You know you might be a little strange when you do a happy dance after receiving a new book in the mail on pattern grading. That was certainly me yesterday when I received Professional Pattern Grading
by Jack Hanford in the mail. This book has long been on my Amazon wishlist and I finally bought it for myself.This is the BEST book on pattern grading. If you own the Price/Zamkoff book, just stuff it in a corner and get this one instead. The explanations are very clear and complete. And yes, this is how it is done in the industry. It was so gratifying to see that what I have learned on the job, some of it on my own, IS how it is done. The other book is too complex and ignores men's and children's styles completely. Jack Handford covers all three categories very well. And it is so nice to see that children have not been ignored. He covers infant, toddlers, boys, girls, and juniors.
This book describes manual grading with a paper and pencil. Still the concepts can be applied to computerized grading. Most of my grading is done on the computer and I will be using this book as a reference.
In fact, this book is so good, that I will not be doing my last installment on my grading series (a pictoral demo). Handford demonstrates the process well enough, there is no reason for me to duplicate it. Can I say buy the book? I will probably blog more about grading in the future, so no worries there.
I will be going back over my infant pattern/body measurement charts to see how they compare with Handford's grading. I probably will be making some adjustments. I am not too far along on developing my own infant/toddler patterns, so this is a great time to go back over them.
Sounds like a great book! So I have a sizing question that you may be able to answer... What is the minimum neck opening circumfrence that a child needs to get a garment on over their head? I've always thought that it was 18". Is this correct???
ReplyDeleteThank you for all your informative posts on grading. I was reading all of your past posts on grading and was getting so excited to see a pictorial on the actual process! It is very hard to find this information.
ReplyDeleteA little disheartened when I came to this post and saw you didn't do it! Haha, such is life. I wish that Handfords book was still in print, another bummer.
Aldrich's book is on its way so hopefully I can glean some grading info from that.
I second your sentiments... "I wish I could sit at the feet of a master and absorb their wisdom."