Esther Melander, who runs the blog The Design Loft,
has recently announced the publication of her book called The Organized
Fashion Designer.
As per her own description (read about Esther here), Esther is "a veteran of the
fashion industry" and has published this book in an attempt to help fashion
designers become more organized. Her book is a collection of forms, which can
be used by fashion designers to put together tech packs (all the paperwork and
info needed to send a product off for manufacturing - that's one of the things I learnt from her book :) or facilitate their in-house
organization.
How useful this book is to fashion designers and design
entrepreneurs is beyond my scope of knowledge as I have no experience in the
industry. However, I offered to write a review of her book with an eye to the
usefulness of this book to home sewers.
As, what Esther calls in her book, “advanced home hobbyists”
there is a lot to learn from this book on how sewn products are put together
and the amount of organisation and steps it takes to get a product made. Therefore
the book is most certainly useful to home hobbyists who want to explore and
possibly go into opening a small business themselves.
The forms included
range from organizing your fabric samples, to cataloging pattern pieces,
keeping track of measurements and grading rules to outlining sewing instructions
and more. All of the forms come with a guide that explains how each form can be
used and is helpful even to complete novices. After reading the book even I
understand what a tech pack is or what goes into making a cost analysis or keeping track of
your inventory.
If I was to open a small business, be it only an Etsy store,
selling a few small sewn products, I would definitely refer back to some of the
forms (and guides!) used in this book.
The only thing I wish was a little more expanded in Esther's book is the list of resources. The book, being geared at home hobbyists as well as design entrepreneurs, would perhaps benefit from a few more resources to help home hobbyists expand their knowledge and make full use of the forms. Also, European readers, do keep in mind, that the list of resources is, as would be expected, more useful to design entrepreneurs/home hobbyists living in North America, rather than us here on the other side of the pond.
Nevertheless, Esther's forms would certainly come in handy for aspiring home hobbyists, who have little idea of how to organize even the smallest sewn product business.
* * *
And now for the giveaway....if you are one these advanced home hobbyist who is toying with the idea of opening
your own small business selling your sewn products, you now have the chance to
win a PDF copy of this book. Simply leave a comment on this blog by Tue 27 August (GMT) telling me why you'd like to win this book (just because I'm nosy :)
Alternatively, you can head over to Esther's blog and pick up a PDF or hard copy of the book yourself right away. The e-book is available for a very reasonable $12.95 (approx. £8.51). Esther also offers separate bundles of forms, depending on what your needs are. You can buy both bundles and books here on Etsy.
Please also check out a review of this book on Fashion Incubator, where you will also find a detailed list of the forms included in this book.