Pati Palmer's daughter, Melissa Watson, now has her own line of patterns at McCalls. The Melissa Watson for Palmer/Pletsch line debuts in the Spring 2011 catalog

Because Melissa, like her Mom, will be including fitting help in all her patterns, her somewhat edgy designs will be wearable for anyone who is young at heart.

Fashion design is in her blood, and is her passion. Since she was four, Melissa has watched her mom collect ideas, sew designs, and present them to McCall's, all the while creating outfits of her own from Pati's box of fabric scraps. She won a blue ribbon at the Oregon State Fair for a quilt she made when she was nine, and a Grand Champion ribbon at ten for one of her paintings, something people told her they'd been trying to achieve all of their lives. Since she was seven, she has studied and taken art classes. Her last art show, in 2004, was a series of oil paintings with the theme of fashion and design, called "In the Red or In the Black," featuring realistic portraits of women posed in her own stylistic designs. Melissa is now focusing that award-winning creativity into these new pattern designs. 

Melissa's first appearance in the McCall's catalog was for a line of children's clothes called "Growing Up With Melissa," where she modeled fancy dresses, dance, and active wear. She also modeled in McCall's fashion shows as far away at Auckland, New Zealand, when she was only five.

More recently, in 2007, she was licensed to co-design the DIYstyle line for McCall's, before moving on to this new Palmer/Pletsch line. McCall's felt that expanding the successful brand known for fit with Melissa's eye for fashion would help expand sewing's appeal to a fashion forward and younger market.

In 2010 she was asked to judge the Oregon Make It With Wool contest. The youth category really enjoyed having a judge with a younger point of view.

Melissa says that her first real sewing challenge was a cotton velveteen blazer she made when she was 17. "Even though my Mom told me it was difficult fabric to work with, it is what I wanted to wear, so I was more motivated to finish it." She believes in encouraging young sewers to experiment, while being honest with them at the same time.

The jacket appears in Jackets for Real People. Melissa used her Mom's famous original 1980 pattern for the 8-hour blazer that took sewers by storm, selling one million copies that year. (LEARN MORE...) Now the 8-hour blazer is back as M6172. You can purchase it on our Palmer/Pletsch for McCall's web page...HERE.

The new blazer pattern came out in 2010 to help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Palmer/Pletsch patterns for McCall Pattern Company. Pati is the longest standing licensee at McCall's. Consumers love the classic designs and the fitting help they find in this best-selling line. Melissa Watson is being brought in to expand the appeal to the next generation of sewers through her new sub-brand, Melissa Watson for Palmer/Pletsch.

Back to Melissa's pattern page...