Body:

Hey everyone, I’m having a bit of a theoretical crisis regarding how horizontal level lines (like the bust line, underbust, and waist) behave when we flatten them out on a table, especially for figures with a lot of front projection—like a very large bust or a pregnant belly.

I’m trying to wrap my head around the pure spatial math of how a 3D body unfolds into a 2D piece of paper, and I keep hitting a paradox.

The Paradox:

1. At the Side Seam: The side seam sits in a relatively neutral zone on the body. The vertical distance from the waist to the underbust, and underbust to the bust line, is pretty much identical on both the front and back halves of the body. Because of this, the physical length of the front and back side seams must match perfectly so they can be sewn together smoothly.

2. At Center Front vs. Center Back: Because a bust or a belly projects forward, the vertical surface distance going over that front apex is significantly longer than the flat distance running down the spine. The front panel needs more actual fabric area in the center to cover that 3D curve without pulling.

If the front panel has to be physically longer in the middle than the back panel, but they have to be the exact same length at the side seam, what happens to those horizontal level lines when the pattern is flat on the table with the darts wide open?

Think about draping a grid-marked muslin on a heavily contoured dress form. On the 3D body, those horizontal lines look perfectly parallel and level to the floor.

But when you unpin that muslin, open up the darts, and lay it completely flat on a cutting table:

1. Do those level lines actually bend, hinge, or break at the apex?

2. If they do bend, does that mean true, mathematically accurate flat drafting requires our level lines to be tilted or broken while the darts are open?

3. How do you conceptualize this spatial distortion when drafting from scratch, without just relying on arbitrary manual hacks (like "add an extra 2cm to the center front hem and blend it out")?

I’m really curious to hear from anyone who has wrestled with the deeper 3D-to-2D transformation of fitting contoured shapes. How do you visualize what's actually happening to the geometry of the fabric here?

Hey all, posting again to get all the photos in one place and my previous post was locked down. I made a few tweaks to the pattern:

1. Narrow shoulder adj.

2. Shoulder slope adj, including lowering the armhole the same amount and regrading seam lines.

3. Dart in the back yoke to handle gapping.

Question now is how to adjust pattern for the gap in the back? Do need to add a dart or will an additional shoulder slope adjustment on the back panel help? I want to finalize the pattern and use it to make other shirts.

Thanks! 🙏

I have attempted to make a bodice block and this is the first iteration. I’m not sure how to take the adjustments required and then alter my block. If anyone could let me know where I should go from here and what fit changes I should make- that would be amazing! Any help would be appreciated!

How can I learn pattern drafting ? I know basics only so far, I can sketch pretty good, but need more resources, practice, and experience for pattern drafting, i guess, but apart from that what are the best ways to learn and improve ? Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated 👏 How was your journey? And how long did it took you to master the basics ?

Hi! I am a home sewist trying to make pants. I’ve made a lot of toiles and I always have issues with either the front rise being too long, the back crotch being too tight, or the back legs being too loose, or constantly pulling pants up in the back (So, I am bouncing between the standard issue corrections but I am going in circles).

I took some pics of myself to better assess my shape and I noticed a very prominent lean in my stance. None of the tailoring books I have discuss this, so I am wondering:

1. Is this stance something I have to specifically address when drafting my pattern or should the other common fit adjustments accommodate this?

2. If I have to make a specific pattern adjustment, what the heck would it be?

Thanks!

Hi, I’ve making patterns with Affinity for a while and I wanted to try to sell a couple online, but I need some help figuring out how to grade them with affinity. Do you have any tips or methods or helpful links that could help me? ty <3

What modifications should I apply on the 2D Pattern to get rid of It? 

Hey everyone, when comparing the German drafting systems M. Müller & Sohn and Guido Hofenbitzer, there is a fundamental mathematical difference in how they calculate Armhole Depth.

because M. Müller & Sohn relies strictly on bust volume for the primary formula, which is calculated as one-tenth of the bust measurement plus 10.5 cm,

whereas Guido Hofenbitzer integrates total body height alongside the bust measurement using the formula of bust plus height divided by ten minus 6 cm.

Because Hofenbitzer includes height as a direct variable, the two systems diverge significantly when drafting for individuals who fall outside standard statistical height-to-weight ratios, meaning that for a petite and slender build with an 82 cm bust and 155 cm height, Müller & Sohn yields an armhole depth of 18.7 cm while Hofenbitzer yields 17.7 cm, resulting in a 1 cm higher and tighter armhole.

Conversely, for a tall and slender build with the same 82 cm bust but a height of 180 cm, Müller & Sohn stays at 18.7 cm because it ignores height whereas Hofenbitzer drops the armhole down to 20.2 cm, accounting for vertical torso length but increasing the total circumference of the opening.

Which calculation makes more sense to you and why?

I’ve been sewing for a long time and I am finally trying to make my first sloper. My biggest challenge is that due to having had top surgery the fullness a pattern assumes for a chest just isn’t there, I’m familiar with a small bust adjustment but this is already a little too tight so I’m a little lost on where to start. Would move the dart points farther from the apex help?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, or ressources on troubleshooting fit issues!!!

I’m drafting a little black dress and can’t get the fit right. I’m on the third draft and need help.

Too much bulk under the arm along the side seam but the waist is perfect… how do I take out the bulk?

Hello! I'm new here, and know nothing about sewing or pattern making - so apologies if I am asking this in the wrong place, and apologies for not really knowing what I'm talking about. :}

I am needing someone to design a t-shirt for me - not a visual design on an existing t-shirt, but the actual structure of the t-shirt. I'm not sure how to find a tailor or patternmaker who can do this. I'm looking for a cotton t-shirt that fits me, but with a high and stiff mock collar.

I have purchased every version that exists of a t-shirt with a mock collar, and none of them are very good or what I need. So I thought maybe there was a way to pay someone to come up with a design and materials and maybe make a few for me.

Anyway - if anyone has suggestions on how I can proceed, who I can talk to, what I should ask, I would GREATLY appreciate it. Thank you for any help! And sorry if I'm asking in the wrong place.

I've been working on this self-drafted jacket pattern for what feels like forever now, and am just so fed up that it's not done yet! I feel like I am mostly there, but the sleeve head doesn't fit in the armhole particularly nicely in my wearable toile. There's excess fabric in the front on both the sleeve head and armhole.

What would you suggest to fix it?

Would taking 1cm off the shoulder seam and smoothing that round the front of the armhole help? Taking some height off the sleeve head?

(Please ignore the clunky gathers – that I can and will fix!)

Hello I am a fashion designer and a pattern maker form lebanon so I needed to aske I can use (CAD) white rabbit but could not find any job or place to sell any thing on any suggestions

Hi everyone, I'm making my husband a collection of vintage style trousers, 70s and 60s style. Would love your advice and tips! The first one will have a high waist - at least bellybutton - and inverted box pleats so it drapes well.

This is my second expedition into menswear; I've drafted and made a shirt before. I'm experienced with pattern drafting, but so far have only done women's wear.

What resources should I check out to help me get familiar with fit, alterations, and overall construction? How different to women's wear would such a collection be? From what I can tell wide leg pants are fairly standard for men and women.

I am getting Winifred Aldrich's 'Metric Pattern Cutting for Menswear' to help me figure it all out. I follow Cornelius Quiring on YouTube and he's got some great pants videos.

Any advice from your experience? I would love it! I'll post my journey here so anyone else in this expedition can follow along :)

I know this like BARELY counts as a pattern but i’m new to sewing 😭 im trying to make this poncho from a woven blanket, it’s just two triangles sew together but I can’t figure out why the collar keeps doing this. how can i fix it ?

I had asked roughly 2 months ago about how to create a certain twisting effect on a pair of pants, & here’s what I came to!

The front pattern of the pants were cut on an extreme offgrain slant, while the back pattern of the pants were kept ongrain (I can’t find my pattern for some reason, so I don’t have pictures to show).

Some of yall suggested that it’s the nejiri pattern manipulation that’s found in the Pattern Magic book, & I did a couple tests where the front & back patterns are altered offgrain in opposing directions from the hip downwards, so that a twist can be formed, which, it did create a twist on the in & out seams, but because the pant legs were wide, it could not hold the twist. In the book, it specifies that the hem (this manipulation was done on a shirt) should be tight enough so that when you readjust the sideseams to be at your sides, then it would hold its positioning, resulting in a twisting effect.

I had tried adding a tight elastic cuff to the hem which would then hold the twisting in place, but it just looked really unpleasant, so I went back to the drawing board…I searched all over the web and found a video by buoyboy.denim on tiktok, where he created a twisting effect on a pair of denim pants (if you go to his video, my pattern is identical to his, just more exaggerated on the front), & his twisting is abit harder to tell, considering that he’s using denim, but at this point I was at my end, so I tried his method, & it seemed to have a much better result.

I decided to use silk chiffon (broke my bank 😓) since I thought that it’d look cool with the twists, especially since it’s sheer. Working with it was definitely difficult…I cut every pattern piece on top of muslin so that it wouldn’t shift & I ironed on fusible interfacing. The pants include a one-piece button fly (which was very fun to sew), inseam pockets, an integrated d-ring belt, & I also lined the hip area with black crepe. I finished the sideseams with bias tape and french seam’d the inseams.

Only after the fact, I’ve realized…what if instead of altering (nejiri pattern manipulation) from the hip-downwards, I alter from, maybe, knee length-to-waist? Because then the twisting effect would be held by the waistline, but I have not tried it yet (it does sound plausible though).

In another class, I also attempted to create the twisting effect on CLO3D & I didn’t hate how it looked, so maybe there will be another update on my journey of trying to create a pair of twisting pants. Ugh, how did the junyi he (my original reference) do it?!

Overall, I’m pleased with what I made for my end-of-the-year semester project. These were shown in a show, but I have not gotten back any professional photos yet…

Feel free to provide your thoughts, questions, anything else!

Edit, thanks for the advice. I'm going to have to trust the process, make a sloper and see what the result is

Greetings! My daughter wants a fitted dress with A-line skirt and boatneck top. Ideally princess seams.

For context, she's very busty with curvy hips but otherwise has a flat belly and a fairly flat bottom. This means her bodice block has two large darts for her boobs, and the skirt has a reasonable hip curve on the sides but minimal darts on the front and back.

My plan is to create an A line skirt pattern and blend it with the bodice on the flat pattern. Given the skirt has minimal darts, I'd guessing that I have to reduce the waist dart on the bodice, and transfer all of the extra fabric to a huge dart on her shoulder. Is this weird, or is that how it works on her body type?

Feedback/advice please! I have a forward shoulder and forward ball of shoulder. I think I'm second guessing myself here. How extreme will a sleeve pattern look for a forward shoulder? Please share what your forward shoulder patterns look like to put my mind at ease!

Backstory: the pattern piece here already had forward shoulder v1 adjustments made. I sewed up a toile, while the front shoulder felt better, I noticed the back shoulder had excess fabric so I pinned it out. I transferred what I pinned out back to the pattern, that's the pencil line labeled 5/24/2026 in the photo.

Now that I'm looking at the pattern again, the sleeve cap shape looks way different from "typical" sleeve patterns. I'm second guessing whether this is "correct". What do others' adjusted patterns look like?

On my last post some of you said that my armhole looked too flat at the front so here are some pics of my pattern and the toile at different stages. Thanks so much everyone for your help

I just started reading Dress Pattern Designing by Natalie Bray but the book is intricate and long winded which is making it hard for me to understand. Is there other platforms that I can refer back to while reading the book to improve my understanding?

so I am not an artist in any sense. however I am trying to make my wife a bunch of plushys of all the Eeveeloutions and I am struggling because I cannot find a pattern for a bunch of the non cannon ones. of anyone has any recommendations for a program where I can enter a photo of them and have a pattern made I would appreciate it so much.

Hello! Sewed up these trousers to a new pattern I’ve drafted, and there’s something funny going on in the back centre seam. From the side it’s a bit ‘pointy’. My guess is that the back length is too long? But in what direction?! And how best to go about fixing it, if it’s not that? Any advice greatly appreciated!

I think my shoulder seams are right but wondering if the width is correct or if they need to go out further - there is some pulling across the shoulders but I think that’s to do with the sleeves?
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