← Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"
Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"
Learning from a Pattern Nerd, with Tricia Comacho | Episode 101
00:46:12
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- [00:01]
A
Summer is coming. What better time to sew up a couple easy skirts you'll reach for every day. Sewing pro Kelly Williams demonstrates how in a recently released on demand elearning course. It's called Button Front and Paper Bag Swing Skirts. Kelly shows how to create two a line skirts, one with a faux button placket and the other with a paper bag waistline. This course includes downloadable patterns so so you can get started right away. To sign up and to find other on demand elearning courses, go to courses.threadsmagazine.com. Welcome to Sewing with Threads, the monthly podcast with the staff of Threads magazine. I'm your host Carol Frase and my guest today is Tricia Camacho of creativecostumacademy.com Tricia has more than two decades of expertise in crafting patterns for live entertainment costumes, including for big productions like the Lion King and clients such as Cirque du Soleil. But she doesn't keep all this experience to herself. In her Creative Costume Academy, she equips creatives with foundational pattern making principles to kickstart their design ventures. One of her main goals is to make these pattern making and advanced sewing skills accessible and enjoyable for all. Tricia is the founder of PatternCon, an annual conference that's taking place this August. She also was the 2024 winner of the Costume Society of America's Entrepreneur Recognition Award. So congratulations for that, Trisha.
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B
Thank you, thank you.
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A
And thank you for joining me today.
- [01:38]
B
Yes, I'm excited to be here. Thank you.
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A
Well, you've got a lot of different kinds of experience in the past 20 years of your career. All of it is fascinating. But let's start out with how you got really how you began in the world of costumes.
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B
Sure, yeah, really, it's, it's the only job I had. Well, now I'm teaching more and running a conference. But for most of my adult life and career was it's either been making costumes or working for shows, big theatrical productions. So I kind of got into it because when I was in high school, I mean I've been sewing for most of my life. I learned from my grandmas shout out to grandmas out there. And when I graduated high school, I had fallen into theater in high school and I really liked that. I liked the theater world and being a part of a show, but I didn't really have the confidence that I could go out and be an actress. That wasn't really calling to me. And even though I liked sewing and I was pretty strong at that point, I, I Mean, for my age, I wasn't really drawn to the fashion industry either. Marketing, like, styles and keeping up with trends. I was never good at that. So I traveled instead, which is my other passion, and kind of gave myself some time to think about it. And just in talking about it, I'm like, ah, I like sewing, but I don't want to do fashion. I like theater, but I don't want to be an actress. And somebody said to me one day, well, why don't you do costumes? You know, costume design, and that way you can sew and it's not fashion and you can be involved in theater and not be on stage. So I started exploring that and, you know, a couple of years after high school, when I came back from moving to Europe and started volunteering at different theaters and just kind of dipping my toe into seeing what was involved and what I needed to know. And so I did that for about, about a year or two and realized that I really needed to know, like, history of, you know, the history of costume and historical, just for knowledge of, you know, running certain shows and time periods and whatnot. And so then I went to school for a couple of years. I did a certificate program at Fullerton Community College. And then that's where I really discovered pattern making. And my teacher encouraged me. You know, not everybody takes to pattern making and really likes it. Like, for me, it was like the heavens opened up and I'm like, oh my gosh, this makes everything I'm trying to do so much easier. And so she encouraged me to dive into that further and I started going for a degree program at La Trade Tech, which is, it had a lot of the same teachers that they had at fidm, Fashion Institute of Design, merchandising. So it was more fashion based. But because I was wanting to strengthen my pattern making skills, it was perfect for me. When I started going to school for the certificate program for costume design, I was connected and started working at that time. So I started working on some shows around the area and Knott's Berry Farm was one of my first shows, Snoopy Rocks on Ice, and I was still going to school. And then between that school and La Trade Tech, I did Utah Shakespearean Festival, which is a summer stock program, and, and connected with people there. So that's why I started working so young. And then when I was going to La Trade Tech, I got offered a Broadway show to go out on tour. And I'm like, ooh, traveling and costuming, my two favorite things. So I figured school would be there to go back to. But this opportunity might not. So I stopped schooling for that time and went out on tour. I was on tour for two years and then ended up moving to Las Vegas after that to open a school Cirque du Soleil style show. And. And that's kind of. It just took. Continued from there.
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A
So that sounds very exciting and you know, like a slightly unconventional path for people who, you know, generally kind of just go to college and then figure things out. But it seems like a really good choice for what you were going to do. And I know you still do costuming now. You still have a studio where you build costumes in North Carolina.
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B
I do. I've poured. Pulled back a lot actually. Last year, the beginning of 2025 was the first year I started pulling back, but I replaced it with creating Pattern Con. So I didn't gain a whole lot of extra time. Yeah, I do still do some work with Disney. We're in a project right now and I have some stitchers that work for me. But for the most part, I've. I've backed off a lot. I've started telling my clients that I just. I not really fabricating anymore. Just because it was a lot. It was a lot running three businesses at once. And with the introduction of patterncon and me never doing anything like that before, I really wanted to focus on that and just see where that would lead.
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A
Well, so you mentioned three businesses and one of them was making costumes. Another one is patterncon, but the other one is everything that's available on your website. Can you share a little bit about the offerings that you have educational opportunities for people there?
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B
Sure. I have an online membership, so it's a virtual membership called the Pattern Place. I've had the Pattern place for since 2021, I want to say. And that is a membership. We only open the doors twice a year. Right now we just went through our big spring launch and we'll launch again in the fall. What that is is it's an online community to support people who want to learn more about pattern making and fitting. So. So. And that's my main offer. So we have a community through Facebook where you can connect with other people. We have about 420 people from all over the world in our membership right now. And it consists of a library of all the classes that I've taught since 2021. And we bring in guest instructors as well. So it's a searchable library that's curated by things that I have taught or I've brought in people to teach. So it's meant to be a resource to help people if they are looking for something specific. Like, I'm working on sleeves, and I'm not sure why this fitting thing is happening and to have a place to go. And it's a searchable library that they can go to. We also do two live events a month. So the first live event is a Q and A session. And that's where I think the Pattern Place offers something different than maybe some other programs that offer something similar. But that Q and A session is basically I just come on and people can send me pictures of what they're working on, and I can give direct fitting advice, direct patterning advice. You know, guide them through the steps that they need to take to create a certain pattern or anything like that. So that happens once a month. And then we also have a new masterclass every month, and that's either taught by myself or I bring in somebody in the industry that has more knowledge on whatever topic they're wanting to learn. And then both of those are added into our library afterwards so that people can review them, watch them in their own time. And they have that as added resource. And then people also have access to email me questions. It's one thing that I found that people really struggle with is they, they. They want to learn this information and they collect general knowledge. And it's really hard to give general knowledge, especially on fitting, because fitting is so individual and it can go in so many different directions. But in the Pattern Place, I can actually give feedback on exactly what people are working on and direct them to videos that might help them, you know, and walk them through as. As they're going along. And then the other part of it is just getting. Connecting with others who are also doing this and having that camaraderie. We also do different programs to kind of motivate and inspire people. We have something called the special project that we do once a quarter where you can set any goal you want. And as long as you complete that goal before the end of the quarter, you're entered into a Raffle to win 100 bucks. You know, we do a lot of that in our community. So it's just because my. My thing is I don't want you to just learn this stuff and do the exercises. I want you to actually apply it and, and use it in. In what you're doing. So I just, I really love just helping people not be intimidated by the fitting or the making process and encourage them to keep going because there's so many cool things that we can do. With this knowledge.
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A
Yeah. And so many people sew in an isolated way.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You know, you can look something up, you can watch it on YouTube. But it's great to have somebody to bounce ideas off, whether it's you or other people in the group. It certainly helps the forward momentum to have that encouragement in the sense of, like, I've hit an obstacle. I know I can get past it with a little bit of assistance.
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B
Yes, yes.
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A
So who would you say is your average student in the pattern place?
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B
Well, that's a hard one.
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A
I mean, are they people who do cosplay? Are they regular people who just sew clothes for themselves?
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B
Yeah, it's kind of a mix, to be honest. I would say. I mean, we have a. A wide age range. We have a lot of people who are sewing for themselves, a lot of people who are retired and they finally have time or their body is changing and they're not. You know, patterns aren't fitting like they used to fit, and so they're needing more guidance and. And they finally have the time to. To dive more into this. And then we have people who are on the. The younger spectrum who are wanting to become independent pattern makers or launch their fashion line or they're interested in cosplay, or they. They are. We have a couple of people who work for high schools and universities and costume programs. And so I do, of course, attract costume people because that. Of my background. And then we have, you know, people who do alterations as their business bridal. And this is a resource that helps them when they get stuck. So it's kind of a wide range.
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A
I'm actually really interested in the whole costuming part of it in the cosplay, because I don't know that there's another good resource for people who want to go beyond your usual sort of dressmaking skills or even basic soft tailoring kinds of things. I know that you have some background in working with a lot of weird materials and the, you know, manipulating odd stuff to make interesting effects.
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B
Absolutely. And it's. It's interesting. I'm actually wanting to get more into the cosplay world. I really appreciate and respect a lot of the things that the cosplay community has discovered, and they do have a lot of very cool materials that they work with, and I have used a lot of them in my costuming career. Some things translate very well to live entertainment and other things don't because it just the application. Like when you're making costumes for big theatrical productions, you. You're always looking for durability. Because you know, the, the amount of wear and tear that is put on a costume when it's in a show is so much more than even regular clothes. And a lot of times for cosplay purposes, you're doing it to wear for the con for a day. And so it really only has to last maybe that day or a couple of times that you wear it. Whereas when you're making something for a show, there could be ten shows a week. So there's a lot more durability that needs to be considered. So some things will translate and some things don't. So I've dabbled in following along cosplayers and figuring out when I'm trying to figure out a unique thing. I'm like, what are the cosplayers doing for this kind of thing? And I can take some of those. But yeah, of course, I'm always drawn to that. And then you asked about if I'm still doing costumes and I have pulled back a lot and I do. Like I said, we have a Disney project right now, but I'm actually excited to dive more into cosplay because I'm like, why am I not more in this world? That's totally, totally all the things I love. And we do have cosplayers that are, that are in our program and, and I think I, I want to bring more of that in too. I also have been really intrigued by. There's a show called World of Wearable Art down in New Zealand.
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A
Yeah.
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B
That I, it's on my bucket list to. I might, I'm gonna try to go this year. We'll see. But I would love to be involved in that show and bring maybe elements of that to Power patterncon. And so that's, I'm still very intrigued by all of that. One thing that I kind of pulled back from making the costumes and being involved in that is there's a lot of like, I can tell you I work for Disney, but I can't tell you any of the details about what I do. And that happens. Yeah, you know, non disclosure agreements and that happens a lot in that industry, understandably. But it was a very divided line with my day, with my business that it was like, this is costume work and this is stuff I can share and teach and social media marketing and all of that. And I think by entertaining like cosplay and like World of Wearable Art things, I can still satisfy that challenge that I love about making those outrageous things and then be able to share that more with my students and my audience.
- [15:36]
A
Yeah. So we did an article written by Claire Shafer about the world of wearable art a few years ago, and it was amazing. I recommend that people go online and look for that. It's very unexpected to find that in New Zealand. It's very inspiring. And as far as wearable art, I mean, none of the clothes are things that you would. They're not even versions of clothing clothes that you would wear at all. They're really, truly like art that you just wear. It's pretty interesting. And they always have a really cool theme and there's a lot of people from. From that particular hemisphere. It's. It's not quite so Eurocentric, which is quite fascinating. It's a really worthwhile to look at. I hope you get there. Report back when you do.
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B
It's on my list.
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A
Well, when you started teaching online, did you think you would have such a big audience of just people who are interested in upping their sewing game? Regular people who have sewn from patterns their whole lives and just want to get. Or did you think, I'm going to do this and it really will be people who are into costume production of some sort?
- [16:39]
B
You know, I have actually been teaching for like 13 years. I started teaching in person in Las Vegas when I lived in Las Vegas and I was working on shows. So it started with weekend workshops. And originally the reason I started teaching was because I had co workers, peers that were looking to advance their skills. And. And we kind of are in a literal desert in Las Vegas where there wasn't a lot of resources to. To learn more. And so they knew. And I've. I. Once I discovered pattern making, I was like, I want to know all the things and I want to know more. And I continued to challenge myself and study it and learn and practice and take on clients so that I would use those. I wouldn't lose those skills. Skills. So originally when I started teaching, it was to help people in the industry looking to expand their skills for costuming. And I did end up connecting with, when I was in Las Vegas with the school district out there and started teaching fashion teachers about pattern making. And so that was an unexpected addition that I didn't know about. And then when I moved to North Carolina, I moved to North Carolina in 2016 and. And I was still getting requests for teaching the pattern making. And I tried to do it a couple of times. I even did a couple workshops for the school district. But it was really hard to coordinate times because I was still going back, especially before COVID I was going back to Service clients and I would go back about four times a year, but to set up the right days and make it lucrative enough for me all the things, it became really challenging. So that's when I started looking to moving stuff online. And I moved my classes online, thinking again that it would be more for people wanting to advance their skills in theater specifically. And then Covid hit and I was like, well, all those people just like me just lost their job for the unforeseeable future. So they're probably not looking to invest in their skills specifically. So that was when I kind of shifted my messaging. I put my classes online and I was kind of anti social media. I was not on there at all because I didn't have any time to take on more work. And so I realized if I'm going to tell people about my classes, then I'm going to have to get into social media. I need to find a way to get it out to people, to let people know. Because I'm like, I know there's more people outside of Las Vegas that want to learn pattern making. And at that time was when I started getting into social media marketing. And when Covid hit, that's when I discovered the whole online sewing community that I had no idea existed. And I was like, wow, look at all these people, like, connecting over sewing. And that was when I really became aware of the online sewing community and the home sewing community. And so it took me probably that first year just to understand the needs of. It's funny now because a lot of my messaging and a lot of my teaching are based on fitting. I never really wanted to go into fitting because it's such a. It's such a hard thing to teach. It's not a straightforward answer every time. I will still admit today I don't know everything there is to know about fitting. I'm constantly learning and every situation kind of brings up different things. Fitting and making patterns was a daily, everyday thing for me. So it's what, what was normal for me. Just like the tools that I would use or the process that I would do was the feedback that I was getting from people was like, it, it was blowing their minds. And I'm like, really? Like, I just thought this was general knowledge. So it, it was kind of a whole new world for me. And honestly, going through Covid like my business was banging. I was doing shows all over the place. We were sending people to different cities to open different shows. We were just finishing up a production of King and I in town where I live and I was getting ready to go to Las Vegas to service, like, three other clients. We were sending Buddy to, like, all of that disappeared overnight with COVID because all live entertainment ceased to exist. So I was like, well, good. Now I can just focus on the teaching side and learning how that worked. And my goal with that was to be successful enough with the teaching that I could supplement the slower times with theater, because we have very intense, like, busy times, and it's like all the work comes at the same time. And for me to be able to turn down work when it was too much and supplement that with the teaching. But I always thought that the costuming would still stay as a priority. What I learned in 2020 and 2021, when I started teaching and working with home sewers and people, is that my everyday general knowledge that is just normal for me was so incredibly helpful for people. I think even just the way that I approach going into things, for the most part, just because of my experience. And so it still happens now, at least weekly, I get messages from students from people who follow me, just saying. Just thanking me, you know, and saying, oh, you've changed my life, and how I relate to clothes, you know, and that reward for me. When costuming came back, when theater came back at the end of 2021, my priority shifted. Like, my. I really felt more of a draw to help people that. I mean, it's cool to say that I've opened a Cirque du Soleil show on the Las Vegas strip. I work for Disney. You know, all of these things are amazing things that I'm super proud of. But there's something different when you feel like you're actually helping people in their life and having that effect on them. So that's really when things shifted for me, and that became more of a priority. And. And the costuming kind of took a step down.
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A
I find it so interesting when you say I didn't know anything about, you know, using social media for all these things. And when you got into social media, it's from my point of view, you came out of nowhere, even though obviously you'd been around clearly doing this very advanced pattern making and sewing and teaching elsewhere in places that a home sewer or somebody like me who sort of follows the home sewing community would not even see it. And you. And there suddenly you were. And I thought, creative costuming, you know, what. What's this? And I looked at it and thought, well, you know, like, I don't do costumes, and most of the threads readers don't do costuming. But Then I looked further into it and I saw that, yeah, you're coming at this. The common problems of a Threads reader or anybody who's doing home sewing for themselves or for other people from an angle that mostly we don't do. You know, we don't usually like if you don't have, you know, clearly most of us don't have real pattern making knowledge at all, or even a little knowledge, but not much expertise. And so not knowing that you can be looking at a pattern and even with a lot of years of experience, still not sure how to understand what's going wrong. So having somebody say, well, you know, if that's on your body, you're going to want to move the dart. Because I know that dealing with the dart is one of your things and I think that's. It's very helpful. All about the darts, exactly. But I do get the sense, you know, there's some great testimonials on your website from people who've worked with you and it feels like you really empower your students. And I would love to know, is it, do you think it's that you're feeding off of their excitement and their gratitude or how does that work?
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B
I think it comes from. And thank you for all of that. Speaking about the social media aspect, it's really funny for all of my people that I've known, friends and family that knew me before I became all over the Internet, they think it's really funny because I was so against it before and now it's like part of my everyday life. But you know what? I find that the feedback I get from a lot of students and for most of the people that I work with is that working with I have a different approach than even a fashion background person or a home sewing background, even though that's where I started too. So I do understand that level and Threads magazine was something I grew up with and it's so I'm so honored to be affiliated with it now in different ways. But is that people first of all like the way that I explain things in a different way than I think they've heard before. And a lot of the feedback I get is that I encourage them and they may I make them feel that they can do it. Like a lot of the feedback that they've heard maybe from previous teachers or when they've tried other things is they, they, they felt like it wasn't for them, like it was out of reach, that, that this is something sure that can be done, but it takes years of schooling or you have to be really good at math. Or, you know, specifically with pattern making. And understanding fitting is like, oh, but I have a weird body. And I'm like, everybody has a weird body. You know, I think it's. It's. It's that. That me just telling them that they can do it. Like. Like, I think they've been in a world where they've been told they can't or they need to do, like, a million things before they can. They can. They can dive into this before they would understand it. And I'm like, no, you know, it doesn't have to be that deep. It doesn't have to be that serious. And then I am truly. I mean, I call myself on the Internet, on socials, your pattern nerd friend. Because I just. I. Everybody's a nerd about something, and I just happen to be a nerd about pattern making. Like, everybody has their one thing or a couple of things that they're really into that not everybody is that into.
- [27:03]
A
But.
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B
And for me, it's pattern making. So I truly. When I'm sharing and teaching about what I'm talking about, I am truly super excited to share about what I'm talking about. And I think they feed off of that excitement, and I deliver it in a way that I think is easy to digest. And so I present it to people in a way that they feel like, oh, I can do this. Like, it's not that hard. And I'm like, yeah, you can. And a lot of times, you know, with my students in the pattern place, they'll come to me and they'll say they'll present a picture or they'll present something that they're wondering about, and they're already telling me the answer, and they're like. So I was thinking, is this. Is that right? And I'm like, yeah, that's right. You know, like, they think it has to be harder, I think a lot of times. So I think that's what it is, is that I just. I'm. I mean, it's. You can do this. Anybody can do this. It doesn't have to be that hard. It doesn't have to be that complicated. And let me show you how I think is the energy that I bring to people. And that's what resonates with people, is that I'm. It's my encouragement and excitement that makes them believe that they can do it too.
- [28:22]
A
Yeah. And the fact that you show them exactly as you say, that they're. That you don't have to know every single Thing about pattern making, in order to make the one change you want to make, you can figure it out along the way. You can. You can use what you need and not know the rest if you want to. Nobody's going to be mad at you or think you're getting above your station or anything like that. It's just, it's, it's. It's a tool that you can use. And I think they're. You know, I've known people who instinctively understand that they don't know anything about pattern making, you know, technically, but they can look at something and say, I got to pull it in over here. I need to move that seam over there. Just because they look at the piece of clothing and say, that isn't where it needs to be. I need to move it to where it does need to be. And then that's. That's the fix. I mean, that's. That's very simple. And I'm sure that there's a limit to what you can accomplish with that, but that's sort of the mentality of what you want. And then the more, you know, the more you can put those tools together to use.
- [29:16]
B
And I think you touched on something really important there, that people are afraid that they're going to do it wrong, right? And. And I am like, there's no do like there, that there's a set measurement that this thing should be, and that there's a set way that it should be done. And I tell them, nah, it doesn't. You know, I'm like, it doesn't if it works for you. You know, one thing that I've said, and I made a video about it once, there's no cheating in pattern making. You know, Disney, Cirque du Soleil, they don't care the process that I make. Well, Disney kind of does. But clients, you know, that are paying me to make a particular thing, they tell me they want this particular garment, this particular costume. They don't care the steps that I take to get that costume. All they care about is that they have the costume that they need. It fits the person that they want, it's going to last, and it looks how they want it look. They have no understanding. They don't know the steps. They don't. So there's. I think that a lot of people are already doing, like you said, like, they're moving things around. They're. They're trying different things. They're hacking Frankensteining patterns together. That is all pattern making. And I think the word pattern making, and this is Something that I have been really. I kind of feel like it's my mission. It's. I say pattern making and people immediately get put off by it. Like, oh, that's hard and that's complicated. And I'm out here to change that because it doesn't have to be that hard and complicated. And I think part of the reason for that is the way that pattern making is traditionally taught is. Is one specific way. Usually you start by drafting a sloper, which most people don't know what a sloper is if they're new to pattern making. And. And in my opinion, that is one thing that I do very different than a lot of people who do teach pattern making is I'm like, why would we start people at this really hard, complicated part of pattern making? Which is very cool and can be very helpful, because you're going to lose people at that point because they're going to get frustrated, they're going to get confused, and they're going to give up. And when I started teaching, I saw that when I went to my second school because I already had a base knowledge. And when I went to my second school, I saw people who didn't have a base knowledge, and we started very much the same, and they were just totally lost and they were like, this is dumb. I don't want to do it. And I'm like, but wait, we haven't got to the real cool part that you can actually apply right away. And so I teach it in a different way than is traditionally taught to encourage people to keep going so that they build confidence, so that they want to keep going deeper down the rabbit hole with me. And I think that helps a lot as well in passing along the message, and it makes it more fun in learning. And then a lot of that is helping so that they don't feel like they're doing it wrong. And they really just need to know that there's no wrong way to do it. And I think that again, that goes back to my encouragement of, you know, you're not doing it wrong. And a lot of times when people start working with me, when we do my big boot camp, which we do to launch the pattern place, they I ask them, you know, what kind of fitting methods have you done? What kind of pattern methods have you done? And a lot of times what they realize is what they've already been doing is part of what I'm teaching them, and they're like, oh, I've already been doing it, and they just didn't know that it was that's a right way to do it, too. Right. Like, they think that. That there's only one way to do it, so they're doing it wrong. And. And if they learn to do it right, that, that it's going to be a long, complicated process. When a lot of times I'm like, you're already doing it. And just keep going down that path and let me share a couple of tips that'll help you get there. Yeah.
- [33:12]
A
Or, you know, I've been doing it. It's not really working. Exactly. So I must be doing it completely wrong. Whereas maybe it just needs a tweak, you know, maybe just. And then you will be doing it right because. Or I. I know. There's also the sense that if somebody tells me the exact right way to cut to the armhole, then my fitting problems will be over. And as you say, everybody is weird, so that's probably not the case. And, you know, there's maybe more to it than that. So. Tricia, we are running out of time, so I want to. Before we do that, I want to say, I know you've got your second annual Pattern Con coming up in August, and it sounds really exciting. Can you just tell us a bit about it?
- [33:50]
B
Absolutely. Patterncon is a dream come true for me. It's something I wanted to do for years. And I've been. I actually started going to sewing conventions like asg, American Sewing Guild and Sew Expo out in Puyallup, Washington. And, and just to. To see Quilt Fest in. In. In Houston. Just to see. I'm like, if I'm going to create a convention, I should probably go to a few and see how they work. There's two reasons I wanted to do patterncon, and the first one was to obviously make these teachings more accessible. And selfishly, I want to learn all the fun things, too, about anything I can and to bring people together, because I didn't see this offered a lot in other conventions, specifically garment sewing making, pattern making, fitting in general. There's a lot for the quilting world and other fiber arts, but not so much for garment making. And the other reason is to celebrate this skill. It's such a pivotal key element to making things from nothing. Like, a lot of fashion designers and designers in general get credit if they do. And they aren't the ones who are often making the things. Like they draw the picture, they come up with the idea and then they pass it along to their pattern making team, and then it gets sown and a lot of people don't even know that. That position exists, nor do they really ever get celebrated or acknowledged for the fact that it's a freaking superpower that these things wouldn't exist without that step. So I wanted to create a space where we can highlight the skill and the power that it offers and celebrate it while bringing everybody together to learn more and have a creative space where we can all kind of lift each other up and learn from each other. And because sewing is such a solitary skill for a lot of people, a solitary hobby for a lot of people, we can come together because where else are you going to talk about how fun it is to move darts around? Your spouse and your kids probably won't resonate the same. So it's a two day conference right now. We have keynote speakers each day for 2026. We have Cornelius Quiring and Kenneth King, which is very close to Threads, as our keynote speakers. So we have a lot in our main stage area. We do tons of giveaways. We have a game show where the teachers compete to win the Pattern Master award. And then we offer. We have 42 classes this year offered over the two days by 20 teachers.
- [36:39]
A
How do I mean, no one person can take 42 classes, so how many can you actually fit in? Do you get like three or four or five?
- [36:47]
B
It depends on the length of class that you choose. So some of them are a four hour, three hour class, some of them are just a one hour class. So you can take up to six classes. I believe if you were to take the shorter classes. If you take some of the longer classes, you can take, I believe either three or four. So it depends on which classes you pick.
- [37:09]
A
So it takes place in Atlanta on August 1st and 2nd, 2026. And if people want to know more about it, they can go to patterncon.com you'll see, as I did yesterday, a list of the instructors who are really great. Some new faces for me who look really exciting and fun and the topics are amazing. Quite different in many cases from what I've seen at a lot of other sewing expos that I've been to in the past. As you say, those will often be focused on quilting or, or sometimes crafty or home decor sewing. Not as much advanced pattern making or garment making knowledge. So these will be, these will be really interesting for anybody who wants to just take those next steps in their, in their sewing knowledge.
- [37:59]
B
I also want to say quickly, we also have a vendor alley. So we have vendors, patterns, tools, books, things like that. And we feed you, you are fed warm meals. And we do offer A lot of classes. And, and while these, while pattern making is an advanced skill, it's really important to me that we kind of covered all the bases because this is, it's really important to me that patterncon is for everyone. No matter if you are just beginning and wanting to learn more about fitting and pattern making or if you're a pattern nerd like me and you want to deep dive down the rabbit hole. If you're interested in historical cosplay, drafting, lingerie, digital pattern making. So that's kind of where we've chosen all of these classes to offer a good mix. And so I've been very intentional with our schedule as well. When you're picking your classes, we tried to offer, you know, if you're really interested in cosplay, like the cosplay are not all at the same time so that you, you can structure your classes to whatever you're most interested in. And we have very beginner classes like what are these tools and what are these terms that you're talking about that I've never heard of, or specifically fitting classes. So it's really to offer a good range for anyone who's wanting to dive into this.
- [39:21]
A
Yes, it really does look like that. Wherever you are in your sewing journey, as we say, I think you can find, find something really interesting. I was telling Tricia yesterday that when I started looking through it, I was just, I was so excited. I wanted to just like run down to Atlanta now and sort of lurk in the back of each room and see what everybody has to say because they're just so many interesting topics. What would you say the demographics of your conference attendees were last year? Do you expect it to be the same? Are these like a cross section of what, you know, online, kind of for the community?
- [39:54]
B
It, again, it was really important for me to make this conference available to everyone. So we actually had our youngest attendee last year, which was the first year, was 12 years old and the oldest was in her 80s. So it's, it's quite a range. Again, very diverse group of people. It's just, it's fitting. I mean, if you're into sewing, obviously everybody likes to sew. If you're into sewing, I mean, fitting and figuring out which fitting is pattern making is so pivotal in you continuing to grow and get better at your craft. So we even had a group of men that were with us last year. A couple of them were husbands who came to support and who actually ended up being inspired and coming up with their own ideas. And so it's it's we, we are introducing and we, it's really important to me, like with the classes that were offered, that we have that range where we're also introducing this year. Like I know you, you interviewed Lynn Brannally. Lynn is one of our teachers as well. Talking about adaptive sewing for people with disabilities. Because there isn't a lot of that offered. So the attendees are really. It was a great mix of all of those things. And that is a lot of the feedback that I got was people were happy that they felt that they were at home. It was this really strong, palatable feeling of just love and acceptance. And then we get to sew and learn patterns and do all this cool stuff. And a lot of people said to me, I heard this more than once. You know, I didn't know that this was what I needed until I got here. Sorry, I get emotional. Several people came up to me at the end with tears and giving me big hugs. So it's just, yeah. Creating a space for us all to come together and lift each other up and support each other. It doesn't have to be something you do alone. It doesn't have to be hard. Everyone can do this and it's available to everyone. So that's that. I, I, I hope that it continues to grow in that way. And we, I work really hard to make sure that everyone feels welcome. That's really important to me.
- [42:28]
A
Yeah. Feedback that I've heard was that you were very successful with that last year. So you're doing a great job with that. I'm going to put you through the lightning round now, which is something I've just started recently. I don't know why. What is the favorite show or costume you've ever worked on?
- [42:43]
B
Oh, that's such a hard question. I have some fun costumes, I would have to say. I'll tell you my favorite client. And it's not even a theatrical show. It's a company called Insomniac and they actually host the biggest raves on the planet. Their biggest rave is a rave that they do in Las Vegas every year. They host to about 500,000 people over the weekend. And I used to make the costumes for their main stage dancers. So they have six dancers on this huge football size field and they're. It's so fun to me because it's very much world of wearable art. You know, it's very larger than life, outrageous costumes that they have to be able to dance and move and it's hotter than Hades in Vegas at that time. So I just really love that challenge of it. Like I made insect girls who had to look sexy or tufted couch cushion girls. You know, how do you make a tufted couch cushion girl not look, you know, huge? So playing with proportions and things like that. So they always came with a fun challenge, I would say. That's probably my favorite.
- [43:55]
A
Never heard of it. It sounds like it would be very interesting. And then my, my second question for you is, do you have any plans to start your own pattern line? A lot of people are doing it now. Is that somewhere you're thinking of going?
- [44:06]
B
You know, I've had a lot of people because a lot of what I share on my social media is patterns that I've drafted myself. And people are like, where can I get this pattern? You know, they want my patterns. I don't, I really don't. To me, creating a pattern line kind of falls in line with the whole creating a fashion line. To me, it becomes more about marketing a certain style or a look. And I have a very unique style about myself and I don't expect or even want everyone to have my same style. So I really like to. I more so like to share and empower others to do that. So, yeah, it's not in my plans. I can't say that it'll never be. But I like to do more really outrageous creative one offs than I do creating a pattern line, I think.
- [45:05]
A
Okay, well, thank you very much and thank you so much for spending time with me today, Tricia. It's been really enjoyable.
- [45:11]
B
Thank you, Carol. This has been fabulous. I always love talking with you and it's just such an honor again to be involved, involved with threads. They've been a part of my sewing journey since the early years.
- [45:21]
A
Yeah, we love having you. I would encourage people to go to creativecostumacademy.com and also patterncon.com find out more about this summer's edition of the conference. If you're interested in going. I'd like to thank our listeners so much for joining us today too and listening. For any show notes and access to more episodes. Visit us at Threads. And meanwhile, keep on sewing with threads. Thank you to our guests for joining us and thanks to all of you for listening. Please remember to send your comments, questions and suggestions to thhreadsmagazine.com and please like comment and subscribe wherever you are listening. Until next time, keep on sewing with threads.