How I Became a Pattern Designer
I love hearing other peoples journeys in how they got to where they are, so I thought I would share mine! This is my personal journey to becoming a Digital Sewing Pattern Designer.
THE EARLY YEARS
I always wanted to make my own clothes or have a job in fashion of some sort. I remember sitting in elementary school sketching dresses and selling the designs to other kids with our class money. Can you tell I have always wanted to be an entreprenuer?
FASHION SCHOOL
As I got older, I learned sewing from my incredible mom and some amazing school teachers. I was convinced I had to go to fashion school. I looked seriously at FIDM and Parsons. I even finished my application to FIDM before deciding to go to a state university. Fashion school just didn’t feel right. The amount of debt I would have had to accumulate and the extremely high possibility of graduating without a job really intimidated me.
I struggled in college to find a degree that interested me. I changed my major from teaching sewing, to marketing, to advertising, to Spanish…then eventually landed on getting a BA in Liberal Arts.
Little madswick
Although I’m proud of my degree, it didn’t help me learn the things I wanted to learn. By the time I finished my degree, I had a 1 year old daughter. My desire to design was funneled into sewing for her, so I started a small Etsy shop selling self-drafted kids clothing. It was extremely fun for me, but I still felt like I had a lot to learn before I could create the business I really wanted.
Taking time to reflect
Flash forward a year and I had to put my shop on vacation mode due to a difficult first trimester and the pandemic. It was a strangely peaceful time for me where I was able to do a lot of self reflecting and focus on my time as a mom. I took my time in figuring out my next steps. I knew my Etsy shop wasn’t very profitable and it wasn’t very scalable unless I got a manufacturer. I also knew it wasn’t my long term passion. So I began to research.
Up until this point, I self drafted almost everything I made. I used a few patterns in high school, but after my incredible High School sewing teacher spent a semester teaching basic pattern drafting, I was hooked.
At this point in my life, I was pretty far removed from the sewing and fashion industry. I didn’t even have a social media account (which I will say is the best way to live)! But, as my girls were no-longer newborns, and I was starting to feel the need to have a project for me, I began to look into what options I had. I can’t even remember how I realized it, but I finally discovered that there were independent sewing pattern designers. This was crazy to me! I thought I would have to go back to “school” to ever do something as technical as patterning, but I started seeing amazing Indie Designers like Helens Closet Patterns who were essentially self taught. It was so inspiring!
I remember thinking, “I don’t even know if I like sewing”, but I knew I loved pattern drafting. Discovering people could sell a digital file to anybody around the world was such exciting news.
Leaps of faith
This time of our life was a whirlwind of events. What we thought was a dream job for my partner was becoming toxic. The home we built and spent so much time perfecting was feeling like a burden. The life we had been building just didn’t feel right anymore.
So we took a huge leap of faith. We sold our house, quit that “dream job”, and started working on what we thought we wanted to do.
We found a fun house to rent in a historic district, I chopped my hair off, and we hit the ground running with our ideas.
Learning pattern making
I started learning every single thing I could about pattern making and the Indie Sewing Pattern community. I bought basic pattern blocks from Pattern Lab London and watched all of their free courses. Then I purchased the pattern course Pattern Workshop by Lauren Dahl. Both of these resources encouraged pattern design in Adobe Illustrator, and I have really loved it. I learned grading from the incredible Skillshare course by Caroline Barulis from Fashion Half Cut. I studied many fashion books and started practicing and practicing. I practiced by digital drafting many of my own patterns and by using patterns from Independent designers.
Countless hours were poured into researching best practices, fitting skills, and listening to sewing and patterning podcasts. Some of the most instructive learning came from just making mistakes. Loads of mistakes.
Madswick
When I started 2022, I was convinced I would produce 4 sellable patterns by the end of the year. What I didn’t realize was how much work and learning I still had to do. I thought I could just self draft like I always had and easily sell a pattern. I didn’t take into account the necessary skills like: illustration, pattern grading, providing clear instructions, and social media work. These were all things I needed to have in place before I would feel ready. It felt like a long time, but when I look back on what I learned and how much time went into getting where I am today, I feel really proud of how far I have come. From that little girl selling her designs to classmates to a sewing pattern designer selling real designs to people all over the world.
-Mads