LEARNING PATTERN MAKING CHANGED HOW I SEE CLOTHES

Learning pattern making didn't just add a skill — it changed how I look at clothes completely. After going back to fashion school and all the construction training, pattern making was the next step.

AT THE START, IT DIDN'T FEEL EASY AT ALL

I'll be honest — after my first pattern-making class I went home convinced I couldn't do it. Drafting means adding and subtracting fractions, and maths was the thing I'd always struggled with at school. Sitting there with rulers and measurements and calculations brought all that old frustration flooding back, and for a bit I genuinely wondered if this part just wasn't for me.

What turned it around was one small thing. A teacher at the Fashion Institute of Florida told me to use a fractions app to do the sums — and honestly, that was it, the whole barrier just dropped away. The maths didn't vanish, but I stopped drowning in it, and I could finally pay attention to the actual pattern instead of panicking over the numbers.

After that, it started to click. Measurements mattered, accuracy mattered, and tiny adjustments made a real difference to how something fit and moved. Fit isn't about chasing perfect — it's about understanding the body and how fabric behaves on it.

The best bit was the confidence. Once you understand how a pattern's actually put together, you stop following instructions blindly and guessing — you start seeing why something works, or why it doesn't. And that follows you through everything, from cutting to sewing to alterations.

It changed how I look at shop-bought clothes, too. I can't help noticing seam placement and proportion and whether something's balanced now — it's automatic. I don't really see a finished dress anymore. I see all the decisions that went into it.

Going back to pattern making didn't just fill a gap. It changed how I think about fit and the whole relationship between a body and a garment — and it's still shaping my work today. 

These days that training mostly shows up in how I tackle problems. When something's not working — a construction issue, a fit adjustment, a pattern that needs changing — I don't rush in and start fixing anymore. I stop and work out what's actually going wrong first. It feels like an informed decision now, not a guess. That's the bit that's stuck with me most, and it's still how I work on everything today.

CONTINUE THE SERIES

This is the fourth in a six-part series on returning to formal fashion education:

1. Why I Went Back to Fashion School
2. Inside the Fashion Institute of Florida
3. What Fashion School Taught Me About Construction
4. Learning Pattern Making Changed The Way I See Clothes (you are here)
   
5. From the Classroom to the Runway NYFW 2024
6. My 2nd Season at New York Fashion Week