How are Geometry, Patternmaking, and a Good Fit Related?

Did you ever order or buy a shirt and wonder why the armhole or chest is too tight or oversized. Did you consider that geometry could be the reason why your garment was so ill fitting or fit like a glove?

Patternmaking and proper fitting use circumferences to measure important POM’s (points of measurement) on the human form. You need geometry to know how to cut a pattern piece to accomodate the 3 dimensional roundness of the chest, waist, hip, thigh, ankle, bicep, wrist, neck, etc.

Even if you aren’t the actual pattern maker, you as a designer should be able to advise measurements to a skilled patternmaker who can help turn your two dimensional ideas into a real 3 dimensional garments. Understanding these concepts makes you much more valuable at what your profession.

As a Latina fashion business owner and designer, there’s nothing more gratifying than not only seeing my designs come to life, but for someone to truly be happy with the overall garment’s fit.

In today’s Part 2 of a 4 part Geometry series, I’ll show you how to go from a CAD drawing to preparing a specification technical package (tech pack) to send to a factory to prepare your prototype sample. We’ll cover the following:

• How to use circles and circumference to measure the body

• How to enter this information on a technical specifications sheet to give to a factory

• How the final garment should look once the 2 dimensional illustrated idea is made into a 3 dimensional fitting garment.

You can start this fashion series by checking out Part 1 where we discuss How Geometry influences Print and Pattern Design.

*Tina Trevino is the VP and a Partner at Latin Business Today. She is the founder and CEO of Tocaya Design, a full service B2B design, sourcing and production fashion company with a roster of clients that include Karl Lagerfeld, Calvin Klein, DKNY, NY&Co., Fashion to Figure, and FashionNova to name a few.

With her 25+ years of industry experience she’s managed large creative design teams, traveled extensively to identify emerging fashion trends and work with overseas factories, designed private label for clients like Kohl’s, Target, and Nordstrom as well as built fashion brands for Wendy Williams, Brooke Shields, Adam Levine and Nicki Minaj.

Her regular fashion series on the fashion business, trends, and styling tips can be seen on Thursdays when we highlight our lifestyle channels.

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