One of the most challenging aspects of a designer's training is learning how to create patterns that utilise the characteristics of fabrics. With an ever expanding range available, an understanding of the relationship between fabric, form and pattern shape is now the most important skill a designer has to acquire. This book explores how a garment's shape is created and discusses the factors that need to be considered when creating patterns and offers you a practical method for solving problems. Its approach to design and flat pattern cutting is based on the appraisal of the fabric and body shape.
One of the more difficult aspects of a designer’s training is learning how to create patterns that make full use of the characteristics of individual fabrics. With an ever increasing range of fabrics available to the designer, an understanding of the relationship between fabric, form and pattern shape is now probably the most important skill a designer has to acquire. This book discusses the factors that need to be taken into consideration and offers a unique and practical method for solving problems. Its approach to design and flat pattern cutting is based on the appraisal of the fabric (according to a scale of five for each of five fabric characteristics – weight, thickness, sheer, drape and stretch) and body shape. The book is lavishly illustrated and makes use of numerous practical examples.
This fourth edition of Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's Wear and Babywear remains the standard text book but has three major improvements. First, the sections have been re-organised to reflect changes in producing and marketing children's clothes. Today's popularity of easy-fitting styles and knitted fabrics means that basic 'flat' pattern cutting is used to construct the majority of children's wear and babywear and this type of cutting is therefore emphasised in this new edition. Shaped blocks and garments, cut to fit the body form, are still included, and are placed in chapters covering some school uniform garments or more expensive fashion or formal clothes. The book now clearly separates the sections useful to student beginners (Parts One, Two and Three), and also offers more advanced or specialist sections for students who wish to pursue a career in children's wear or for designers working in the different manufacturing sectors of the trade. The second change in this fourth edition is the introduction of colour coding to the sections; this makes it easier to identify specific processes in the book and enhances the illustrations. Finally, the size charts have been revised to reflect the changes in body sizing. The clear division of the boys' and girls' measurements in the charts has been in response to the way clothes are marketed and to co-ordinate with European size charts. 'Plus' charts for heavier children have also been added.
Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear provides a straightforward introduction to the principles of form pattern cutting for garments to fit the body shape, and flat pattern cutting for casual garments and jersey wear. This sixth edition remains true to the original concept: it offers a range of good basic blocks, an introduction to the basic principles of pattern cutting and examples of their application into garments. Fully revised and updated to include a brand new and improved layout, up-to-date skirt and trouser blocks that reflect the changes in body sizing, along with updates to the computer-aided design section and certain blocks, illustrations and diagrams. This best-selling textbook still remains the essential purchase for students and beginners looking to understand pattern cutting and building confidence to develop their own pattern cutting style.
Getting the right cut for the right fabric is the key to good design. One of the most challenging aspects of a fashion designer’s training is learning how to crate patterns that utilize the characteristics of fabrics. With an ever expanding range available, an understanding of the relationship between fabric, form and pattern shape is now the most important skill a designer has to acquire. Winifred Aldrich, a leading pattern cutting authority, explores how a garment’s shape is created and discusses the factors that need to be considered when creating patterns and offers you a practical method for solving problems. No other pattern cutting book considers the effects of individual fabrics and its approach is based on the appraisal of the fabric and body shape. Fabrics and Patterns Cutting is the revised and simplified edition of Fabric, Form and Flat Pattern Cutting. It is fully illustrated and makes use of numerous practical examples. It also takes into account important new developments in fabric – new fabrics, new methods of fabric construction and new fabric finishes. Free block patterns are available online for readers to print out for use in their classes.
Draping—the art of using cotton muslin to create womenswear directly on a dress form—is an essential skill for fashion designers. Through a series of step-by-step projects, designed to develop skills from the most basic to more advanced techniques, this book will guide you in creating both classic and contemporary garments, as well as historical styles and costumes. Draping projects include dresses, bustiers, and jackets, and highlight key fashion garments such as Audrey Hepburn's dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo jacket. Starting with the basics of choosing and preparing the dress form for draping, the book advances through pinning, trimming, and clipping, and creating shape using darts and tucks, to adding volume using pleats and gathers, and handling complex curves. Advanced skills include how to use support elements such as shoulder pads, under layers, and petticoats, and how to handle bias draping. The book culminates with a chapter on improvisational skills. Each skill and technique throughout the book is explained with step-by-step photographs and line drawings that bring the art of creating womenswear in three dimensions to life.
This practical guide explains how to take accurate measurements, introduces key tools and takes you from simple pattern-cutting ideas to more advanced creative methods. Step-by-step illustrations show how to create and then fit basic bodice, sleeve, skirt, dress, and trouser blocks, and how to adapt these to create patterns for original designs. New material includes advice on fitting toiles and working with stretch fabrics. There is also a fully updated chapter dedicated to digital technology. New to this edition: Access to 32 instructional videos
Fashion designers are presented with a range of methods and concepts for pattern cutting are presented, the main body of these methods, both traditional and contemporary, is predominately based on a theoretical approximation of the body that is derived from horizontal and vertical measurements of the body in an upright position: the tailoring matrix. As a consequence, there is a lack of interactive and dynamic qualities in methods connected to this paradigm of garment construction, from both expressional and functional perspectives. This work proposes and explores an alternative paradigm for pattern cutting that includes a new theoretical approximation of the body as well as a more kinetic method for garment construction that, unlike the prevalent theory and its related methods, takes as its point of origin the interaction between the anisotropic fabric and the biomechanical structure of the body. As such, the research conducted here is basic research, aiming to identify fundamental principles for garment construction. Based on some key principles found in the works of Geneviève Sevin-Doering and in pre-tailoring methods for constructing garments, the proposed theory for – and method of – garment construction was developed through concrete experiments by cutting and draping fabrics on live models. Instead of a static matrix of a non-moving body, the result is a kinetic construction theory of the body that is comprised of balance directions and key biomechanical points, along with an alternative draping method for dressmaking. This methodology challenges the fundamental relationship between dress, garment construction, and the body, working from the body outward, as opposed to the methods that are based on the prevalent paradigm of the tailoring matrix, which work from the outside toward the body. This alternative theory for understanding the body and the proposed method of working allows for diverse expressions and enhanced functional possibilities in dress.
An introduction to the basic principles of pattern cutting, this practical book shows students how to interpret the human form and look at clothing through the eyes of a designer rather than a consumer. As well as explaining the proportions of human anatomy, the book introduces key tools and then takes the reader from simple pattern-cutting ideas to more advanced creative methods. Finally, the book looks at the work of fashion designers who are masters of pattern cutting, such as Comme des GarCons, John Galliano, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake. With photographs of final and dissected garments, along with CAD/CAM diagrams to explain how those pieces were cut, the book will gradually build an understanding of pattern cutting, and enable students to experiment and create exciting patterns for their own designs.
