Fashion Pattern Cutting
by Zarida Zaman
Sorry, I cannot find any images available on the internet.
Not the type of book suitable for someone that is beginner to pattern cutting. This book is aiming towards the more experience type of pattern cutter that wants something more exciting and challenging to add to their skills. Great for university students that has a bit of experience and wants to draft contemporary designs with detail, or the pattern cutter that wants to learn something new and modern. For the home sewer, you won’t be wanting to use some of these techniques in your wardrobe. The designs are too contemporary for a lot of home projects.
The book is intended to inspire creativity through draping, and producing 3D forms using fabric. The main source of inspiration comes from using architecture, origami and natural forms. The design uses folds, bold shapes incorporated into the fabrics to create dimension and form. You could say, some of the design are the same, if not similar, compare to Pattern Magic. This book is at the bottom of this book list solely because it is supposed to be a pattern cutting book. If I was to rate it for inspiration and advance pattern cutting techniques, then this would be rated slightly higher. This is more of a pattern cutting book that contains a collective of interesting techniques gathered together in one place.
Some people will not like the hand drawn illustrations and find the book unintuitive, especially if you are comparing it with the better pattern cutting books out there, like Pattern Magic. It may look a bit rushed and the author just quickly sketch the illustrations just to get the book quickly published. It is not the best presented pattern cutting book but it is worth a look at before deciding you like it or not. The fashion illustrations are quite bland to be fair and the layout is very basic. Presentation wise, looks a bit cheap for a book trying to aim at the higher end of the market. I find this is more appreciative for a student at college or university than the home sewer. The designs are achievable but might take some time to get your head around if you are not used to the shapes and pattern instruction. This not your usual pattern cutting book, so don’t buy it thinking you are going to make your first wardrobe from it.
The down side for most people is, it doesn’t have step-by-step instructions to guide you along the process to finish product. During some steps, you might require a mannequin to drape on to see the desire effect. Some of the language used maybe confusing for some people new to pattern cutting. This book is not for the pattern cutter or sewer that is not willing to put a bit of her/his own effort into it. You are required to experiment, and through trial and error, to produce these patterns/garments. In comparison to Pattern Magic, it is not as intuitive. As a pattern cutter for many years and a tutor, I find this is a good resource book for the classroom and a good one for challenging students to be more creative, independent, adventurous and pushing their boundaries. Get students out of their comfort zone. To most people, this book is only a good read and for browsing through the designs, rather than trying to attempt anything. If you are more experience in this field, then I would recommend Pattern Magic for you.
I hope you have enjoyed my book review.
Happy Pattern Cutting!
Shan x
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