How to Make Patterns That You Can Reuse

If you're like me, you probably have a very well love favorite pattern that you like to make over and over again. For me, it's a camp shirt and this is one that I've almost finished. All I have left, as you can see are the buttons and button holes, and it's just such a joy to wear it's comfortable, it's big, and it's just, like I said, my all time favorite pattern it's a simplicity 9818. And, when you buy patterns, they, as, you know come in these little envelopes and they're all folded up and trying to get this pattern back into the envelope so it fit, is very very difficult to do. That's the first thing I don't like about paper patters. But more importantly, one of the problems that I found with paper patterns, this is a piece from my favorite one, is that they tend to tear. They tend to get very wrinkled. You end up using a lot of tape on them the tape yellows and the pattern just curls, and it has all kinds of problems. So today I want to show you how you can take your favorite pattern and turn it into a more permanent pattern, that's going to last a lot longer. And then you can take this original pattern, put it back in the pattern case or the sleeve and have it for a lot longer than if you just kept trying to work with this, poor little paper pattern out of tissue paper. Let me move this over. And I want to introduce you to a product called DO-sew and this was by a stretch and sew, and it is pattern tracing material and it is a hundred percent spun bonded polyester. Which means there is no direction to it, You don't have to worry about which way you cut something out on it. And it is a very inexpensive, I pick this up as you can see for 599, and you get a roll of it that will last for quite a while. I'm trying to see if it tells me how much is in here. No, but that's okay. You can see that it's a pretty good size roll. So what it looks like is like this. This is one I already had open. And you can see how there is no rhyme or reason to the way the fibers go. There's no grain line. So this means I can take a pattern, and lay it out in any direction, regardless of grain line. So I want to show you how I work with this. You put the pattern underneath your do so or your spun polyester, if you get a different brand. And the best way to work with this, you can use pattern weights. These are fairly heavy and they will weigh down a pattern on something so that it won't move. But it can shift, it can move, but actually for what you're doing here I find it to be a good method. And then you're going to take and I find the easiest way is to use a ruler. Now, if you're going to pin, which I'll be honest is how I usually do things because I'm a little bit of a worry wart, and I just don't want to take a chance on shifting. I like to use these flat headed pins. They're usually called a clover pin, because they look like a little clover. Although sometimes you'll see them in a butterfly shape but they are perfectly flat. And the thing that makes that nice is that, when I want to put a ruler over top to Mark a line, it doesn't bubble up like it would with a regular pin. It lays flat. And that's one reason that I like those. So, you're gonna to need a ballpoint pen. You're going to need to either pin it or use your paperweights. And, before you do anything, I highly highly recommend that you press that pattern first. You don't want wrinkles. You don't want bubbles. You need everything to be flat and you may even need to press your polyester. And then, you just come along, and you're gonna trace it. With pen and with the... I find the ruler helps me keep true to the lines, and even when I'm coming around a curve, like this I just kind of shift the ruler and it keeps me going along the edge there. Nice and neat. Oops, and if I get off a little bit, guess what? It's not a big deal. And you can even use some of the special curves that we have for dressmaking, to help you go along these edges. But for me, this method seems to work fairly well. And I know I could trace it free hand but I have a hard time drawing a straight line with a ruler as you're probably noticing. So for me, I just like to have that little extra tool to help me out. And that's why I use the ruler. Now, some important things about your pattern here that you need to be aware of. After you've got everything on here, I want to make sure that you Mark all the important pattern marks. We are literally transferring everything onto this fabric pattern, always make sure, And it's probably hard to see because of the fabric and the table, but I always put on the name of the pattern which is simplicity, the number, which was 9819. The size that I'm tracing out in this case size 12 because there are multiple lines that you can follow. As you see it's for 12, 14, and 16. They put three sizes into this particular pattern. Since I know what my size is, I don't need to worry about these other ones, but, I've always got my paper pattern, that if I want to share it and make it for somebody else, or God forbid I gained weight and need to move to a different size, i can always cut out a new polyester pattern and have it for whatever size I need. I also put down what view it is. Sometimes, a pattern like this back piece will work for all the views. In this particular case, I have four different options for my pattern. As you can see, two are shorter and two are longer. So that makes one difference in it. And then you have the difference of the short sleeve and the long sleeve. So technically, I would use this particular one 'cause I [Indistinct] cutting it short. I would use it for view B and D. In this case, I just put down view D, and I probably again should add that extra one If I'm ever going to make it for both. I put the number of the pattern piece. Each pattern piece within a pattern has a number or a letter designating the piece, So I make sure I mark that. I put down what the pattern piece is which is the back and how many to cut. In this case I cut one, because it is along the fold. When I go to put a fold piece or an edge piece that has a straight line on it, onto my fabric, I just use the edge because it's cut perfectly straight. I don't have to worry about grain line. So that saves me a little bit of time and ensures that that line is indeed perfectly straight. I also marked on here the waistline, so that if I ever need to make adjustments, I know where the waste is. And I marked the two lines that are for alterations. This is where if I need to shorten my waist a little bit, I would take it up at those lines. So as my figure changes, or if I'm making it for somebody else, I've still got those lines. So I know where to make my adjustments. I also transfer all of my notches. As you can see the single notches, the double notches and just so you know, on sleeves, when you put them in the front we'll have a single notch and the back always has a double notch. So just a little tidbit there. So you can remember why it's cut that way. So I always want those but the most, absolute most important thing, that you want to put on a pattern, would be the grain line or a fold line if there's a fold line. In a second, I'm going to show you the grain line. What you have all of your markings on. And basically I've just transferred anything that was on the original pattern to my paper pattern or to my polyester pattern rather. So then we take all the pins out. And you can see, if you put these side by side it's a little hard to see this again but I have indeed transferred all the markings from one pattern to the next. And it doesn't hurt to double check before you start to cut. Because you can always put it back on, line it up and add them if you need to. But it's always better to do it right the first time. Now it's time to cut the pattern, and you want to have a very, very sharp pair of scissors. These are my wonderful gangers that I've had for years, and I have told my family that I will absolutely not be held responsible for my reaction if they ever touch these scissors. So, they're my nice sharp ones. And now we just want to go ahead and cut out our pattern. We're just gonna trim on those lines, and cut it out. Now I marked the notches inward, mostly because that's how they were on the pattern. But I will give you a little tip when you actually cut out your fabric, with the pattern, i like to cut the notches to the outside. And the reason is that way you don't run a chance of accidentally cutting into far and going into your same line and having a chance of, your seam separating or your fabric graveling. It's just another little bit of insurance as a sewer that I find is worth doing it that particular way rather than another. So she can see, this is pretty easy. It really doesn't take that long. I would say this was a five-piece pattern, four or five piece pattern. And I think I transferred it in less than a half an hour. So now I have this pattern that is not going to tear as easily, now granted, if I took it and went like this, yeah, it's gonna tear. But for normal sewing and just laying it out, this pattern is going to last a lot longer. Over time, you may get a little bit of holes or tearing where the pins go in but that takes a long, long time. And at that point you just go back to your original pattern, pull out the piece that you need to replace and do it again. So I think you're gonna find that this is a wonderful tip. I don't necessarily do it when I have something that I'm only going to make one time. But again, if it's something that I just know I'm gonna love and want to use many, many times. I reach for the polyester pattern material and quickly go ahead and transfer it, And then I just don't have to worry about anything happening inadvertently to my pattern. Now, I promise that I would show you the importance of marking your fold line in your grain line. This one, as you could see, this was the one I was demonstrating cutting out the pattern with, and this had the fold line so my arrows point to the fold. The other piece, actually several of my pieces. This is the front of the pattern and it has a grain line. And it is extremely important when you mark that grain line that you get it exactly how it was on the pattern so that you won't even be off a little bit. Because if this is not perfectly on the grain line, your pattern or your finished garment rather will never hang properly. it will always have a twist to it. So, that's why I say, if you Mark nothing else make sure you mark your grain line and your old line. I think once you start doing your patterns like this, you'll find that they are a joy to work with. You don't have a lot of the frustration that you have with the paper patterns. You can probably lay out a pattern a lot faster, because you don't have to worry about ripping or tearing. And I think it's a method that you'll really be glad to add to your toolbox of sewing tools. I don't do it for one-off patterns, there just is no need. But for that pattern, that is a long-term favorite that you know you're going to be making over and over again, this is the only way to go.