14-Day Learn to Sew Series - Pattern Primer

If you want to sew clothing, home dec or accessories, chances are you're going to have to learn pattern markings. All right, and I know this is something that can be a little confusing on not very clear when you're first starting to sew. So I wanted to take a moment to focus on pattern markings and what they mean for you when you're sewing so that things turn out right, because if it's not cut out properly, it's really difficult to actually make it into a successful project. So let's look at patterns. I'm just gonna put my reading glasses on here. So patterns instructions of course will tell you how to put it together, but they don't necessarily always teach you how to read the pattern. But now the pattern that I'm wearing, the instructions for it actually came with this really great diagram talking about what the pattern markings actually means. So I borrowed that from Butterick. Thank you Butterick and let's take a look at this. Okay, so I'm just gonna kind of start at the top and work my way around. So first thing that they're showing right here is symbols and these symbols can be used, as it says, for matching pieces together, other construction details. So they put little marks on the pattern in various places. This one has markings here. It has markings down at the hemline. So there's various places they'll put those markings where they feel you might need to have a reference point. So basically, it's just kind of a reference point and again, it can be any of these four different shapes, just depending on the pattern, they'll use different shapes so that the markings don't all look alike. And they're there for your reference. All right, moving downward, the next thing it's pointing out is darts. So we have a dart here and remember, darts are for shaping. So I'm gonna teach you how to sew them, but in this case, we also need to make sure we mark them accurately. And so here is a dart. Darts are used to take out the excess fabric when we shape around a curve and again, we're gonna see this in clothing or even home dec or accessories. One thing you need to really be careful with these darts, is to make sure you're always marking the correct line. You'll notice I have my heat erasable pen here and I'm always careful to mark which dart line or which seam line or cutting line I should say, I'm going to be using. It just helps to cut down on the confusion, 'cause if we look at this pattern, you'll also notice it's a multi size pattern. And so you have lots of different lines and it can get very confusing. Another thing that's confusing is, please understand that the markings on a pattern or the pattern sizing, is not necessarily the same sizing you're gonna see in your clothing, in that, especially Vogue, Butterick, McCalls, Simplicity, they haven't necessarily changed their sizing since the 1970s and so don't be surprised if the number on your pattern is not the same as what you're used to. You need to go by your measurements to decide which pattern size is right for you and for a top or a jacket, the measurement you want is actually right underneath your armpits. That's not what the pattern will tell you, but that's actually where you need to measure, is right up under the armpits, not at the false point of the chest. If it's a skirt or pants, or that sort of thing, you'd wanna measure around the widest point of the hip, the hip or bottom. And the widest point might actually be the tummy area, but anyway, the widest point is what you wanna use for your measurement in that instance, but usually it's around the seat or the hip area. Okay, so that's for darts, but again, just make sure to mark your darts. If there's more than one line, make sure you know which one you're supposed to actually be marking on your fabric. Now, next to the dart is this little circle with a cross and there's another one down here at the waistline area, and these are markings that patterns will use to show significant measurement points or reference points when you're altering that pattern to fit yourself. This particular marking should be the apex. I'll tell you are a pattern maker, compared to where the dart is, it's not quite in the right spot, but it's okay for an example. But this is the apex which should be the most forward point, the highest point on the front of the body in the chest area. Down here at the waistline of course, another significant point of measure, both for height and width of the pattern and so you'll see that little cross there, and oftentimes it will have measurements. Now, we're going through this diagram and then I'm going to show you the actual pattern for the blouse I'm wearing. It's not altered to fit me, but you can see this in a real life pattern, these same kinds of things. Really important, here we have this line with the arrow, that is the grain direction line. So grain, remember we talked about woven fabrics and we have a lengthwise and crosswise, that grain arrow should be lined up with that lengthwise, in other words, the wear appearance, the lengthwise grain. If you're not sure whether it's actually aligned properly, you can take a ruler or a measuring tape and you can measure from that line to the salvage of your fabric and just make sure it's the same distance all the way down. Why is this important? If you've ever had a pair of pants that wanted to kind of twist themselves around your leg, that means they were not cut on grain. It must be cut on grain, this is super important. That's why it's marked on the pattern. So you need to make sure that that lengthwise grain line is lined up with that arrow. All right. Now, if we look down at the bottom, the bottom here, we also have a hem allowance noted. This is too small to read, but most patterns will have the hem allowance noted. Many patterns will also have the seam allowances noted on the pattern. This one does not. If it doesn't have the seam allowance noted, please be sure to look it up in the pattern instructions, look that up, it's super important that you get that information accurate. So make sure, look up your seam allowance, but the hem allowance should be marked on the pattern itself. It doesn't always, but it should be. Here's another marking. This is a cut on fold, where it says fold line. When you see this marking, this means that you are gonna line up that edge of the pattern on the fold. You'll see there's two arrows here. Line that up on the fold. Now, the fold is intended to be on that lengthwise grain, all right, that up and down grain line. There's no grain line markings on that pattern, because it's assuming that you're going to put that fold on the lengthwise grain. So make sure, when you fold your fabric to lay that pattern piece down, make sure that you put it on the lengthwise grain. That's what they're expecting you to do. All right, another thing you're going to see on pattern is notches. And notches are there to again, they give us a reference point. They tell us, okay, this pattern piece matches up to that pattern piece and the notches on each pattern piece should line up with each other. So it's a reference point. In notch language, notch language, in the way I was taught to make patterns, one notch is for a front piece, like the front of something. Two notches mean side, like a side seam. Three notches means like a back seam, for instance, a center back seam. All right, I notice that patterns don't always follow that language very accurately anymore, but there is actually a language to notches, not only that, okay, this piece lines up with that piece at this location, but also, this is what those pieces are. So if you were an advanced sewest, you could look at the notches presumably and know which piece was which, even if you weren't familiar with the shape of the piece. All right, another marking you'll see is lengthen or shorten lines. Now, lengthen or shorten lines are not always, when you go to fit yourself, they're always the best place or even the only place that you should lengthen or shorten that pattern, but it's a good starting point. And then mostly for if you're long-waisted or short-waisted, or you have long arms or short arms, or longer legs or shorter legs than the pattern, that is a good place to go ahead and do some alterations, so they mark that on there. So that's some of the basics for pattern markings, so let's look at an actual pattern. So again, this is the pattern for the shirt that I'm wearing and there's a lot of different markings on it, so I'm just gonna start actually down here. So one thing you'll always wanna look for, like this is the front piece and I know every pattern should have what the name of the piece is. This is the front for either View B or C and then you also have, this is the front, we know we have to cut two. It tells us to cut two. It tells us what the size range it is for that pattern piece, of course, the name of the company and the pattern number, right? So again, I would go through, if this was one I was actually gonna alter to fit myself, I would go and I would mark my pattern size, mark all my measurement and things, but let's go back down. So I just wanna point out, so here it's center front. So notice the center front is not necessarily the cutting line, but it does tell us where the center front of the pattern should be on your body when you try on the pattern. So that's really important. Here's one of those reference point marks. This is basically the start of the collar, by the lapel on this particular blouse, is what that marking is referencing. Here's our grain line, and you can see that the grain line is parallel to center front. Center front, and here's our waist line. Now, this waistline marking does have measurements attached to it. It tells us what the finished measurements should be for this pattern at that location and that can give you a bit of an idea also how much ease is in the pattern. Okay, so for that size, it's supposed to fit a certain measurement. You can subtract the actual measurement from the pattern size measurement and that will tell you how much wearing ease, how much extra room there is so that you can breathe and move and raise your arms, that kind of thing in that garment. It gives you an idea how it's going to fit, how closely it will fit your body. All right, right here we have a couple of darts. Now, this pattern has 12 darts total, potentially, if choose to sew them all and this particular dart is actually a fish eye dart, what we call a fish eye. It's a double-sided dart. You sew these from the middle outward and that's kind of an interesting way, but they're used for waist shaping, 'cause they point above the apex and the hip. So they're pointing at two wider areas. If your waist is smaller than your chest and your hip, then you can put these darts in for more shaping in your garment. All right, so just above that, I've marked it in red already, is our apex marking. Now, in this case, they didn't mark it with a circle and a cross here like they did at the waistline, they used a little triangle instead, but they are also giving us measurements for the apex at this point. And of course, here is a normal, a regular horizontal bust line dart. But do you see how many lines there are? This is why it's really important, when you have all these lines, it can be so confusing, you need to be really careful, like here's the line for size 12, really careful and go ahead and mark these, ideally with a colored pen so you have an idea which one you're actually using. This is a big mistake people make, they need to trace this for accuracy. That solves a lot of problems. Now, in this particular pattern, I'm not seeing a seam allowance, but there is a hem allowance marked, five eighths inch hem allowance, but because there's no seam allowance, it needs to be looked up. You need to research that in your pattern instructions, find out what your seam allowances are, because this is a pattern that for instance, because it's used to teach fit, how to fit yourself, I believe that the side seam is actually one inch and then the arm hole and the shoulder seams are five eighths of an inch. So you need to know these things or it may not fit the way you think it should. Finally, let's look at notches. So here's some notches. For lining things up, these notches would correspond to similar notches on the sleeves. Sleeve, this would match the shoulder seam. Now, they're using pattern language that I would consider traditional. There's one notch here, that's front of that shoulder seam. Here's two notches here, that's a side seam. So some traditional pattern language for the markings there. But I hope that this little bit of a primer gives you an idea of just how to start interpreting some of these patterns. Now, when you lay your pattern out, again, watch those grain lines and you can either pin your pattern to your fabric, or I personally prefer to use a rotary cutter with a cutting mat and so I actually use weights rather than pins, because I find that I'm more accurate with the rotary and a mat than I am with shears. So that's a personal choice, but when you lay it out, just make sure to lay it out very flat and on grain and mark those lines that you need. Mark your cutting lines, mark your dart lines for accuracy. So I hope this helps and don't ever be intimidated by a pattern. Just watch your pattern language and lay it out accordingly.