CSM class

Last week I was down in London taking a pattern drafting class at Central Saint Martins (a mecca for fashion design!). I had previously taken a pattern cutting course there around Christmas, and I thought this would be a good follow up. If you think you may be interested in taking a similar course, there are some differences. The main difference between the two is that pattern drafting is exactly what it sounds like – drafting patterns from specific measurements using mathematical formulas, and pattern cutting is working from a standard block and then manipulating features, such as darts or necklines. I think pattern cutting is a great class to take for home sewers because it shows how easily you can adjust and change commercial patterns. Pattern drafting is also good knowledge to have, but I must admit it is very involved and time consuming (although you get faster with practice), and tends to be a labour of love.

The pattern drafting class I took was a week long and made a skirt from our own measurements. We practiced drafting and sewing up a basic skirt and then we were able to make our own design. After a couple rejected drafts I finally came up with my design – a pencil skirt with side zip, facing, and a ruffled back panel underneath the bum and extending to the hem (below).

The skirt was fairly easy, but it was my first time making ruffles from scratch to fit a shaped panel so it was a bit laborious. It took me a few hours to construct the panel, and this is me after drafting, cutting, and sewing most of the skirt in one afternoon (I was REALLY frazzled to say the least – thanks for the picture Nia!)

I didn’t end up fully sewing the skirt in class because I wanted to spend my precious class time learning new skills rather than finishing a toile. I have since bought some fabric to make it up in, and when I do I will show how I did the ruffles for the toile and how I am going to do them differently for the actual skirt (the way I did it for the toile was more time consuming).