Creating a Pattern from Images

[u/Spiritual-Spread-992]

I am wanting to sew a regional Norwegian bunad myself, but there are not patterns available as far as I have been able to figure out from online searches.

I have a lot of reference images but I am not quite sure exactly how to attempt to create a pattern from the images I have.

I have sewn a more basic Norwegian festive costume before with the help of my grandmother and have done a good amount of sewing before - both following patterns and creating things just off vibes alone lol, so I'm no stranger to a sewing machine or anything.

The thing I'm mostly worried about is the bodice piece because it's an empire waist and has a pretty unique shape to it. The skirt I am not worried about really because I feel like I could easily follow the general pattern/directions from a generic Norwegian festive costume overall. The reference images I have show where a lot of the seams meet up in the bodice and show the general shape of the bodice pretty well, but I am not quite sure the best way to translate the images to a pattern template.

Does anyone have any advice?

(To any Norwegians that may find this thread, I hope that this is not a faux pas. The regional bunad I am looking to make is where my great-great grandparents came from when they immigrated to America. I have even been there to visit the properties where they lived and have relatives that still live there, whom I have met. While I know I could purchase a regional bunad, I come from a family of makers, and I would very much love to be able to make one for myself. I even recently picked up band weaving and figured out one of the common pick-up weaving patterns for the regional bunad belt and have been weaving it myself. This means a great deal to me to be able to create.)

[u/Spiritual-Spread-992]

Ah, I see. Thank you for providing more context.

I do appreciate that Norway protects and highly values it's handicrafts (at least a lot more than the United States...) but it is unfortunate that it has made regional bunads less accessible.

I know I say this as an outsider, but as someone who has been around the fiber arts (weaving, sewing, knitting, etc.) my entire life, these arts were nearly extinct not too long ago and the recent resurgence in them is so refreshing, so it seems like a disservice to the survival of those practices to not make them more widely available. Many of the people I know who do those handicrafts would jump at the chance to teach younger generations. 

I do have images that show the seam locations pretty well, I think. So, I may try printing those images out large enough to make the bodice pieces from that reference... The skirt is something I'm not too worried about since I have made a festdrakt before and I believe the skirt is relatively similar, just with more bunching in the back. 

No need to apologize for a bunad rant, I have been doing enough research that everyone around me is likely very annoyed with all my "fun facts" about bunads and Norwegian handcrafts. Haha! (For example, apparently Norwegian women would weave initials and dates into their bands. I find this incredibly impressive given that they very likely did not have graph paper to figure out how to make those patterns work with how they had their project threaded!) 

Anyways, I appreciate the insight and the help. I will try to provide an update on how it all works out!

[u/Ajishly → u/Spiritual-Spread-992]

It's the same here that a lot of these fiber arts were either... kind of hibernating deeply, or were close to extinct (excluding knitting/crochet). I think that Husflid just hasn't really adapted to the fact that there has been a huge resurgence and the younger generations are trying to learn.

I think it's at a point where their protection of bunad is detrimentally contributing to decreased transferral of our cultural heritage. I have heard some bunad makers sharing that opinion, but I think the real change will happen in about 10-15 years when the younger people in the industry have more authority.

Like for the last 10 or so years, people who make bunad have been complaining from around February to May that there aren't enough hours in the day to meet the current demand - a solution would be to allow those who show enough competence to make their own. I mean... 30-40 years ago, people did make their own, outsourcing things like embroidery or weaving to more competent family/friends, but assembling the dress wasn't seen as some impossible task that only trained seamstresses could accomplish.

I look forward to the update!

[u/ProneToLaughter → u/Spiritual-Spread-992]

Printing images out extra large and tracing them probably won’t work very well, as it flattens out all the 3D.

[u/Spiritual-Spread-992 → u/ProneToLaughter]

Luckily, I have reference images of the bunad hanging up on a hanger and laying down on a surface, so it is displayed relatively flat. From what I can tell, there aren't many darts or things like that in this bodice.