i'm not completely sure about what you're asking, but if you fill up all the pattern slots in one character, that's it. if you delete any of them, they'll disappear from your town. that's why people make 2nd, 3rd, and 4th characters so they can have more pattern slots. but if you're not asking about that, then disregard this lol.
you have to have 2 characters. A "path mule" is what people use to hold the paths patterns and then on the main character they can use regular clothes/extra path patterns.