A few days ago I was catching up on the posts over at Fashion-incubator and saw that the site owner, Kathleen Fasanella had given a nice review of the book “Patternmaking in Fashion step by step”.

(And because of the title I have had the New Kids on the Block song stuck in my head. I was never a fan of them growing up, but still the horrible music stays with me.)

Amazon has it for only about 10 dollars so I placed an order and for most of today been stalking the ups tracking number. The book does not deal with historical clothing in any way shape or form but I am trying to expand my drafting knowledge.

I already have Jack Handford’s “Professional Patternmaking for Designers: Women’s Wear and Men’s Casual Wear“. Which I’ve read through several times and find most of it well explained. The line drawings at times and the text are not always enough. I had some confusion with the bust apex measurement and how they related to one of the drafts, but after reading it over a few more times it started to make sense.

Unfortunately, Handford’s book on grading seems no longer easily affordable or available and I have yet to come across any affordable alternatives. If anyone has any book suggestions for pattern grading please let me know in the comments. =)

For now I’ll go back to refreshing the ups tracking number every 2 minutes.