Diploma

Welcome to

The Cloth Cutter Dressmaker's Diploma

Design and create a capsule wardrobe with this year long, unaccredited course. Gain in confidence learning how to make more considered choices to help you to make the clothes you really want to wear.

This Year's Diploma is now FULL

Register your interest for 2025/26

Our Dressmakers Diploma Course, led by Jules Fallon, covers designing for your own body shape and lifestyle, pattern cutting for individual figure shapes, production sewing techniques, tailoring and textile manipulation. All the skills you need to design and create your own capsule wardrobe.

The year long course is a commitment, and probably not for everyone as it will require some soul searching and working outside of your comfort zone. But you will gain so much more from this course than just sewing knowledge.

So why take a Diploma Course?

Apart from taking your sewing know-how several notches higher, here are some of the other benefits to joining the Course.

Learn from Professionals

All the tutors on the course are industry professionals and as such are keen to pass on their many years of experience. You will learn from experts and be able to trust their best practice.

Gain in Confidence

Learning in a small and supportive group will help you gain so much more confidence not just in your sewing, but yourself as well. This is an invaluable element of the course and will give you the courage to go beyond your own expectations.

Never on Your Own

Sewing at home can leave you confused and floundering. We will never leave you floundering or uncertain of what to do. You will receive full support from Jules and all the other tutors in the studio and online so you will feel confident of success.

Helpful Online Videos and Tutorials

As a Diploma Student you will have access to all the resources available in the Online Sewing Studio. You will be able to watch all the helpful tutorials and videos to support your studies on the Diploma Course.

New Sewing Friends

As a group of Diploma Students you are all facing the same issues and challenges so it makes a huge difference have new friends to help support you along the way. Lasting friendships have come from our Diploma courses

How is our Course structured?

Although you will be making up 6 garments in your capsule wardrobe, the course is made up of 5 Projects. These cover a range of knowledge and skills that build on each other. Each unit needs to be passed to be able to move onto the next.

1. Design and Ideas

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Learn how to take ideas and turn them into the kinds of garments you want to wear. We will cover a range of techniques to help you whittle down your ideas to decide on the colours and styles that suit you and your lifestyle.

You will create a moodboard to help you focus your ideas and use a sketchbook to collate all your thoughts, fabric swatches and design ideas. You will also learn about presentation methods to showcase your final capsule wardrobe designs.

2. Working with Fabrics

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When working with different fabrics it’s important to understand the sewing and production processes that work best with each type of fabric.

Creating a set of sewing processes resources will help you make better choices when deciding how to make up your garment ideas.

You will develop an understanding of what processes and techniques will give you the best finish to your chosen garment. Along with the best tapes and interlinings to give your garments a more professional look and feel.

3. Pattern Cutting

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Learning to draft your own personal blocks will give you a much greater understanding of how you can better fit commercial patterns.

Creating a personal resource full of pattern adaptations using quarter and half scale samples will help you decide which adaptations you may wish to use to create your own patterns from basic blocks or to change and adapt commercial patterns to create the style of clothes you want to wear.

4. Fabric Manipulation

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As well as making garments we will be looking at how fabric can be manipulated to enhance and add decoration to particular designs and shapes.

This may involve a visit to the V&A or other relevant exhibitions or shows (circumstances permitting). You will also have the opportunity to experiment with some printing and dyeing techniques as well as stitched decorative techniques to create some fabric manipulation samples. These can be further developed into ideas to include in some of your final garments.

5. Producing your Capsule Collection

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Once all the other projects have been completed you will be well equipped with all the knowledge you need to design and create a capsule range of clothing that both fits you and your lifestyle, as well as your body shape.

You will be able to draw on all the theoretical and practical work you will have achieved in the first part of the course. Then use this to make far more considered and selective choices to create a range of clothes you really want to wear.

What commitment is required?

Learners will need to be available for tuition 2 days a month in the studio, as well as regular online tutorials for additional support. You will also be expected to spend approximately 8 hrs per week working at home.

Skills and experience required

Learners will need to have the following skills and experience to make the most of their time on the course:

A good understanding of sewing and garment construction including:

What a grainline is and how to use it
What notches and balance marks are and how to use them
What a layplan is and how to use it.
Be able to thread up and use both a sewing machine and overlocker competently

A basic understanding of pattern alterations / pattern drafting.

2025/26 Studio Dates

Dates to be confirmed

Cost and payment options

The total cost for the course is £3780. This is broken down into a non-refundable initial investment of £600 to secure your place, then 12 monthly instalments of £265.

There is also the option to pay for the balance of £3180 in full if you choose to.

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Let me know when i can apply

Diploma FAQs

We will be working on a basis of 2 days tuition per month in the Studio, usually taken together as a Friday and Saturday, (but this may be subject to change). If you are unable to make a particular session please let us know as soon as possible. We will send you any notes, handouts or links from the taught sections so you will be able to access them afterwards as well. Everyone will also have access to support online.

From teaching this Diploma previously we have realised that students gain so much more information and knowledge by attending in person here in the studio.

So we have made the decision to only have in person teaching as we want people to be able to get the very most out of this course. So please make sure you are able to attend in person before completing the application form. We fully understand that life happens and sometimes you will not be able to attend in person. But please let us know as soon as possible so we can help you with anything you might miss.

If you are travelling to the studio and wish to stay overnight please let us know so we can send you some suggestions of places we recommend to stay.

You will need your own sewing machine and overlocker as well as a basic sewing kit. You will also need basic pattern cutting equipment such as pencils, rubber, long ruler and a set square or Pattern Master.

You will be required to provide all the fabrics to make your capsule wardrobe, but you will be entitled to 10% from our online shop as a student on the Diploma Course. Or you may have fabrics that you’ve been waiting to use in your stash already.

A full list of equipment and any books that will useful to you while on the course will be sent to you once you have made an application and been accepted onto the course.

Unfortunately the Diploma cannot be split into smaller courses. The nature of the Diploma and why we have chosen this particular structure is to make it different to normal sewing courses.

Having the Diploma structured this way with specific units and smaller projects, means that each project builds upon learning achieved in the previous one so they all support each other and build up a comprehensive bank of knowledge and skills when put altogether.

The Cloth Cutter Dressmaker's Diploma

This Year's Diploma is now FULL