Guest Blogger - Suzy Patterns

Today I give you my first ever guest blogger post. Please let me introduce Suzy G, from Suzy Patterns. She is talking about her pattern making and production experiences, which as you know is a hot topic for me right now! i am very excited about this post as me and she are very likeminded when it comes to sewing obsession and where it is taking us. So here is her story, please enjoy, and do get the Antoinette Dress pattern, it is free and it is gorgeous!!!!!

I have loved fashion since I was a pre teen and later I started loving, in an almost obsessive way, sewing. Not sewing anything and everything. Sewing clothes! 

The thought of launching a small clothing line appeal to me but only momentarily. My love of sewing is deeply connected with the fantastic worldwide sewing community. Through social media sites and blogs, I have made friends everywhere and I could not be without their blogs, their creations and their support. I wanted to stay connected to this so decided to launch a small sewing pattern company. My inspiration comes from many places but I love period and mid century fashions. I also wanted to create a line for petite women, as I find no matter what pattern I buy it’s always way too big in places.

Suzy Patterns was (and still is) a slow evolving project, which I am taking very seriously whilst still enjoying it and not feeling overwhelmed. After a lot of reading (that I still do) I started by taking a series of pattern making short courses and this gave me the basics to create patterns. When you know the basics, the world is your oyster. And you can take charge of your learning at your own pace. As this is a small venture outsourcing services like pattern digitizing and grading was the most cost effective way of doing it so after researching a few companies in London, I sent my paper pattern and size charts away. It was such an exciting step, which I confess was also nerve wrecking. All the companies I researched grade mostly for fashion /RTW industry so pattern preparation and presentation is very different from home sewing patterns. A lot of work was done when I received the digital file, mainly with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

Outsourcing the grading has its advantages but also disadvantages. The main one was the lack of control over how the grading was done. Grading is a high level skill. For my current pattern, The Antoinette Dress, grading was an issue and the pattern ended up running smaller than I wanted. But you live and you learn and I take these challenges happily because I know I will learn something, 

Suzy Patterns is a one woman show, competing for attention with my day job but nothing has made me happier than spending endless evenings sewing all the Antoinette samples, writing technical instructions and tweaking the final PDF pattern (names, grain lines, sizes, pattern pieces descriptions are not part of what I got from the grading company). I also had some fantastic people help me with pattern testing and proofreading.

My first pattern The Antoinette Dress is inspired in the romance of fashions found in the Edwardian era and the sexy, sleek styles of the 1950s. It’s available for free in PDF format. If you decide to sew an Antoinette, I would love to see it.

I am now working on my second pattern, which I’m hoping to have available sometime during the summer. You can expect a gorgeous, little number with added improvements. Inspiration….the 50s!

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