Subtraction Pattern Cutting by Julien Roberts

Unlock radical creativity, speed, and confidence in pattern cutting. This course shows how Subtraction Cutting lets you design from cloth outward—sculpting space with cuts, tunnels, and displacements—so silhouette, volume, and movement emerge first and the “design” appears last. You’ll work with the body as the ruler, gravity as a tool, and negative space as your new fabric. Expect fewer rigid templates, more discovery, and powerful links to zero-waste thinking—ideal for students, educators, and designers seeking original forms without being trapped by size matrices or paper-first methods. What you’ll learn — step-wise chapters (with live demos by Julian Roberts) 1. Foundations of Subtraction Cutting Origins, core principles, and why abstract, body-led patterning liberates silhouette and motion. 2. Seeing in Negative Space How sliced openings, tunnels, and “mended” cuts generate volume; reading interior vs. exterior space. 3. Tools, Measures, and Mark-Making Freehand lines, cloth-first drafting, gestural drawing/painting as pattern; when to ignore grain—and when not to. 4. Live Demo: Tunnel Dress Real-time construction from a single piece: placing openings, joining edges, managing tension, testing movement. 5. Live Demo: “Crazy Legs” Trousers Tubular forms for legs; choreographing range of motion, fit through cut placement, and iterative on-body testing. 6. Reverse Dissection Unmaking a finished garment to reveal the hidden 2D logic; learning to back-engineer your own prototypes. 7. Zero-Waste & Parallel Making Using subtracted pieces intelligently; whole-cloth strategies; when “necessary waste” advances prototyping. 8. Designer Prompts & Risk Short provocations that challenge front/back bias, symmetry habits, and ruler-thinking to spark unique outcomes. By the end, you’ll command a repeatable exploratory process: compose with openings, guide volume with seams, and refine through on-body trials. Subtraction Cutting widens participation and levels skill di