Pattern cutting is 3D engineering, and most engineers have never heard of it. At Electromagnetic Field 2026, theatrical costume specialist Amy Jeskins gave a talk titled '3D Modelmaking for Girls: The Overlooked Engineering Skill of Pattern Cutting,' arguing that garment pattern making belongs in the same category as mechanical design, not home economics.
The talk covers flat cutting, draping on a dress form, and modern CAD packages built specifically for clothing work. The most pointed section is the social history: how pattern cutting became coded as a feminine skill, which caused it to be systematically excluded from engineering curricula, despite requiring spatial reasoning, material science knowledge, and tolerance management that any mechanical engineer would recognize. Jeskins uses her own costume work as concrete examples throughout.
Read the original Hackaday post for the embedded full talk from the CCC media archive. The 2017 companion piece on textile bench prerequisites is also linked, and both together make the case for why a sewing machine belongs next to an oscilloscope in any serious workshop.
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