How Patterns Work: The Fundamental Principles of Pattern Making and Sewing in Fashion Design

Let me be clear in that this will not tell you how to make or alter patterns 100%, this book for me is a reference book. I am studying fashion design and so have taken both a draping and pattern making classes and will basically tell you this book is what you learn in college classes. More in-depth however, this book doesn't teach you how to do much other than making a basic bodice sloper by draping a piece of paper on a professional dress form (which I think is very clever since I learned it by using muslin fabric which waste and cost more). It touches on the basic principals like how darts work and dart manipulation, the slash and spread method and even tells you the basic key points of measurements. If your looking to teach yourself pattern drafting, this is a great book to read before diving straight into the material in my opinion since it teaches you terminology and the process of a garment, both on a small scale and larger mass production scale. I highly recommend this book for someone who really wants to learn the fundamentals, one thing I will point out though for people who have taken it and such, just like how it differs from place to place, terminology is a bit different than what I learned in school but, you understand what it is since of its very simple explanation. I also enjoy that at the end of each chapter they give you a chapter overview. This is definitely staying in my sewing book library.

I am a self teaching myself to be a fashion designer and have reservations on enrolling on a dedicated school of fashion due to financial constraints. I have bought almost 60 books to date about fashion, tailoring, sewing etc. Anything that would help me become a fashion designer. It is overwhelming to me since this is all new and I don't know where to begin. I believe I'm a good illustrator but I'm still refining on my skills. This book to me seems to be the next step towards constructing my illustrations. I love it because it talks about the very basic terminology and principles in pattern making and helps me adopt a set of skills that I can work with for my own designs. It is a book I would be using a lot and I know it will help me understand all the more complicated pattern books that I have so far. Much simple and straight forward guide for me.

This book IS NOT a learning tool on HOW to create and become a pattern maker and no you wont be snapping up any pattern making jobs just off reading this book. Its more of an information guide to beginning to learn about developing patterns, for example: I had read this book exactly days prior to starting class at a prestigious design school in my area for pattern-making 1 and everything she spoke about like seam allowance, notching, dart manipulation etc I had already went onver in the book, so with that I had an advantage of already knowing sort of what she was talking about. Now when I say I had already went over it in the book I didn't know how to execute/use these principles to actually create a garment but I was fully schooled in what these principles were and in theory how they WOULD be executed. Definitely a must for a beginner on the subject who wants a FULL knowledge of patterns, not for those looking for the "Matrix brain down-loader" type swiftness of learning patterns (Where she goes, "Tank I need to know how to fly a plane" and voila! lol).

I have purchased pretty much all of the top books on sewing and patternmaking. This is by far the clearest book with the clearest instructions. It has really helped me break down the ideas behind the techniques in a way that makes sense to me. I've become a better sewist because of these books! There is also a TON of content. Highly recommend.

I am very pleased with this book! Through a long, frustrating process, I began with commercial patterns and settled on designing and drafting my own patterns. I discovered the need for blocks, toiles and custom patterns. I wish I had started with this book. It would have saved me years of frustration. It starts out very basic, but I found that refreshing. I needed to begin from the beginning to get where I need to go. I recommend starting from the beginning, and at least mentally, going through the exercise for paper fitting a block. It's worth the effort. One of the things I found extremely encouraging is that even professional designers don't get it right the first time. And it's worth the time and effort to perfectly fit the block because that is where perfectly fit patterns come from. If you (or someone you know) are just thinking of learning to sew clothes, start here. If you have been sewing for awhile but need a better understanding of why things sometimes don't work out the way you expect, this is a excellent reference. And if you just want to get back to basics, this book does it.

Clear and concise help with patterns and how they are drawn and put together. Good reference.

I was expecting more detail about pattern making to refresh my idea. Before purchasing, I read all the reviews and book descriptions about this book. So, I ordered because I thought, this could be more fundamental of pattern making to make own pattern. However this book is more about theory and the terms. So, this is more about what pattern is, not how to make pattern. So, with this book, you cannot make any patterns. Even if this book shows some idea how to use the dummy with muslin however, pattern making doesn't work that way. You need to know where to start, how to resolve the leftover fabrics, not just darts. So, I think with this book, you can understand the rough idea of pattern. I just want some people have better idea about this book that's why I am writing a review based on my opinion. So, This book is for someone needs before starting pattern making as a prep book. Also, in my opinion, as a beginner for pattern making, people need to study 2D pattern first on paper however this book is jumping into draping method. Anyhow, I returned this book as soon as I open the package. Except for my own opinion, overall this book is clear about the term and the sketch is pretty simple and clean. I recommend this book for someone does sewing as a hobby to understand commercial patterns roughly.

This book is a must have if you want to understand how patterns work in ANY design. It is a must have with any manual on how to create patterns. It is essential to understand how and why darts are used and where, for example, and this book epxlains that as well as many other construction issues. Just buying a book on how to make patterns is just that, it tells you how and sometimes a little bit about the why. Understanding why you do something for a certain effect, or should I say what you should do for a certain effect is explained in this text. So, buy this IN ADDITION to ANY how to make pattern book.