Pattern Magic Paperback – Bargain Price, October 6, 2010

It has been a long time since I have found a pattern making book that I have found as exciting as this book.Once you get beyond the basics of creating patterns that fit, commonly called slopers, what do you do with them? Most designs I see on the street, in catalogs, and in the stores are so easy to execute that the design process is not challenging at all.But there are a few designs that have me scratching my head thinking "How did they do that?" I have taken to calling them "Pattern Puzzles." This book is full of these designs. Each one is uniquely different but beautifully illustrated and explained in anywhere from one to three page spreads. Tomoko never takes more than three pages of illustrations to show how to make even the most complex and unusual design from a fitted sloper.I am pleased to see her using the front bodice sloper for women that I now use in my online patternmaking classes. It has one dart for the bust to the waist and one to the armscye (arm hole). In my experience this configuration for the darts provides the optimum way of achieving an accurate custom fit. I also believe it is the best sloper for visualizing how to create the lines of original designs so you can convert from a two dimensional form to a three dimensional one.She uses a technique for evaluating pattern shapes that I have found invaluable in my teaching which is to prototype design ideas in paper so you can assemble the shape before you even touch needle and thread.Tomoko also shares another passion of mine for developing design ideas using dress forms in scale. All the photos in this book are of the designs on a half scale manikin.Caveat #1: These designs are unusual. If you are looking for the conventional, this is not for you. But if you step beyond "I wouldn't want to wear that" and move on to "What can I learn from this pattern design technique," I believe you will increase your pattern design skills exponentially.Caveat #2: There are no sewing instructions. I would recommend when you try these ideas out you do what Tomoko does and try them in scale first. If you don't have a scale dress form, fashion dolls such as the ones Tomoko works with are an excellent medium to experiment with.Bravo Tomoko--I can hardly wait until your volume 2 is translated into English. Although your illustrations are so clear, I am almost tempted to get the Japanese edition.Don McCunnAuthor of How to Make Sewing Patterns

I tend to be very conservative in what I wear, and while I found some of the garments *beyond* hideous, it was the techniques that were important, as once you learn the technique, you can do whatever you please. I was thrilled to see this available in English; I have collected Japanese-language craft books for decades, since I discovered these astonishing creations while living there. The books were so carefully and beautifully done that you could use them to make wonderful things even if you could not read a word. Crafts there are about care, not mass production, and the books are delights to behold. No matter what you are creating, that attention to detail is what makes it something you use and treasure the rest of your life.The section on adding a built-in bow to the bodice was worth the money of the book alone, and the beautiful bodice with alternating folds up the front, somewhat like a wheat stalk, was lovely. Note that this was not just some fancy cutting and stitching, for which fit is sacrificed; the darts were simply rotated and incorporated into the design.And not all of the techniques must start with a sloper; some can simply be incorporated as modifications to an existing pattern of the appropriate type that fits well.Flat-pattern drafting is well within the reach of anyone who understands the basics of sewing very well, such as the effects of grainline changes for different types of fabrics and the importance of darts (as well as how different types of darts are used to control fullness).All in all, this is a wonderful addition to a field in which there are not enough books, largely due to unwarranted fear on the part of many who sew. (I frankly find it much easier to simply draft a sloper to use to create other patterns rather than go through endless fitting changes for every new pattern -- fitting changes which differ by pattern company.)By the way, I got sick of trying to draw my own croquis all the time, so I purchased Fashionflat Sketchpad {Womens Collection}, which has extremely thick covers and good-quality paper.