Sew-Brilliant

Added 3 new books to the pattern making book list.  Two were highly recommended by Kathleen Fasanella (Fashion Incubator), and the third was only mentioned by her, but I liked it because the title uses the word ‘Tailoring’. The Amazon prices are listed to give you an idea of how expensive these materials are.  In her article on making block patterns with saran wrap she points out that although there are several good books on pattern making and grading (lots that aren’t so good), the books by Jack Handford are actually used in the industry.  ’nuff said, they’re now on the list.

#14. Professional Patternmaking for Designers: Women’s Wear and Men’s Casual Wear by Jack Handford – $40
# 15. Professional Pattern Grading for Women’s, Men’s, and Children’s Apparel by Jack Handford – $270–$999 (not kidding! it’s hard to get)
# 16. A Tailoring Manual by Gertrude Strickland – $20

• Implemented Jerry Stratton’s extension to create multiple copies of an object. Nice extension for a first timer – no typos and great post.
• Looked at ~/.config/inkscape/extension-errors.log after errors encountered in running this extension. Removed extension-errors.log after each resolution of problem.then opened fresh inkscape and reran extension.
• Required install of latex, pstoedit, skencil, gimp, dia (I installed dia-gnome), transfig
• Useful commands:
  • less extension-errors.log /*puts log on screen one page at a time, press <spacebar> to get prompt, Q to quit*/
  • rm extension-errors.log /*erases the file so that after next inkscape extension test, only relevant messages will be in log*/
  • If error message states that an application is missing, type that app name in the command line. Ubuntu will state that app is not installed, and give you syntax of command, including the name of the package, to install that application. Neat. Saves alot of time.

My pattern system book list has been reduced to 14, each of which has different interests.

I already own three of these, and hopefully I can get the rest through the public library system.

1. Pattern Making for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong- $80
2. Basic Pattern Skills for Fashion Design by Bernard Zamkoft – $65
4. Design Apparel Through the Flat Pattern Method by Ernestine Kopp – $66
5. Clothing Construction by Evelyn A. Mansfield – $50 – got it!
6. Dress Pattern Designing, More Dress Pattern Desiging by Natalie Bray – $120 (2 vols)
7. Designing patterns: A fresh approach to pattern cutting by Hillary Campbell – $35
8. Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear by Winifred Aldrich – $46
9. Pattern Cutting and Making Up by Martin Shoben – $60
10. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing by Kathleen Fasanella – $60 – got it!
11. The Practical Guide To Patternmaking for Fashion Designers: Menswear by Lori A. Knowles – $40
12. The Practical Guide To Patternmaking for Fashion Designers: Juniors, Misses and Womens by Lori A. Knowles – $40
13. Basics Fashion Design: Construction by Annette Fischer – $20
14. Dress Design: Draping and Flat Pattern Making by Marion S. Hillhouse and Evelyn A. Mansfield – $100 – got it!

As a first pass at using SVG, I was experimenting with using an Inkscape extension to emulate a brass pattern layout machine.

This was not completed, but I’ll revisit it as I gain knowledge of inkscape and SVG.

I’ve posted the files on the wiki. I’d love to hear comments from inkscape and SVG experts about what I’m doing right/wrong.

[UPDATE] Having spent time reading the SVG spec, I see some very obvious improvements to be made in this. I should have started there instead of with the Inkscape API. You can comment if you want to, but I’m already moving on from this . . .