Nicky Cook Patterns

Decided to print up some of my ideas onto tees...

As a digital pattern cutter I am completely reliant on my CAD software & machinery working properly, without any glitches or crashes to bring my work to a stop.

2 days ago my Graphtec plotter completely stopped working meaning I couldn't plot any patterns to check them or send to clients. This was a huge problem, there's no other way for me to plot work stored in my PC.

So yesterday I had to revert to manually drafting & cutting a pattern. I haven't done this regularly for about 10 years so I suddenly had to stop & think hard, looking at a screen is so different to using my hands & intuition to feel whether a pattern is correct or not. Let alone feeling the weight of my scissors in my hand. (My plotter cuts too so even scissors have become slightly redundant for me)

Actually, after 10 minutes I was back in the swing of it, drafted from absolute scratch & the pattern looked great. I also finished it marginally quicker than I would have had I done it in my cad system.

Plus, it felt so wonderful to go back to basics & use my tools again. I realised my skills are embedded in my bones & the software crash gave me the opportunity for a refresh.

Ai couldn't have fixed this, not ChatGBT.

Lesson learnt, never lose your hand skills. Preserve & nuture them in parallel with digital technology.

Plotter is working now today. Had to reinstall everything. But I'm glad I had that day yesterday.

Paper Toile. Sharp shoulder fitted blazer with angled dart

Not just any old waistcoat.