There is a shortage of patternmakers in the fashion industry. For anyone interested in having a career in the fashion industry, becoming a fashion patternmaker is a wise decision for a number of reasons:-it’s great pay
-you won’t have much competition to deal with
-you could get to work closely with professional fashion designers
-you’ll be doing the very important bricks and mortar work in fashion designWithout fashion patternmakers there would be no fashion designs being made into clothes. So if you’re thinking about getting into the fashion industry by the way of patternmaking you can either teach yourself patternmaking following any of the methods below;Buy designer clothing patterns at sewing supply stores and study the pattern blocksGo to your local library, or bookstore online or offline and order the patternmaking teaching manuals such as Connie Amaden Crawford’s ‘Patternmaking Made Easy’ she teaches you how to produce 22 of the most important pattern blocks, or ‘slopers’, that all other blocks are made from.Get your hands on some fashion patternmaking software like the CAD kind from Etelestia or Wild Ginger’s ‘Pattern Master’ software.You can get started even faster with a low tech innovative product like the Lutterloh patternmaking system and easily learn how to use their ‘Golden Rule’ system. It’s a great place to start because they’ve got a online free learning video on how to use the Golden Rule. Basically, how it works is you take your bust and waist measurements that you’re making a pattern for and use those measurements to develop a ‘connect the dots’ outline based on one of the many interchangeable pattern block templates. To create your own unique fashion pattern blocks you would just customize the necessary pattern blocks Lutterloh provides in their pattern books.You can take a quality online fashion patternmaking or online fashion design course that includes patternmaking. Both Etelestia and Epro fashion schools provide such courses.Or you could go the most conventional route and take a complete fashion design course at the Art Institute, Vancouver Community College or any other local college that holds good repute in the fashion industry for the quality of their courses and turn out of industry ready fashion design graduates.Either way, if you choose to learn or become a fashion designer/fashion patternmaker you’ll get a chance to exercise your drive, determination and passion for fashion in doing so. Make sure you learn everything you can get your hands on, dream big and get to know people in the fashion indsutry. Once you’ve acquired the skills you can look into becoming an intern at your local or nearest fashion house to get your experience in. You can also provide your skills online as a patternmaker for fashion designers and clothing manufacturers.
Patternmaking in Fashion Design
Energy Efficient Home Design – Using Alternative Energy
Having an energy efficient home design is a challenge to start, but well worth the effort. Not only will it save you money in the long run by keeping your energy costs low, you will also be having a positive effect on the environment. There are a few things to keep in mind and you design your dream home, and several ways to start using alternative energy today.A Zero Energy home is usually the best way to utilize energy. There are a few steps to make this possible. One of these steps is to make your home climate specific. If you live in Alaska, prepare for cold weather. If you live in Florida, make your house ready for the heat.Passive solar home design utilizes energy in the very walls, windows and floors of your home using solar power. This rejects using any mechanical means to heat or cool the home with the solar energy, using instead a passive system. It distributes the heat in the winter and rejects the heat in the summer.Next, a whole-systems house approach makes it easy for you to heat your house and water as well as provide light. Utilizing windows and the solar energy, this design recognizes that each part of the house works together to make it run smoothly. This approach will often incorporate a solar water heating system into the design.The next thing to do is make sure your lighting and appliances are energy efficient. Unplug them when they are not in use, and try to only buy those that are approved energy savers. For lights, look for those new technologies that are proven to save while still providing light.An energy efficient home design like this is environmentally stable, reliable and cost effective. Do your part to help the earth and start using alternative energy in your home.
Top 5 Green Home Design Tips
A green home design combines environmental decisions and resource efficiency into each step of building and development of an entire home to lower environmental impact. For a home to be considered ‘green’ it must focus on energy and water efficiency in the design, building and operation of the home. A green home design has to take into account the kind of impact the home has on the environment.1. Build a home that is just the right size. There is not necessary for a home to be any larger than what a family needs. Smaller designs use fewer materials, are easier on the environment and less expensive. It also costs much less to heat and cool a smaller house.2. Use solar energy for heating water and electricity. Both photovoltaic panels and solar water heating panels can be used for these. This is renewable energy that is effective, saves money and is better for greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.3. Design a roof that will collect rain water to be used around the home. It is very easy to design a roof that gutters the runoff to a central location to be collected. This water can be used for irrigation, washing clothes and flushing toilets.4. Consider the type of building materials used in the design of the home. Find local sources for materials and choose materials that are natural and gone through less industrial processing. The more natural the material, the less toxic it will be.5. Use sunlight to provide light into the home. Money can be saved if skylights, windows and light tunnels are used to provide lig