I conceived of the Pattern Tailor about five years ago. Maybe longer — time flies! The original idea was to create Jill Wolcott Knits patterns to would work in any size, any gauge, and be customizable to your measurements. As so often happens, it was a little easier said than done!
I have, essentially, created the means to create customizable patterns, although we are in the beginning stages. Read on to see why I have chosen to follow a slightly different path to Making Fit Accessible.
Soft Release on August 22, 2024
On August 22, 2024 I did a soft release of three patterns. Until the official release of the fabulous Pattern Tailor on September 5, 2024, subscribers to the Inside Scoop can purchase using coupon codes that gives a discount.
Two are cowl patterns, and one is the Horizontal Bust Dart calculator and pattern.
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Discounts are only available to Subscribers through September 4, 2024
The Journey to the Pattern Tailor
I recruited Jamie Whitcomb from my A System of Grading class in August of 2021 to be a paid intern at Jill Wolcott Knits. Jamie was so curious to learn, not just what I know about fitting bodies, but about how I actually do it. During her year as a paid intern we spoke on Zoom for at least four hours a week, usually more like six hours.
Jamie is the mistress of questions. She keeps asking until she understands, and then confirms that what she understands is correct. She also takes great notes! During our conversations, I had so many aha! moments of how we could quantify what I know. It was a huge advantage that while we both speak knitting, we didn’t otherwise speak the same languages: I speak garment construction and flat pattern, while Jamie speaks STEM. She had to listen hard, and I had to explain things in a number of ways until we found language that worked. This was an exhilarating time for both of us.
We were still working with the Magic Spread Sheets I use for grading, although the process began evolving as Jamie used her logic and math to create more complicated solutions in Excel.
The Pattern Tailor Began to Reveal Itself
We worked on many things, including doing a ton of work on Yokes (still to be revealed). As we moved ahead — and it was often two steps forward, and although not backwards, often a pause while we created the foundation for whatever we were working on. Sometimes it was months refining things.
We tried using our spread sheet in a test knit, but it was buggy: if a user had another version, they might get different results, it wasn’t completely conversant with Sheets or Numbers. The testers loved the results, but it was a bit more of a challenge than we wanted it to be. Plus, Excel is easy to hack. It was the first time I heard PHP. That is a complete journey in and of itself, but we did finally get to a place where PHP became the only realistic path.
As soon as design becomes genericized the essence gets lost. I did not want that to happen to my designs, so each pattern has to go through a process of recreation to make it work in the Pattern Tailor. Because of this, and because I began to see that I could create tools to be applied to non-Jill Wolcott Knits patterns, we started to look at tools as a better way to share what the fabulous Pattern Tailor can do. That is where we are now. Mostly you will see Tools like the Horizontal Bust Dart, not my designs, or at least not complex designs.
Want to Know More About the Pattern Tailor?
As I said, this has been a journey, so for more specifics, go here!
