Learning Fitting and Pattern Making: From Luxury Fashion to Home Sewing
The journey of how I learnt to fit clothes.. and what I wish I knew when I first started!
I think you'd be surprised to hear that we didn't have a single lesson about fitting at fashion school! Not one. 🤯 Although we often had 'fittings', the focus was mainly on design and drafting, and we tweaked our patterns the best we could.
As I've been preparing for my upcoming course; Fitting Foundations, I realised that I've hardly shared my journey of learning fitting techniques - both in the fashion industry and the home sewing world.
I've really enjoyed looking back in time to write this post. I hope you enjoy reading...
Fitting techniques in the fashion industry
When I became a pattern maker in the fashion industry, I worked for a small luxury brand and was in charge of all the collection and production patterns and standards. Since I'd never been formally taught how to fit patterns, it’s fair to say the learning curve was veryyy steep.
Luckily, I’d already picked up a few tricks from watching and helping out in fittings during my internships. And the designer I was working with at the time was HOT on fit, which definitely kept me on my toes and pushed me to keep improving.
Something that might surprise you though, is that in the fashion industry (or at least in the luxury fashion houses where I worked), even though fittings happen all the time, there’s no talk of “full bust” or “broad back” adjustments.
It’s all pretty intuitive: pinching out fabric here, adding some there, and seeing how it affects the rest of the garment. You work with what’s right in front of you and then translate it back to the pattern later.
Because of this, I quickly got used to thinking about the pattern and the adjustments I’d need to make while I was still in the fitting - with the fit model and toile right there in front of me - to ensure what I was doing on the toile was possible on the pattern!
Fitting techniques in the world of home sewing
When I discovered the world of home sewing, I was amazed to see all the adjustment names and techniques! Although I had probably been doing them in a similar way over the years, it was so interesting to see them clearly labelled and categorised.
I bought a lot of fitting books, read endless blogs and spent hours learning which techniques to use and working out how they affected both the pattern and the finished garment.
Although I quickly realised that while fitting books were a good starting point, they were often confusing to work through. Some felt overwhelming, others were super basic — and occasionally, somehow, both at the same time!
They didn’t explain many of the things I’d learned in the industry, like how to work through the fitting process, or quickly check changes without making hundreds of toiles.
It was missing all the good stuff!!
Why I created my own fit guide and process
I found students were saying the same thing: they didn't know which alterations they need and they weren't getting the results they wanted by just trying them out - piecing together bits of information they found online - they just felt frustrated or disheartened and usually gave up!
This led me on a mission to develop my own guide, and what a task it was!! I started during a four-month lockdown in our Sydney apartment in 2021, I set out my goal to create an easy process and guide for my students, which I've been tweaking and adding to ever since!
It is now a mega fit guide with step-by-step tutorials and all the important info, such as how to prep your toile, set yourself up for success and a fitting checklist so you can work in the best fitting order and see which areas of the garment need to be adapted.
Because once you've easily identified which adjustments are needed, you can ignore all the others and focus on the ones you need. Saving you time and making the process less overwhelming.
Each adjustment page breaks down:
What to look for on the toile
How to adapt the toile to test your adjustments
Plus a detailed step-by-step process to adjust the pattern
It was a real labour of love creating this guide, but it's been so handy for my students both in my in-person fitting workshops and online. I often get messages when they pull it out to help fit their new sewing patterns.
Kayleigh joined Fitting Foundations last year and decided to get hers printed 😍😍
"This will be a treasured part of my tool kit for years!"
Taking the course online
The course started as in-person workshops, but I was getting so many requests for those of you on the other side of the world (or even those nearby who wanted flexible learning time!)
Which is why it feels so good that I've brought this course online! With videos to go alongside the guide to make the process fun and easy to follow along at home!
Fitting foundations resources
Fitting Foundations includes all the resources you need to get confident with fitting:
✨ Videos - guide you through the process of measuring, prepping and adapting your toile.
✨ A dress block (approx size 6-38) - our ultimate try-it-yourself exercise to put your skills into practise. Which means we'll all be working on the same project at the same time - plus the dress block is a great neutral base to help learn about fit.
✨ Written instructions - to help adjust the pattern, including your mega fit guide - which you can refer back to anytime your fitting patterns in the future.
✨ Community group - to connect with other makers, see how others are approaching the project and enjoy a space to ask questions and get fit feedback from me!
If you'd like to join us and fast-track your learning from the years I've spent developing this course, then the doors are opening to the waitlist on Saturday 27th December!
Being part of the waitlist means you'll get early access to spaces at a special price.
Plus bonus goodies - including 3 workbooks:
✨ Turn your dress block into a top and skirt block
💕 Turn your close fit block to an easy fit block
🧵 Use your block to check the fit of your sewing patterns.
I'm soo excited to share this process with you and to bring together a community of makers whilst we cheer each other on and learn the fitting and toiling process.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch!
Alys 💕
