The previous editions of this book included co-author Susan (Pletsch) Foster, Pati’s former business partner. Before computers, Pati typed, Susan drew, and everything was carefully pasted up by the team and sent to the printer. After Susan retired into a blissful marriage, Marta picked up where Susan left off, though not in drawing—not her forte—but in sewing. Marta is an R & D sewer, always testing new and better techniques. She also did all of the sewing for the REAL PEOPLE sections in this book. Here is a little more about Marta and Pati.
Marta’s career as a sewing expert began during her summer “vacations” from studying at Oregon State University, when she sewed costumes at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. That led to a job at San Francisco State University teaching drama students how to sew costumes. As a result, Marta learned how to sew without patterns and to fit many actors’ figures.
Marta’s unconventional problem-solving approach to fit grew out of this experience. Pati used to cringe at Marta’s less-than-technically-correct solutions to fit. Now Pati enjoys Marta’s creative problem solving, including the coining of new fit terms such as “smooshing out a dart” and “taking a little here and putting a little there.”
After five years in San Francisco, Marta returned to Oregon in 1972 with her 4-year-old son and became a custom dressmaker at Portland’s Meier & Frank department store. She sewed for designer-clothing customers who couldn’t find the right silk blouse, for mothers of brides who wanted a special dress that fit, and for people wanting outfits out of that wonderful “new” fabric, Ultrasuede® Marta then became an assistant buyer and later managed the store’s sewing school. After the birth of her second child in 1977, she “retired” to teaching sewing in Portland, then Seattle. In 1981 Marta joined Palmer/Pletsch and traveled throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia teaching Ultrasuede, fit, tailoring and serger seminars.
In 1986 Marta became a Palmer/Pletsch corporate workshop educator. She is also co-author of Fit for REAL People, The Serger Idea Book, Sewing Ultrasuede, and Jackets for Real People. She stars in most of our DVDs.
Fit has always been Pati’s specialty. After she earned a degree in clothing and textiles from Oregon State University, one of her first jobs was to start a sewing school at Portland’s Meier & Frank department store. That was only the beginning of her experience fitting thousands of women. As a result, she has developed workable techniques that any size sewer can use with commercial patterns.
Pati is billed as the “Fit Expert” in the McCall’s pattern catalog, which has featured over 200 of her designs. Besides conceiving the designs, Pati writes the sewing and fitting instructions.
Palmer/Pletsch was formed in 1973 when Pati and her then-partner, Susan Pletsch, merged their writing and speaking talents. While co-authoring four books, they traveled throughout the United States and Canada teaching seminars based on the books. By 1980, nine Palmer/Pletsch associates were teaching 900 sewing seminars a year.
Pati and Susan approached Vogue Pattern Company in 1975 and became a licensee, the first time an educator had signed on with a pattern company. Five years later, Pati and Susan switched to McCall’s. Pati is the company’s longest-running licensee, beating out the previous titleholder, Marlo Thomas!
In 1985, after buying Susan’s share of the business, Pati established four-day workshops in Portland. Sewing enthusiasts have come to the workshops from around the world to learn the latest techniques. In 1990, Palmer/Pletsch added teacher training and in 1994 initiated a certification program, the first to be developed for sewing instructors. To date, hundreds of teachers have graduated and many have become Palmer/Pletsch Certified Sewing Instructors.
Pati has been elected to the American Sewing Guild Hall of Fame, and the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals honored her in 2011 with its Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a AAFCS Entrepreneur of the Year as well.