Crafters! SCAdians! People who can sew! I need your help!

[Parrothead]

I am looking for a pattern for a jerkin, to be made out of leather. The catch is, it's gotta fit boobs. Big 'uns.


Help?

(I've never really sewed before, never with leather, and I'm a DD. I have a full side (covers a queen size bed) of garment leather in a nice aqua color, so I'm covered on that. The character is from a gypsy-analog culture, so any ideas would be helpful.)

[Akasa]

Fitted jerkin or jerkin that covers you?

[Seshat]

Okay. What you want is either a princess line or a darted cut; depending on the level of authenticity you need in the jerkin.

(If you need serious authenticity, talk to the sewers in your SCA or Renfaire or whatever group.)

If you've not modified a pattern before, I'd recommend going with a darted cut.

Find a pattern - it doesn't have to be a pattern for a jerkin, it doesn't have to be a pattern for leather, it just needs to be a pattern where the bits around the bodice are the right shape for you, and don't have so many seams it frightens you.
Oh, and it can't be for a stretch fabric.

Make sure the pattern will fit your largest measurement (possibly your 'overbust' measurement). Get the people at the fabric store to help you measure yourself correctly for the critical measurements: do I need to mention that you should aim to go at a slow time?

Also, buy some cheap, non-stretch fabric: I usually use calico, because it's reliable, it's got a good weave, and it takes chalk and pencil markings very well. I get unbleached, but that's up to you.

Buy some inexpensive paper, too. Butcher's paper, rolls of brown paper, doesn't matter.

You're going to make multiple copies of the jerkin before you even *touch* the leather with a knife. You're going to make a rough paper copy, then a copy in calico. Then you'll adjust the calico "toile" until it looks how you want it, transferring the changes to your paper copy.

If you want to really be sure, when you think you have the toile right, make up a version in a plain, inexpensive leather (or a pseudo-leather vinyl or some such) with similar characteristics to your lovely aqua. Better to make your mistakes on that, right?

Okay. So. You have your pattern. You have your measurements.

If your pattern looks anything like most modern patterns, it's a 'multisize' pattern. That means it has several different cutting lines, each for a different clothing size.

If your body is anything like mine, your measurements call for all sorts of sizes. One size at the shoulders, another at the overbust (largest bust measurement), yet another at the underbust (bra band area), yet another at the waist....

So. You find the places on the pattern pieces which correspond to the shoulder measurement and the overbust measurement. Then you draw as smooth a line as you can from the correct size for you at the shoulders, to the correct size for you at the overbust. Do the same for overbust to underbust, underbust to waist, waist to high hip. If your jerkin will go to low hip as well, then high hip to low hip.

(High hip is where your pelvic bone juts out just past the waist. Low hip is the largest measurement around your butt/thigh area.)

I like to copy this onto the paper I bought - brown paper, or butcher's paper, or tracing paper, or whatever. Pattern papers are so damn fragile, by the time I'm finished making my toiles I have torn up fragile-pattern-paper. I refuse to work with that, so I copy patterns onto something more durable.
Make sure to study the markings, and try to copy them as well.

Now you can have a friend help you hold the paper pattern up to your body, and see if it sort-of fits you. If you went with a darted pattern (rather than a princess line), you'll immediately notice a great gaping wrinkle of pattern either at your armhole, at your waist, or on the front of your shoulder. There'll also be lines forming a triangle shape that roughly outlines the wrinkle.
Fold the paper pattern on those lines and try again. Much better, right?

The darted method of making a female bodice basically goes like this: at one (or more) of the waist, shoulders or armhole, add enough fabric for the bust. Then make a triangular fold so that the point of the triangle is near the tip of the breast, and the widest part is at the seam: this neatly removes that excess fabric.

If the triangle drawn in the pattern doesn't point to the tip of your breast, it's absolutely fine to draw a new triangle and fold it. Noone's going to mark you for adherence to the pattern: your goal is to make it look good on YOU.

(Side note: the less medieval/renaissance 'princess line' method has a mostly rectangular front piece that goes from the neckline to the waist/hips, and at the sides, from nipple to nipple. Then the rest of the front of the bodice is made of two side pieces, which roughly resemble a woman in profile. The extra fabric for the bust comes from the curve in the side pieces.)

Once you're happy with how the bodice fits around your bust, waist, armholes, etc; you can try making a fabric toile in the cheap calico. (Or an old sheet, or whatever.)
Or if you prefer, you can draw a jerkin neckline and waistline on the paper before you make up the toile.

Sew the toile together. See how it fits. If you have wrinkles or gapingnesses, try pinning in fabric scraps (for places where it pulls), or pinning excess fabric together (where there's too much fabric).
Note that an upper body garment falls from the shoulders, then (in a female), from the bust. So start adjustments at the shoulders, then the bust, and only THEN at the waist and hips.
(For a lower body garment, start at the waist and hips...)

If you've modified the toile, mark those modifications on the paper pattern as well.

Repeat toile to paper pattern to toile to paper pattern, remaking the toile and/or pattern in fresh calico/old fabric, or paper as needed, until you're happy with the garment.

By this stage, you'll KNOW how it goes together, and be comfortable with the 'making a jerkin' part. It'll just be the 'working with leather' part that's new.

And that part is why I recommend getting a cheaper piece of leather - perhaps one that's flawed or something - to make a practice leather jerkin on.

Anyway... that's how I'd do it.

[Shpepper]

Beautiful directions.

[Parrothead]

Thanks, seshat! It's for a LARP, so it doesn't have to be perfect, but it counts as armor, so I want it sturdy.

[iPanda]

I don't have enough experience for this; all I can say that for any type of clothing, measurements, correct measurements, are serious importance. don't just measure once or twice on anything, whether it be the fabric or your body .... yea....

[Shpepper]

Make sure that SOMEONE else measures you. Have them do it 5 or 6 times over a couple different days. Stand perfectly still and tell them exactly where to measure. If you try to do it yourself, it will never be correct. You can not measure yourself and have them come out correct.