Show Tell Share: Tips for Making Your Own Pattern

More and more people make their own patterns from store bought garments today. It is pretty simple, but more importantly it satisfies our crave for DIY. There are many great tutorials on the web on how to draft a pattern from a shirt, shorts or a skirt. Dana from Made cuts apart an older clothing item. I used this method too, when I made a tunic pattern for my youngest. Ashley from Make It and Love It shows us how you can draw around a pair of shorts and our very own Idealeon blogged about recreating her favorite shirt the same way.

I have done both. I cut apart an old shirt and drew around clothes that fit well. They both work great, but I am always looking for ways to make things easier. Cutting clothes apart can be tedious. And I may not have anything I want to cut up. Drawing around a store bought item is easy, however some areas are harder to navigate around to copy just right. I never really liked fiddling around to make sure it lays down just so, with the right seam showing.

So, I started using pins. Put cardboard or foam board underneath the paper you are drawing the pattern on and place pins at short intervals . You can use this trick for marking pocket placement, button holes, armholes etc. Then just connect the holes and you have the perfect copy!

See how easy it is? Plus the clothes stay in place and it is so much easier to draw around it to get a good outline!

I also like to use a ruler to help me draw perfectly straight lines. And I use pins for all curved lines.

Easy, simple and makes copying store-bought clothes more accurate!

Thanks to Idealeon for this tip: "Make sure you use your see-through ruler and add 5/8 inch or whatever you like to sew at on to every seam edge. The line created by the pins is the 'stitch line' or the 'sewing line.' "