Practical Pattern Making

Fashion designers Sanchez Hernandez and Mors de Castro team up to offer a class in a book for designers, fashion students, and experienced sewers. They encourage readers to produce their own patterns as a way to express creativity, achieve the perfect fit, and gain satisfaction from creating their clothes from start to finish. Most of the book consists of specific design tutorials, including photos and illustrations of the process and finished products. The authors provide designs for skirts and jackets, but the bulk of the book is devoted to dresses, from basic to more elaborate and daring designs. The instructions are straightforward and suitable for beginning patternmakers, though a beginning sewer would likely have some trouble. The glossary is detailed and a helpful reference for certain patternmaking, sewing, or fabric terms. The authors explain how to properly take body measurements, accompanied by graphics and photos, and include a chart to keep the numbers organized. Also helpful are two standard measurement charts for European and American sizing. All measurements are metric. Like a private course, this book provides readers with the skill-building techniques to adapt patterns and create their own. * Publishers Weekly *Excellent pattern making book! – Natosha Miller * Test Try Results Blog *Practical Pattern Making is the book I wish I had read a few years ago, when I first got interested in pattern making. It takes you from zero to hero in under 250 pages. I really like this book because it’s practical, yet fearless. Written by pattern makers and fashion designers Lucia Mors de Castro and Isabel Sanchez Hernandez, the book is organized in three sections: traditional patterns, geometric patterns and traditional geometric patterns… For a designer and maker interested in creating and sewing dresses, this book is fantastic… If you’re more adventurous and love shape and fabric manipulation, this book will light up your imagination. If you’re not sure, the book includes basic blocks that you can magnify to use in your own creations, so you can use what you’ve learned to create your own, new garments. The images and descriptions make the book very clear and ready to be put to work. – Ina * Sky Turtle Blog *

Lucia Mors de Castro has worked for Vivienne Westwood and several other fashion labels, designers and artists in London, Lima, Vienna and Berlin, where she currently teaches Pattern making/Draping at the International University of Art for Fashion. She is the author of Patternmaking in Fashion. Isabel Sanchez Hernandez is a fashion designer and pattern maker. She has extensive teaching experience and has developed her own work method in which she mixes conventional and geometrical patternmaking techniques. She is the author of Little Black Dress.