Shoulder fitting podcasts

Tuesday 13 July 2021: Gabby has now written 3 in-depth shoulder fitting blog posts on Sewcialists for the sewing community that she discussed in more details on the podcast.

Tuesday 22 June 2021: Gabby researched across the sewing knowledge both online and in publications and published three shoulder posts for Sewcialists.

This first podcast focusses on good resources to better understand the effect of shoulder slope. You can read all the details on Gabby’s ‘The Great Shoulder Adjustment Digest part 1‘.

In the second podcast Gabby discusses more detail about shoulder adjustments for better fitting garments. To prepare for this podcast, make sure you read Gabby’s part 2 on understanding measurements as well as part 3 on Raglans, shoulder girth etcetera.

Roundtable discussion with Susan Khalje

Tuesday 27 April 2021: Susan Khalje and Gabby Brown discuss sewing skill development from their industries for sewists to assess how they want to develop their sewing skills and practice.

Sewing and fitting for drag

Tuesday 16 February 2021: Gabby Brown interviewed Wayne Laberda and Maxi, where Wayne talked about sewing for drag and then Maxi did a show and tell with the outfits Wayne made her.

Head over the Sewcialists to see both Wayne’s video interview and then the video where Maxi shares her closet highlights with Gabby.

Wayne Laberda is an experienced apparel designer in the ready-to-wear manufacturing industry and has additionally worked in fabric development, trend research, color and print, as well as performing as Maxi. Wayne creates all of Maxi’s performance outfits, and all of her body modification accessories. As Maxi said, ‘Separates aren’t just for real girls.’

Wayne also said a couple of his favourites, ‘Tight is not always right’ and ‘Pull lines point to the fit area.’

Maxi loves Swarovski rhinestones and glass rhinestones. Parchment paper and cue tips are handy for embellishing her garments. Her garments have to look special and be layered for her stage acts. Corsets are her favourite garment. Linings don’t work for costumes because they make you sweat and are hard to wear on stage.

When making clothes for Maxi, prewash the fabric, choose cleanable fabric. Are they transportable. Maxi loves wrinkle free and yes, polyester is Maxi’s favourite fibre.

Tips to make a garment special. 1: Rhinestones. 2: A good fit elevates any garment.

Fit tips: Phone a friend and get their help. Wear your garment a little bit to realise where the fit or feel doesn’t right. Style your garment to see how it looks.

ABQ: Always be questioning

Tuesday 15 December 2020: You know you’ll always read good information and knowledgeable posts with Gabby Brown of Sewcialists.

Gabby has now written 30 blog posts where she’s shared her textile industry knowledge on Sewcialists. Her latest post encourages you to ‘always be questioning’ (ABQ).

What’s prompted her is that information that is shared isn’t necessarily good information. It may not even be useful information. As we head into a new year and say good bye to this year’s challenges, Gabby provides us with some reliable patternmaking books and places to go to learning sewing techniques that work.

Fitting checklist

Tuesday 24 November 2020: Gabby talks about fitting for yourself and the checklist she uses as she goes.

1. Know what you’re looking for. 2: Have your checklist. 3: Write everything down accurately so you can make those corrections. These are just a few of the suggestions that Gabby talks about.

You can read the Fit Model post Gabby wrote for the Sewcialists. There are many posts Gabby has written for Sewcialists this year that you should refer too.

When you put the garment on you can check the fit of each part of the garment and make notes about where you need to work on the pattern for a better fit. As you’re dressing, the unusual sizing or construction issues.

Make sure you check the garment again for any fit issues. There’s more from Gabby so listen in.

All about grading patterns

Tuesday 10 November 2020: Gabby makes the topic of grading patterns so much more real as she discusses the grading basis and background of standard body measurements. ASTM body measurement standards are the basis for pattern grading.

Have you heard of ‘jump grading‘? Gabby talks about grading issues for both the home sewist and for independent pattern designers. You’ll have a few ‘a ha’ moments as you hear Gabby share her knowledge with you in this podcast.

An easy checklist is to 1: understand your measurements. 2: understand your measurements; and 3: understand your measurements.

There will be more about grading patterns in podcasts to come.

pdf pattern wishlist

Tuesday 3 November 2020: Gabby is back discussing her research of pdf patterns and her subsequent Wishlist articles she has posted on Sewcialists blog with suggestions from the sewing community.

Dear Gabby originally asked for PDF pattern community feedback and gave us her pdf pattern wish list. Gabby then wrote a follow up post with the community feedback she received about PDF patterns. The sewing community wrote in about their particular experiences with PDF patterns in addition to those Gabby and many other sewists had experienced.

In this podcast Gabby talks through her Wishlist for a better PDF pattern experience. PDF patterns are the Wild West of sewing patterns.

PDF pattern Wishlist – not printing in colour; minimise paper waste; minimise cutting and taping; offer copyshop format printing; are there different size layers you can turn on and off as you need various sizes. More thought and work by designers with PDF patterns will make using PDF patterns are better experience. Take a listen and you’ll hear the full discussion with Gabby.

Here’s the link to Tissuni patterns.

Gender neutral sewing terms

Tuesday 22 September 2020: Gabby Brown (Dear Gabby) is back discussing gender neutral sewing terminology. This discussion is an extension of the initial discussion with Emilia last month.

About Gabby Brown

Tuesday 15 September 2020: Gabby Brown is the fit specialist in the Sewcialists team. When there’s a fitting question from the sewing community, Gabby will research the question to provide the various answers.

Gabby is a technical fashion designer, fit specialist, and prolific googler. She lives in Denver, raises tiny littles, reads, embroiders, makes, experiments, fails, learns, tries again. See her on instagram @ladygrift.

In her first podcast Gabby gives us her sewing industry background and we then discuss true fit and aesthetics aspects when preparing your own clothes. Home sewers have a super power that ready to wear (rtw) doesn’t. Our super power is we have the skills to make our clothes fit our needs and lifestyles. It’s that simple and on Sewcialists, Gabby provides the research and resources to manage your sewing conundrums.

Gabby also describes what a technical fashion designer does. As she describes her role you’ll understand how her great communication and negotiation skills make her the perfect person to be the technical ‘go-to’ person within the Sewcialists team.

Kathleen Fasanella blog is the blog Gabby referred to in this first podcast.