Underneath that notions so in addition to purchasing fabric and lining what else do
we need, obviously you are going to need some all purpose thread, they are saying optional
feasible interfacing if you want to stabilize the neckline. So if you needed zippers or
buttons or anything you are going to find it in this section here. So this is why this
is very important. So you know what else you need to purchase on top of that.
Over here, now they are telling you how much fabric you are going to need for this dress.
They have it broken down so you have 60 inches in width and 45 inches in width. So when you
pick out your fabric you are going to have to look at the little information tag on the
fabric and it's going to tell you how wide the fabric is. So from that you can then decide
if you are looking at the 60 inch or 45 those are the two common ones, sometimes they will
be a little bit different but these are the two big ones. So if the purchase, the fabric
that you purchase is 60 inches in width and I am doing dress A and a medium go ahead and
look here and see that I need two yards of fabric. And if I have 45 inch width fabric
then I would do the same thing down here.
Here's another example, I have my pattern number over here so this is the unique number
of this envelope and you can see it's in the purple block so this is for Crafts. And
sometimes when you are starting off crafts are a little bit easier, because you don't
have to worry about sizing and fitting and all of that. So for this one, we are doing
Cute Animal Back Packs and you can see there are two view here, View A and View B a monkey
and a frog the one thing I like about the Kwik Sew patterns is sometimes when you do
crafts like this, they actually have them separated by color. So they are telling you
for the main fabric here, which is this grey blue, it's going to be this part here and
then purple is the contrast and in contrast 2 is going to be the yellow. So they really
break it down and make it a lot easier. Once you decide which one you want to make then
you can just focus on that view when looking over here. Again underneath we have the design
for medium weight woven fabrics. So they are telling you that they created this in mind
to be used with medium weight wovens and they give you some examples here. So you want to
make sure that you are not using a fabric that's too light weight or it's going
to be really flumsy.
So it doesn't matter if you are using 42 or 58 inch width fabric they are telling you
how much you are going to need. So if I am just doing View A 7 8th of a yard and it doesn't
say which fabric it is so I am going to assume that that's going to be from my main fabric
contrasting which is the lining and the inner ears so that's the purple. And we can't
see the inside of the backpack but we are just going to assume that it's going to
be purple in there as well for the contrast one and you are going to need three quarters
of a yard contrast 2 is going to be three eights of a yard and then they also ask for
fleece for View A which is a quarter of a yard. So I just like to look through the whole
thing to see if there is something else that's going to be related to my view and there is
not and then underneath we also have notion so this is additional items that we are going
to also need in order to complete a project.
I just want to point out a few things you are going to find in the back of the LookBook.
So with this page, I am just going to show you really quickly the different types of
patterns they have in their pattern line. So not only do you have the main collection
which we have here, but you have patterns that are overlock friendly, you have ones
that are quick and easy, you have ones that are good for if you are just learning to sew and
they actually have patterns that require no sewing at all. So if you look for patterns
and let's say you see ones which a yellow cover then that means it's going to be a
good pattern for beginners.
Also in the category of sizing and pattern info you can find the stretch charts. So this
is if you decide you want to make something that uses stretchy fabric. So the pattern
says for example you need fabric with a 25% stretch across grain. These charts in the
back of the catalogue are going to help you. So they are giving you examples but then they
are also showing you how much it needs to stretch. If you take a piece of fabric that's
4 inches in length which is from here to here, you can go ahead, hold right here, and then
on this end you should be able to stretch the fabric to this point. If you can do that
then it's going to be perfect for all patterns that require a 25% stretch.
What a lot of beginners don't realize is that your retail sizing is never the same
as their pattern sizing. Usually the pattern sizing is going to be a larger number which
is why it's important that you take your body measurements and then compare them to
the measurement charts that are in these books. So that way you are sure to pick the correct
size, and all your garments that you make are going to fit correctly. What you can find
in the back of the LookBook is something that shows you how to properly take your body measurements.
So they are telling you what measurements are important to take in order to figure out
your size. If you are really unsure you can go ahead and check at our tutorial on how
to take your measurements.
Once you have your accurate body measurements you can then look at the body measurement
chart located in the back of the Kwik Sew LookBook. So they have them for misses, women's,
men's, girls, boys, toddlers and babies. Once you have all your body measurements all
you are going to do is, for whatever category you are going to be matching up with, you
are just going to take your measurements and line them up in a column and then that's
going to determine your size. Once you have your size, you can then look through the Kwik
Sew LookBook and find patterns that you would like to sew.
Make sure to check out our other videos and visit www.professorpincushion.com to view
our complete library with well over a 150 sewing video tutorials. New tutorials are
released regularly so make sure to subscribe to be notified of the next release. Thanks
for watching.