Pattern Drafting Book Review Series – Part 5 – How Patterns Work by Assembil Books

Thanks for reading my review series on pattern making books. This review is the 5th in my series and is called How Patterns Work – Fundamental Principles of Pattern Making and Sewing in Fashion Design.

For a book with exactly 500 pages, there sure is a lot of text. I personally am a visual learner and have always had issues in my reading comprehension. I know, that may sound strange. I can write a 400 page book myself, but I can’t sit and read one. Its different to write one than to read one.

This book covers a lot of information. It is wonderfully packed with information if you are an avid reader, which I am not. One of my students turned me onto this book. She raved about it, but our backgrounds are vastly different. She was a nursing student, so she was used to massive amounts of reading and comprehension.

The book covers a lot of information, from draping (which none of the other books cover) to transferring the pattern to paper. I would say the main focus of this book is to take a drape and to true it and turn it into paper patterns.

What I love about this book: This is a draping book on turning a drape into a pattern. I like this approach as this is the way I learned how to draft. But as a drafting book, this isn’t really a drafting book when you compare it to all other drafting books. This book is thorough and covers everything it takes to draft basic silhouettes and turn them into a pattern.

What I dislike about this book: The size of the book. Not that there are 500 pages, but the fact that it is 7″ by 10″. The book is hard to hold open for the amount of content there is. If this book ever did a second edition, I would love seeing this larger, so the information isn’t broken down so small. There is a lot of text to read, but I think a little layout revision would solve readability.

I had considered writing a draping book, but as my mentor, Dawn Marie, says “You can’t teach draping in a book.” It is extremely hard to write about a creative process such as draping. It’s about as hard as trying to teach someone how to paint a creative painting. This book is about draping, but not about the creative process, which is what I think I would write about (if I wrote about it).

This is a book I don’t think I will ever need to reference for myself, so if you are interested in having this book, comment below and I might do a give away if I have a big enough response.

You can get your own copy on Amazon now by going to the following link. Note that this is an affiliate link. Affiliate links help support my business. How Patterns Work: The Fundamental Principles of Pattern Making and Sewing in Fashion Design