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| Pollock's Measuring and Garment Fitting Device Source: Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents |
I have a long-term obsessions with pattern making. You can see evidence of this obsession in some of my earlier posts, particularly my seemingly never-ending Quest for the Perfect Sloper. Understanding, creating and fitting patterns is probably my most favorite part of sewing. This is why I rarely enjoy making accessories or even less home deco projects. I think it's the mathematical and geometrical aspect of pattern making that speak to me the most, particularly to my slightly nerdy, detail-obsessed and perfectionist nature of wanting to understand just about anything. When I'm sewing together a pattern of my own making and all the pattern pieces go together beautifully and with ease, every notch matching, the final garment fitting in all the right ways, I'm in sewing heaven. But pattern making can potentially be a very frustrating endeavor. You draft and measure and draft and measure and cut and sew muslin after muslin and at the end you have perhaps very little to show for your efforts. It certainly takes time - time I sometimes don't have enough of. And therefore I still often like the convenience of a store-bought pattern.
The obsession with pattern making has made me scour countless online and offline resources to find the most problem-free, most adaptable, simply perfect pattern making system. There are countless ways of drafting patterns. It seems to be done differently in every country. Here at my end of the world most pattern drafting books popularized on the internet and on sewing blogs in the English-speaking world seem virtually unknown to fashion students or avid home sewers. There also seems to be a vast difference between professional and home sewing pattern drafting sources. The former often being a lot more expensive and a lot less accessible.
I have already written a blog post a long while back on two pattern drafting books I was using at the time. For my basic dress slopers I don't use these books anymore but have started using the German system M. Müller & Sohn. Their books are very expensive and not light reading material but their system is great and their textbooks are luckily widely available in libraries here in Vienna. I took a short private course with a dressmaker here in Vienna to learn the basics and find it a lot easier now to comprehend the instructions of this system.
Since such a great part of my brain is taken up by pattern drafting I thought it might be a good idea to inject a little more of that fascination into my blog. In the next couple of weeks I hope to write a few reviews on some of the (text)books I have come across in trying to learn pattern making and some of the things I have learned since. Perhaps this little bit of knowledge I have might help some of you on your pattern drafting journeys, as I'm sure many of you who sew do a little bit of pattern drafting at the side all the time anyways.
If you have any suggestions for further posts on this subject, let me know! I'm happy to include your suggestions if I can.
Yes yes yes.... post more please on Mueller and Sohn system. What I'm interested most is your experience in making a sloper using M&S system, from body measurement to the fitting the sloper itself, the challenges, the adjustment (if any) you need to do, the different eases they offer etc.
ReplyDeleteThere is a DEARTH of information about M&S system in English. I have been searching high and low for a forum for this, but haven't found any. So, you are my (our, for those English-speaking M&S enthusiasts) door to the M&S system.
I look forward to your future posts on M&S!
Katzies
Look out, I think I might come to Vienna and do some nerdy pattern construction with you and M&S system... Sometimes pattern cutting is the one thing I find enjoyable in the sewing process, unfortunately it needs more energy and at the moment my work is stealing all the energy there is. My pattern is from the course I took at London College of Fashion, but I believe the system is from Winfred Aldrich. Not perfect at all, and although we did quite a bit of fitting during the course, the ease (as you speak of in another post) is certainly not what I'd expected. Too loose for anything (although nearly perfect now with my weight-gain). Great posts you've got going here, I only wish the M&S system was more available!
ReplyDeleteI totally understand. I too have the same predicament. I am now officially a fan of your blog. I agree with you 100%. Thank you for sharing.
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