#cosplay patternmaking

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Book Review Comparison Chart

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Below the break is a complete list of reviews for all of the books included in this list, with links.

Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing:

Review

Rating: 10/10

Not Your Grandma’s Sewing Guide, by Kaitlyn Dornbier:

Review

Rating: 10/10

Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Sewing, by Donna Kooler:

Review

Rating: 9/10

Elementary Sewing Skills, by Merchant & Mills:

Review

Rating: 9/10

Make Your Own Patterns, by René Bergh:

Review

Rating: 9/10

Couture Sewing Techniques, by Claire Shaeffer:

Review

Rating: 9/10

The Dressmaking Technique Bible, by Lorna Knight:

Review

Rating: 8/10

Building Patterns, by Suzy Furrer

Review

Rating: 8/10

The Pattern Making Primer, Barnfield & Richards:

Review

Rating: 7/10

Book of Cosplay Sewing, by Svetlana Quindt

Review

Rating: 6/10

Patternmaking for Fashion Design, by Helen Joseph Armstrong

Review

Rating: 6/10

Sewing for Beginners, by Naraku Brock:

Review 

Rating: 3/10

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Review: Make Your Own Patterns, by René Bergh

René Bergh’s step-by-step patternmaking book gives relatively easy-to-follow instructions for each of the most important aspects of pattern drafting. Her tutorials are designed to help people of all skill levels to create custom fitted clothing patterns for their unique specifications.

The instructions look kind of like high school geometry problems, and a few of the steps aren’t well worded so they can be confusing, but so far this book is the most useful pattern making book I’ve tried to use. 

It was recommended to me by a professional costumer and Cosplayer I met recently. She uses it for all of her custom costuming projects, for everything from off-broadway theatrical costumes, to cosplay commissions, to personal projects.

I’ve gone through a bit of the book myself, and from what I’ve seen it’s pretty thorough. It has the basics, like drafting a fitted shell for a sloper template (the foundation of all your patterns, fitted to your specific measurements), and includes chapters covering everything from sleeves, to necklines, to pockets. It even has a section of quarter-scale basic patterns, which can be copied out, scaled up, and used to create the fitted shells if you don’t want to do all the drafting by hand (drafting can be a time-consuming pain in the ass).

As for the instructionals themselves, they’re pretty straightforward, as far as I can tell. I tried the basic bodice block tutorial, and didn’t have too much trouble with it, although there are a couple places where it says “place X point” but doesn’t say specifically where, which caused a bit of confusion. The tutorial comes with diagrams though, so I could guess.

The basic bodice draft I ended up with seems to be approximately the right size for the mannequin I based it on, so I’d say this book would be pretty useful for people who want to learn to draft their own custom Cosplay patterns, and really for anyone who wants to learn how to make fitted patterns of their own.

The book is also relatively inexpensive, if you get it used. I think I got mine for maybe $30?

Tl;dr: All in all, I’d say this book would be pretty handy for Cosplayers, whether you’re new blood looking to dip your toes into the world of custom Cosplay, or a seasoned veteran looking to spruce up your Cosplay game.

I’d give it a 9/10.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review: The Pattern Making Primer, by Barnfield & Richards

The Pattern Making Primer is a basic introduction to making your own clothing patterns. The sections on fitting and customizing basic clothing patterns are decent, but the section on drafting a basic block (the base clothing patterns are based off of) was entirely unhelpful for what I was looking for. It provides pre-drafted generic blocks to work off of, but they’re maybe 1/4 scale, and require sizing-up in order to fit them to people, but the book does not provide instructions for how to to that.

I forget exactly when I got this book, but I think it was right around when I first started thinking about trying to learn how to make my own patterns. Honestly, the book hasn’t been that much help to me. Maybe once I have more of a foundation in pattern drafting it’ll make a good supplement or reference book, but overall it just doesn’t mesh with my learning style. 

I’m more of a hands-on, learning-by-doing type of person, so for me the step-by-step process of drafting my own fitted shell is more helpful than trying to fit a generic pre-made shell to myself, and the lack of instructions for how to re-size the blocks provided makes that section of the book basically useless for me.

This book would be great for anyone who wanted to skip the time-consuming process of drafting their own shell pattern by hand, and just wanted to get straight to fitting fabric to themselves, and people who don’t do well with diagrams, or the “put this line here, place this point on that line, connect those dots” style of tutorial - provided they knew how to scale-up clothing patterns. 

(I didn’t, so I used the slash-and-spread method, found here: https://www.threadsmagazine.com/2008/11/01/quick-reference-for-cut-and-spread-pattern-grading )

My attempt produced with mixed results.

I copied out the pre-made pattern from the book

Cut it into bits for re-sizing

And ended up with a front that was longer than the back (probably my fault, re-sizing it not something I have much experience with), and neither piece met the centers or side seams the way they were supposed to.

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but live and learn.

This book would be an affordable starting point for someone who wants to learn how to make their own patterns, without having to deal with the hassle of drafting their own custom shells by hand, but beware the re-sizing and vague instructions. I picked my copy up for about $25 new, presumably used would be even cheaper. You might also be able to find it at some libraries these days if you wanted to flip through it before shelling out your hard-earned cash.

Tl;dr, A book designed for people who want to learn how to make patterns, but don’t want to deal with drafting a fitted shell from scratch, or people who don’t do well with instructions and diagrams that look like geometry problems.

I’d give it a 7/10. While the actual drafting of the blocks is useless to me, the tailoring of existing blocks seems helpful.