Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Pattern Drafting - a tad daunting, or not so much.

Well, I'm rather excited in the fact I'm going to be taking a Pattern Drafting course, right here at my local store! No mail order things, I get to see it, in person, woohoo! Just to even learn the absolute basics will be fantastic.
I have 1.5 months to wait though, that's going to seem like forever!


Two nights ago, I was daunted and really pondering my ability to do this. Sure I could work out the sloper etc, but it's what comes next that had me a bit concerned.
Then last night, I did some Googling, and came across a few things.

The first two, are pattern making "rulers". But it's a ruler, where you mark all your points here and there, and just draw in the curves, making your sloper in literally a couple of minutes. No fiddling around with maths here and there etc

Easy Pattern Making - this is cool. And I emailed to ask what size they go up to (plus size by the way. 140cm bust) and she mentioned a friend of hers has just moved to NZ - the South Island even and is starting a Sewing and Pattern Making School. So I've made contact with her to see what area she is going to be in. I'd die if it was mine! LOL.


Maria Martin Designs - The Pattern Drafter - This is along similar lines to the above one. There's some great wee snippets in her Book section too.

The second was Sure-Fit Designs. This has been around since 1982! It's quite amazing, and I love the idea that there are dozens of sizes. Would be wonderful if you were sewing for other family members, or even selling your garments, just input the measurements, and connect them to make the sloper. Then you've got a block for everyone. It's pretty amazing.
I watched a couple of the videos on doing different things to your sloper to change them, and it just started to make total sense in my wee brain!

I'm totally revved up and ready to go, it's 646am, so I must be excited.
I now feel like I am going in with just a small bit of knowledge, whereas I felt like I knew nothing beforehand.

Hurry up "needs" list for my class, so I can get buying on the rulers etc!

3 comments:

  1. I've been working with the Maria Martin drafter for a few months now, it's unlocked a whooooole lot of previously untapped potential. If nothing else, once you have a block pattern you can use it to alter existing patterns and have a reliable way to get a perfect fit every time.

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  2. Thanks for the visit to my silly little blog. I envy you being able to take a class for this. I am still hammering away at my pants sloper. I think I am on version number a zillion :-)

    So how did this class go? Did you like it? Was it helpful?

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  3. Hi! I haven't started yet, it starts in 3 weeks, the time is dragging!
    I think it's a fairly basic introduction to pattern drafting, runs 2hrs a week for 6 weeks. But you've got to start somewhere, right?
    I'll definitely give an update once I start!

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