Pattern Making

I have friends who work at FIDM which is the Fashion Institute in downtown Los Angeles, California.  This is where future fashion designers among others come to learn their trade. 

One thing they often comment on is that they've seen project runway or some other show and they want to be a fashion designer.

The issue is, they don't know how to sew, iron, or even cut a commercial pattern out. To be a fashion designer, especially if you are just starting out,  you need to be able to create the drawings before making the patterns.

To translate a drawing such as above into the pattern used to sew the final product, the process involves a certain amount of math. Creating patterns is sort of like looking at one of those complex shapes you have to find the area of, break it down into individual shapes before calculating the are for each shape.

 With patterns you have to take the drawing, break it down into pieces before figuring out the particular shapes needed to create the piece.  In other words, a student has to use critical thinking skills combined with problem solving to do this.

In addition, a pattern maker has to calculate the way the measurements are distributed in the pattern. For instance if the pattern needs to be made for a 36 inch bust, 27 inch waist, and 35 inch hips, the pattern maker needs to remember that the 36 inches does not divide equally into 18 and 18 because most women have a bit more in front so the back might be 15 inches across and 21 inches in the front.

Does the final outfit need to be fitted or is it loose.  If it's fitted, you might need to include fitted darts but do you need one from the bottom or one from the bottom and one from the side to make the bust fit better?  Most skirts if they are fitted have at least two darts in the front and two in the back.  Placement and depth of those are important.

What about the neckline?  If the neckline is a V-neck, the pattern maker needs to make sure the angle is correct, otherwise it won't look right.  If its a scoop neck line, the circular arc has to be proper or it won't hang right.  Practical applications of the use of angles and degrees.

After drawing the basic pattern, the pattern maker needs to make sure they include a seam allowance which is usually 1/2 to 5/8 in.  Commercial patterns have 5/8 usually while specialty designs are 1/2 inch. 

A pattern maker has to be good at math, including fractions because many measurements are like 25 3/4 or 32 1/2.  You might have to dive the fraction by 2 or 4 so you have to be comfortable using math.

Lots of math.  Tomorrow, I'll look at the math a fashion designer needs for a project from start to finish.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.