SEWING DILEMNA? Ask Londa's FREE advice!!!

Yes...as a sewing educator for over 35 years, designer, and author with experience as a sewing machine dealer/fabric shop owner, custom dressmaker and more...I'm most happy to answer ANY and all questions to the best of my ability. Just contact me HERE with your question.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Divide into thirds - MAGIC rule for designing

A chatter with Louise Cutting lately on The Creative Machine - a great group you can join in with at www.quiltropolis.com (espeically good if you're into garment sewing), reminded me again of the importance of dividing sections into thirds (NOT halves!) as you dress, sew, design, etc.
This goes back to the Golden Mean Rule (gotta look that up on google)...
Which just really says that a combo of something divided 1/3 and 2/3 or 2/3 and 1/3 is just more pleasing to the eye than dividing anything in half.
I teach - or preach this all the time in my Creative Sweatshirt Jacket creation - especially in regards to not selecting a sweatshirt or jacket length long enough to just cover your butt - as you're usually then dividing yourself in half...not good.

Louise even applied it to length of a shorter (3/4 length) sleeve: divide that space between your elbow and wrist bone into thirds, and then hem a sleeve at one of those points...NOT at the 1/2 mark.

Same applies to Capri length pants says Louise - and I agree. That distance of your calf between your knee and ground (WITH shoes to wear with garment on) again should dictate your pant length at third points, NOT half the distance if you don't want to look frumpy!

Test it - you'll see Louise and I and the ancient Greeks are right on!

Londa

Bio on Londa in local paper

In case you might be interested, here are some links to a recent article on what I'm 'up to' from our local paper.
http://www.londas-sewing.com/images/savoystarljr1.png
and
http://www.londas-sewing.com/images/savoystarljr2.png