Just came across an ad post for a new sewing pattern from The Sewing Site (Previously known as Annelaine) and there were comments asking if there were any real photos of testers since the pattern only shows cg renders in three body types. The answer was that no, no pattern testing was done (because of the reasons stated in the above linked site.)

Is it just me or is this hilariously ridiculous and insulting to consumers? You think there’s too much wastage in the pattern testing process, so you use CAD models instead for drafting, I get that and that’s fine. But there are still TONS of reasons to have people testing your pattern such as:

• testing the qualities of different fabrics. I want to see the tester garments that were made in linen vs quilting cotton vs challis, the lightweight rayon jersey vs a cotton French terry.
• in the process of testing a garment, several different people have to actually read and comprehend the instructions. Sure there might be a technical editor to make sure there aren’t typos and that everything looks accurate, but that’s really not a substitute for getting a wide range of opinions on whether a diagram makes sense or if something could be worded in a less confusing way.
• A CG render is only showing what the garment looks like on the exact body type it was generated for. It doesn’t show me what it looks like if real, varied bodies are wearing these garments. Because almost nobody is going to line up perfectly with your mathematical equation.
• and most of all, they claim that “math doesn’t lie” but we’re apparently supposed to trust that everything was programmed correctly to show an accurate result? There’s still a human element going into every piece of software.

The explanation has such a weird consumer-blaming vibe too. Like those of us who buy sewing patterns are to be held responsible for the wastage in the fashion industry. Meanwhile tons of people sew specifically to get away from the fast fashion industry which is the main reason behind the majority of that waste is it not? And if your patterns are so well drafted that they don’t “need” testing, how is it wasting fabric to get some people to sew it?

Last thing that bothered me: in the post I saw people saying they wanted to see some real examples, and the designer was completely dismissive, saying things along the lines of “but the price is right, it’s a free pattern” (yeah this one is but the other cg rendered pattern on the site costs money) and “well then it’s just not the pattern for you!