Pattern cutting book review : Pro and Cons to help you draft your own sewing patterns
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- Опубликовано: 29 янв 2025
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The book I'm reviewing is:
Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear by Winifred Aldrich
Original book review:
• Best Pattern Cutting B...
What’s your favourite pattern cutting book? Let me know in the comments.
I have the 6th edition and find it very useful as someone who is still learning how to sew.
Using it you get a feel how garments work. it‘s really exciting! :-)
I use it in two ways.
I try to sew parts follwing the instructions for practice (like cuffs) and I use the book to understand sewing patterns or garments I bought.
For example, a raglan sweater I bought was too narrow at one point. I looked up how raglans are constructed and how I can change it without altering the other parts.
My main gripe is that it doesn‘t contain really good instructions on how to take measurements yourself.
For example how to find the shoulder tip. (Lay your fingertip on the end of your shoulder and move your arm up and down. The end point is where your finger doesn‘t move up with the arm).
I think it would benefit vastly from just two pages to explain it, since many who buy this reference want to sew their own clothing.
On my first try I didn’t know how to measure well and my test had problems in too many places to understand & fix as a beginner.
After a few youtube videos it turned out just as I wanted, following the instructions.
I was also bummed out that the „dart“ measurement wasn‘t explained at all in the section about taking your OWN measurements. It‘s the only point where a standard measurement was taken instead of one’s own.
The neck measurement is another personal pet peeve. As a beginner the explanation wasn‘t clear at all.
When doing the patterns I skipped this measurement by using two or more others that had less room for errors, including measurements not used in this book.
A glossary would be very nice, but that‘s a minor wish.
There are still a few false numbers. You‘ll pick them up while following instructions thanks to the illustrations. No big deal.
Some great points!
Yes, the measurement/fitting section is very brief. I think because it's aimed at fashion school they expected all that to be taught in lessons with the book being a back up.
The dart one is so interesting, I haven't found a book yet there it is explained. It's always either a set measurement or just drafted in.
You might like Philip Kunick, he's got a whole book on sizing and pattern construction which goes a lot into measurements. You can normally pick it up quite cheaply,
Oh thanks for the advice! :-) I‘ll have a look at that book!
Haha glad I‘m not the only one who noticed the unexplained darts!
They‘re so useful, yet they kinda appear out of nowhere in books.
Is the first review still available to watch?
It is! I’ll put a link in the description now
I have the same edition of the book and love it as a resource to help create new designs. After 40 years of pattern cutting experience I think it is very difficult to teach yourself from a book and you really need someone like Charlotta to teach you how to draft and fit your patterns.
That’s how I use it too Natalie, it’s great for checking your drafting process. I agree with you, books are great once you know the basics, but hard as a complete beginner. Thanks!
Good morning from Australia
Morning!
✨🧵Thank you for the video. For some reason the audio volume was rather quiet.
You’re welcome. Sorry, yes, I had some audio issues. It’s now sorted 🤞