Firstly, I would like to say that I am sorry for the long spaces of time between blogs lately. We have been very busy at Sample Room. We have also been caught up in the employment process, looking for a new pattern maker for our team. It has been long and drawn out process, with a false start.

A few months ago you may have received a post from me about Pre-production samples. In the past few weeks it has come to light that this subject may need to be expanded upon.

I’m not sure if you guys know this but I am a very keen snowboarder. For anyone who knows anything about the snow we get here in Australia compared to the overseas snowfields, we don’t get a very good deal.

This week we met with a lovely lady, Jessica who is a fabric agent for a range or amazing men’s suiting fabrics. These fabrics are some of the finest in the world famed for dressing the likes of Prince Charles. As a long time fabric collector just touching these supper fine wool and silk/linen fabrics made my go all gooey inside. At $300 a meter it is not something I am likely to work with on a regular basis.

Hi all! We thought we’d make the subject of today’s post, the pre-production sample. That’s a sample made after you’ve got your fabrics and trims, just before you go to production. We work together with you and your choice of manufacturer to get a garment that will work perfectly on the production line.

This one is for those designers just starting out who would like to know a little bit more about the bones of a range.

Every customer who comes to our business to create a pattern, a sample or a specification has a different end goal in mind. The design brief process helps us understand what that goal is for you.

When you start working with a pattern maker, you’ll need to be really clear about your target market. It’s helpful to do some thinking about this before your first meeting.

The relationship between a designer and a pattern maker is a unique and close one – it can make or break a range. And as with all relationships, you need to establish great communication.

You might remember that last month we talked about how patternmaking is different for different manufacturing methods. This month we want to talk about our favourite topic… selling! Everybody loves a payday, but did you know that the way you sell will change your patternmaking?

One of the first questions we are asked is what do we do. You might think that would be an easy question for us to answer, but in fact it’s different for every customer who walks through our doors! The answer is, “it depends on what you need!”.