Just a quick post today where I’m explaining the concept of a toile in dressmaking for any newbie sewists out there!
A toile is a practice garment which is usually made up in a cheaper fabric before you start sewing up your actual piece of clothing. A good way to think of it is a draft version of your garment or a prototype.
REASONS TO MAKE ONE:
1. To check the fit – a toile is a perfect opportunity to check whether the size you have decided to cut out is the correct one for your body measurements. You can play around with the fit, take in the side seams / let them out, make the darts bigger or smaller, do any other adjustments, safe in the knowledge that you are not wasting your nice expensive fabric. You can then transfer those adjustments onto your pattern before cutting out your final garment
2. To practice any new sewing techniques – if you have not tried a particular sewing step before, its useful to practice it first on your toile to give yourself a good chance of getting it nice and neat and accurate on your actual garment.
3. To make sure you are happy with the style – often you see a piece of clothing in a shop window that you love but when you try it on, it turns out to not actually be your style or look like it did on the mannequin. It’s the same with sewing patterns. What looks great on the photo or artwork on the front of the packet does not always translate in the same way to your own body or look cohesive with the rest of your wardrobe. So therefore making a toile in an inexpensive fabric is a good way to test this before wasting time and money on a garment that you won’t like.
FABRIC:
Calico is a typical fabric to make a toile in because it's easy to work with and plain in colour so shows up any fitting issues well. However ideally you should use the same weight fabric that you will be using in the actual garment in order to get a true representation of how the item will work out when you make it up properly. I.e., don’t use calico if you are making a silk dress because you won’t get the correct drape – silk is flowy and soft to touch whereas calico is crisp and fairly stiff in comparison. If you are making a cotton dress, an old bed sheet that you don’t need any more is a good option for a toile. Also make sure you use the correct type of fabric – e.g. if the pattern you are using is designed for knits, then you need to make your toile from a knit fabric, not a woven and vice versa.
HOW MUCH TO SEW:
When you are making a toile, you don’t need to do every single step in the sewing instructions for your pattern. You just need to sew enough for you to ascertain whether the garment will fit you in the size that you have selected and whether you like the style. So, you don’t need to sew the facings for example, and you could just pin in the zip rather than sewing it in with your invisible zip foot. If you are making a dress with a fitted bodice but a circle style skirt, you may want to make a toile of just the bodice because chances are the circle skirt will fit you fine as its not fitted over the hips. Although if one of your objectives is to check the style too, then do go ahead and make the skirt as well.
TO WEAR OR NOT TO WEAR:
There are two types of toile – one that you wouldn’t want to wear outside the house – probably made in calico - and the other is what is called a ‘wearable toile’. This one would be made out of a fabric that you like and would be happy to wear if the toile works out well but perhaps costs a bit less than the more expensive nicer fabric you have planned for your actual garment, in case it doesn’t!
So there you have it, my key tips for making a toile….hope they are helpful!
**All pictures are toiles I have made of patterns before making the actual garment - some wearable, some not!**
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