05 Clothing Design/Fabrication/Illustration

05.4 Product Development

05.4.1 Pattern Making

Amaden-Crawford, C. (1996). The Art of Fashion Draping. 2nd ed. New York: Fairchild. ISBN 1-56365-017-9, 396 pages, $45.00.

Reviewed by Carolyn Schactler, Central Washington University

For those of us who love to drape, the Amaden-Crawford text has been a mainstay of the draping lab. With so little selection in draping texts on the market, it is good to have the second edition now available.
This edition shows considerable re-organization. The text is divided into logical parts, beginning with basic elements: tools, dress forms, fabric and terminology, then progressing through the basic draping skills and their variations, to advanced work.
The book is a large, comprehensive text that covers almost more than many readers may want to know. The section about tools and equipment is helpful to a novice, as are the others chapters in Part 1. Particularly useful is the glossary of terms. The enormous number of diagrams and how-to sketches have been well thought out and carefully executed. However, I do miss the many extra sketches of fashion ideas that were in the first edition. They were a good source of inspiration for students.
Though there are detailed and well-explained directions for the draping process, the explanations of why a given technique is executed in a particular way, are too few. Knowing why fabric is manipulated in a certain way helps students to understand the techniques and to remember them longer.
Amaden-Crawford integrates two-dimensional pattern making in a way that is realistic and practical. The combination of draping and drafting makes sense: the two go hand in hand, supporting each other. The author applies this partnership of techniques very well.
This book covers nearly every aspect of draping, step-by-step with clearly stated directions. Since the text offers too much to cover in the usual length of one course, it will take careful planning to select which lesson and diagrams to use each class period. It could be useful for sequential courses, basic and advanced draping. Amaden-Crawford's book is a valuable text that is worth having in any draping lab.

MacDonald, N., & Weibel, R.E. (1988). Principles of flat pattern design. Princeton, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-709643-7-01, 416 pages, $48.00.

Reviewed by Anita Racine, Cornell University

Current textbooks on flat pattern design abound, but many of them do not adequately serve the needs of students and instructors in introductory apparel design courses. MacDonald's and Weibel's book, Principles of Flat Pattern Design, is well suited for beginning college students because of the numerous photo reduction of actual flat pattern drafts, and ample discussion of important basic principles and theories. Students will master sound patternmaking procedures with ease because the authors have been meticulous in the logical organization and accurate presentation of written and visual materials. Many crisp line drawings are enhanced by photographs of garment samples showing highly visible grainlines to further students' understanding of dart manipulations. Unique garment styles are clearly illustrated on well-proportioned croquis figures throughout the volume. These figures have been drawn in a consistent size, which helps sharpen the visual perception and design analysis skills of beginners.
The chapters are thoroughly developed and sequenced in a progression conducive to classroom instruction. The sections addressing asymmetric designs and garment details such as pockets, flaps, and necklines are especially good. Describing collar variation and delineating procedures to develop pattern drafts can be very difficult to explain; however, the authors' presentation is clear and easy to follow. Supplementary charts and sketches clarify differences in collar styles and are very effective in supporting the patternmaking methodology.
In an age when few students are familiar with the cut of fine clothing, this book makes substantial contributions to reaching the most effective techniques for creating quality apparel. Furthermore, the authors' explanations of why certain patternmaking procedures are preferred over others will help students make sound decisions and contribute to the professional appearance of finished garments. The insufficient treatment of fitting concepts constitutes the text's main drawback. The topic of adjusting patterns for accurate fit might have been further expanded to show how the slash and spread method of design could also be used for pattern alteration.
Instructors in apparel design classes will welcome the timesaving teachings aides in this book. For example, diagrams and line drawings may readily be enlarged for overhead projection to enhance classroom demonstrations, while students design on the half-scale slopers provided in the appendix. The accurate half-and-quarter-scale patterns will be appreciated by instructors applying new computer technology to the study of apparel design. The slopers can easily fit on smaller digitizer pads, which can later be scaled to any proportion or graded to additional sizes on the computer. The practice problems featured at the end of each unit will reinforce student's comprehension of newly learned principles and techniques of flat pattern design.

Kopp, E., Rolfo, V., Zelin, B., & Gross, L. (1991). How to draft basic patterns (4th ed.). New York: Fairchild Fashion and Merchandising Group. ISBN 87005-747-2, 135 pages, $30.00.

Reviewed by Jan Scholl, Pennsylvania State University

How to Draft Basic Patterns is a fascinating book designed to be used with the companion text, Designing Apparel Through the Flat Pattern (6th ed.). This book provides the principles and instructions for drafting basic slopers through standard or individual measurements. New to this edition are instructions for developing princess-line dresses, capes, caftans and jumpsuit slopers.
Readers will be instantly impressed by the single-page layout of information and instructions. The directions for 17 basic slopers are straightforward and specific. Illustrations abound and actual photographs of tools and materials are included. Standard measurements, sample worksheets and a metric conversion table are also included.
While there is no index, an adequate single page table of contents lists entries under the main section of the book: Basic information Needed to Develop Slopers, Measurements for Drafting Slopers and Slopers.
I found the How to Draft Basic Patterns guide helpful and insightful. Even if one does not desire to develop a sloper, the information on measurements, definitions, and illustrations of equipment make this a valuable professional and classroom reference.

Aldrich, W. (2002). Pattern cutting for women's tailored jackets: Classic and Contemporary. Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd.

Reviewed by Nancy Lyons

In earlier times high quality tailored jackets were molded and shaped painstakingly with layers of canvas and stitching so that by the middle of the nineteenth century, with the growth of the ready-to-wear industry, the word tailored began to be associated with a particular style, and to infer quality. Today the woman's classic tailored jacket is synonymous with career wear and its appearance can be changed dramatically with variations in fabric and cut.
This book begins with a well-researched chapter on the evolution of the woman's tailored jacket. The tailored jacket has had a complex history and has been made differently by tailors and dressmakers, whose varied methods were inherited, adapted, and eventually merged. The book is divided into three parts, covering classic bespoke cutting, engineered cutting, and style cutting. Bespoke cutting is traditional, used by the few remaining bespoke tailors. Engineered cutting is used for ready-made jackets produced for the majority of the population. High style fashion jackets are created by the more flexible dressmaker methods.
Libraries, archives and museums such as The British Library in London, The Butterick Company's Archives in New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute, The Smithsonian Institution, The Victorian and Albert Museum, The Bibliotheque Nataionale of France provided some of the images published in the book. These included fashion illustrations from early catalogs and magazines, examples of jacket blocks, pattern sheets and adaptations, drafts and templates, and photographs of production processes in dressmaking and tailoring establishments.
Winifred Aldrich not only explains the wide range of cutting methods used to produce women's tailored jackets, but also describes fabrics, linings, and interlinings; necessary tools for tailoring and where to obtain them; and how to take standard body measurements for jackets. Following this introductory material, Aldrich divides her book into Part One: Classic Bespoke Cutting; Part Two: engineered Cutting and Manufacture; and Part Three: Style Cutting Variations.
There are few bespoke tailors of ladies jackets today, even fewer who are working by only the traditional methods of the craft. Steaming, stretching, and shrinking of the cut pieces of fabric are steps which assure the shape of the bespoke tailored jacket. While other jacket shapes can bespoke tailored to give a couture finish, Aldrich lists the following main differences in a pattern drafted specifically to be a bespoke tailored jacket: a more exaggerated front shoulder shape, wide bust darts or bust shaping in the seams, dart seam close-fitting shaping at the waist, classic collar and revere styles with an acute angled break line, shaped collars, and shaped two-piece sleeves.
In contrast to the stretching, steaming and shrinking of the bespoke tailored jacket, the engineered jacket's shape is achieved almost entirely by the cut of the pattern. Its block is easy fitting without a lot of body shaping. Its main features are: the wide back which will drape, the wide panel and front dart for subtle shaping, the wide soft shoulder and straight full sleeved which will drape, the dart from neck to break point to allow the front ease to be held by machined tape, and the separate collar and stand.
Directions for drafting the block in UK size 10 are given; side panel and front dart shaping are explained; sleeves, drafting of collars and revers are illustrated; and pattern completion steps (through interlinings and linings) are discussed. The ample illustrations and photos are interspersed with narrative that frequently reminds us of the domination of computers and the growing importance of mass customization in the engineered process of manufacture.
The final section on style cutting explains that either tailored blocks or dress blocks can be used as a starting point. Adaptations for each type of block are illustrated and described. Chapters on adapting varied body sections review general pattern development principles as bust dart transfer, vertical and horizontal seams, neckline and collar variations, and do so with concise steps corresponding to numbers and letters on drawings. I highly recommend this book to those interested in tailoring, either its history or techniques, or to those who teach ready-to-wear analysis or manufacturing courses.