Measurements, Size and Pattern Markings

So for the majority of these patterns that are garments, we're going to need to know what size you want to make this garment so that it actually fits when you make it so you don't spend all this time and then you're not able to actually wear it. So on all of the patterns provided by Mood, if you go to the blog post page that is associated with that pattern, it has complete written instructions and a photo tutorial on how to put everything together. At the very top of that blog post is a size chart and there's a size chart for every single project, so make sure you're looking at the one that goes with your project and it tells you what size pattern pieces you should be cutting based on your body measurements. So there are a variety of different body measurements that you can take, not all of them necessarily apply to each of the projects, but you should take essentially all of your body measurements, just record them all, and then you'll have them to be able to reference that chart. But for most of these projects, the main measurements that you're going to want to take are your bust measurement, your waist measurement, and your hip measurement, if you're going to be making your jacket long enough that your hips are gonna be involved. So take those measurements and log those down just on a piece of paper, and then look at the size chart to see what size pattern piece associates with your body measurement. Now, I'm gonna say that 99% of the time, you are not going to fit into this same pattern size measurement for all of your body measurements. I don't think I have ever once in my life fit into one exact pattern piece size and that is fine. For me, my hips are usually wider than my waist and bust measurement, so if I am a size 16 in bust and waist, but I'm an 18 in the hips, that's fine. Go ahead and cut out your pattern piece at the widest or biggest measurement that you fall into, and then you can either take in as necessary or adjust your garment as you're making it or you can grade between pattern sizes. So the easiest way to do that is if you have a pattern piece. So if this is your pattern piece here, and you've cut it out at your widest size, and that is this line here, but one of your measurements falls within the next smallest size, wherever that area is on your body, you can just grade from one line down into the next. So that just means you gradually go from one line down to the next and back. So again, if the example is that maybe your waist is smaller than your bust and hip measurements. then you keep your bust measurement wider or bigger as needed as you come down to your sides, you grade into that next line and then you grade right back out. So you can go in between pattern sizes if you need to, that way you don't feel like you're stuck with one size and it's just gonna be too big or not fit in one area. Just know that you can make those changes. So that's the main thing that you need to do first is take your body measurements, figure out what size pattern piece you need to cut, cut between the two sizes or multiple sizes, if you need to, and then you know you are good to go with that size. Now, when you are printing off your pattern pieces, when you download the patterns, the very first thing you're gonna see is the first page and this is gonna tell you to stop. It's gonna say only print this first page first. And the reason for that is this square right up here in the upper corner is a size guide or a way to make sure that you are printing your pattern pieces at the correct size because if you have somehow in your printer settings hit scale to fit or size to fit, or you're printing to a custom size and you're not printing like the actual size or actual fit of the pages, then it's not gonna print at the right size. So you want to print just this first page first and they have this page on every single pattern, so you don't have to worry about it's only on one, it's on every single one. So you're gonna print it first and you're gonna measure this square. It's gonna tell you that this square should measure exactly two inches. If for some reason it does not measure two inches, then you need to adjust your print settings, check and make sure you are printing actual size or 100%, there's nothing changed there. And reprint until this square measures two inches. Once you know that it measures two inches, then you can go ahead and print the rest of your pattern pieces. That way you know that they're gonna be the correct size before you print everything and then have to reprint them later. Once you have everything printed on all of the pattern pieces, they have these sort of shaded numbers. So you can see just a couple of them here. I have 13, 14, 15, all of them have numbers on the pages so you can very easily see what order the pattern pieces need to go in when you're taping your pages together. Another helpful thing is again on this first page that you've printed off, you can see all of the numbered pages and you'll be able to see how the pattern pieces come together. So it might be hard to see on my page that I'm holding up right here, but you can look at your pattern and see that, okay, out here, pages one, two and three come together and this starts making up one of the front or the back pieces or the sleeve pieces, and you can see how everything lays out. And that way it's not as hard of a puzzle to put together when you align your pieces. When you have printed off your pages and you are aligning them, everything should line up from one page to the next to where when you have your finished pattern piece like this, you shouldn't be able to tell that it's all taped together, it should look like one big page. So all of your pattern lines should line up from one to the next. Every page has lines and little marks on there that you can align to easily tape your pages together. Also, any other markings or anything that continues from one page to the next should line up perfectly straight. So there's lots of ways to sort of check to make sure that you've got all of your pieces lined up correctly, and then once you have printed them the correct size, lined them up, taped them all together, you can then cut out your pattern pieces again using those paper scissors and then you are ready to lay them out and start cutting out your fabric. So the next thing I want to talk about is some of the different markings that are found on patterns, especially if this is the first time you're putting together a garment and you're not familiar with some of those pattern markings. Okay, so when you are looking at your pattern pieces, no matter what project you're working on right now, the first thing you might be noticing is that there's a lot of different lines or markings on your pattern pages that you might not be familiar with. One of the most important ones is of course your size, making sure that you cut out the correct size. So on all of the pattern pieces, there is a sort of chart that tells you what line style associates with the size that you want to cut out. So there are different dash designs, so there's just a simple dash, there's the dash with the dot, there's a dash with the double dot, there's lots of different line styles, and that helps you differentiate between the different sizes. So find what size you are and what line corresponds with your size and know that you're following that line all the way around. That's the first sort of line or marking that you need to know. The next and most important one is the other biggest line that you will find on any one of your pattern pieces and this is your grain line. So it is gonna be a big arrow that says grain line on any pattern piece. No matter what size your pattern piece is, there's going to be again that big arrow that says grain line. That means you need to align that arrow with the grain line of your fabric. So if the grain of your fabric is going this way, then you want your arrow, your line to be going perfectly parallel to it. You don't want to off just a little bit and you definitely don't want to off a lot, it needs to be perfectly parallel with the grain of the fabric and that's gonna make sure that the areas that need to stretch on your garment will stretch and that the fabric will drape like it's supposed to in areas when you are putting together your garment. So grain line is very, very important. Other lines you might see is again another line with some arrows, but these arrows point down towards the edge of your pattern piece and this is where you need to cut on the full. So there will be some, excuse me, will be some pattern pieces where you need to align the edge on the fold, and again, this is marked with a line and some arrows and it does say cut on the fold. So that's another one to look for to make sure you do that because if you need to cut your pattern piece on the fold and you don't, then it's gonna end up too short when you try to seam that together. So make sure you look for that, look for all markings, know all markings on your pattern pieces before you start cutting things out. The other things that you may notice on your pattern pieces are notches or indications of notches. If you've done any kind of work with commercial patterns in the past, notches are generally little triangles and you'll see these on the lines that you're cutting out on your pattern pieces. With Mood fabrics, they aren't triangles, but they are still, there are marks that are similar to notches and circles. So all of the little, I'm gonna call them little T's, they look like little upside down T's, these are important little indications on your pattern pieces, these are things you need to transfer to your fabric. So if with the example of the sleeve pattern piece that I'm using here, you have a mark here at the top, this is going to align with your seam that goes between your front and back. So that would be similar to, again, if you're looking at a commercial pattern or you're familiar with commercial patterns, this would be a circle. And then you have what is essentially a notch for the front and a notch for the back. So on commercial patterns, you'll generally see one triangle or two triangles, that's the exact same idea here with one line and two lines. A single line indicates the front of something, so in the case of a sleeve, this is the front and a double notch or a double mark indicates the back of something. So once this sleeve is constructed and actually put together into a sleeve, very important that you put the front on the front, attach it to the front, and the back on the back. And I will go over how to put sleeves onto a garment a fun, easier way, I think, than setting in sleeves, I'll show how to do that. But just know that that is very important when you are transferring your marks, don't assume that just every mark is the same. Each one does mean something, and again, in general, single is front, double is back. And then for little marks like this, where you might not know necessarily what it is referring to, always a great idea to reference back to either the video instruction that's going along with these projects, or the written photo tutorials provided by Mood because they will say too where you need to align some marks or what you need to be lining up when you stitch. So those are some of the main pattern markings that you will need to know and need to transfer to your fabric. Again, make sure you're cutting out the correct size, make sure your grain live arrows are perfectly parallel to the grain line of your fabric, and you're getting everything cut out correctly. Put those pattern pieces on the fold if you need to and then transfer all marks, notches and marks like that, and pleats, if you need to, on one of these patterns. Transfer those markings to your fabric using your preferred marking methods. So if you are someone who likes to use a removable marking pen or pencil, you can use that. You can use tailor's tacks, which means you just take a little stitch using some brightly colored thread and you just use thread as little marks or I like to usually make all of my marks with pins. That way I can mark with my pins and then take them out, I don't have to worry about removing anything at the end. So make sure you're transferring all of those marks. And those are really all of the basic beginner tips you'll need for all of these projects, again, that sort of a blanket applies to every single project going forward and now we can start getting into some more specifics that go along with each one of these projects individually.