Last Spring, before teaching the Optitex software course at SU, I brushed up on the program by creating a layered zero waste pattern for a dress I had draped the Spring before. ( ideas come easily….completion is a bit tougher!) I can't deny… it was a challenge to digitize the basics into the program and "draft" it into completion as zero waste designs have fewer standard perimeter lines which CAD systems rely on to do neat tidy work. Configuring the text just right so it indicated direction and was also somewhat aesthetic was also a challenge… so it was a great tool review for me. The pattern "poster" and dress were exhibited in the S' 12 VPA faculty show held at XL Gallery in downtown Syracuse along with a display of rolled patterns for the taking- as I saw zero waste education a good part of the point of the exhibition.
This past Summer using the same materials I created an open shouldered design as a variation of that zero waste pattern; which I find less fussy (not pictured here). Actually, both pieces are just being taken down from an Endicott College Alumnae Exhibition this week. I would like to continue the collection to show the pattern's potential for variation, but time will tell!
Please feel free to download a copy of the pattern. It is a size 10, but can be somewhat adapted in fit, length and styling to personal taste.