Gusseted Magyar & Turban: 60's Edith Head Pattern

Newly arrived in the mail from Vintage Fashion Library

A boxy early 60′s Edith Head pattern: a skirt, blouse, jacket and … Yes … a turban!

lined, interfaced and underlined “magyar” style jacket with side panel and gusset cut in one

I got curious about the Magyar draft

last January when I bought the book Coat & Skirt Making by Samuel Heath FCI

I’ve never worn a turban much less made one so I feel a great excitement creeping in

Suggested fabric: cotton suitings, pique, linen, blends, silk linen, faille, satin, silk tweed, wood crepe, tweed, flannel, jersey, blends. Hmmm, quite a bit of variation allowed. Ohhh, the stash will be searched extensively!!!

I’ll have to grade up 2 sizes but i think I can do that without too much trouble. I have a grading tool I’ve never tried before. Our dear Fashion Incubator author, Kathleen Fasanella, ALMOST reviewed it in 2006 in her post on Grading Machines and Rulers and it was ALMOST discussed in 2004 at Pattern Review: Pattern grading ruler: New gizmo!! but it was the Gizmo not to be reviewed so I’ll give it a bit of description here.

(I haven’t used it yet…still slowly finishing up the coat. I used to be able to do many things at once but no longer, it seems…anyway…)

I admit I lost track of this Gismo for a very long time but found it again during the clean out this summer. Here’s some pictures taken before the camera finally died a couple of days ago:

I tried to find an active link for retail purchase of this Gismo but there doesn’t seem to be one any more. Not to worry, I don’t believe it is worth the money I spent on it and I’ll give you links to probably much better sources.

This Grade Master is ridiculously simple and helpful mostly because it shows how the grain line should be lying under the clear Plexiglas. But other than that it is a simple procedure of extending incrementally to the seam line: (measuring visually) it is 6mm at the collar end, center front and back, neck point front & back, and sleeve crown; 5mm at the sleeve head (which, I believe,means at the width of the sleeve cap), 3mm at the cuff and 12mm to the side seams. Calipers would be more accurate than my eye but since this little tool is unavailable I think this approximation should suffice.

Different drafting tools and systems most likely will have different increments and I’m sure most readers would like to hear about your particular system for grading, if you care to share in the comments.

Currently available guides to grading patterns:

Threads’ Making Sense of Pattern Grading

Connie Crawford’s Grading Workbook

Fun Ahead! Happy Sewing

About these ads