I gained an appreciation of pattern engineering and a better understanding of the subtleties of fit. Lovely hearing Helen’s experiences and dipping into her knowledge. Thank you, it was worth the journey from Devon.

I recently had a fantastic day pattern cutting with Helen after my husband kindly bought me a voucher for Christmas. I had had the benefit of Helen's experience before when we made a bodice block and my project this time was to make a summer dress based on a Tudor kirtle. Helen spent a lot of time beforehand researching the styles and seemingly endless possibilities of the look and function of the dress after I sent her some photos of the kind of design I had in mind. Helen has an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience to draw on and talked me through the stages of how to move and remove darts and incorporate Princess seams instead and how to drop the sleeves to make the garment more historically correct. I learned so much and am busy finishing my toile ready for a further fitting session with Helen and more advice regarding the lining and lacing. Helen is very friendly and approachable and ensures that you are understanding the various steps and the whole process as you go along. I would definitely recommend Helen's classes to anyone from the first time sewist to those who have been sewing for a while and want to challenge themselves further in their projects.

I had the best time with you on this course, thank you so much!! I learnt so much about patterns and garment construction, and also just had an overall nice time chatting about sewing, thank you so much! I will definitely be booking onto another course soon!

This was my second course with Helen, consisting of four 3 hour sessions creating a personalised clothes block. It was great fun working with other enthusiastic sewers and I ended up with exactly what I had hoped for: a pattern from which I can create a host of new projects. I also learned that I needed to up my game and be a more accurate seamstress - all brilliant lessons! I would recommend this course as a foundation for anyone interested in creating their own sewing patterns.

Really enjoyable four week class creating a pattern block. Helen is super helpful and explains everything in a very easy to understand way. I am delighted with the final toile produced from my block and can’t wait to join Helen for another course soon.

I've done a 'shared course' and some one to one sessions with Helen at Dot and Cross. Really improved my understanding of how dressmaking happens. It is a technical subject, but so important. The knowledge I gained has had a great effect on the fit and style of my hand-made clothes. I've been able to alter commercial patterns, to measure myself and interpret those measurements to my dressmaking. Excellent teaching, and 'team work' Helen teaches, listens, explains and discusses options in a lovely way. I wanted/needed to improve to prevent frustrating waste. Excellent. Worth it and so so satisfying. Lovely garden studio room. To be recommended.