Scaling Up the Tudor Tailor Pattern

After I decided my shaping garment was going to be a kirtle, that left me the task of actually obtaining a kirtle pattern-- not as straightforward a prospect as I wish it were. With no commercially available pattern, I was left with a few viable options:
-Draft my own
-Enlarge and alter the pattern from the Tudor Tailor book
-Order the pre-graded, pre-enlarged Tudor Tailor kirtle pattern
-Order Margo Anderson's Tudor pattern

In the end, I chose to enlarge and alter the pattern from the Tudor Tailor book for a few reasons. I quickly ruled out ordering a new pattern, as it felt wasteful when I knew I could work from the Tudor Tailor book, which I already own, with just a little more time and effort and save myself some dollars. I considered drafting my own pattern, and really honestly thought this was the route I'd likely go for awhile. I was afraid of having to work forever to tailor the Tudor Tailor pattern to fit my body perfectly, but when I realized my proportions were the same as the proportions the patterns were drawn for-- I'm 5'4" and they were designed for someone between 5'2" and 5'6", according to the patterns, and I am the same proportion but 3" bigger all around than the measurements the patterns are intended to fit-- I decided that it might be faster and less painful to simply grade up the pattern. Especially when I was facing the prospect of drafting a new block, altering that draft to get it to fit me perfectly, potentially altering that again, and then drawing a kirtle pattern from the block and having to fit that pattern as well.

Part of why I was intimidated by working from the Tudor Tailor patterns is that I don't have a lot of experience working from a pattern out of a book; that is to say, enlarging a pattern, altering it to fit, and then constructing a garment with fewer instructions than are provided in a commercial pattern, especially a garment that may have techniques I'm not familiar, or at least not comfortable with. Once I knew I was going to work from the Tudor Tailor book for this garment, I decided to try my darnedest to blog about my experience, since I searched high and low for a step-by-step description of the process, and couldn't find one that broke the steps down in a way that made it seem conquerable. I'm not going to presume that this account will do that, but I figured I would at least attempt to pave the way for those coming after me. I know I love having a step-by-step account with pictures of how to do something.

I started with some fantastic paper with a 1" grid marked on it. This made my task a lot more helpful, and I don't recommend scaling up a pattern without this, unless you have another means to make sure your shape is accurate (like a projector). I bought mine years ago, so forgive me for not having more information about where to get it, but it's a huge roll of lightweight paper with marks at every inch. Some wrapping paper has a 1" grid on the back, and I'm sure paper suitable for drafting is available online.  I used a bit of paper leftover from another project that was super crinkled, so you'll have to forgive that in the photos. Luckily, it did not impede my task.

In order to begin scaling up the pattern, I counted out the tallest and widest points of the pattern and marked the halfway points for reference. For instance, on the kirtle bodice front, the tallest point of the pattern is 11” and the widest is 20”. I then drew a rectangle with half of those dimensions, so in this example 10” by 5.5”. I only drafted half of the front pattern, as this is hand-drawn and I want to end up with symmetrical curves at the neck and waistline; I will cut it on the fold.  

faaaaaaint box to draw my pattern in

Once I had my rectangle drawn, I counted in from the outer corners to find where the corners of my pattern would be, and then connected the dots with either straight or curved edges, as indicated on the original pattern. For the curved edges, I tried as best I could to mimic the shape of curve shown on the original. 

two dots! These will be the bottom curve of the armscye

Arc drawn

The outline of the pattern

 Once I had the outline of the pattern, I went ahead and added my seam allowance. I still have to grade the pattern up to my size, but I just knew it would drive me crazy to not be able to see both the edge of the pattern piece as well as the cutting line as I move forward, even though I know I'll end up having to re-draw these on my final pattern; remember, this is essentially a draft that will need to be graded up as well as altered to fit my body. To do this step, I used my handy-dandy clear ruler (seriously, where has this been all my life?) to line up the .5” tick with the line of the pattern and make marks to indicate where my cutting line will be. 

Beginning to add my seam allowance...

Seam allowances added! Notice, no seam allowance at the center front, as this will be cut on the fold.

And it looks like a pattern!

What you’ll notice missing on my pattern are the lines to indicate boning placement; I plan on drawing these directly on the fabric where I will stitch the channels.

I used the same method to draw the kirtle back piece; Because there were longer arcs on this one, I counted a few points on the grid in the book and transferred these dots onto my pattern so I had a better idea of what points my curve needed to pass through in order to copy the shape accurately. And that, my friends, is the method I used to scale up the Tudor Tailor patterns!

Next step: grading the pattern!