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Thursday 22nd July 2008

Hi everyone. Part two of the larger size modifications went up a little while ago. There is also a section for those who can remember hand knitted swimwear, which explains how to adapt normal swimwear patterns to knitting patterns.

I've been in an interesting email discussion with a few regulars to this site about bust sizes over 100cm. As most will know, I don't recommend using the automatic pattern generator on this site for larger sizes because of the increased variation in shape for larger sizes ... and hence increased probability of poor fit. See the June 4th entry below for further discussion. That said, a good point has been raised (thanks Evelyn) that only a few percent look for swimwear patterns at size 16 and hence sizes 18 and 20 should be significantly less in number. This hasn't been confirmed and needs to be if we are to be consistent. So for a few weeks only the program has been expanded to size 20 (bust 104cm). I've also further expanded the pull down lists to 4 deviations rather than 3 to indeed see if the same issue exists there. I do offer the warning that we're starting to move into mathematical territory rather than common sense patternmaking so think carefully about making anything at the extreme edges of the program ... I don't recommend it. At least we shall be able to gather more data to see just where the issues lie and if they are small enough in number to leave the program open.

Something else of interest are the words people enter in the search box. Thankfully it seems most of the searches result in finding the appropriate information. Some of the searches that aren't getting results are men's thongs and briefs, rubber, latex, neoprene, teddy bears and blouses. Blouse blocks are covered by every pattern making book out there and really aren't the domain of a close fit stretchwear text. I'm really not sure why teddy bears were put in but I'm guessing there's a group of people out there making teddy bear clothes ... teddy bear bikini's maybe?? Neoprene is something I'm actually writing about at the moment ... it covers wetsuits and stingersuits ... and is very topical for up in Cairns, Queensland where I live. Neoprene is very much a stretchwear issue believe it or not ... just an issue of how much negative ease, if any, to add. Similarly rubber and latex clothing can use the same pattern making techniques as those offered on this site ... it all comes down to how much ease. About the only issue that messes up rubber patterns is the glued seams that become double thickness and can seriously distort a garment if not considered correctly. Neoprene patterns are butt seamed so the thickness stays the same and doesnt affect ease considerations. I am endeavouring to obtain sheet rubber samples to calculate the elasticity modulus and hence infer the negative ease needed for each sheet's thickness. While most people consider rubber clothing to be the realm of fetish individuals, I've found the number to be high enough to warrant a discussion of the topic. Also, having made an awful lot of costumes for theather and exotic dancers I've found this area to be much more fun and challenging. Lastly, on the topic of men's swimwear, rest assured it's already on my ever expanding list ...

Thursday 26th June 2008

I've got quite a bit done this last two weeks. I've made significant progress on part two of the larger sizing issues. I've finished the maternity block discussion and instructions page. And of course that little search box in the top right hand corner ... ok it's basic but I'm a pattern maker not a programmer. I've also done a page on how to bring the bra cup and band blocks into swimwear but that's still in proof reading (my wife is busy!). Keep an eye out for it this coming weekend.

Wednesday 11th June 2008

I've got the first page of discussion on making patterns for larger sizes up. This is principally a discussion on what issues are of concern for ready-to-wear pattern making although there will be some comments on custom modifying the one piece block to suit the larger sizes. It's long winded and taking forever to write so you might as well have it as I get it done :-)

I won't be offering email support for larger sizing as it really isn't practical ... there is so much room for error that I'd simply be guessing most of the time, and may even lead you the wrong way unintentionally. If you really need support with making patterns for larger size swimwear then you actually really need more experience on smaller sizes first! In person it would be easy, but over the internet it's pretty much impossible.

Wednesday 4th June 2008

For anyone that might have noticed, last week I spontaneously changed the range of measurements allowed on the custom pattern section to see what would happen if larger sizes were allowed. I have since put it back to normal so it’s too late now!

Quite a few people had written in asking for the sizes to be increased, but I was hesitant because I know the fitting problems that begin to occur with larger sizes. Well I did what they wanted and told those interested when it was going to happen and it seems that while they were happy, there indeed were a number of fitting difficulties as expected. These people still needed to make a number of modifications which they would have known how to do if they’d drafted the pattern manually from the instructions I’ve provided … meaning I ended up doing a lot more email. Still we got everyone done and now they all have patterns!

What this shows is that people over a bust size of 100cm, and/or some of other measurements two standard deviations outside the average for each size, will have trouble customising any fitting difficulties if they aren’t making the pattern manually. This means I’ve returned to the original size limitations for the computer generated patterns. I know some people will be disappointed they can't just point a click themselves a pattern, but I'm sure they'll benefit in the long run by learning the techniques for themselves.

Total: 4,146 entries

The above table represents all my data collected to date with a few odd results removed as per the same criteria as before. Some of my observations based on this data are ....

The average waist and hip sizes within their respective ranges is remarkably close to my standard sizing for the respective bust size … however this demonstrates more clearly than anything else how hopeless standard sizing becomes as overall size increases, especially as it relates to ready-to-wear clothing. Ready-to-wear swimwear in sizes over size 12 is difficult but possible, however sizes 16+ would be economically unviable for most manufacturers and the market must be carefully examined before entering this range.

Both median and modal cup sizes are a C for every size across the board with weighting toward smaller cups for smaller sizes and larger cups for larger sizes. This goes against my original assessment years ago that the average sizing was 8B, 10C, 12D, 14D. Cup sizing has generally and significantly decreased in larger sizes over the last 10 years. Cup sizing has generally and significantly increased in smaller sizes over the last 10 years. This is reverse to the general trend over the prior 30-40 years and may possibly be an indication that dietary habits have changed (the numbers don’t lie, people are getting bigger below the bust)

Given the previous points however, the average bust and waist have stayed almost on track. The change (or skew) is actually caused by 30% of people who are significantly larger than average and 15% of people who are significantly smaller (that took some serious working out btw). It is the range of sizing in the larger sizes that has increased … making manufacturing ready-to-wear sizing even more economically difficult!

Pattern making students need to look very carefully at the above table. Most lay ups for commercial swimwear are over 25 layers of fabric, meaning even if you place one size 16+ on the lay out you will need to place a lot more of the other sizes to maintain less than 5% of the manufacturing run in that category ... either that or you do a seperate lay up just for the larger sizes (I've never known a production manager or client to go for this yet).

Sunday 25th May 2008

I've finally finished all the email. That was a mammoth task to say the least. What it has shown is that the free section is a bigger problem than it's worth! Firstly everything on the site is free so really it's probably my fault for calling the computer generated patterns free ... really they're just free of effort. The problem is that so many sites are linking to the free pages rather than the main page that people send emails asking questions that have been answered already in the 'non-free' sections (yes I had one lady from California write that!!).

When I set out to create this site my purpose was to teach people how to make patterns for themselves. Instead what has happened is no one wants to learn how when they can just click a few buttons and ask questions if something doesnt make sense. Don't get me wrong ... I love questions from interested people. Nothing brings me more pleasure than seeing people develop new skills. But to lose very limited time helping them because I'm answering questions from people who simply don't know there's more website because a blogger pointed them directly to a deeper link (oh yes I've heard that numerous times as the excuse) is just plain unfair to those making an effort.

So I will be doing several things. Firstly renaming the page titles something other than 'free'. Secondly,finding somekind of javascript to redirect people to the main page if coming from an outside link. Thirdly, and lastly, removing the free section if the problem persists. This is solely to encourage people to take the time to read and learn, rather than point and click.

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos of their finished swimwear. I'm extremely happy that people are getting such great results. It's fascinating to see the other creative touches that people are adding ... like frills, lino prints, colour blocking, bling bling, embroidery and the like. I might create a page that shows close ups of the features (rather than whole identifying photos) of what you can try at home ... of course I will check with everyone first!!!

Thursday 1st May 2008

I've just put up the dancewear block (leotard) before the bra band block because it's easier to do that than explain the same leotard problem several times to a whole stack of people I kept waiting by email. Again I'm really sorry about that and I'll write to each of you again now that the instructions are up.

Something that's becoming really obvious (now I can read my email) is that many people are confusing their fabrics. Nylon Lycra, as I refer to it, is a two-way stretch knit ... that is, it stretches both horizontally and vertically. Some people call this 4-way which is just fine, but the problem has been that people are buying cheap knits that only stretch across the horizontal ... these are no good for swimwear ... at least not if you want a good fit and movement. Always buy the best fabric you can find and afford.

I'd like to put up a list of fabric suppliers for each country but because I only know my local suppliers I can't really advise. If people who do know of good suppliers (honesty, reliability, mail order etc) can send me their details, I'll make up a list of "as recommended by others".

Wednesday 30th April 2008

eeek!

After all the email catching up I did last month I changed the forwarding on my mail server to a more accessible account. It seems I mistyped the address and none of my email has left the server!! Now I have to start all over again. My sincerest apologies over the mess up ... I'm doing the answers right now!

Tuesday 18th March 2008

Wow, has it really been this long? I took the morning off for myself today and had a little look around the Internet only to remember that website I put so much time into so long ago. I was shocked to find 171,000 page hits. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever conceive there'd be so much interest in swim wear pattern making. Ever!

What can I say? I was side tracked by family issues at first. My little boy went from quiet but curious toddler to something out of the exorcist as he demanded the world revolve around him. Don't get me wrong ... he's just the greatest little boy, but he takes so much time now I hardly remember what it was like to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee. Outside of that I started helping out my wife at her work until I became a permanent fixture there and forgot about this website completely. Now I feel a great sense of guilt as I sit here and wait for all the email to download, wondering how many people have been let down by my change of life priorities.

But have no fear, I intend to get through as much of the email as I can today. I think I'm going to have to limit the website to matters directly relating to stretchfit and swimwear. For example I may need to restrict my discussions on lingerie to bra blocks only and their incorporation in swimwear. After all my research into tutus, I'll probably sit those on the back burner until after I've discussed the differences between maillots and leotards. Then once that's all up to date I'll add a few more free patterns to the pattern library for those who (like me) have very little time to spare.

I still would encourage people, especially students, to read the site in order rather than just print themselves out a free one piece block and start sewing. There is an awful lot of content in this site already which places all the free stuff into context. Without the context you'll spend much time wondering why things don't quite work the way you expected. Most of my emails seem to be about modifying one piece blocks to do specific things ... all of which has already been explained in great detail on the website already. Nonetheless I'll try to direct people a little better. Perhaps I might need to modify the menu system a little to make things easier to find!

All the above being said, the time I can allocate to the website now has deminished significantly, so while things will start to happen again, it will still be slowly. The important thing is that the majority of the information is already here.

I have also been storing all the values put into the measurements section so I can both collect demographic data and check to see if the scripting has any bugs. For those that are interested, the following raw data has been collected. I have deleted all the results where a person has entered all the default values exactly … ok such a person might exist but I doubt anyone perfectly matches two dozen default values exactly and I do need to remove entries from those people just playing with the system. I have also deleted all entries in the top and bottom 5th percentile of the widest range possible … thankfully this was only 19 results so I’m happy the results are fairly representative.

Total: 1,459 entries

I had expected to find more people in the size 14-16 range as these would be the ones not able to get perfectly fitting swimwear as easily from the store, but the distributions match very closely what I used to find in retail swimwear. Now don’t be misled by this data. It does not indicate that larger sizes are a small portion of the population (in fact the opposite is true) … moreover it indicates the spread of sizing of people who are making their own swimwear patterns! For this reason I think I’m happy restricting the input data to bust sizes between 80 and 100cm. I know that means some people will miss out on the free pattern part but I would rather they made something more accurately from the instructions as I’m well aware that variation and poor fit increases with size.

The fascinating thing for me is that this is global data … and it closely matches the Australian retail demographic for swimwear.

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