I have learned to draft patterns with Seamly2d and have got the hang of it now but I’m looking to get a better understanding of pattern cutting, particularly combining this with the power of Seamly2d.
Are there any good resources for bespoke menswear pattern cutting?
I have patternmaking for fashion design by Helen Joseph Armstrong and pattern cutting for menswear by Gareth Kershaw. Both of these are great and have given me a good understanding of the pattern making process but I feel like there must be resources better for bespoke tailoring.
I have drafted the basic body block in Seamly2d from Kershaw’s book and tried to change some of constants used in the system to be proportional to another measurement to make them more scalable. I feel like Seamly2d has the power to make patterns accurate across a greater range of body shapes than using what seems to be rules of thumb from the books. I’m an engineer by day and I’ve done this with my own judgement and limited understanding of pattern cutting but would like to know if there are better resources out there.
There is a general list of resources on the wiki, but little hint as to which are better (yet. Maybe you can begin the process. Possibly as sub-pages?)
I don’t think Kershaw has even made it to the list yet.
Hopefully the next poster to come along has a better answer, but I wanted to be sure you got a speedy welcome!
Hello. As I always try to spread among people which have to do with clothes, the best way to deal with pattermaking is to study and to use a proportional system based on human body researchs. Furthermore parametric cad softwares are those which works perfectly with proportional functions-based systems.
For me, as an italian and professional worker in a tailor shop, the Ligas italian system is the best (you just think even the Ligas heir use Valentina nowadays for some tasks!)
Another system could be the muller & sohn, but I think it is less powerful than Ligas in the pure creation of the basic structures of patterns
Thank you! I had a quick Google to find information about the Ligas system but maybe because I’m trying in English I couldn’t find very much at all apart from a few references to it. Do you have any resources you could point me to?
About 3 years ago, I discovered Seamly2D and found that I needed to learn a little more about pattern making before I could use the software effectively. Both of the books you are using are very good ones, in my humble opinion, and they both resize very well if you change your multi-size measurements for individual measurements, as long as you use formulas and measurements for placing nodes and curves.
However, short of going back to school to learn pattern making, there is really no way anyone’s going to impart to you exactly how they arrive at these directions and shapes and how they apply to the human body unless you go back to the old masters - like W.D.F. Vincent and I Rosenfeld - and practicing until it becomes 2nd nature to you.
I wish you the very best in deciphering this very complex, yet seemingly simple, topic that I still haven’t found the answers that my mind needs. And if you do find something outside of going back to school, please share it with me
Thank you Grace, I’ve used formulas and followed the instructions on the forums for creating bezier curves and have really enjoyed learning about it all! I guess I am further down the dunning-kruger curve than I thought though. (ironically?)
My analytical brain wants to jump into knowing exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing when I draft the patterns in Seamly2d, since it is such a powerful tool compared to drafting on paper!
Thank you very much for pointing me to the old masters, that sounds like exactly what I’m looking for at the moment. I may even be inspired to go back to school at some point
LOL, @christophermakes, in your original message, I recognized what I feel about wanting the details and not only the instructions. You can find some of the books on the Internet Archive - they’re wonderful for the out of print, really old books
If you do go back to school, I’d look at the Muller & Sohn or the Ligas that @luca_lavore mentioned. He’s a wizard with tailoring
Guido Hofenbitzer ( Europa Verlag) hat zwei sehr gute Bände geschrieben und bezieht sich dabei unter anderem auf Müller und Sohn.
Für mich ist es mein Standartwerk. Ich arbeite seit etwa zwei Jahren mit Seamly2d. es erleichtert mir meine Arbeit sehr. Kundenaufträge werden immer im Mehrgrößenschnitt hergestellt und bieten mir auch danach wertvolle Dienste…
Ich arbeite seid 30 Jahren in diesem Beruf. Um gute Schnitte zu entwickeln muss man immer wieder viel ausprobieren und neugierig bleiben - die Herausforderung der letzten Jahre war, meine Grundschnitte so in Seamly umzusetzen, dass sie auch weiterhin funktionieren - und es geht - auch mit einigen Rückschlägen…die die hier an der Software arbeiten machen einen super Job!!!
Danke für den guten Rat! Hofenbitzer ist leider nur in deutscher Sprache erhältlich. Ich denke nicht, dass mein Deutsch gut genug ist, um ein technisches Dokument zu lesen.
Hello dear Christopher,
I am new on board, after I introduce me self at the Newbie Site, I start reading since hours.
Christopher as far I read your other posts, you have deep knowledge, I am not sure if you would find much more information in foreign language books.
Like Scholli told, I would answering the same, M&S offers very good explanations.
M&S manual books did not include measurements for all sizes, they sell the list of measurements separate.
Think you know the Homepage from M&S with the Shop.
The books you spoke from are great, and if you looking for english written books, maybe you would like this: Men´s Garments / Esmod
One of my employees has this book at my costume shop. This a very good tailoring book. While it doesn’t really cover pattern making, it covers all aspects of suit construction and alterations.
