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Hi, I'm Tim - the author of stretchy.org, a website about making catsuits.
Here's the second part of 'how to make a catsuit'.
So, you can get two types of fabric:
you can get what's called four-way stretch, which stretches in two directions,
and you can get two-way stretch, which stretches in that way.
but doesn't stretch at all across.
You can't make catsuits out of this.
Or, you can, but they don't fit nearly as well.
So forget about this: Don't use it.
Take about.. you know..
a couple of feet of fabric along a rough middle.
and then you roll the fold between your fingers to even the hanging edges.
you can see the silver becoming hidden.
check that the edges are even from both the back and the front
Notice that I'm ignoring the edges cut by the shop. They won't be accurate.
I'm only relying on the machined edges: the long ones
so you pin where you were holding, take one of the pinnings in your hand, grasp the next couple of feet
and repeat all along until you've corrected and pinned the entire centre fold.
I fan-fold the result, like this, for easy handling. So that's the fabric sorted out, and now to do the pattern.
So I buy these fairly large sheets of tissue paper from the local art shop.
They're seven fifty by five hundred millimeters
I line the paper up with the edge of the table, and overlap them slightly,
then I stick them together.
I use the so-called write-on tape because I can write on it with pencil while I'm drawing,
and because it doesn't do the nasty yellow thing when it ages.
so my patterns last for a long time, allowing me to refer back to them.
I'm joining these two sheets into one, with a few bits of tape
you can reinforce this with more tape on the back
Here I'm drawing a starting line, an inch in from the end so I'm not right on the edge of the paper.
then because this cat suit will have the optional socks,
I'm measuring in by the toe-ankle distance and drawing the ankle line.
Now I'm marking the scaled half circumference of the top leg measurement, here and there along the paper
from one side, so I can join them up to form my main construction line.
Here I'm measuring the distances along that main construction line,
starting with the ankle line and working up,
making ticks for each distance, and writing both the distance
and the associated circumference beside each tick.
I put these numbers as a check,
because it's surprisingly easy to confuse distances and ticks [circumferences]
Two ticks here, with the distance just above,
and above that the circumference with an arrow alongside.
Between the two ticks is one of the marks I used to construct the main construction line.
This is the top of the leg measurement.
Because the final leg measurement and the first body measurement
are at the same height on the body, this tick gets two circumferences.
The body measurements continue upwards along the line,
but note that I'm only plotting half the circumference:
a quarter above and below the line.
because one layer of fabric will give me the left hand side of the body,
and the other will give me the right hand side.
For the legs, each layer of fabric will give me one leg,
so I have to plot a whole leg circumference:
half on either side of the line.
Now I go back and start plotting the scaled circumferences perpendicular to the construction line.
And now you can see why I wanted to divide the leg measurements [circumferences] in half
and the body in quarters:
so I don't have to think too hard about how much to plot above and below the line.
This is the tick where the leg and body meet, so there are two circumference measures.
Notice that the paper isn't quite big enough for a full width
I should have extended it when I started, but I'll do that later.
You may wonder why I plot both above and below the line,
when I only need to plot on one side, and then fold and copy.
This is partly stupidity,
but I find the two sets of lines help me align the fold accurately,
and it's another simple check against errors.
I'm drawing the leg curve through most of the end points,
but it's more important to get a smooth line than to go through every point exactly.
Use a pencil to rough in the curve before going over it with a pen
and check before you draw in pen.
I made a mistake here which is why the video isn't entirely consistent.
Use a right-angle to start the crotch curve off and curve it smoothly into the body curve.
Again it's more important to be smooth than to go through every point exactly.
The end points should inform your line, but not dictate it.
The right angle that starts the crotch curve off is very important though: you should follow that.
Now I'm drawing in with pen.
The next part is optional: a transformation to eliminate the centre front seam up the chest, the pattern would otherwise need.
This is plotting a line parallel to the edge at the belly's narrowest circumference.
It's continued to where it intersects the leg and up the chest.
This is transferring the chopped-off bits of the chest to the back.
and marking this new line 'fold'.
Now I take the centre line
and fold the pattern along it carefully.
and copy the line in pen
again, here I should've extended the paper with a scrap, and copied the line there too, but I forgot.
I only copy to the mid-back, because I have to draw in the amended back-line,
but if you're not eliminating the centre-front seam, you just copy all the way.
Reinforce the tape on the back.
Eliminating the centre-front seam requires cutting off the crotch along the front line
I'll call that line on the crotch piece the cut-fold line.
Here I mark the intersection of the fold line with the leg curve.
And here I extend the paper and copy the drawn line over.
Back to eliminating the centre front seam:
Slide the chopped-off piece over, aligning both of the intersection points I marked just earlier
and the two crotch points. Tape it in place.
Now draw a right-angle from the cut-fold line, which just brushes the crotch curve.
That's normally at the crotch points
cut off the extra
and measure between the intersection point and the new crotch point
and transfer that length to the other side upwards from the other intersection point.
mark that 'cut' and above it is 'fold'.
Normally, 'cut' reaches the top leg measurement line.
That's the outline of my toes, with the big toes outermost.
Align it with the centre line, and the toes line.
then continue the ankle line out to the toes, either by measuring or by contruction, like here.
Copy the toes.
Then fold the paper in half, and copy the feet. Obviously you should plot the feet when you do the leg
so you can fold and copy the legs and the feet at the same time.
I did it separately here.
Then cut off the foot associated with the back, along the ankle line.
Here you see my ankle is ninety millimeters half circumference,
subtracting forty millimetres for my heel leaves fifty millimetres.
Divide that by two is twenty five millimetres
so I mark on some spare paper a line as wide as my ankle with the heel width in the middle.
Now I draw quarter circles from the sides of the heel to the ends of that line.
(I lost my compasses, so I'm improvising.)
and I join them together at the top.
then mark the result in pen
fold it
and copy to the other side.
then cut it in half and add them to the end of the cut-off foot and ankle, taping them in place.
Now I mark ticks on both feet pieces, so I know where to notch the fabric, for alignment when I'm sewing.