Beginners Pattern Drafting Info, Free Downloads

How Much Seam Allowance Should I Add To My Patterns?

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Seam Allowance Guide

Its sometimes difficult to know exactly how much seam allowance to pop on our patterns, there are ‘rules’  that apply to this area of pattern cutting, or rather guidelines that you should follow.

Here is some information that I hope will help guide you in making those decisions.

As a general rule, confined or extremely curved areas such as neck line, armhole, and some intricate style seams, will require less seam allowance than straight long seams.

Double or bagged out areas will also require less seam allowance to reduce bulk.

Where a neat inside edge is required, facings are the ideal solution – but we will look at these in some detail in another post.

Some examples of straight long seams in a garment would be:

  • A straight skirt hem
  • A side seam
  • A center back or center front seam

Other factors which can influence the amount of seam allowance (SA) you need:

  • Type of fabric – for example a very bulky fabric will require less seam allowance. If the pattern you are using has more seam allowance than you need, you can always trim down the SA after sewing.
  • How much a fabric frays – Voile and sheer fabric can fray badly so will need more seam allowance or a french seam, which again needs more SA.
  • The stability of the fabric – unstable fabrics that shift around a great deal such as chiffon require more seam allowance,
  • Type of seam, firstly in relation to its function, for example does it need to be strong, as in work-wear or jeans. Secondly decoration is also a factor, for example a sheer fabric that is transparent may require a decorative seam such as a French seam and this affects the seam allowance.

When I say ‘more seam allowance’ this could simply mean adding 1.5 cm SA instead of 1 cm SA.

If you are new to sewing and need some practice, here are the links to 3 beginners PDF tutorials on Etsy, the first covers sewing for accuracy and had lots of sewing templates for you to download.

The second covers the very important skills of sewing corners and curves and along with detailed guidance also give the templates you need to create the practice samples.

There is also a third project in this series that covers seam types and also gives you the templates to practice with.

Click on the highlighted links to find these projects.

The method of construction also influences the amount of seam allowance you should add. For example if you are using a serger or overlocker, then you only need the width of the overlocker bite (width of the stitch). This would be the case with knit fabrics.

Below is a table to give you some guidance for woven fabrics:

Seam Allowance Guide

Click this link to download the handy PDF file for Seam Allowance Chart download .

Please note- When producing garments for an industrial setting, small seam allowances are acceptable. Professional machinists are accustomed to sewing with 1 cm seam allowance. However the home sewer requires more seam allowance to produce a garment of high quality.

Some home sewing patterns allow less than 1 cm seam allowance and this makes it very difficult for a home sewer with a domestic machine, the width of the foot and the design of a domestic machine is not ideal for very small seam allowances. It is much better to allow more seam allowance and trim down the excess after sewing the seam.

I hope this helps and if you have any questions or comments then please get in touch.

Happy Pattern Making & Sewing

Nicola x

 

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Beginners Pattern Drafting Info, Free Downloads, General Info, Pattern Cutting Techniques

Garment Ease – Pattern Ease- Explained

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Ease – Explained – What is ease?

There is a lot of confusion out there about ‘ease’. I have read some rather misleading definitions on many a web page. Here I will give a detailed explanation about ease. You can also download your free PDF Ease Allowance Chart below –

Why have ease?

Ease is incorporated into a block or a pattern to allow the wearer to move, therefore ease is “allowance for movement”. Ease allows the wearer to breath, bend, sit down and move around. Ease is particularly important in children’s’ and babies wear and again becomes important in older peoples clothing.  If there is too little ease in a garment then the “look” of the garment may also be compromised, skirts will ride up, trousers will wrinkle and jackets will be restrictive. Therefore getting the right quantity of ease in your patterns and garments is important.

Ease Allowance Chart Free Download

Hopefully the above chart will give you a guideline for classifying the quantity of ease that a garment contains but lets look at the meaning of ease.

Ease is the difference between the measurement of the body (without clothes) and the measurement of the block, pattern and ultimately the garment that fits over the body.

Lets look at a real example – Using my basic bodice block in the Modeliste Creative Range available on Etsy.

The bust measurement the size 12 block is designed to fit is a 90.5 cm bust (34 1/16 inches). That is the measurement from the size chart I used to draft the block and relates the the measurement of the actual body the block is drafted to fit.

When I drafted the block I allowed 6.9 cm ( 2 3/4″)  ease over the bust as ease in this block range, as its developed for a curvy figure.

Therefore if we measure the block itself the measurement will be 94.4 cm (38 3/4″). This is the body measurement plus the ease.

If we produced a pattern from this blocks and made no changes to the block, then this quantity of ease would stay the same. However, usually during the course of making a pattern, we either reduce or increase the quantity of ease as we create the pattern. The extra we add in or take away during the pattern making process is called design ease.

We now have 2 types of ease –

  • Block Ease
  • Design Ease

There is a third type of ease, we will come onto that in a moment. The information above relates to woven fabrics or stable knits. If we are dealing with stretch fabric then this is where we come onto another type of ease.

  • Negative ease

Negative ease occurs when a block or pattern is smaller than the body it is designed to fit. Negative ease becomes important when drafting patterns with over 18 – 20 % stretch percentage. If you are drafting patterns with a stretch percentage of under that amount then you can use a woven fabric pattern.

Adjusting patterns and blocks for stretch percentage and negative ease percentages is a book in itself and I have come across many different methods in my career. That’s a topic for another day!

I hope this helps and as always, if you have any questions or comments then please let me know.

Happy Sewing,

Nicola

 

 

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Beginners Pattern Drafting Info, Pattern Cutting Techniques

Bodice Darts- How To Move Darts

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Princess Line Shaping On a Basic Bodice

It always amazes me that a designer can give a pattern cutter a sketch, for a fitted dress or top, in a woven fabric, and there are no darts at all illustrated on the sketch. It’s as though they imagine that a garment will fit the body in some magical way.

I realised along the way that nowadays most clothing is made in stretch or knit fabric, and this can eliminate the need for darts in some circumstances. This has resulted in many students not being aware of darts and their importance. But the fact remains that if you are designing garments in a woven fabric such as a cotton or denim, if you want the garment to fit the body, then there must be darts in some form or another. You don’t necessarily need to see them, but they must be there in some form.

This led me to create my darts booklet -which is available as a PDF instant download on Etsy. The booklet covers everything you need to know about darts!

In this post I am going to cover the method for creating a princess line shape on a basic bodice.

Step 1

The shaping above is a design choice, and can be adapted to your own design, as long as the princess line shaping goes through the bust point.

Close the  front shoulder dart to form the center front section, detach the side back panel too. You now have the sections you need.

If you don’t want a back shoulder blade dart in the center back panel, then please see my video

Removing the back shoulder blade dart for instructions on how to remove this correctly.

When you have finished your pattern you can then add seam allowance and test the pattern as a ‘toile’

Hope this helps and again if you have any questions I am always happy to answer – please subscribe to see more pattern cutting tutorials.

Nicola x

 

 

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Beginners Pattern Drafting Info

What Equipment Do I Need To Begin Pattern Cutting?

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There are 2 ways of answering this question, one is to list absolutely everything that you could possibly need to buy to begin your journey as a pattern cutter. The other way is to list the absolute essentials you could begin with now. When you first start a new hobby it can be motivational to buy all new equipment, but what happens if you don’t like it or you don’t want to spend too much all at once? Below I will give you both scenarios and you can take it from there!

The items highlighted are the ones I feel you could get away with if you want to give pattern making a try but don’t want to break the bank.

The Dream List

  • Good quality pattern cutting paper – spot and cross or plain tracing or both
  • Manila drafting paper – to draft basic block on- slightly heavier than the paper.
  • Some heavy card or plastic sheeting to make copies of your basic blocks
  • A set square to help make right angles and mark angles
  • A clear ruler to add seam allowance and measure small sections
  • A pattern master – a special ruler for marking seam allowance and drawing pattern lines
  • A flexi curve – to allow you to copy curves and transfer them to other pattern areas
  • French curves to help draw curves such as armholes and necklines
  • A good pair of paper scissors
  • A 3H pencil 
  • An eraser as you WILL make mistakes
  • Some colour pencils or marking pens to highlight special areas
  • A tape measure – not a fabric one
  • Sellotape or masking tape or both
  • Some dressmaking pins
  • A meter rule for marking long lines
  • A tracing wheel – there are many types – to trace patterns
  • A cutting board to place under your patterns when tracing
  • Push Pins to secure patterns to the cutting board
  • Pattern weights to hold patterns down
  • Letter template – to apply annotations to your patterns
  • A pattern notcher – to cut out a notch in your paper pattern
  • Pattern Drill or Awl – for making small drill holes to mark dart ends etc
  • Pattern Punch – to make holes in the pattern so they can be hung
  • Pattern Hooks – to hang your patterns from
  • A notebook for recording what you have done and any changes required
  • A dress stand – to apply your patterns to to see how they fit together
  • A set of basic blocks ( we supply these) if you don’t want to draft your own blocks to start with.
  • Quarter or half scale blocks to practice with, so you can save paper!

Subscribers can gain access to my free scaled blocks to use for practice – head over to the subscribers and enter the password you were sent when you subscribed!

Phew! I think that’s it. If you can think of anything else then please let me know. I must say that as a professional pattern cutter I use most of the above at some point in the pattern making process, but not all the time.

There are many fancy pattern masters and pattern cutting rulers out there. My favorite tool is a clear set square, but you can get away with a regular clear perspex ruler.

Join me on YouTube and follow my series on moving darts, it’s a great place to start!

www.youtube.com/modelistecreative

Happy Pattern Cutting!

Nicola x

 

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Beginners Pattern Drafting Info, Pattern Cutting Techniques

Removing a back shoulder dart from a bodice block

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Today most styles and designs don’t require a back shoulder dart, it’s considered a little old fashioned, however designers and pattern makers still want a good fit. The video below shows the various methods for removing a back shoulder dart, the advantages and disadvantages of each method are presented. Finally I show you my favourite method for doing this. As a pattern cutter, if you remove a dart, you should always be able to account for where it went, as it can’t just simply disappear! If you subscribe to me on YouTube you will be sure to receive all my video releases.

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