I've just looked through them once and the only criticism I have is that
some pieces are 1/4 scale and then some will be 1/8 scale on the same page. It
LOOKS funky.
It's not usual; but when you have a book that contains tiny little
pattern pieces like side bodies (not to mention things like collars),
and enormous full-length trained dress pieces, you can't make them all
the same scale and fit them in the book. Unless you're willing to make
all the small ones too small not only to add the labels (which can be
put outside the pattern, if necessary), but so small that the subtleties
of curves and small details almost completely disappear for someone who
will be doing grid enlargement with graph paper. Many costumers who are
not working for a school or theater do not have overhead projectors.
I was editing all those at 200% magnification, so I could see all the
shapes very clearly. But when I printed some of them out at 1/8 scale it
was like, how is anyone going to scale this up accurately when it only
covers about two graph squares? You just can't see the shape well.
So I started out with an 1/8 scale default, and printed each one at that
scale. If it looked unusable for graph scaling I went to 1/4 scale. And
if was too big for the page at 1/8 scale, which was true for a few, I
went to 1/16 if it was a very simple shape; and cut the pattern into two
pieces if not. I kept the embroidery patterns at 1:1 wherever possible,
since something that complicated and curvy is a pain to scale up. All
the scaling was done with a computer, so although I had to redraw all
the patterns with the same line width, and make all the text labels the
same font size, the scaling itself was easy for me to do accurately.
It was a trade-off between a prettier page, with all the pattern pieces
looking more alike, and ease of use for some individual pieces. I chose
ease of use. I actually redid some of them late in the production stage,
during proofing, when I realized their current scale was not optimal.
lso, I'm not sure every
> pattern has an illustration of the final product. I could be wrong.
Usually
> the actual fashion plate the pattern is for, is there...but
sometimes even that
> is not so clear.
For all the patterns that had fashion plates, the fashion plate is
there. If there were several plates, all of them are there. Klemm didn't
give any fashion plates for some of his simple garments, though he did
usually add trimmings, buttons, etc. to the diagrams themselves. I
considered getting fashion plates from elsewhere to go with those. But
it might have been confusing for people to see a plate that was sort of
the same garment but not exactly; and the books were already enormous;
so I didn't.
Great books....I love them.
>
I'm glad you like them.
Fran
Lavolta Press
http://www.lavoltapress.com
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