Adding Seam Allowances to a Sewing Pattern

When it comes to drawing your own pattern. Marking in the seam allowances can be one of the trickier parts just because not only do you have to draw your pattern once the first time you have to essentially draw it again a second time when you're drawing and your seam allowances. So I've found an easy way to be able to sort of draw your pattern lines and your seam allowance lines at the same time is to actually tape some pencils together and do it at the exact same time. So my favorite pencils to use for this are just your standard it's what I grew up using in elementary school. Just a number two, pencil, a non-mechanical pencil. Now, the reason I pick non-mechanical pencils is because generally a mechanical pencils are completely round where these have flat edges on them. So having the flat edges makes it much easier to hold those pencils together, either by themselves or with something in between, and then add some tape without things shifting. So if you are maybe doing a quilting pattern or some sort of pattern where you want to incorporate a quarter-inch seam allowance, these pencils actually work perfectly because when you lay two of them together, they draw exactly a quarter inch. So I have two that are already taped together here. And so if I'm going to be drawing in my pattern line, I simply align one of my pencils up again against the ruler, draw my line and I get I didn't draw it. I didn't lay it down all the way. Try that again. Lay this down and make sure both pencils are touching the paper, draw your line and then you essentially get two lines at the same time. And if I bring my ruler back over, you can see that those two lines are exactly one quarter of an inch apart. So this was a quick and easy way to draw my quarter inch seam allowance at the same time by taping those two pencils together. Now, if you want to add different seam allowances, maybe you want a half inch seam allowance or a five, eight inch seam allowance. You can still do that using these pencils. You'll just need to add something in between. And so there are several different things that you can add. I'm gonna show you a couple. So here is one where I began taped my pencils together. Now, if I lay my ruler up here, you can see that the tips of my pencil are half inch apart. So this is for my half inch seam allowance. And what I've done is I've taped a piece of folded up felt between my pencils. So felt or any other kind of fabric is a really easy thing to use to space out your pencils, because it can be folded into numerous thicknesses to give you the difference between your tips of your pencil. So you would take whatever it is you want to use between your pencils folded up, place your pencils at the desired seam, allowance distance apart. So if it's a half inch and then play around with your fabric folding until you get something that is right at the half inch. So with this, since it is a fabric, that's a little bit flexible, you may find that you need to roll it tighter. So it doesn't have as much give to it, but sort of play around with it in order to get it to the exact width that you want. Then go ahead and just use some simple scotch tape, tape your pencils, pencils together with your spacers in between then just like before, take your ruler lineup one of your pencil edges, make sure both of your pencils are touching the paper go ahead and draw your line. And you can see, I've drawn my two lines at the same time I bring my ruler on top one line is up right here with my half inch line and the other one's lined up right along the outside edge of my ruler A common seam allowance when you're doing garment patterns is a five, eight inch seam allowance. So that's what I have marked this one as I go ahead and just draw that one so you can see it. So again, both pencil tips, touching the paper drawing right along that, and this is my five eights seam allowance. And because this is a much wider seam allowance and I need sort of more distance between the pencils. I actually used a piece of cardboard and folded that or rolled that up similar to what I did with the felt but there wasn't as much give to it so it held it even a more steady because it has no give to it. So if you are finding that rolling or folding of paper and fabric isn't working for you, another option you can use is to go purchase some dowels and dowels generally I think of dowels in round, their usually round dowels but you can actually find square dowels as well and you can get them and many, many different thicknesses. And you can use these between your pencils as well. So obviously cut them down so they're not quite as long place these between your pencils at the desired seam allowance with add some tape. And then you're good to go to be able to draw your seam allowances in on your pattern at the exact same time that you're drawing your pattern piece, just using the simple double pencil.