The Patternmaker Needs To Get Good At Sewing (For Their Own Sake)

Weekends should always be devoted to your family (in addition to the time you set aside during the week for your family as well) but if you're going to do something for your business/career you should focus on those activities that don't necessarily make you any money right away but will help bring your career or business forward.   My personal example being my lemon tulip lingerie pattern.   I started sewing it today,  little machine sewing,  little hand stitching.

The first thing I'm working on is getting the facings and waist and bodice band together.  My past experience has been that small pieces get lost or damaged if you've got kids and pets so I'm avoiding the problem totally by hanging these sewn up sections on a hanger.   As for protecting my other work on the ironing board,  I've covered it all up with a blanket to keep my cats from putting pulls in my work.

I've started catchstitching the self fabric interfacing to the back bodice band already (see photo below)

and it had me reflecting on what Kathleen Fasenella said "a patternmaker should have exceptional sewing skills".   It's true for the benefit of both the clients in need of patternmaking services and the patternmakers themselves.   Speaking as an entry level patternmaker making money from providing this service I understand the reasons for this are:

1. being able to sew up your own patterns will crystalize several things:

     (a) where the notches need to be when you get confused
     (b) how much fabric a design actually needs
     (c) the fit resulting from your approach to drafting
    
2.  if your pattern turns out well,  you'll have full confidence in the product/service you're offering, you won't think it fit because you applied your knowledge of pattern drafting as well as you could,  but you KNOW your pattern is accurate.   This is confidence for a patternmaker.

3.  Confidence results in taking less time to do your work simply because your not hesitating any more about whether or not your making the right move.

Aside from all this perfection though,  I've got to make mention of how important is is not to be a perfectionist,  at least not right away.   My mom taught me how to sew and went a long way in inspiring me when it comes to fashion.  However,  she was a self proclaimed "non-perfectionist" which was good for me because it allowed me not to be quite so intimidated by the lengthy process of garment design,  development and construction.   Chances are, if she had enforced perfection,  I might not have took this career path.

Case in point,  I took my perfectionist attitude to my art and I didn't get nearly as far in developing my skills as an artist as I did in patternmaking and fashion design.   To this day I'm still intimidated by the thought of picking up a brush or pencil.  Although I do intend to overcome with this when I get the time.

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

I dedicate everything to my mom

This morning as I was laying out my pattern pieces and the fabric pieces I cut from them,  I recieved a call from Manitoba that my mom had suffered a massive heart attack around 8:15 am.   She never made it to the hospital.  

My parents had a sudden divorce several years ago after being together around 31 years, in the end it didn't work out and my mom left to live out on the prairies again.  I was always very close to my mom but this situation seemingly evaporated our active closeness to the point where months would go by,  even a year and she never called.   I had to find her number through a bit of investigation.   The guy she was living with couldn't even keep the phone lines open.

She never even got the chance to see her little grand daughter,  my daughter Salma and her grandson all grown up into a big almost 5 year old boy.   Before she let me know that she was leaving my father,  I had a dream that I had lost her,  she was beside me one minute and was gone the next after telling me she'd meet up with me outside the building to go home.  When I looked for her she wasn't there...in the dream I had the unmistakable feeling that I'd just completely lost her.

And here I was, this morning,  looking over the work I'd started,  after this terrible phone call.   I wouldn't have been into this work,  atleast it wouldn't have been as ingrained in me if it hadn't been for my mom.   She'd take me to the fabric and pattern department in Woodwards department store downtown back in the 80s and we'd be there for hours looking through pattern books and searching for just the right fabric.

She would get a pattern, cut it out,  lay it out on the living room floor and I'd watch her put everything together into a beautiful garment.   I was always facinated by this and wanted to learn the secrets of why the pattern pieces where shaped the way they were.   She'd sew them on her shiny black and gold enameled Singer sewing machine.   As she turned the wheel,  it would sound like a tiny train.   She put me on the path I'm on today.  

She always talked about making the world a better place,  helping both people and animals in whatever way was needed and protecting the environment out of the sincere love for everything that God created.   She talked about these things as long as I can remember.   I loved that about my mom.   I loved that about my mom.  I always wanted to be like her,  but go a step up and be able to make her dreams a reality.   To make an impact,  a growing one, throughout my life so that I leave the world as a better place than when I came into it.  So the world's children and other innocent creatures will be able to face a safer,  brighter future than the one I thought I was facing.

Everything I do in my life,  every success and difference that I am able to make,  I dedicate to my mom.   The beautiful spirit that nourished and cared for the best in me.  I'm setting out to fulfill your dreams mom and try to raise my children to be the way you wanted me to be.  I love you with all my heart.   And I'm sorry for the misunderstanding between us that happened after you left.