This is the book I looked at this weekend.
Anyway this book is a flat patterning book. It includes many, many blocks, various bodice blocks, several different pants blocks and block for knits, just to name a few. The book appears to be very straightforward, explaining things step by step and even including construction techniques and other information not generally included in patterning books. It looks like it will be a good reference for me and would be a good guide for a person who is learning on their own without the help of a teacher/mentor. As a book to teach and practice with I think I prefer Apparel Making for Fashion Design even with its quirks, because of its layout for a classroom setting. You can see many different designs all based on one technique on one page, you can see how they are related and have students do the different alterations and share.
At times I found the illustrations to not be as clear as I would have liked, but there are a lot of illustrations and I guess too many is better than not enough. I also don't like that the seam allowance is marked on the illustrations, I think it gets in the way. While there are many slopers/blocks to build the measurements you use to build them and the instructions for drafting the block are intertwined. Which is good, if you need step by step instructions the first time you create a sloper, but if you are going to do many I would prefer to have a page where you calculate all your measurements then instructions that say "take such-and-such measurement", so I look on my measurement sheet to find "such-and-such" and plug it in instead of following directions and calculating measurements at the same time. I have decided to do a test on how well various basic slopers come out. I haven't started yet, but I went to measure my dress form and without going through the steps I didn't know what measurements I needed! Which is terribly unhelpful because I don't even know what measurements I need before I start drafting the block!
Besides having a section on knits from t-shirts to leotards and underwear another interesting part of this book is that it has instructions for a custom dress form that is better (more useful) than just wrapping yourself in duct tape (which you can't pin), even creating a base for it to stand on.
The simple clear instructions, drafts, sections on knits and pants, and helpful construction and other techniques make this book worth it for me. I may recommend it to students, but at $85-$95 I don't think I would require it. However, this book could be excellent for someone starting out sewing and learning to pattern, who doesn't have a teacher/mentor. It is a lot of money, but you wouldn't be paying for a class! And the custom dress form is just cool. The book is also spiral bound so it lays flat when you use it.
First off, all of my knitting has been dubbed a sweater or a sock. In fact, this means that even socks can be called foot sweaters, and I guess sweaters can be called a body(?) sock.
I started off making the Sweetheart sock pattern from the Holiday 2007 Interweave Knits. I really liked the "sweetheart" cable. I used my noro kuryon sock. After several inches I realized that I thought the back cabling was just too much, I wanted to focus on the cabling I loved and not bother with the other stuff. I also realized that I wanted to make them into arm warmers. I love the look of this yarn, yes it is not soft, but it isn't awful, so I wanted to put them on my arms so I could see them all the time! That and I realized that my feet cannot handle some socks, yes it is sad I love socks and I don't have beautiful ankles.
If you can see it this is what the back cabling looked like on the original pattern, in my modified design I altered the cables and did some different kinds of ribbing. I also started with 70 sts instead of 84. They are tight I probably could have added some sts back. Maybe 74? More when I finish.
I am currently in search of patterning books. Since I have been looking at them I thought I would share my impressions. I have two books that were required for a class and those have been sufficient for general purposes, now historical patterns are a completely different matter. Since I work in theater I will refer to the person you are making clothing for as "the actor".
First of all there are two ways to create patterns, draping and drafting/flat patterning. Draping uses a dress form that is the same shape as the person you are making clothing for. You use muslin to "drape" the pattern onto the dress form. Then you take your muslin pieces and trace them onto paper, giving you a pattern. Drafting or flat patterning you use measurements to create a sloper or body block of the actor. A sloper is a basically a fitted bodice. Once you have your sloper you alter it to make the design and style changes you need. There are somethings that are more easily done by draping and some more easily done by drafting. Generally you draft sleeves, collars, pants and items for men, you drape bodices for women. I draft skirts, but depending on what you are doing and how you feel about each method you could drape them.
My search for books comes from the fact that I am looking for a good sloper/body block draft to use, I haven't really needed one for women because we had a collection of dress forms, but that has changed. I am also kind of looking at books for if no WHEN I am asked to teach a class I want to know what books to require. Patterning books are expensive! And I don't have any problem requiring expensive books for class, IF they are worth the price. I wouldn't want book costs to be prohibitive, but they really are necessary and would pay for themselves if the student wanted to continue on with patterning, for costume construction, or personal projects.
Here are the two books that were used in my class, I would recommend both, but the thing to remember is that I was taking a class with a teacher, who taught. We used the book to follow the steps for drafting, draping, pattern alterations, whatever, we didn't use it to learn from. So I haven't really read these books, I just used the information in them.
This is a draping book, using muslin to create a pattern on a dress form. This is not what I am looking for now, because as I said without dress forms, draping isn't really useful. However, this is the book I used to learn, and it works.
This is the flat patterning book we used. I like it, but again that could be because it is the one I was taught with. Of course it has some quirks, the pattern marks are different, some of the measurements are in 8ths of an inch, but I like the layout. The skirt sloper I use is from this book, of course there probably aren't very many differences is skirt slopers. Again, we didn't read the book, just used the information to make different designs, move darts and the like.
