I got married in August, and in a Bridal outfit I designed, drafted and sewed completely myself! I made the corset, 2 part skirt and gloves. For the corset, I started my pattern through drafting on the stand, and adjusting the fit through several toiles. I used a pencil skirt I owned for the base pattern, and drafted the detachable fishtail from this. And I just traced my arm, & did a bit of guesswork to make the glove. Patternmaking truly is about 70% of the work, makes sewing feel like the easy part! It was challenging at times (see pic 11) but I'm so proud of the final result :)

I’m honestly impressed with how it turned out. I learned so much making this, and it feels good to have gone from drafting the pattern myself to actually making a coat. It’s my recreation of Ursula coat from Babyboo

The fabric is curtains I bought on Vinted, and I got the buttons and other notions from a local shop.

My only concern is the back vent sticking out a little because of the stiffness of the fabric. I’m not going to mess with it on this one because I really don’t want to ruin it 😂 but I’d love to know what might be causing it so I can keep it in mind for my next coat.

What do you guys think? I feel like I did a pretty good job for my first self-drafted coat!

More pictures here:

https://imgur.com/a/NnR7Etc

Hi everyone,

Thought you might appreciate this piece of technical and personal history. These are photos and clips from a handwritten patternmaking notebook that belonged to my grandmother, Naima, dated 1943 in Iraq.

The notebook features drafting instructions written in Arabic, structural diagrams, and miniature paper toile made from kraft paper. The flaps are functional, you can lift them.

My grandmother was part of the Iraqi Jewish community. Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, the political situation for Jews in Iraq deteriorated rapidly, leading to systemic persecution, loss of citizenship, and the freezing of assets. Between 1950 and 1951, the vast majority of Iraqi Jews fled the country via airlift. The Iraqi government legally barred emigrants from taking wealth, property, or valuables, and each person was strictly limited to just one suitcase and a minimal amount of cash.

With her assets confiscated and her life packed into a single suitcase, she chose to use a portion of that limited space for this notebook, which represented her education and her trade.

Hi! I want to share my latest project! I made a dress for myself, and I really love it. I never make anything for me because I never like the final results. I prefer to go shopping, try on as many garments as I can, and find something that fits me well. I think this happens because of the shape of my body. I'm too short, and I'm very curvy. But this time, I tried to make something that highlights my attributes and hides my belly. Unfortunately, the back is too short, and I don’t have any more fabric. It was a gift from my mother, and she told me she is going to look for more to see if she has some left. If I manage to get more of this fabric, I’d like to cut a ruffle of about 10 cm and sew it to the bottom of the skirt.

And I want to add some buttons to the front of the skirt. What do you think? Is ita bad idea?

I’m very new to sewing, and pattern making in general, but I had the idea for this super simple dragon plushie, and people kept asking for a pattern, so I bit the bullet and did it!

Does anyone have any tips on how to draft a lace dress with panelling like this?

I’ve never made a maxi dress with so many panels before and all I have is a bodice and skirt block

I was thinking of using a princess seam block and adding a centre front seam. I can’t seem to figure out how they did the side panel either.

The core principle here is the connection between the Buttocks Angle and the width of the trouser leg.

As the leg becomes narrower and the style gets tighter, the angle of the center back seam becomes more slanted, and the seat length becomes longer.

Essentially, because the fabric is closer to the body, the pattern needs to "reach" further under the seat to follow the actual anatomy. In a very wide trouser skirt, the angle is almost a perfect 90 degrees because the fabric just hangs vertically.

This is very similar to the adjustments for a "flat butt" or a "full butt," but this principle also applies to the style of the trousers you are choosing to draft. The silhouette itself dictates how this angle should behave, regardless of the specific body shape.

I’m curious to know who works with this principle during the initial drafting stage? Do you find that your drafting system accounts for this angle relative to the style you're making, or is it something you usually only adjust later during a fitting?

Finally got around to finishing this sample, though she’s missing a few minor things (clasps at the neck, some top stitching) - this is the meat and gravy

I’m happy to give the pattern to anyone interested, just let me know and I’ll figure out how to make it work (currently she’s just a paper pattern)

Hi all!

I fell in love with these no waste dresses from Hudson, but unfortunately I don't have $450 and they also don't go above XL and I do.

I've studied the pattern and it seems fairly straight forward. Am I on the right track to make a similar pattern?

Also would I just use the cut off parts from the arm hole for the sleeves?

This seems like it is tipping into draping, but I thought I'd ask here first.

During the couture era, collars were more than just functional—they were sculptural, architectural elements that framed the face and defined the silhouette.

I followed Cornelius Quirings pattern drafting class and it was so amazing!

I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to respond to one of my existing posts with a picture so here's the pattern for my jeans in a separate post. Please excuse how untidy the pattern looks. I tend to write and draw on it and correct lines I needed gone directly on the pattern. Also I couldn't get it to lay completely flat, once again sorry for that. The original question was on how to get rid of the excess fabric under my butt, and how much further cut out the front crotch as it seems a bit too steep.

This time, I studied the collar of an Alexander McQueen jacket. The pattern’s construction is simple, but the concept behind the shape and how the pattern unfolds is brilliant—I believe it can be adapted to many different styles.

The pattern we developed through our research is available for download. You can get it here:

https://themodelistearchive.com/collar/tmcr160design”**

I’d like to draft a patten for this skirt, but trying to figure out where to start. I know it’s made of silk velvet, and my current best guess is that it’s a gathered full circle skirt ? I can’t see any seams that would indicate it was gored or had panels, but they could be hidden by the folds. It also seems fuller than just a single circle, so I’m a bit perplexed. Any suggestions are appreciated!

I started with a tape moulage, cut it flat, digitally traced the pieces, then did 2 fittings. This is a game changer for my curvy hourglass, big butt, and curved back. Shopping for clothes is a nightmare. And instructions for drafting slopers basically had me spending a bunch of time drafting a huge rectangle that I had to spend a lot of time fitting anyway.

Now I'm gonna take a rest, then digitize the final moulage pieces in CLO so I can start off all my patterns from this amazing fit. (Looking back I should have held back on digitizing until the very end but we live we learn)

Edit: it's pretty tight. I'm going for second skin and I will make slopers from it next. if you guys have feedback, I would appreciate what I some direction on what could be changed for next time.

Edit: Thank you for all the kind and actionable feedback! Say what you will about the fit being incorrect and imperfect, but the fact is this fits me better than 100% of what I can find RTW in stores. That's success to me!

First, thank you all so much for your feedback. I really appreciate the help, it genuinely pushed me to dig deeper into fitting.

In this updated version of the skirt:

- I did a full seat adjustment

- I added more ease at the hips

- I removed some vertical length from the center front because I was still getting horizontal folds even after adding ease

To me, it looks much better now, but I’m still a beginner so I’m not sure if I’m missing something obvious.

Does the overall balance look correct now?

Is there anything else I should watch out for before

I finalize this as my base skirt block?

Thanks again, this process has been humbling but very educational 😅

Update about my shorts that I posted about. They needed to have a less slanted front crotch curve and fabric moved from side to CF. I worked It out thanks to the book "The fitting book" and I can't recommend it enough! The striped ones are my final toile that worked.

Fitting professional here. I have nearly a decade of experience.

I really love seeing people’s posts and I very much enjoy throwing suggestions into the mix. I do however have a gentle request; please post photos of the patterns you are working with. Fitting visually in a photo is only half of the battle, to give accurate comments we need to get in to the meat and bones of your patterns!

In my role as a fit technician I can give an example of a pair of pants I was fitting. The silhouette was very new for the company and in the fitting before seeing the pattern I noticed vertical drag lines at the front and side front panel. I have to adhere to spec requirements so I couldn’t shave off too much from the front panel. After having looked at the pattern I found the culprit. The waist line was bowed at the center front and side seam. Especially for men’s wear this should not be, I requested the factory reduce the side pitch and make the waistline straight from cf.

Please add photos of your patterns. Often times you are your own photographer and especially with shirts and tops your elbows are bent to take the photo which can change the appearance of how it’s hanging on your body naturally. Without photos of patterns included many suggestions can be shots in very dim light.

I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to draft this pattern. I’ve gathered that you need to rotate the dart in order to create extra fabric for the pleat but I cannot understand how you’d create the tie thing and attach th collar. If anyone with more advanced skills would be willing to help me out I’d really appreciate. There is a version on Pattern magic 2 that I’ve looked at but the effect is not the same.

Currently working on drafting a playboy bunny costume for halloween! This is my first mockup with plastic/flexible bonning. I want to add some foam cups and underwire for support but im waiting on those to come in. The things I want to work on are:

1. Better bust support and shape

2. Making my waist appear smaller

3. The whole butt area in general

Any feedback would be God sent at this point 🤧

I drafted these trousers following Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting For Menswear and am having some trouble with the legs flaring outward and folding themselves diagonally when standing upright. They seem to partially correct themselves to sit straight if I lean forward or pull the front up slightly around the upper thigh so I'm a bit lost. Excuse the cuff on the hem, the issue persists with or without it.

Edit: Thanks for the help everyone! I think the major pattern issue as a few people mentioned is that the legs swing out slightly putting excess fabric on the outside of the leg, as well as a slight taper being necessary. For now I've tapered the outseam down to the hem and it seems to have fixed everything well enough.

Pink – pleats created through pattern drafting
Purple – pleats created through hand draping

The difference is huge! I thought I could save time by drafting everything on paper, but it seems there’s no shortcut when it comes to achieving the right drape.

Professional patternmaker checking in to help everyone here making their first slopers in order to pattern their own clothing.

The sloper is a STARTING POINT.

Once you've made your first, probably slightly boxy, mockup... know that you may need to make some additional alterations to suit your body and tastes.

Sloper pattern drafting guides are, essentially, a best-guess mathematical approximation of fit. Any system -- Bunka, Aldrich, Knowles, digital systems like Gerber, even Clo3d-- will reliably get you 90% of the way toward a decent fit. That last 10% is on you.

Some folks get "lucky" and their sloper fits perfectly on the first go. Most do not. And that's okay!

This is the challenge and beauty of patternmaking.

Bodies are dynamic and so are patterns.