I recently added a metric to imperial unit converter to the site. A few American friends thought I wasn’t being very nice because as an Australian I used the metric system … and this was in some way deliberately prejudiced (one even called me racist because obviously being the bigger nation the USA way was the only way) … of course I laughed at this and told people to learn how to multiply by 2.54 … obviously if they couldn’t do that then this site was way beyond them anyway. Well you know how it goes … suddenly wordpress offered this easy to use plug in that did it all automatically. Whoo hoo I exclaimed and installed the plugin … that’ll keep the lazy American’s using the lazy pattern section happy. Well you’d think so wouldn’t you? As it happens the American made plug in had a few bugs that didn’t do what it was supposed to do and it messed up the way my script took information when you entered your measurements … as a result the lazy persons patterns stopped working from time to time. After 30 minutes trying to work around the bug I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror … here I was trying to fix a problem created by poor programming that was designed to help lazy people be even more lazy … so I stopped, deactivated the plug-in, and deleted it.
If you want to use my lazy person’s patterns and you prefer inches, then learn how to multiply … and don’t come and tell me it’s my fault … my 13 year old can do it without a calculator so you should be able to as well!
Rant over!
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Good for you. You are providing such a service in information and I’m glad you ultimately faced down the bullies. Since I started using your site I’ve made 2 bikinis and a bra (the long way,) given up on Sterling and embraced the metric system. I couldn’t be any happier. Metric is easier and more accurate and anyone who is willing to put a fraction of the effort that they put into sewing (hopefully) into this little adjustment will realize that. Long live Stuart!
Hi H Martyin,
There’s a whole booklist on http://www.patternschool.com/?page_id=28 which lists the books I can really recommend. You need to understand that stretch pattern making is a completely different subject to non stretch … the whole basis of the blocks is different, so if you’re trying to develop non-stretch blocks then my site is probably not a good start point. Winifred Aldrich is a reasonably good start point for menswear.
Just found this sight trying to figure out how to make costumes for friends (mostly guys, and mostly stuff that I haven’t found patterns for)and it is great. I admit to being a novice even for a home sewer, however, it didn’t take long to see that metric was quicker and more accurate than the imperial system.
This is the only place so far that I’ve found that even has instructions on making the basic block. There are probably others, I just haven’t found them yet. I’ve been adapting your instructions for my use, however, I’m not doing anything stretch. I figure knowing the base system might help me understand things better. Could you recommend a book, website or other, that teaches the technique? (I understand it may be a while before you respond or even see this.)
I hope you don’t mind if I testify…
I was/am a lazy American too. I hated the conversions. Then one day, the conversion troubles ended when I realized how much easier my life would be if I was to just go ahead and switch to metric… and it was!
If it’s a choice between dealing with the back and forth of measurement conversions (so time consuming… and boring… and open to human error) or just changing a couple of rulers and a tape measure, please go buy another ruler and let your mind shift. It’s nice. You get to feel superior and your clients don’t get all weird about their measurements cause they can’t be bothered with the conversion either. And it frees ups so much time… ah coffee break.
I’ve pasted formulas in my client measurement tables so I can convert either way, depending on their preferences. My conversions have worked fine with pattern making programs, and since it’s a good idea to enter client measurements into a file anyway, it’s not like it’s extra work.
Anyway, that’s my workaround.
The updated look is wonderful! Well ranted, the other US citizens who can’t master the “calculator” on their windows OS can kindly stop trying to ruin it for everyone else.