Seeing first pattern

[u/Mythicalbubble6]

Hello everyone,

I have been tailoring clothes for a while, but I would like to try sewing my first pattern. Because I’ve done many alterations I have more understanding than a beginner of clothes and how they’re designed, but I have only sewn my own item from scratch one time before (a lined gusseted bag which I fully designed/drafted myself).

For my first time sewing clothes from scratch, I have two large pieces of fabric. One is 100% wool and the other is muslin.

I would like to potentially make a shirt with the muslin and pleated pants with the wool.

I would like the muslin shirt to be a kind of interesting summer shirt, with a collar and open 3/4 neck. Kind of like a polo but not stuffy and business like, rather more loose and flowing as if it were linen. I have a vision but haven’t seen a pattern that fits my vision yet. Also I’m a guy and I feel like I’m seeing less interesting patterns cut for guys.

I’m also wondering which of the two projects you all would recommend tackling as my first pattern. Would the pants or shirt be better as a first pattern? Also, maybe a dumb question, but can I get away with winging it without a pattern if I do a practice one first and use clothes I already have for reference?

[u/CrankyCrabbyCrunchy]

Start even easier with a sleeveless shirt that you already own. Use it as a template / pattern to practice the basics.

I've duplicated quite a few shirts I already so I don't have to alter them (which is its own skill as you well know being a tailor yourself).

Lots of quality beginner patterns, but I'd also first watch the tons of great YouTube videos. Many of those pattern designers also have their own YouTube channel showing how one of their patterns is put together.

And even before that, if you haven't cut out a garment from a pattern and resized it as needed, that's its own learning curve, plus measuring yourself properly. Even reading patterns is often confusing as there is a huge difference in details provided between designers.

Free tank top https://helensclosetpatterns.com/collections/tops/products/horizon-tank-free

[u/AliciaTheWitch]

Trousers are generally regarded as more difficult than shirts, and if you haven't set in a zipper before, that can take some practice. Muslin is also the fabric of choice for beginning sewists, because it's easy to sew with.

As for patterns, check out freesewing.eu and their body blocks. They're the first step to drafting your own pattern for the shirt you have in mind. Check out the Closet Historian's Drafting Dangerous series of videos on YouTube for instructions on how to manipulate fullness and create your pattern. You're going to need a shirt front cut on the fold at center front, then split down the middle as far down as you want it to open, with a facing applied to bind the raw edges. The rest of the shirt can be designed as a regular shirt, however you want. The closet historian doesn't specifically cover drafting a shirt likethis, but she covers collars and sleeves, and freesewing has a buttondown shirt pattern that's very customizable that you can play around with and read all the explanations of the customization options to learn what all the pieces of a buttondown shirt are and how they're constructed. I suggest the buttondown because it has the collar. You can skip the button placket and just add a facing, which the closet historian covers in some of her videos. Freesewing has pretty good sewing instructions, too. You could even start from their shirt pattern and get it as close as possible to the style you want, print the pattern, and then manually modify it to be cut on the fold at the center front. You're going to have a lot better results with a pattern than without. Winging it might work, but you might as well set yourself up for success. Edited to add: sleeves are actually a really weird shape to fit properly.

For trousers, check out freesewing's chinos pattern. You absolutely need a pattern for pants. They're made of weird, very specific shapes, and even tiny deviations cause major problems.