The Silhouette Stylus Quarterly Newslettersilhouettepatterns.com/html/features/promos/newsletter/...The great colors are brights, classic black and whites, and then neutrals. Stick

The Silhouette Stylus Quarterly NewsletterIssue 1 - April 2009s

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Check out our Spring Catalog, now available online. I wanted to get this out before the newsletter so we could refer to it.The great colors are brights, classic black and whites, and then neutrals. Stick to these for very simply, stylish dressing.The great accessories are belts, both large and small and large handbags, still the bigger the better. If you don't like large, do smaller and don't do waist, do high-hip for the belts.Shoes are very high or flats, can't seem to see anything in between. But don't be fooled, the only ones selling are the lower heels and the flats. Big discounts are already being taken on these very high heels. Get a pair if you love them, but make a Doctor appointment for a bad back, bad knee or the like right after. Short term, a couple of hours, they are fine, but don't try to wear them to the workplace. Never before have we seen so much money being spent on ridiculous items, it is really not making sense in this current economy. It is almost like women are saying, well I can't afford my mortgage, so let's go get a pair of 4" heels to make me feel better. DON'T. This shoe thing will pass quickly. Already for fall, there are flats every where and the wild shoe becomes a thing of the past spring. This article is titled "Second Life: Designers Revive Their Greatest Hits", and is found in the April 09 issue of "W" magazine.This is the base of my newsletter this month. I say the base because I believe it to be synonymous with the core of Silhouette Patterns philosophy. It suggests that to find our favorite lines, colors, and fabrics and redo them, but somehow update them. This is the key to comfort. So while all along we have been scolded for not having "new", this allows us to stop, pause, and gather up clothes which have been good to us and make them our favorites again.I went to my attic last week and took down a suitcase full of clothes I had put up there over a decade ago. They were clothes I was not wearing, but for various sentimental reasons, I could not part with them. One of the

Section 1 - Fashions for Spring 2009

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with EXCLUSIVE B, C, & D cup sizingThe Silhouette Stylus Quarterly Newsletter

Issue 1 - April 2009 s

jackets was one that I had made in college as my senior project. Another jacket I had acquired at my first job out of college in 1980. It was a deep purple, fuzzy, Liz Claiborne ( when she was really the designer ) classic blazer. I was the supervisor/buyer of the women's sportswear department. The department store I worked for was having a company wide contest. The department manager who had increased departments' sales for that next month, could choose three pieces from within the department as their prize. I was in love with this purple jacket. I worked non stop, changing the department around, merchandising daily to present all the new goods we were receiving, to look the best and most appealing they could possibly look. In the end, I won the contest and the jacket was mine. There was a limit as to what the three pieces of choice could total and my jacket exceeded that amount. My district manager approved my choice and I wore the jacket home. Those were great memories of clothes from the past. Now, in reference to "W" magazine, I get to wear my jacket again. Watch out if you see me soon..... I may have on a fuzzy purple jacket and you will be the wiser and will know that the old can be new again.This is a good but lengthy article, so I am going to highlight the jest of the article."Newness is a precious ingredient in fashion's crowded and competitive marketplace. But some houses are finding that select morsels from the past can be equally enticing to women on the hunt for the unusual from their favorite labels. Vintage re-editions offer such clients something special and rare: a dress with both a past and a future. Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Jil Sander, and Emilio Pucci are among those presenting such looks, which range from relatively recent styles tweaked for modern times to meticulously faithful replicas.Two of the earliest adopters of the replica trend were Miuccia Prada, who created a one-time only group of vintage re-editions when she opened Prada's Epicenter in New York's SoHo in 2001, and Martin Margiela, who in 2003 introduced Replicas- line-for-line copies of clothes sourced from thrift shops. For spring, look for a silk georgette tulip skirt from Berlin in 1985."It's absolute antifashion, which makes it fashion," says Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquiere, savoring one of the industry's succulent oxymorons as if it were a butterscotch. His Edition collection also helped set the trend in motion. "There's something very confident about those lines, because (the clothes) existed before, and they will exist again," the designer says. "It's clean, new, never-worn vintage. It makes you more secure, because you have the feeling this is a classic. It's something that is not related to a season."The impetus for Edition, introduced in 2004, came when Ghesquiere was preparing for a Balenciaga retrospective at the Muse'e des Arts De'coratifs in Paris, and he plunged into an archive containing more than 500 outfits and scores of accessories, from groovy bottom-hinged sunglasses to chunky crystal chokers. "When I looked at those pieces, I thought, My God, they're so timeless," he recalls. "It's really a treasure."For the current spring season, Ghesquiere selected 26 looks from couture collections spanning the years 1932 to 1967, replicating them with exacting attention to fabrics and construction. One of the gems is an ingeniously


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simple strapless column gown from 1962 gathered at the bosom like a bath towel. Every season Ghesquiere lets instinct guide him: "I just go there as if I were going to the most beautiful vintage store, and I pick what I think is right for the moment.""Ms. Sander was strictly against archiving the past," the Belgian designer explains in his no-nonsense way. "She only wanted to look forward, something I share with her. So the selection was made based on photos and not real garments. But all the paper patterns were kept.Observers credit the long-running vintage trend in fashion-which was amped up when Julia Roberts collected a best actress Oscar while wearing vintage Valentino in 2001-for the rash of re-editions from fashion and accessories firms. Ghesquiere agrees that the red-carpet impact of yore must be reassuring for women today. "If it was already worn by Marlene Dietrich or Grace Kelly, it must be right," he deadpans. "They have the feeling they're buying something timeless."While it might seem simple to re-create designs from the past, realizing them can be a headache. "It seems very easy, but actually it's an enormous challenge," says Laudonia Pucci, image director at Emilio Pucci, which marked its 60 th anniversary in 2007 and chose the milestone to lunch its Vintage Classics collection. "There's a lot of technical work that goes into it."Pucci contacted old fabric mills that once supplied the Florentine house and mimicked her late father's techniques for placing his signature prints, then called in a retired seamstress to demonstrate how to position them. The reproductions also include the constricting armholes and narrow shoulders of yesteryear. Indeed, in 2001 when the firm reproduced a Marilyn Monroe look-a blouse and capris- "the pants were so tight around the calves, some clients couldn't put their feet through," the designer says. "But if it were different, it wouldn't have been the real thing. I think that's one of the reasons girls find it fashionable, because the proportions are a little distorted. The idea of having real vintage collections, not only vintage-inspired, makes it really unique. It gives you a taste of what you can't find today."Some more-recent recruits to the vintage redux game suggest that it's never too early to look to the past. Many are currently re-do's and they are coming across as big hits. In accessory re-editions, Chanel re-created a classic Chanel bag from 1955 in 2005, and choices these days include Chanel's Vintage bag, based on one Karl Lagerfeld did in the Nineties, and Nina Ricci's oversize square sunglasses, which reinvent a style famously worn by Jackie Onassis to a tennis tournament in 1978.Perhaps because fashion spins forever faster, designers often cite freedom as an aspect of re-editions they cherish, liberating them from the hamster wheel of constant change. "I'm a big believer in comfort not being the fit of the garment, but the familiarity," says Marc Jacobs, whose one-shot Stephen Sprouse collection for Louis Vuitton this season, while consisting of all new designs, still speaks to the power of past styles. "Stephen did create some things that were very iconic. It reminds me of a moment in New York that, you know, I haven't seen one like since."Ghesquiere stresses that the pursuit of newness drives designers forward-and just might put them in the history books. "It's a challenge for invention and creativity," he says, "but everyone has the hope that a few of those things will last forever."


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Question #1 Good Starter Comment...Hi again Peggy,You've probably heard my story hundreds of times over. I quit working outside the home 7 years ago, and have gained 20 lbs. You can't have nice clothes when you are stirring spaghetti sauce at the stove. Over the years my lovely business clothes have been outgrown or ruined, and my whole wardrobe has deteriorated into big baggy T-shirts, stretchy tops and jogging suits. I have no decent clothes that I like the fit of, to measure. Sad, no?!?!? I am kind of starting all over at my current size. I am not giving up!My dear friend has made several of your patterns successfully, and she inspired me. I just saw the notice of your Sewing in the Rockies retreat and I am so tempted - I've suggested it to her as well.

Question #2In the Spring 09 catalog, page 36 shows back pockets on this pant, but the line drawings on the pattern info do not show the pockets. Are they included in the pattern but optional?

Also, on measuring my sitting hip size, I am measuring the fullest part of my rear end, not the high hip (bones), correct?

For my bust measurement, I am measuring the high bust and then adjusting for cup size, according to the pattern, is that correct?

And then I add my preferred ease to arrive at the garment measurement.

I so enjoyed your class at the Rocky Mountain Sew Expo. I have finished the remodel of my sewing room, which was my Christmas gift from my husband, and I am ready to get sewing again. Thanks for your encouragement.

Answer - These workshops are a great opportunity to reorganize your self and really get moving quickly to sewing lots of new things. Find one close to you and attend one of them for sure. It is your treat to yourself!

Answer - YES

Answer - YES

Answer - NO, measure the garment, not you!!

Answer - Easier to just measure the garment itself instead of you plus ease.

Section 2 - Questions Asked Lately - Answers in Bold

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Question #31. On jacket 1825 Zoannes... the bust point is really low before a length alteration. I understand the bust zone circle, but I will have to take a large tuck to get in the area. I will use a L/S line below the armhole and above the bust, but it may end up being about a 1.5" tuck (doubled=3"). Does a really wide tuck pose any problems?Answer - No, but do not make the tuck, just keep sewing the dart up until it is where you like it to be. The french dart is great because there is so much control on where you want to stop. So if it is too low, keep going up until you like where it is and then stop once you have it where you like it, within 2" from the bust point. 2. (general question) I'm a little confused about transfering ready- to-wear measurements to the pattern. If I am fitting with a muslin, when do I make changes for preferred measurements, like the armhole & shoulder seam to shoulder seam width? Before cutting out the muslin or during the fitting? I always have to shorten the shoulder to shoulder width.

I have been watching your dvd's. They are really, really good. I should have bought them a long time ago. I love the myth buster one.

Question #4I made another #1950 out of a beautiful, turquoise wool and used the selvedge fringe as the trim. I am attending an ASG function inMedford, Oregon on the 26th, where I will undoubtedly stun them speechless with my couture garment (thanks to you). The shoulder to shoulder width was still a little off, but I think I got it figured out for the next one. It was pure joy to have the final product come together so quickly. I will send you a picture.

Question #5When you give the garment measurement for a particular size on one of your patterns, what size cup are you using? It seems as though the garment measurement would vary based on the cup size, and not just by the numerical size. Thanks.

Answer - Do you mean Narrow? the shoulder width? You should measure that from center front across the to the armhole seam to be consistent, then add the seam allowance you need.

Answer - My favorite line is "You all just don't even know how badly you need them (the DVD's)

Answer - Will post it when I get it.


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Answer - The circumference is measured first and then the cup sizing. You don't have to measure for the cup size, just use your bra cup size. But for measurement, measure the garment, not you. CUP SIZING DOES NOT CHANGE CIRCUMFERENCE!!!!The goal of this newsletter edition #1, it to make sure everyone out there recognizes that cup sizing does not change circumference, ever!!! Let's make sure everyone knows and understands that concept.


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This issue I have picked to discuss cup sizing. I think it is the most confusing of all the fit topics and what causes women to quilt. It is the one dimensional measurement that is uneven in nature compared to Circumference, which is in or out, and Length, which is up or down.If I want to change length in a garment, then I simply add to lengthen or take away to shorten. The amount is the same, front and back, either up or down. Those are my only two options.If I want to change circumference in a garment, then I simply add to the side seams to create more inches or take away from the side seams to create fewer inches.If I want to change depth in a garment, then I either make the dart larger or make the dart smaller, but the change I am making is an angular change to either length or circumference.To clarify.....Great fit is when the length, depth, and circumference of the garment matches the length, depth, and circumference of the body. The body is not changeable, at least in this example. The garment or pattern is the easiest to manipulate, but we have to understand how.Clearly defined, there are three main lengths of the body. They are base of the neck to bust, bust to waist and waist to hip. These lengths don't have to be exact and are not even from center to side to back. In fact, depth is an uneven length or an uneven circumference, that is what depth is.....but keep reading.If I measure the body from base of the neck to waist and call that measurement A, and compare it to B, which B is the length from the edge of the shoulder to the waist, B is always going to be shorter than A. That is because A goes over the Bust and also because the shoulder is sloped. So my two tools in getting one piece of cloth to fit both lengths A and B are the shoulder dart and the bust dart. What the dart does is take away length, but only for a part of the garment, while leaving the center length the same. That taking away only on the side, is called the dart and it creates depth in the garment, but does not change circumference in any way.So the same example goes with circumference. If I measure the full bust and call that measurement A and then measure the waist and call that measure B, how do I get the cloth to cover both A and B. Darts!!!! Two darts, one at the side seam and one between the center front and the side seam or center back and the side seam. These darts take away circumference at the waist but leave it the same at the bust and so again, create depth in the garment, but don't change the length. So in conclusion, darts can change the length or circumference of a garment but as I go from C cup to D cup, the circumference is not changing, only the amount of the dart taken away is increasing.The best way to make sure everyone understands is the discussion board, if you have questions ask them and the answers will come!

Section 3 - Pattern Issues - Cup Sizing

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9 minute video demonstration.

Designer Techniques.mov Please visit the linkbelow to view this video.http://silhouettepatterns.com/html/features/promos/newsletter/2009/2009_april/video.htm

Section 4&5 - Current Designer Techniques

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http://www.silhouettepatterns.com/html/features/promos/newsletter/2009/2009_april/video.htm

For those of you who attend our Original Sewing and Quilt Expos throughout the year, we give away a FREE Fabric Buying Trip to New York at each of the eight shows. The cities are Tampa, Atlanta, Cleveland and Boston in the spring and Chantilly, Kansas City, Chicago and Minneapolis in the Fall. At each of these eight shows, usually on Friday afternoon, each customer who models a garment they have made from a Silhouette Pattern, for each garment modeled, their name goes into the bag to enter the drawing. At the end of the show, right there in front of everyone, one name is pulled out and they win a trip to New York, value $299. They can choose spring or fall trip and the year they can go.Visit to learn more about the New York Trip.Hopefully you will get sewing and enter our Customer Appreciation Fashion Show. Our customers do it best and we want to show you off!!!! Thanks for your support.

http://silhouettepatterns.com/html/features/promos/nyc

Section 6 - What We are Doing and Places We Have Been

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http://www.silhouettepatterns.com/html/features/promos/nyc




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Section 7 - Online Forum / User Bulletin Board

With your subscription to this newsletter you will have access to our new online forum/user bulletin board where you can post questions and get answers, interact with fellow sewers and share information that will make us all better sewers!To start, go to Click on REGISTER to create your account. Once your subscription status is verified, your account will be activated and you can begin to share.In the meantime, visit the address above to see what’s currently going on inside.

http://www.silhouettepatternsforum.com/forum

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http://www.silhouettepatternsforum.com/forum

The Silhouette Stylus Quarterly NewsletterIssue 1 - April 2009s

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The Silhouette Stylus Quarterly Newslettersilhouettepatterns.com/html/features/promos/newsletter/...The great colors are brights, classic black and whites, and then neutrals. Stick