Break up or Make up: Are You and Your Pattern Maker Working Out?
Finding the right pattern maker (or sample maker or production partner) can take a lot of work and it’s truly a time investment. Getting some traction to make progress and see results will not happen overnight. Your relationship with your pattern maker can take some time to build and I am fully on board with giving things time to see how they play out and to see if you can make it work. However, there are scenarios where it may be time to think about changing things up. I am not advocating dumping your pattern maker after one season or style unless there were some egregious errors that should never have been made and/ or your requirements were not met. But there are times that call for a review of your relationship status.
I once worked with a client on a singular item project. She didn’t understand the workings of the garment industry (heck, she could have even taken a Masterclass with Diane Von Furstenburg for the very, super amateur basics). But no, she started with me. It was a lot of back and forth and she also wanted me to develop special sizing, but was not able to contribute a whole lot to that discussion. I would hear from her every so often and then months went by without a word. One day she finally showed up in my inbox again and asked me for her files that I still had not finalized because I was waiting for feedback. But I happily provided the work we had done.
About a year later, she came back asking me about taking up her project again because the pattern maker she was working with was just not getting what she needed. She sent me photos of what was going on and I was amazed at what I saw. The problems were very basic and with the right adjectives any pattern maker worth their salt could sort it out. Knowing what I knew about this client’s lack of experience and tendencies to jump around I didn’t want to take her back so she had to work it out. I gave her some direction on what to say and that was the last I heard from her. Hopefully she and the new pattern maker have a very fruitful relationship… or perhaps she is onto the third pattern maker….
My point here is before you consider switching pattern makers, take a hard look to determine if you may be part of the issue. If you are not clearly saying what you need done, the message may not be received. I’m really good at what I do, but if you don’t give me information about problems or concerns, how can they be resolved? This client didn’t have the experience or vision to tell me what she needed. I did my best to predict any grey areas that she may not be clear on. Because she could not clearly define what she wanted, she assumed that I was not competent enough to handle her project and was going to repeat this scenario with another pattern maker. Your pattern maker is a service provider. We do not have to be your teacher or coach.
Pattern makers are not magical beings that automatically understand what is in your head.
…It would be totally awesome though!
Now, on the other hand, there are lot of scenarios when a pattern maker may not be a good fit for you because they are the problem:
Your project is taking too long
Ugh, don’t even get me started on this one! I move very fast. It’s from years of experience in high volume fashion where time waits for no one. (My unofficial mascot is the Roadrunner.)
When I hear stories about having to wait months for a single pattern or you have to be on a waitlist- that’s an automatic “no” for me. Move on to the next. Do not even try to wait it out.
Oh, and waiting weeks for an email response- oh hell no!!!
I’m always up front about when you should expect your project completed. My turnaround window is max of 3 weeks. If I can’t get it done in that time, I’m probably not going to take the work unless you really, really want to wait. When it comes to revisions, these are generally quick, so I work to prioritize these to keep projects rolling. You should not be waiting weeks for a revision that only takes 10 minutes.
If a pattern maker is taking a month to get a single revision to you this means that they: #1- will never make your production time lines. #2- they don’t prioritize your work or see you as a viable client. #3- or are dragging their feet because they don’t know what they are doing.
They don’t listen to you
There will always be little incidents of something being overlooked or communication just didn’t align. We are all human and it happens. However, if you provide a pattern maker a tech pack and your pattern comes back in a way that clearly does not represent what was requested in any way, be very wary. Sometimes full package factories (mostly overseas) will do this and completely disregard a tech pack because they don’t have the time or patience to review based on their current workload.
Fit issues are not resolved
This is a tough one. Sometimes there are garments where even I struggle with getting it just right. It’s totally frustrating for myself and anyone else involved. However, if you are on your third sample and it’s really really far off without a hint of progress, this is probably a clue that the pattern maker does not have the expertise to complete your project.
Give me a sec to digress a moment for further explanation- not all pattern makers are at the same level. Some like to drape a style, some like to just draft, some just fix fit problems. I would say the biggest percentage of “pattern makers” are those that have figured out how to draft the initial garment and will apply some rudimentary fixes that are just “cheats” that don’t address the core problem to get the project done. We all have our niche. For instance, I personally do not like draping despite being very visual. I draft and revise by rock-of-eye, and I thoroughly enjoy fixing others patterns for fit issues (I did this for import production for many years).
It’s just not a good fit
This is like anyone you meet in your life. Sometimes you meet people that you click with right away and you totally get each other. Then there are those where you get the feeling that they don’t understand you at all. It’s not so much about matching product specialities as it is personalities and workflows. Remember, pattern making is a collaboration.
Your pattern maker will be your partner, advocate and a source of advice along the way, so it’s important to try to nurture that relationship if you feel it’s a good fit.