Gareth KershawPattern Cutting for Menswear

It's clear that the other review writers know little to nothing about pattern drafting, and that's with me not having read the book yet. They may be experienced stitchers, but the complaints voiced in their reviews show their ignorance for making patterns - particularly for menswear. Tailoring and patterning are challenging - they are not considered easy by the vast majority.I plan to utilize this book in the men's tailoring course I'm teaching this spring, and will update my review of the book after I've spent some time with it.

THEE MOST CONFUSED PIECE OF TRASH. The directions are extremely HARD! . I've been sewing for about a year and half and I'm looking to level up my skillset to take my designs to the next level. Im not looking for ideas just a way to actually create them. BOY OH BOY this book literally almost made me quit. This is so TUFF. Get this question.. Square out one fifth of the neck circumference plus 1/4 in plus add 3/3/8 and mark (9) ... Are you Freaking ME? who would know this? the question itself I had to re-read like 5 x only to figure out that it doesn't even make sense to my pattern. WASTE of time. and I'm thankful I didn't pay for it!!!!!!

Good information for me to apply. I am using it now for some items I am making.

I am working on my first pattern for trousers and wanted to gove my first impressions of what I liked and disliked, and also to manage expectations that in my case were not what the book actually is. So here are a few pointers in no particular order:- It is a really good resource to learn how to draft patterns. It has a ton of information and different patterns, which makes it seem crazy to spend any more money on commercial sewing patterns. The styles are also more on the modern side compared to other books I have seen. (Although some, like a whole chapter on dropped crotch trousers, seems terribly out of date in 2024). Full disclosure this is the first book I own on pattern drafting (cant compare to others) and have only made a trouser block so far.- The books chapters are clear and make sense and some time is also given to explain the process of making a garment, grading etc. However some are so short that they are almost useless, and some chapters like ‘making a muslin’ or explanation of fit issues would be highly appreciated.- This is a book to learn how to draft a pattern (i know seems obvious), and not an A-Z guide on how to sew clothing. I know that this is also not what the book promises, but would in my eyes make it a lot more user friendly. It shows you what pattern pieces to draft and cut, but nothing is being said about the order of construction, how to do certain things (e.h sew a button fly on jeans) etc. This is thus more geared towards students and not a hobby sewist that wants to learn how to condtrict garments.- The book lacks explanation as to why certain things are done. Whenever I learn something new, I want to know the reasons why it is being done, so I can understand it better. The book unfortunately does not do that. It says to add X cm here, X cm there, raise the waist, add a yoke etc without saying why. You just gotta trust that this is the way to do it. Makes it confusing for me.- On that note, when building the first trouser blocks, the author uses a standard size M as an example for the measurements. However thereafter the book makes no mention of which numbers they took from the measurements (like the quarter of the waist) and which measurements are just made up (e.g the darts or some other smaller measurements). I am lucky that I am close to a size M so it did not matter i think, but I wonder how that is for people with small or larger measurements. You have to backtrack and figure out yourself which the author used, so a bit more explanation and clarity would be appreciated.This review ended sounding more negative than positive, but all in all I really like the book and is worth much more than the price of the book. It has taught me how to draft blocks and patterns (although some own research and figuring out is required), and has a ton of information, therefore 3/5

Es muy buen libro para patrones de hombre que es difícil de encontrar. Muy bueno

I will imagine that most people interested in buying this book will either be students or amateurs. The instructions are so incredibly hard to follow and repeatedly have mistakes that this book is almost useless.For example early on in the book we are told to take a series of 24 measurements from our bodies. That is easy enough. However when making the basic trouser block (they have given 'sample measurements' which do not relate to ANY of the sample measurements on either the example body or the standard Chinese, US or EU sample measurements) , the first instruction is to "from (1) measure down 26cm (one of those sample measurements); make a mark and label it (2). This is the crotch depth". The problem here is that none of the 24 measurements we took from our bodies is called crotch depth. About 20 mins searching on Google gave me confidence this was the 'seat depth' measurement. I tried to confirm this only using the book, but the sample size Gareth is using to build the basic trouser block is seemingly not one of the sample sizes in the sample size chart he provided.Maybe that's it you think - just one sloppy mistake that can be solved via google, i can deal with that. HOWEVER....just two bullet points later we're told to "from (1) measure down 17cm; make a mark and label it (4). There is no explanation where 17cm comes from, it is not any of the measurements given or taken, or any fraction of another measurement. It's leaving me thinking, do all people in the world have this 17cm measurement? There is no indication as to how this 17cm could have been calculated.It goes on and on and on.. for example in step 2 - the first instruction is "to find the waist measurement, you need to work back from the wider front hip measurement. From (7) measure across 9cm towards the side seam; make a mark and label it (A)". Why 9cm? This measurement hasnt been given in the list of measurements, and also what is the waist measurement? do you mean waistline length? waist circumference? again no explanation.If you are like me an amateur (I have previously made pairs of trousers, shirts etc so not totally amateur but still definitely not not amateur) - this book will be a huge disappointment. I'm sorry Gareth, it really is and you should have asked someone who doesn't know what they're doing to work through your instructions before you had this published.DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK - MAYBE BUY THE 3rd EDITION IF THINGS HAVE CHANGED.

I am pretty new to cutting and sewing. I got this book as part of my self education in designing garments.First opening the book was a good experience. I think a lot of the initial information is fantastic, and I was very excited to read and work my way through the entire book… until I got to chapter 2 and the Basic Body Block section.The instructions are very wordy, which to som extent I get. If you read diligently, you should be able tog eat it.What really ruined the experience for me though, was that the basic body block should be following “a UK standard size 38” which is referenced in size charts on previous pages. This was the first sign of trouble, as the referenced sizing charts don’t include UK standard sizing. They include Chinese, US, and EU. I was able to assume and cross reference my way to figuring out that by UK he meant EU sizing. I’m from Canada, so it wasn’t immediately obvious to me that this was the case. And because of the hearty instructions ahead, it was very important for me to be confident I was following the correct sizes.Moving ahead to the “Developing the basic body block frame” instructions - everything lined up until I got to the bottom of page 48. The instructions reads “From (1) square out a fifth of the neck base circumference plus 0.7cm (1/4”) = 8.5cm (313/8”); mark and label (9)”. The “neck base circumference” number he lists on this page (48) is 39cm. When I cross referenced this with the Size Charts on previous pages, 39cm is the neck base circumference of a EU36… not an EU38 which is the size he initial stated would be what we were following.Again, im new to this, so I want to make sure that I’m following all of the instructions closely so I can learn what im doing… but with the inconsistencies.. I immediately lost confidence in the instructions. I came to the review section to find that someone else had a similar issue with the instructions.I would not recommend this book because of this. It makes the book feel a bit amateur. Thats not intended to offend. I just feel like if im going to spend $70 CAD for a book, it needs to be iron clad. I saw another review mention that the author should have ran these instructions past someone inexperienced before publishing, and I felt that rings true. I think reviewing and cross referencing all of the streps in the book PERIOD should have been done before publishing. A book with so many errors should not be sold for this much money.IF there were non of these inconsistencies and errors, I would give the book 5-Stars. Written very well. Includes lots of knowledge and lots of substance and good information. But I bought this book to be practical and not just theoretical.