| Let me talk to you as one pattern
maker to another. (Yes, this is rather long, but it may save you the
cost of a phone call.) Suggestion.... you may find this easier to read
if you print it out. We are all looking for that magical
patterning software:
- one that is affordable by a costume or custom made clothing
designer - maker,
- that will run on your current computer
- and that will let you put any pattern into it easily
- and then resize it, just by typing in a new set of measurement.
In my way of thinking, it doesn't make sense to dismiss CPM as the
tool you will use just because it hasn't yet reached that "holy grail"
of computer pattern making.
CPM still makes patternmaking soooooo much easier and more
pleasant. It would be foolish not to take advantage of what it can do
while you wait for us to achieve the ultimate goal.
One reason that most of the garment industry software costs so much
money is that it is very expensive to develop the complexity of
programming that is needed to do what it does.
So far the big software companies have not seen it prudent to try
to accommodate the additional complexity of our special needs and also
make the software affordable for us.
I know I will get CPM to the ultimate goal. It is the sales that
will underwrite the programming needed. Why wait? The upgrade will be
a reasonable price.
An attempt to explain about computerized "automated" drafting
and resizing.
There were many times, since 1985 when I first began to "tilt
against the windmill" of accurate-fit pattern making software, when I
would have happily let CPM disappear into cyberspace if some one else
came up with an acceptable software.
I have rushed to look at and evaluate every one as it came out, in
hopes that I could just relax and buy it to use. But each time the new
software flunked either "accurate fit" or the "affordable" test. Most
of them flunked on both counts.
There are now a number of software programs out there that profess
to automatically custom resize any pattern you have entered or created
in the program. Most of these programs are extraordinarily expensive
and aimed at the mass production garment industry. None of them do a
good job of accommodating really oddly shaped bodies or postures.
- For a computer to automatically resize any patterns, the
software needs to have the drafting algorithm for those patterns
programed into it.
- The expensive drafting programs that say they do automated
resizing of patterns all come with libraries of pattern styles that
have been programed into them.
- They expect that the patterns you make will be created by
starting with one of these patterns and then altering it through
flatpatterning methods.
- These patterns are all based on garment industry drafting
systems.
- Garment industry drafting methods, which are devised to produce
patterns that fit the "industry standard" sized bodies, go askew
when measurements for bodies with not average proportions and/or not
average postures are used with them.
- (Keep in mind that garment industry "fit-models" are paid very
well because bodies that are really the "industry standard" are rare
indeed.)
You may have noticed that it has become fashionable for clothes to
fit badly. This is an inspired marketing concept to easily solve the
problem of getting garments made from woven fabrics to fit the the
wide range of body sizes and shapes that exist in the real world.
This marketing ploy may be working for the mass fashion industry,
but it is not acceptable for the custom-made trade. We have to make
sure that our clothes fit correctly. That is one of the reasons
customers come to us. Additionally, when one is making a costume,
character definition comes
through fit
as well as through style.
Garment industry oriented patterning programs do not use drafting
systems that ensure an accurate fit for tailored woven fabric garments
by accommodating the angle of the shoulders and the neck on the torso.
The majority of them use proportional formulas to establish some
crucial measurement points that should be the actual measurement of
the client. CPM includes a couple of those drafting methods in its set
of basic drafts, just for the sake of illustrating this.
Why I created CPM and what it means to me as a costume pattern
maker.
For centuries the solution to making custom-fit garments in an
expedient manner was to create a custom-made fitting-form that matched
the clients body shape, size and posture. It used to be, for instance,
that in the Hollywood Costumers Union, there were people who were
specifically designated as "form makers". With the cost of labor being
what it is now, the expense of having a "French form" created for
every client is almost prohibitive.
When I came into the costume business in the early 1960's, I was
privileged to see the "old ways" still in practice, but just late
enough be constantly told that, within 15 years the business would be
very different. The cost of labor was one reason, but the other was
that young people were not longer willing to spend the years of
apprenticeship that was necessary to develop to the skill level of
professional clothing artisan.
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The traditional method of patternmaking went
through multiple steps.
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Patterns were created by combining commercial
patterns and drafted pieces, resized to the clients measurements
by slashing and spreading or tucking.
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Some patterns were draped on a draping form, which
ever size you had that was the closest to the clients measurement.
(Maybe you wrapped a bit of padding on it here and there to be
closer to the clients measurements.)
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Patterns were next put together in a "muslin"
mockup and fit to the body of the actual client.
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Often times, neck openings and armhole placements
would be so far off that radical remaking of the pattern would
need to be done and then another "muslin" mockup and fitting would
be done.
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Only once an acceptable mockup was achieved could
the garment be cut. |
As a result, a good deal of my concentration during my career has
been on finding methods and tools that would help speed "process" and
to methods of teaching that could speed up the time it took for young
talent to gain a masterly control over the medium of textiles and
garment making.
As I began to understand the time that could be saved by starting
with an accurate "fit block" when starting to create a costume
pattern, I put a great deal of research into drafting systems until I
finally arrived at a method that worked for every odd shaped body
anyone could put in front of me. (The 5'4" 58" bust jazz singer, the
portly fellow who was missing a lot of shoulder and chest muscle on
one side due to an auto accident, etc.)
When I began creating CPM, my goal was to be able to skip the
muslin mockup and cut straight into the fabric. I wanted to be able to
hand over the creation of basic fit-blocks to students, non pattern
maker staff and shop volunteers, instead of having to stay late, come
in early, or work on weekends to be able to find the quiet time my
mind needs for concentrating on drafting "the long hard way". It was
pure gravy that I got more than that.
I looked on pattern making as a tedious task I could not escape. I
am good at it, but it requires me to put my mind process into a mode
of working that is not natural for me. It's very energy draining. Seam
allowances, facings, linings, marking off hooks, buttons etc. all were
tedious bores.
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Now I can do all my flat pattern design on the
computer. I think it's the best computer game around.
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I do it sitting down.
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I don't get tense worrying about being perfectly
"accurate" in my drafting technique. The computer ensures that.
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I almost jump with delight every time I add a seam
allowance or make a facing because it is so easy.
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I do my pattern layouts on the computer, sitting
down.
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Because the pattern pieces are placed accurately
on the grain when they are plotted out, I can trust less skilled
crew to lay out the fabric by lining the selvage up with the edge
of the cutting table and then lining the plotted pattern edge up
with the edge of the cutting table.
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All my patterns are stored on computer disks. No
more boxes of patterns to store or slopers hanging around.
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I use the custom sized blocks to quickly customize
draping forms to an individual body.
- I cut a custom block out in heavy canvas-weight fabric,
- put it over a form the closest to the needed size, but not
larger than the clients smallest measurement,
- and then stuff it out with all the discarded plastic
dry-cleaning bags and shopping bags I've saved up.
What luxury!
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Resizing a pattern is soooo easy with CPM, using
the "resize" tools, in comparison to the old "slash and spread"
process.
- Chopping those paper pieces up, piecing new pieces in,
taping them together. (Messy, messy.)
- I can again, trust less skilled crew to do this work because
of the mechanical accuracy of the computerized process.
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I even use it to make period bias dresses and it's
still accurate enough to cut directly in the fabric, with just
fine tuning of the hang of the seams in the fitting. |
The only part CPM doesn't do yet is the automatic resizing of any
pattern to typed in measurements. This is my goal just as it is
everyone else's.
I'm making CPM Available now to everyone because it already saves
so much time and makes pattern making so much more palatable a
process, it seems silly for everyone wait until the last ultimate goal
is reached. Start using this wonderful tool now to save time.
---------- Stephanie
Volunteer Reference:
Professor Virginia (Gini) Vogle, the faculty costume designer at the
University of Nevada, Reno, has volunteered to act as a reference for
one and all who would like to talk with someone who has extensive
experience using it. Call 775 - 784 - 1175 or
Email
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