Helping others make patterns

Several weeks ago, I was asked to help Safiya do a toile so that she can make a pattern for a kirtle and then a pattern for her Burgundian dress. Part of me was really wanting to help her because I love the idea of bringing people into wearing later period garb in the SCA. But a very large part of me was terrified at the idea because I feel like I'm not very good at patterning for myself and helping someone else is SCARY! So I was honestly looking for plenty of excuses to get out of it. I also was down at the weekly Crosston dance practice in San Jose and staying overnight at my laurel's. So honestly, because Safiya lives in Vacaville (on my way home), I should not have been trying to get out of it.

Ok, so I sucked it up and showed up at her house at the appointed time. I didn't have any of my sewing stuff with me (that was another one of my potential excuses) but she had more than enough of what she needed. I followed the steps for patterning that I learned at a recent class taught by Master Charles de Bourbon from up in An Tir. (clicky linky). I draped her toile, explained to her how this was going to be a copy of her body that we will make future patterns out of. We drafted a sleeve that didn't turn out too bad either. (sleeves are evil) Had to message for help from my laurel when I was drapping the armscye, but it came out great.It took about 5 hours but we were chatting and dealing with her kids and husband (oh poor guy came back from the dentist with a bad wisdom tooth and lots of pain meds - suck!). I felt pretty good with how it went. Honestly, I did almost all of the work (it's pretty darn hard, afterall, to dape yourself). But our other friend Edith will probably be wanting to drape a toile soon and that time I think I'll take the teaching to the next level, making Safiya do the work on Edith while I walk her through it.