Rohr's Pattern Drafting Books

I should mention that I am currently in negotiations with the copyright holder of Michael Rohr's pattern drafting books in an effort to reprint the books. We are uncertain as to the current demand for these texts as they've been unavailable for so long.

The current proposal is reprinting the red book Pattern Drafting & Grading: Women's and Misses Garment Design into one volume and the remaining 3 smaller books Grading Women's and Misses Garment Design, Pattern Drafting: Children's Garment Design and Draping: Women's and Misses Garment Design, into a second combined volume. The proposed retail price for each volume is $39.95.

If you know of these books and similarly agree these are worth exposing to a new generation, you can have a direct effect in this effort if you'd write me and tell others of this potentiality. The more feedback I get, the more likely it is that this can happen. Spread the word.

The myth of vanity sizing

I've been avoiding the topic of fit and sizing -which aren't the same thing- for a very long time. I haven't written about it because a truly comprehensive discussion is very controversial and guaranteed to piss off everyone from consumers to manufacturers. The problems associated with issues of poor fit or standard sizes are so complex that they cannot but include everyone in the user-producer stream. This isn't an issue of spreading blame; it's more complex than that. The biggest problem is expectations and beliefs.

First of all, there's no such thing as vanity sizing. Really. I could write an entire book about why there's no such thing as vanity sizing. That is not to say there are no problems with sizing but vanity is the least of them. It's best to understand the nature of sizing before we go crazy and adopt national sizing standards. People are so different from one another that it is an unreasonable expectation that our clothes should be sized uniformly. The day that we should only have one size "medium" across all manufacturers is also the day we should only need an identical dose of an identical medicine for an identical medical problem. Humans are unique.

Continue reading at Fashion-Incubator...

This changes everything

With the news of $60 a barrel of crude, this post couldn't be more timely. I think most people have traditionally viewed sustainable development strategies as lower grade trade offs for things they'd rather have and most people just don't want to do without. For example, vegetarianism is often seen as the consumption of twigs and berries when one might rather eat steak. My visit to Angel's Nest outside of Taos NM demonstrates that recent ecological innovations are briskly shutting all of that thinking aside. Consider the Hummer Limo we saw at Angel's Nest that runs exclusively on hydrogen and biodiesel:



Continue reading at Fashion-Incubator

Home again

I'm back! Boy, did we have loads of fun which I'll tell you about later. I took photos of some cool ideas to share regarding sustainability. Don't know that I ever mentioned it but I've idly toyed with the idea of getting a degree in environmental engineering. May as well considering this blogging gig doesn't pay. By that I mean I'm very disappointed that the last tutorial didn't seem to be very popular considering I only got one tip. One. Just one. As any of you know well, it's hard to justify doing something if you're not getting paid to do it. Obviously, it's not the value I'd assumed it was. Oh well, live and learn. Maybe I'll get into building bigger things.

Below are the only recreational photos I'm sharing of the Taos Solar Festival. Directly below is me with the solar tree at the Taos visitors center.



Continue reading at Fashion-Incubator...

Welt pocket construction

Picking up where I left off yesterday, sew both folds into place with 1/4" seam allowance.



Here you can see one side is done:



Continue reading at Fashion-Incubator...

Marking & Cutting

You have to know this before you get anywhere near the welt pocket project. When you’re learning something new, everything can seem equally important and you may not be sure which concepts are your real priorities. Another problem is if you mis-prioritize something here because it is similar to something you already know or you think that you already know how to do it well. Whatever. I don’t know how to make these things stand out in your mind but if you don’t read another thing, read this: Your greatest priority is to mark and cut correctly which -most likely- is not the way you learned to do it.



Continue reading at Fashion-Incubator...

Zippered welt pockets

My next on-line tutorial will be how to make zippered welt pockets. In order to do this project, you'll first have to learn how to make welt pockets. The method I will show you follows how a welt pocket machine -usually called a Reece machine because it's made by Reece -since merged with AMF and now known as AMF Reece- but still called a reece machine (a pdf product brochure is here). By the way, the name we use to describe this kind of pocket in the trade, is also reece. We don't call these welt pockets. We call them reece pockets. The pattern is labeled that way and if you asked somebody for a reece, they'd know you meant a cut rectangle measuring 8" x 3" because it only takes one piece of fabric to make these, not two (in manufacturing, you have to make your pattern pieces specific to the machine being used and this is one example of that). The underwelt for a reece is 8" x 2 1/2". Oh, and we do call an under welt an under welt. I know that's not logical but why does everybody assume the trade always does things logically? Believe me, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Continue reading "Zippered welt pockets" at Fashion-Incubator...

Misc Pattern Tip: trim darts

On an entirely unrelated note other than that this is a blog and I therefore must post the obligatory cat-picture, below you'll see an impediment to my productivity. Actually, his name is Right (his littermate's name is Left). Right likes to help with pattern projects. Colita is my usual helper but she only does sewing.



Continue reading Misc Pattern tip: trim darts on Fashion Incubator....

Discussion Forum

Today's my birthday but you're the one getting a present! The discussion forum (bulletin board) is configured and all ready to go. You'll have to log-in to post comments and questions. For now, the bulletin board is open to anyone although I do plan on making the resource section of each topic area (sources for fabrics, contractors and reps) limited to members only in the future. Please tell all your friends; the board needs posts! The major topic areas (feel free to suggest others) are:

Continue reading Discussion Forum at Fashion-Incubator

Vintage German Patterns

Leipzig, Germany 1934 Style 74821


I'm a pattern maker personally and professionally so it shouldn't surprise anyone that I also collect them. I collect vintage and foreign patterns, and vintage and foreign pattern and sewing books. In fact, I've overcollected to the tune of 8 boxes of patterns I'm intending to sell on ebay someday. Anyway, I found an amazing resource I have to tell you about. There's a lady in OK who is selling copies of old german pattern magazines, pre WW2 and I bought a few (present for my b-day!). If you're into that sort of thing, you may want to check it out too. She has a store on ebay called Memory Lane Treasures. Here's a sample style:

Continue reading at Fashion-Incubator....

Dallas and vionnet (updates)

I should just set up a redirect for this blog so you guys land over there instead of here cause that's where the goodies are.

yep, it's fashion-incubator.

you can now subscribe, do full text searching, add your 2 cents. check it out.

I may end up in dallas and you may want to go too.

oh! and it seem's vionnet's back in print!

Fashion-Incubator updates

I'm not crossposting material from the new blog location as frequently. The most recent posts to read at Fashion-Incubator are:

Centered Zipper Template
Centered Zipper Construction
Seam Class Specifications
Bloggers, mothers and tommys run amok
RAQ: Rarely Asked Questions