Pattern Making for Kids' Clothes: All You Need to Know About Designing, Adapting, and Customizing Sewing Patterns for Children's Clothing

I have been reading through this book for a few weeks and I am so impressed with how complete it is. It is chalk full of great ideas, tips and detailed explanation on exactly what to do to create children's sewing patterns. The author, Carla Crim, is a master teacher in that respect. She is able to capture the beginner or experienced sewist and explain the details in such a way that everyone can follow along. The chapters are arranged beginning with the basics and then she takes you through how to make all types of tops, pants, skirts, dresses and rompers. Finally, the book describes how to take it to the pro level. I've been sewing for years and years yet learned something new in each chapter. There are excellent charts, pictures and diagrams throughout the whole book. I would obviously HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who sews. Even if you don't plan on making patterns, to gain the understanding of how patterns are designed really helps sewists to understand how garments are put together or how to make adjustments during construction. Happy Reading and Sewing Everyone!!! :)

This book hasn't gotten the credit or high praise that it DEFINITELY deserves!!!! Yes, there are a few things I would've changed/added; HOWEVER, as one of the ONLY books on the market that actually addresses and focuses solely on pattern making for KIDS clothes....AND for an insanely reasonable and awesome price!!!! Yes, there are more 'technical' and 'professional' textbooks and reference books available for 'fashion designers' and for adult clothing/perfect fitting to your own body, but this book is an EXCELLENT resource for anyone --- even the most advanced --- that is well worth the price! The author should definitely be proud of this work and commended for providing the 'how-to's' of pattern making instead of just providing a book of 10-20 pre-made patterns for you to sew! I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH POSITIVE THINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK AND ANY "NEGATIVES" ARE EASILY AND QUICKLY FORGOTTEN WITHIN MINUTES OF FLIPPING THROUGH THE PAGES!!!!!! :) EXCELLENT RESOURCE! WELL DONE, WELL WRITTEN, AND I WOULD ABSOLUTELY PURCHASE A 'FOLLOW-UP' OR ADDITIONAL BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR!

I am an advanced seamstress and I design patterns. I spent hundreds of dollars buying commercial slopers. I cannot get over that this book includes blocks for children from sizes 3-12. Whether you intend to design clothing for your own child or you want to design patterns for sale, this is a good place to start. The blocks included in the book more than pay for the purchase price. Carla has said that this is not a comprehensive pattern drafting book. That is correct, however, if you have a working knowledge of pattern drafting, the book will be very useful for you. There are links to other books on pattern drafting for those who want more information. Links to the slopers are included, so you do not have to draft your own blocks from measurements. I think that's important to know if you are just starting out. If I was just starting to design children's clothes, this would be the first book I'd buy. It is well written and very clearly illustrated.

I am in the process of using this book for the first time. While I have sewing experience, I have never tried to make my own pattern before. I find using the slopers and blocks a bit difficult and the text is a bit vague for me, but I am figuring it out. I appreciate that pattern making involves a huge number of variants however I would appreciate more examples, especially in the jackets section. If you bought the book a while ago and are struggling to download the patterns because the publisher is different (no more rotovision), don't bother using the first url in the book, you will not get to the new download. You need to use the second url, the one with the added page "28" on the end and then you will be rerouted to the new download area.

You can use the qr code on page 28 to download the slopers. This is a 104 or so page document but it is not the blocks just the slopers. The blocks are broken down by each chapter, such as chapter 6 for pants and it is only the bodice slopers the pants slopers are seperate. Go to page 8 there's a web address there, the instructions will tell you to put in the page number correlating to the beginning of the chapter, so like for pants you'd type in the web address and add 80 at the end. Don't do this. Just type in the web address on page 8 and it'll direct you to a page that has all the blocks and slopers on it and you can download them all. I tried using Firefox and it wouldn't direct me to the page so try Chrome or Edge if you're not being directed to the download page. Before you hit print on the whole documents print the test page first. It's set to a very small scale and I chose to have my slopers printed at a print shop. If you have Adobe print at actual size and click the box that says "choose paper source by pdf size" print the test page with the 1" block and if it's good to go have fun. If not the print shop rescaled mine to 98%. I think Adobe dc for pdf files is free. I hope this helps someone out there, once this hurdle is jumped it's pretty fun and easy to create from there.

My very first PDF pattern was one of Carla's patterns. I loved the way she explained everything and all of her tips and tricks. Over the years, I have started creating things on my own and have been asked for patterns of items. With not knowing where to start, I never did it. When I seen this book was coming out, I knew I had to buy it. Boy am I glad I did! Received it on a Thursday and by Friday afternoon I had read it cover to cover. In pure Carla fashion, she explains things very well. The info contained in this book is well worth more than the purchase price. From measurements and slopers to lovely dresses and corsets, this book has you covered. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is ready to start creating their own patterns.

Given the title of the bok I thought this would teach how to draft pattern from scratch... sort of like child version of Cal Patches design it your self book..... this was not like that if your familiar with that book. This book gives you the pattern bases already made and then explains how to alter them. This is alright but now I have to hassle with printing out the off files of the patterns and going on line to get the odds rather then just being able to draft the pattern on news paper. Besides this, I think the outfits and ideas are cute. I'm planning on making my daughter's clothing for this upcoming year and I'm going to mostly use the patterns and pattern adaptations from this book. It was worth the fifteen or so dollars.

This book took me from buying patterns to making my own in no time! I love it. It will pay for itself ten times over. Buy it.