Pattern drafting can be easy.

Now that I have annoyed the soul out of all the professional designers out there, let me explain.   I am certain that drafting a commercial pattern is something of an estoeric skill.   However, creating clothes to your own figure in your own design merely takes a small amount of practice and imagination.   It requires very little patience, thank whatever you happen to worship, because if it took patience, I could never have learned it.

Like many a seamstress, I learned to sew by obtaining very simple commercial patterns and following the directions with much trial and error.  Though I was always careful to buy a pattern that came as close to my measurements as possible, there was always the problem of fit.

I had experimented with altering the pattern to suit my body, but had not had the chance to experiment with it much before a friend wanted to figure out a way to make some garb for a Renaissance Festival.  I bought a book that claimed to be a series of patterns.  However, it was simply a series of pattern shapes with some construction instructions. What I did not know how to do was to draft a pattern.

After much profanity (and a lot of help from my artist husband), I was able to construct several inexpert garments.

I was very unsatisfied with the results.  The bodice didn’t  even come close to fitting me correctly in the shoulders — a problem area for fit for me, as they are narrow.

My dissatisfaction made me wonder about pattern drafting.  I have always had a hard time finding clothes that suited both my tastes and my physique.  I could imagine lovely clothes, but even if I found a pattern that came close, I was not skilled enough to alter it.

As usual, when I have a problem with something, I made a trip to the library.  I obtained several books on sewing and fit. Most of the were very well-written instruction manuals on how to alter patterns.  However, at seven different points, my physique falls outside of the design template for commercial patterns.  To alter a pattern to fit me, I practically have to draft a new one.

So, that is exactly what I do!

I use a salwar kameez as a teaching aid because it’s incredibly basic and you can extrapolate a lot from the principles.

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