Math and The Fashion Designer.

 . Inevitably. there are one or two students in every school who dream of designing clothing and starting their own line.  I remember a girl I went to school with who created and sewed her own stuff.  She had talent but most kids now who want to design clothing, know little about the math involved in it.

I came across a presentation or two dealing with this topic when researching the math of pattern making. 

This slide share presentation has some great information and activities.  This packet covers the cost of making the piece so they know how to do it and how to calculate profit, patterns and material, sketching the design using various geometric shapes, parallel and perpendicular lines, symmetry and congruence, types of tessellations, creating prototypes, measuring, fractions, the fashion show itself and refreshments, filling orders from the show by making clothing, and the cost of tailors who make the clothing.  Everything from start to finish and it does include the answers.

This entry is done by a fashion designer explaining how she uses math in her field.  She explains you have to know where measurements are taking you can provide the measurements at the waist, neck, back, etc so someone can make the sample garment, then add or subtract from the sample garment so it fits well.  In addition, designers have to know geometry well so they can create flat pattern pieces which when sewn together make a 3 dimensional garment as well as knowing where to make changes in the pattern piece if needed.

So these two entries show there is math from start to finish.  Think about it.  A designer takes a flat one dimensional drawing, usually one for the front, one for the back and possibly a side view, scales it up to a finished product while determining the shape and size of each piece, creating the pattern, making it and fitting it.

It is not an easy thing to do.  I am not a designer but I can take a historical drawing and create the pattern pieces for it because I know how they used to put together things.  They do things differently today such as in the 1870's a sleeve was usually made out of two pieces to create the correct look but now they use one piece.

I'm off.  I hope you liked this.  Please let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.