How To Become A Freelance Pattern Cutter

Why Consider Freelancing ? 

252. London is one of the world’s greatest fashion capitals, teeming with fashion businesses and fashion professionals of all types. Good, experienced freelance pattern cutters  are in  high demand, and specialist pattern cutters even more so.

There are  many advantages to becoming a freelance pattern cutter in the fashion industry. If it suits your lifestyle and your personality, then going freelance can be the best thing you ever did.

However, not everyone is cut out for freelancing. While it is possible to earn substantially more as a freelancer, if you dont have the right skills, knowledge and  attitude, you  will find it really hard to succeed.

Marketing Your Services.

I became a freelance pattern cutter in London in 1984, after being  made redundant by my employer. This gave me  the push that I needed  to give freelancing a go.

It was FAR harder to succeed back then. There was no internet, so it was hard to find potential clients, and even harder to market yourself, and be seen.

The only real  avenues to market your services were the phone book and Drapers Record. A small ad in DR would attract maybe one or two enquiries in a week, and you may get one job out of every four enquiries.

It was almost impossible to find help and advice for freelancing as a pattern cutter. With todays internet, we have a wealth of information on any subject at our finger tips.

I could only dream of the type of service that The London Pattern Cutter provides for freelancers. I would have saved myself a ton of problems and made a hell of a lot more money.

Specialist Or All Rounder.

To be successful as a freelance pattern cutter you really need to either be a  specialist, or an all rounder. Experienced specialists are always in demand, and can command a higher hourly rate as long as they can find their clients.

Unless you have good contacts, to start off with, you will probably need to be open to do pretty much any type of freelance work. That often means learning on the job.

This can be very time consuming, and reduce your hourly rate significantly to begin with. You dont have experienced colleagues around you to help provide the expert  knowledge that you need.

We at The London Pattern Cutter  offer one-to-one Pattern cutting tuition to help provide you with this extra knowledge where needed.

Maybe you are not sure how to make a particular type of sleeve, or how to make a childrens pattern, or a swimsuit pattern. Maybe you just need to learn how to grade to a different size. We have expert specialist pattern cutters to help you out.

Manual Or Digital ? 

You will need to decide whether to concentrate on manual pattern cutting, or digital. There is plenty of room for both. If you choose digital, then you will need to have some pretty expensive equipment, that would justify a higher hourly rate.

Although digital pattern cutting is very popular within the fashion industry, as a freelance pattern cutter, most of your enquiries are likely to be for manual patterns, unless you successfully target a specific market.

Build A Pattern Library.

When you work full time in-house  for one company you not only have your own basic blocks, but you have a large library of previous patterns to work from. The same applies if you work in-house as a freelancer.

Each brand has a particular style, a particular sizing, and a particular fit that needs to be adhered to as much as possible. This means that you can produce patterns far quicker than if you did not have references.

You dont want to develop each design from scratch if  you dont have to, unless you are creating complicated designer outfits that require draping on the stand.

As a freelancer you will   be working for multiple brands, each with their own style,  their own sizing and their own fit. You need to consider how long each new style will take, and how long any alterations will take.

If you are working from home or from your own studios, you will generally not have access to a library of the clients patterns, and many of your clients will be new to this anyway.

It is really important to build up a library of different types of styles that you can use and adapt for different customers. Otherwise, each time you make a pattern you will be starting from scratch.

You need to make sure as far as possible that your client provides good reference garments so as to avoid too much expensive  trial and error.

How Much Will I Earn ? 

How much you earn as a freelance pattern cutter depends on  many factors, including your hourly, daily rate, or job rate, the amount of hours you work, and whether you work from home or on site. As you will not be earning a salary, you will need to charge more per hour than you you would be paid with a salary.

Be Confident With Your Pricing.

New freelancers tend to be very unsure about their pricing. They will often say that their hourly rate ranges from one lower  figure to another higher figure. Lets say from £20 to £30 per hour. What that tells the client is that you are perfectly willing to work for the lower figure – Or less.

You need to figure out what YOUR rate is, and be confident about that rate. That doesnt mean that you cant agree a lower rate, but always have in mind what your lowest rate actually is.

How Much Should I Charge ? 

Only you can determine how much to charge for your work. You cant just determine your own rate according to how much other people charge, although you can use competitors rates as a guide.

It stands to reason that an experienced  skilled  specialist in any field would demand a higher rate than a less experienced or less skilled competitor.

That same specialist pattern cutter would not be able to demand a similar rate for a pattern that was not in their specialist field. Except that, if they are in high demand, they can choose to ask a higher price than if they were not.

The first thing  to do to calculate the rate you need to charge is to figure out what your  rate would be if you were normally employed, with a salary. You may wish to take into account travel time, or holiday rate etc.

Hourly Rate Or Job Rate ?

I always prefer to give a rate for each job, unless the work really demands an hourly rate. Most clients are happier with a per job rate, and it leaves less room for argument when the job is done.

How Do I Find Freelance Jobs ? 

The hardest part of being a freelancer is finding the work, unless you already have contacts and a ready supply of potential clients. Advertising can be expensive, and tends not to be very productive.

You could try phoning around, or emailing prospective clients with a cover letter and a CV.  If you contacted enough people, you should eventually have some success, but it is quite time consuming.

As we are a small collective of freelancers and small factories, we occasionally take on freelancers to work with us on our many projects. If you are interested in working with us, then please email us, including a CV, cover letter, and anticipated hourly rate.

Your Role As A Freelancer.

Unlike your regular job, working freelance requires you to wear multiple hats : Pattern Cutter,  Project manager,  Bookkeeper, Sales Guy, Entrepreneur, Etc.

Keep On Learning.

One of the great disadvantages of going freelance as a pattern cutter is that you tend to work alone, so you have no one to learn from. Books can be very useful, but they do not replace the collective knowledge of your experienced colleagues. We at The London Pattern Cutter can ensure that  you are constantly adding to your skills by providing one to one pattern cutting classes, and workshops.

Getting Work Through Employment Agencies.

Working though an employment agency as a temp is one way of getting work as a freelancer, although it is not as easy as it once was. Temping is one way of adding to your technical knowledge, and to your CV.

If you are considering a return to full time employment, it is also a good way of finding a new job.

Do I Need A Business Plan ?

Anyone considering becoming a freelance pattern cutter should create a business plan for their own benefit. The advantage of creating a business plan is that it makes you aware of how much you need to charge and what your expenses would be.

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