Reddit reviews Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear

I have this book that I quite like. It shows you how to draft basic blocks, and then how to alter them to make other styles of clothes. IDK if it would be considered a beginner's book, but as long as you can follow instructions, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.

The price tag is quite hefty, but there are other editions of the book that are cheaper (and from what I can tell, they have almost exactly the same information - I have 2 different editions and I don't remember seeing much of a difference between the two)

How to Make Sewing Patterns also seems to be a good book; it seems to follow the same basic idea as Metric Pattern Cutting, but I think it's more simplified. The first book I suggested assumes that you know the basics to measuring and pattern construction, whereas this book starts from the very beginning and assumes you know next to nothing.

I learned from a book, Metric Pattern Cutting for Women. It was super helpful at understanding where to start with making a pattern and different pattern shapes. I will say that you should know how to sew clothes before jumping into this book because there is no provided glossary for the sewing terms. No need to be an expert sewer. Just know how basic garments fit together.

This book will teach you all about making slopers and patterns: http://www.amazon.com/Metric-Pattern-Cutting-Womens-Wear/dp/1405175672/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314670205&sr=8-1

Or if you're in the states and are unfamiliar with metric, I'm sure there is a similar equivalent out there that uses imperial measurements.

Definitely sounds like you would benefit from creating your own patterns. Yay! I'm wading through a couple pattern drafting books myself right now, and while developing your own basic patterns can be slow, meticulous, and immensely frustrating, it's also hugely rewarding.

There are a ton of textbooks out there, largely written to accompany pattern making classes. This is a bit hard on the person who's trying to learn this in isolation, since so many of the books assume you'll have the extra resource of a teacher. (Might be worth seeing if there's a local sewing studio or community college that teaches patternmaking-- in-person instruction would be nice.) Don't be discouraged, though-- it IS possible to get there alone!

The standard text seems to be Helen Joseph-Armstrong's 'Patternmaking for Fashion Design.'. Connie Crawford, Donald McCunn, and Winifred Aldrich also come highly recommended.

Since all of these books are textbooks, they can be pretty expensive. To try a book before you buy it, see if your public library (or local university library, if you have access) can use Interlibrary Loan to get you a copy of any of the above. Depending on their rules about renewing, you might be able to get your basic pattern made before you have to give the text back. :)

You could also go the draping route. Since I'm completely ignorant on this subject, I'll only leave a link to Kathleen Fasanella's Saran Wrap Patternmaking Method, which produces a sloper without having to do any measuring. (Everything in Fashion-Incubator's 'tutorials' section is brilliant. If you enjoy painfully/beautifully methodical sewing and patterning instruction, you can lose yourself there for days. But I lose my train of thought. Ahem.)

No matter how you produce your sloper, you'll still want a real textbook to help you manipulate your first pattern into real shirts you would want to wear. The sloper is very basic-- it doesn't have buttons, fastenings, interesting seams, or even much extra room for moving. All that comes later.

It's also useful to have a helper on hand for the first projects in the book. Getting accurate measurements of your body is crucial, so you'll need to recruit someone who can be trusted with a tape measure. It's also useful to have a friend help pin and fit the bodice sloper. Ideally you would team up with a sewing buddy who also wanted her own patterns-- I just bully my husband into helping. ;)

Good luck! It sounds like a ton of work, and it is, but I'm a complete novice and I already have the freedom to look at commercial patterns, shrug, and say, "no, I would rather make my own-- I KNOW it will fit better."

A book like this http://www.amazon.com/Metric-Pattern-Cutting-Womens-Wear/dp/1405175672

will teach you to make all your own slopers, and alter them into whatever pattern you need.

And always use a mock-up (a practice piece in cheap fabric like factory cotton) to alter your pattern/sloper to your exact shape. The book I linked to has slopers with built in ease, but you can also get sloper draft instructions without ease, for even more control.

These are the books I was taught with at college.

They can seem quite over complicated at times, but stick with it, after a while you start to get a 'feel' for how the patterns work, and more importantly, why they work. I never refer to the books now - once you have your basic set of blocks adjusting them to what you need starts to become second nature.

Like anything it just takes repeated practice, but these books are an excellent place to start.

Well, the first two books you should get are:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Metric-Pattern-Cutting-Womens-Wear/dp/1405175672

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pattern-Cutting-Menswear-Winifred-Aldrich-ebook/dp/B008GI0I8C/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1


I wouldn't have passed my degree without them.