Let’s take a moment to get to know each other. Please introduce yourself in the comments: 1️⃣ How long have you been sewing or working in fashion? (beginner / intermediate / advanced / professional) 2️⃣ What type of garments do you work on most? (bridal, eveningwear, everyday clothing, alterations, etc.) 3️⃣ What is the ONE thing you’d really like to understand or improve when it comes to garment construction or fittings? There are no wrong answers here, this helps me tailor the content to what you actually need. Michael.

Today is a pause for many of us. Garment construction, like any craft, is built over time through patience, repetition, and quiet observation. Moments of rest are part of that process. I hope you’re able to slow down, reflect, and return with clarity. We’ll continue building, learning, and refining when the rhythm resumes. Wishing you a calm and meaningful holiday. Michael Zamora

In professional garment construction, technique is only the tool. Decision-making is the real skill. Every dress is the result of hundreds of decisions made before the first stitch: fabric behavior, grain direction, internal support, balance, and how the garment is expected to perform on a real body. When those decisions are unclear, technique can’t save the garment. You end up correcting instead of building. This is why two people with the same sewing skills can produce completely different results. One follows steps. The other understands structure. Construction is not about knowing how to sew something. It’s about knowing why it should be built a certain way. That clarity is what separates sewing from professional garment construction. Michael Zamora

For years, fashion education has treated alterations as secondary work. Something basic. Something you do after the “real design” is done. In reality, alterations are where construction knowledge is tested. Most of what fails in fittings is not about creativity—it’s about structure, balance, and decisions made during construction. Alterations don’t hide those issues. They expose them. This is why many designers avoid alterations altogether. They force you to confront what wasn’t understood from the beginning. In professional environments, alterations are not about “making it fit.” They are about reading a garment, understanding its logic, and deciding how far it can be pushed without breaking its structure. When fashion ignores alterations, it creates a generation of professionals who can design, but not execute. Understanding alterations is not a step backward. It’s one of the clearest paths to mastering garment construction. Michael Zamora

For a long time, I knew how to sew. I could follow patterns, execute clean work, and finish garments properly. And still, something felt off especially with dresses. Some pieces looked correct on the hanger, yet struggled on real bodies. Fittings felt heavier than they should. Adjustments multiplied. Solutions felt reactive instead of intentional. At the time, I thought I needed more skill. What I actually needed was construction clarity. Working inside real production and bridal environments forced a shift in how I understood garments. There was no room for guessing. Every decision fabric, grain, internal structure, balance had consequences the moment the dress touched a body. That’s when I understood the difference between sewing and construction. Construction is not about doing more. It’s about knowing why something is built a certain way before it ever reaches a fitting. Once that logic became clear, everything changed: - fittings became confirmation, not correction - structure became intentional, not added later - sewing stopped being reactive and became precise decision-making This course exists because that learning curve doesn’t need to take years of frustration. Garment Construction Foundations is about building that clarity early—so dresses are designed, built, and fitted with intention from the inside out. Michael Zamora