The Fashion Engineering program

This program is written, developed, and classroom tested by Laurel Hoffmann. She has also written the textbooks that support these courses. She owns all rights. She teaches the courses at a leading university in Philadelphia.
 

Design Room Techniques 8 classes - 3 hours each
Overviews industrial fashion technology including industrial grading. Introduces personal color and design. Presents high-end design room and haute couture sewing techniques not addressed in the other certificate courses. Includes: invisible and lapped lined faced zippers, collar-less necks, hems, patch pockets, and pull-through procedures. Students make a sample book of the various techniques demonstrated in class and diagrammed step-by-step in the course textbook.This course was formerly titled Design Room Sewing Techniques; previously titled Basic Sewing/Sample Making.
Textbook: Design Room Techniques

Copying a Man's Shirt (Copying a Ready-Made Garment) 10 classes - 3 hours each
A patternmaking/draping/sewing course that also explores a culture from the aspect of its dress mode. Each student learns how to reproduce the original industrial pattern from a man's shirt she brought from home. The students then test and custom fit their patterns in muslin. Design room sewing skills are demonstrated to enable the students to finish their shirts at home. Course includes demonstrations of how to copy a fitted garment and how to drape a garment from a picture. This course is essential if one is planning to work in the industry, or is planning to start a manufacturing business. Textbook: Copying a Man's Shirt

Drafting & Fitting Pants and Skirts 9 classes - 3 hours each
Patternmaking course that includes drafting a straight skirt, pant, and optional pleated pant patterns from personal measurements. Professional sewing skills are demonstrated so students can sew the garments at home. Two textbooks: Drafting & Fitting Pants and Skirts, Sewing Pants and Skirts

Fitting Home Sewing Patterns (Grading to Fit) 12 classes - 3 hours each
This patternmaking/fit course is the first in a series of two courses that enable students to produce professional patterns that fit from home sewing patterns.

Grading & Sewing a Blouse and Jacket 12 classes - 3 hours each (Number of classes may vary.)
This course combines two courses: Grading and Sewing a Blouse and Grading and Sewing a Jacket. Students finish any work still left to do from Fitting Home Sewing Patterns, then work at their own pace to test their grading coordinates developed in that prerequisite course, Fitting Home Sewing Patterns (Grading to Fit). They then learn the high-end professional cutting and sewing skills in this course. Students begin by completing pattern work from Fitting Home Sewing Pattens, then custom grading and testing a blouse pattern chosen by the instructor, and finally, testing a jacket pattern of their choice. Diagrammed instructions enable students to finish their work at home. Because this course combines two courses, most students will need to take this course twice to finish all of its material. 2 Textbooks: Grading and Sewing a Blouse, Grading and Sewing a Jacket
Prerequisite: Fitting Home Sewing Patterns, NO exceptions.

Marketing to the Fashion Industry (for Cottage Entrepreneurs) 8 classes - 2 hours each
Develop business ideas, research the market and write a business plan. Textbook: Marketing to the Fashion Industry
Prerequisite: Drafting & Fitting Pants and Skirts, Copying a Man's Shirt, or Grading & Sewing a Blouse and Jacket.

Industrial Fashion Methods elective courses are also offered from time-to-time. Course offerings and fees are subject to change. Interested students are advised to consult the University's evening course bulletin and web site, as well as this site's course schedule, both linked above, for specific start dates and fees, and for elective courses.
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Elective Courses:
Elective courses are not required for the IFM certificate

Pillow Making

Faith Varrone and Christine DeGrado show the pillows they made in this course.

Students design, draft, and sew a professional corded pillow with a zipper. Learn how other custom,
high-end domestic sewn products are designed, cut, and made - including formal tablecloths and duvets.

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Situations where this fashion engineering program might make a considerable difference.

North Philadelphia

In the picture above Ms. Gail Daniels's youth group poses for the camera after presenting a special Christmas music program in the pastor's front room – their church – for Laurel and her husband. Gail and her pastor work to keep the children safe in their North Philadelphia community. Gail is standing, fourth from left. Her pastor is on the far right.

Ms. Gail Daniel and her youth group present an example of the many people who might be helped by this program. Many people in North Philadelphia have worked in now closed garment factories. They bought the factories' used machinery then that they still use in their homes now. If some of them, who are also community leaders, were trained in fashion engineering, they might be able to set up 4-H clubs to train their young people, and possibly also start small fashion businesses in their homes that would employ others who had also worked in the factories. Their sewn products would then be sold to boutiques and other retail stores, helping to bring much needed capital into their neighborhoods.

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