Practical Pattern Making - by Lucia Mors De Castro & Isabel Sanchez Hernandez (Paperback)

About the Book

A comprehensive introduction to the basic techniques of pattern design for clothing.

Book Synopsis

More and more women are making their own clothes but there are few comprehensive references available. For the most part, dedicated sewers have had to adjust standardized patterns or muddle their way through foreign-language books.

In Practical Pattern Making two pattern-making experts and designers introduce the basic techniques of creative pattern design for clothing. It is intended to help fashion students, designers and enthusiastic sewers develop and create a variety of styles, regardless of complexity.

The book uses photographs, examples, diagrams and templates to explain all of the techniques, formulas and professional tricks to create a custom-tailored skirt, suit or dress. The tutorial style poses questions that encourage problem-solving.

Features include:

• How to measure the body, with 13 illustrative photographs
• Blank professional worksheets to copy and use
• 40 scaled pattern templates with all markings
• How to draw and mark a sized pattern with darts, pleats and so on
• Modeling and draping to design and fit a pattern
• Working with fabric grain and bias
• Photos of garments in process and finished

The 40 garment selections begin with a basic skirt and progress from a fitted jacket and suit to an asymmetrical balloon dress, flounce dress, tissue dresses and more. All require just a few pattern pieces.

Review Quotes

Excellent pattern making book!--Natosha Miller "Test Try Results Blog" (2/16/2016 12:00:00 AM)

Fashion designers Sanchez Hernandez and Mors de Castro team up to offer a class in a book for designers, fashion students, and experienced sewers. They encourage readers to produce their own patterns as a way to express creativity, achieve the perfect fit, and gain satisfaction from creating their clothes from start to finish. Most of the book consists of specific design tutorials, including photos and illustrations of the process and finished products. The authors provide designs for skirts and jackets, but the bulk of the book is devoted to dresses, from basic to more elaborate and daring designs. The instructions are straightforward and suitable for beginning patternmakers, though a beginning sewer would likely have some trouble. The glossary is detailed and a helpful reference for certain patternmaking, sewing, or fabric terms. The authors explain how to properly take body measurements, accompanied by graphics and photos, and include a chart to keep the numbers organized. Also helpful are two standard measurement charts for European and American sizing. All measurements are metric. Like a private course, this book provides readers with the skill-building techniques to adapt patterns and create their own.-- "Publishers Weekly" (11/16/2015 12:00:00 AM)

Practical Pattern Making is the book I wish I had read a few years ago, when I first got interested in pattern making. It takes you from zero to hero in under 250 pages. I really like this book because it's practical, yet fearless. Written by pattern makers and fashion designers Lucia Mors de Castro and Isabel Sanchez Hernandez, the book is organized in three sections: traditional patterns, geometric patterns and traditional geometric patterns... For a designer and maker interested in creating and sewing dresses, this book is fantastic... If you're more adventurous and love shape and fabric manipulation, this book will light up your imagination. If you're not sure, the book includes basic blocks that you can magnify to use in your own creations, so you can use what you've learned to create your own, new garments. The images and descriptions make the book very clear and ready to be put to work.--Ina "Sky Turtle Blog" (1/21/2016 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Lucia Mors de Castro has worked for Vivienne Westwood and several other fashion labels, designers and artists in London, Lima, Vienna and Berlin, where she currently teaches Pattern making/Draping at the International University of Art for Fashion. She is the author of Patternmaking in Fashion.

Isabel Sanchez Hernandez is a fashion designer and pattern maker. She has extensive teaching experience and has developed her own work method in which she mixes conventional and geometrical pattern-making techniques. She is the author of Little Black Dress.