Going old school.

My old school technical manual.

I'm back into pattern making ...for me. My time, I'm finding there's very little of, is divided between our business and my pursuit of designing my own clothes. I don't buy anymore socks. Now, my next challenge is not to buy clothes. I graduated from fashion school and I'm finally using techniques I've learned twenty years ago.

I have a mandatory book on Pattern Drafting. During my time in fashion design in Quebec City, the book is in English yet no one could read it. They gave us a cheat sheet to decipher the important directions. Funny, we were made to buy this English book and it never came in French. I suppose there wasn't a book in French and I feel that we were being groomed in the predominately English fashion industry. That's what it was in Quebec. If you wanted to go through the big fashion industry door it was in English.

My first attempt was taking an old pair of pants dismantling it and using it for a pattern. It did seem to be a good idea at the time. I learned that it's better to have a proper pattern to start with. Because I carried over the problem of how bad the pants fitted. But you know it's not that bad. Having a proper pattern is easier to work from. I worked hard to make adjustments to make it fit properly. I still have a lot to learn, so I'll go back to using the pattern book on my next project... making a t-shirt. I'll be using organic bamboo cotton.

I'm going old school again!