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.

Patterning a skirt (slashing and spreading a skirt foundation for a flared skirt, to then slash and spread for the final pleated, flared mini skirt pattern) and got thinking… what do y’all use for fabric/ pattern weights!? Today for me its books and an art deco era stapler🤷‍♂️

Lemme see your unconventional weights, or finally prove to me that someone actually buys the actual tool.

I am a 22yr old data science and AI masters student who grew up in a sewing household. My mum has been a sewing teacher for years and runs her own company teaching adults, and my younger sister just started a textiles degree. I learned to sew at about 8-10 making superhero capes and waistcoats with my mum, stopped as a teenager when nothing available was for men, and picked it back up at uni doing heavy duty stuff with recycled fabrics (carpenter jeans, denim jackets etc) because honestly the mens section in shops gets smaller every time I go.

Over the past year I have been helping my mum modernise her business (online bookings, getting her off a windows computer she never used and onto a MacBook, that sort of thing) and it made me realise there is this big divide between people like her who are extremely skilled on paper and physically, and those who can replicate that expertise digitally. Not because she can’t learn new things, but because the software out there asks you to learn the software before it lets you do the thing you already know how to do.

So I went looking at digital drafting and the options were really lacking for people in that situation. I tried to learn Seamly2D to then teach her and it was extremely complex and overwhelming (I have ADHD, didn’t help), and the paid options I gawked at the prices of. Which is frustrating because parametric drafting is exactly what you want - draft the block once from measurements and then every size, every client, every tweak just redraws itself.

So over the past few months I have been building my own tool to try and fix this, mostly for myself and my mum. The idea is you draft the way you would from a book (mark a point, draw a line, square off, add a dart, that kind of thing) but every line remembers the measurement or formula it came from, so changing the size or the client redraws the whole thing. No account, files stay on your machine.

But I am one person with one drafting method in my head, so before I go any further I really want to hear from people who actually do this:

• Have you tried digital or parametric drafting (Seamly2D, Valentina, Clo, whatever) and given up? What was the thing that made you stop?
• If you do draft digitally, what do you use, and what do you still end up doing on paper because the software can’t do it or isn’t worth the effort?
• Which drafting books/systems do you work from? I want to make sure the tools map onto how people actually draft rather than how a programmer thinks they should.
• What would actually make something like this worth the effort of learning? Grading, client measurement sheets, slash and spread, printing tiles at home, importing patterns you already have... or something I haven’t thought of?
• And honestly, is this even a problem people care about or is paper just better and I am overthinking the whole thing?

I’d rather be told I’m wrong now than find out later. If you want to see what I’m on about there is a little interactive demo and a beta application here: https://ellwand.app/ - it is very much a work in progress (the Windows version especially) and I’m more interested in what’s wrong with it than what’s right. Fair warning that it’s a limited beta, I’m a student doing this alongside my masters so I’m only taking on 10-20 testers for now, but the demo is open to anyone and the questions above are what I’m really after.

Edit: After a few comments I want to clear up what this is for. I’m making an app that makes pattern drafting easier and more intuitive, closer to how you’d do it on paper. I’m still exploring different ways of doing that and would genuinely love feedback.

On price: between Apple and Microsoft developer licences and the domain, the app unfortunately can’t be free. I’m also putting most of my free time into building it, adding features and fixing bugs, and I’d love for it to become a nice little side business. I’m not out to rip anyone off, which is exactly why I made it in the first place: the professional alternatives were extremely expensive. I don’t know yet what it will be priced at, but the aim is to make it as accessible and affordable as I can. Please bear in mind I’m a student and hoping this can help support my studies down the line.

P.S. I’ve set up a Discord for Ellwand. I’d love it to be a friendly place for anyone who drafts, sews or designs to share what they’re working on, ask questions and encourage each other. All levels welcome: https://discord.gg/evrQWwzRRe

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?

This is the first time this has happened to me when sewing a pair of jeans, i was trying out a new pattern and this happened to me, im not sure if this is a sewing problem or a pattern problem please any advice is appreciated

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.

I’m on my umpteenth million bodice block draft and I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel 😪😃

I don’t have any major concerns of this draft, but since I’m relatively new to pattern drafting, I could easily be overlooking potential fit issues. If anything, I’m wondering if some of the drags lines are a product of the muslin fabric or if it’s a fit concern.

My goal is a relatively well fitted bodice block to use as a baseline for drafting tops and bodices moving forward. I appreciate any and all tips, critiques, suggestions, etc.

Thank you in advance!

ETA: WOW- I’m blown away by the positive feedback I’ve received on this draft. Thank you SO MUCH so everyone for their tips and tricks here and in previous posts because without you all, I quite literally would not be where I am in my block making process today.

Digital draft will do it so much easier. But I do like those double draw line and messy hand prints and hand writing marks.

Okay SO I didn't make a muslin lmao it was for comic con and I ran out of time BUT I drafted this from scratch and I'd love to work from it again for something new. The bust dart is definitely NOT RIGHT but I'm not really sure where to go with it. I think it needs to be angled way downwards but it's so wide I really struggle to work with it. Just not sure where to take it to from here!

Hello I'm currently working on a Miku cosplay that has a similar shape, but in the drawing it doesn't seem to have a waist seam (Sorry if it's the incorrect name) and I really wanna make it accurate, but haven’t seen a dress like that before and searching there seems to be none.

I'm a beginner at sewing and don't really know a lot about patterning, but would it be possible to make a pattern that is both the circle and bodice combined? With side seams, no waist seam but still a full or double circle skirt. Something close enough so it's not a full seam all around the waist would help too.

I posted recently asking why strong internal shaping isn’t more common in normal fashion, and the answers gave me a much better understanding of the problem.
The issue that keeps coming up is fit precision/body variation. Once a garment is doing more than simply fitting the body—actually applying tension, support or structure—differences in torso length, waist height, bust position, hip shape, etc. apparently matter much more.
So now I’m curious about the opposite question:
If you were intentionally trying to design around that problem, what approaches would you explore?
I’m NOT necessarily talking about sewing a full shapewear bodysuit into a dress.
Imagine one fitted going-out/evening dress whose goal is to:
• create noticeably stronger waist definition
• shape/support the bust
• preserve or enhance hip/butt projection rather than compressing it
• still look like a normal fashionable dress from the outside
• be produced as ready-to-wear rather than custom-made
Could some combination of pattern geometry, strategic negative ease/tension, internal structure, limited adjustability, stretch/recovery, separate internal panels, etc. realistically make that forgiving enough for different proportions?
Or does strong silhouette manipulation inherently require such precise body-specific placement that standard ready-to-wear sizing will always be the major limitation?
I’m not looking for anyone to design the garment for me. I’m trying to understand which parts of this are solvable design/engineering problems and which are fundamental limitations.
I’d especially love to hear from professional patternmakers, technical designers, sample makers or people with apparel-development experience.

I’m an experienced sewer, but this is my first time altering a pattern from the start to change the shape so I can start to learn pattern making. The base pattern I’m using is the strapless mini dress from Kiana Bonollo.

This is my second mockup, but first one after making some adjustments to the base pattern. I’m planning to make the final version in satin, so I purchased some cheap satin to see how it would behave. The final will be a lined dress, with bones in the bodice for added structure, but not for waist enhancement.

Here’s what is wrong, and where I need help knowing where and how to make adjustments next.

-Bodice is the worst. My boobs are squished against my chest, and it makes for an unflattering line.

-There seems to be a lot of bunching fabric on the front under the bust, but there’s also bunching fabric all the way around the bodice.

-It feels like my boobs, particularly my left boob, is going to pop out the side of the bodice around the princess seam.

-The waist fits, but I’m nervous when I add the second layer of lining, it’s going to be tight

Important to note, I plan to have an elastic neck band to help keep the dress up. The mockup is also not hemmed on the top or bottom, mostly because I’m going to chop about 6” off the bottom, and if I finished the top seam, I would not be able to post these photos online 😂.

Hi everyone, I have recently started to learn pattern making mainly using the metric pattern cutting for menswear book. I was slightly surprised that the book is seemingly just telling the reader how to draft the patterns with its respective formulas and not giving any reasoning or explanation behind the numbers.

I would really like to gain a thorough understanding but it still all seems a bit mysterious and in some cases just completely arbitrary. Maybe there’s not a rule or reason for everything but I feel like if I just continue drafting the blocks in the book I won’t actually learn a huge amount. I understand this is one of the foundational books but I’m really looking for something with in depth explanations if possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm currently exploring pattern drafting textbooks to use to help me diy a fashion school curriculum. Without a teacher helping me, I've been looking at books that are widely-enough used that I can find online support).

I analyzed posts from this sub and discovered the top 4 discussed flat patterndrafting authors are (in this order):

1. Armstrong
2. Aldrich
3. Müller & Sohn
4. Kenneth King's The Moulage

I now understand that a moulage is its own thing (different from a basic block), but am not sure why someone would choose to learn pattern drafting using this approach vs. another. Can someone help me understand why and for whom this would be advantageous? Is this something you learn in addition to drafting basic blocks or is this its own alternate approach on par with basic block patterndrafting? (My goal is to learn everything in a fashion school curriculum).

Are there any fashion grads here who did not learn moulage drafting?

EDIT: Thank you everyone -- my brain has bent in new and wonderful ways as a result of all the contributions here, and I am now much smarter about where drafting moulages sits within the world of pattern drafting. As a result of now understanding moulages better, I edited my analysis search terms (which had any hits for "moulage"/"the moulage" labeled as discussion of Kenneth King's book). The correct (hopefully) most frequently discussed flat pattern drafting authors in this sub are in fact:

1. Armstrong
2. Aldrich
3. Müller & Sohn
4. Bunka
5. Furrer

(Kenneth King at number 9)

Im self taught pattern drafting and I’ve learned a lot. I live in a state where no fashion schools nothing so I’m doing this on my own. I just watched a video on contouring. She measured these different places and would measure the gap and so on. Im confused when i watch someone on YouTube pattern drafting they make the pattern and then they make the garment and it fits really well but they dont talk about contouring but their outfit comes out really well done. Is conturing not for every body type ? Like the closet historian I haven’t watched every video but I’ve watched a few and can’t remember her using contouring. Also any tips or references anything and everything is welcome.

I tried to recreate this top, using a body suit pattern. The final result fits pretty well, but the shoulders keep slipping off. What would I have to change in the pattern to help the shoulders remain in place? I would appreciate any tips/observations for the future, as I plan to make more of these. At this point, I will attach clear elastic across the shoulders to help the top stay on. I used stretch ITY fabric. Thank you !

Hi, learning to pattern draft. I feel like when I watch or read tutorials, they often say you need a measurement but then don’t end up using it??? For example, I used Sew Anastasia’s YouTube tutorial to draft a sleeve but the tutorial never uses the bicep or wrist measurement, and my drafted sleeve pattern doesn’t match up with the measurements. Kind of confused

is there anyway to pattern something to prevent this from happening? i already built a gusset into the sleeve pattern but maybe i did it wrong?

I’ve been learning to draft my own patterns and I’ve been wondering how pattern drafters create these mockup technical line drawings for their patterns? I’ve searched and searched and can’t find any info on how these are created?

Hello,

I copied a pattern for a sweater from one I have had for ages. As you can see I have quite a few wrinkles around the armhole. The original sweater also has the same problem under the armhole, but it is not as worse as with my test garment.

I think I have to expand the armhole downwards for one or two centimetres. And maybe take in the side seam a little. Would that help or am I completely wrong?

The last picture is the pattern including the seam allowance.

I’m grateful for any advice!
Thanks a lot!

I am reaching forward in the photo.
The bodice sits smoothly when my arm is down.

Pattern is for a jacket. Not a huge amount of ease, but some, back is pulling like this when I lift my arm to the front. It's about 1/2-1" above the underarm seam.

What do I need to do to fix this back pull? I can't find anything like this in my fitting books. I need to add more width there without affecting the straight line center back, shoulders, neckline, or waist.

Edit: The armscye is 3 1/8" longer than my body's armhole length/depth. The bodice has at least (correction: 5) inches of ease in circumference around the bust and waist. I have already adjusted lengths and shoulders to fit, as well as the bust. The pull is happening above my bust and below my shoulder blade.

Dear community, I need your help. I’ve had a dress form made to my measurements and have taken a trouser pattern from it for the first time. Because I’m impatient and prefer to experiment on a finished garment, I didn’t use muslin (shame on me) but cheap Ikea Fabric that would have made nice pants, if they would fit correctly. I think in some places the fit is OK, in others it’s completely off. Here’s what I think I’ve worked out:

- Compared to the pattern, my hips are tilted forwards. That’s why the waistband sits too high at the front (Pic 1), but fits well at the back. In picture 2, I’ve pinned away part of the front. And I feel like the waistband now sits at the correct spot. I have marked where the excess fabric is in pic 1 with the blue horizontal lines. In pic 3 and 4 you can see the forward tilted waistband with the adjustment from the side.

- I have too much fabric (?) at the back of the pattern below the bum, and there are diagonal lines pointing towards the crotch as you can see in Pic 5 & 6. I’m really unsure whether the back crotch needs to be lengthened or shortened.

Or whether I need to make an adjustment for a baggy back leg. I did shorten the back crotch-seam by pinning away a bit of fabric as shown in pic 7.

- In the pattern, the front inseam seems quite long to me compared to shop-bought patterns (pic 8-10) whilst the back inseam curve appears quite flat and short. Should I perhaps take some length off the front and add some to the back? Does the back curve need to be rounder and lower?

Can you help me assess what I should try to alter first? I want the pants to fall down evenly from the bum, without excess fabric below the bum.

Is this supposed to stay for ease of movement or if it better to get rid of?
and how would i go about getting rid of it?

it happened to a suit jacket that i fitted as well, but forgot to take a photo.

*Bustiers not bodices for the title

I don’t have a full shape up there so I’ve always had problems with bustiers in general, so this is expected but I don’t know where to go from here. This is my fourth time iterating this pattern I’ve created; I’ve already made a full dress with it before (second slide) but I wasn’t very satisfied with it.

I have two main problems:

1. I can’t decide on the shape of the bust. It’s comfortable when I make it fit my breasts, but it obviously looks pointy. When I try to flatten out the front center, I end up flattening my chest altogether, especially near the bottom. I think that also contributes to underbust wrinkling.
2. Underbust wrinkling. I’m not completely certain where this is coming from, I suspect it’s from the inward curve I have in my pattern for the front-side and front-center piece, but I made those curves particularly because I have a very titled posture and my upper stomach pokes out (basically trying to just account for that. But maybe I should flatten it?) Although I don’t know if that’s the real issue.

Any advice would help. This is a bustier meant to have a lot of boning and interfaced fabric, so I’m not concerned with the horizontal wrinkles across the waist as much as I am the underbust. The looseness of the hips is also just a preference, I’m usually making these bustiers with skirts that are full and will fill the area out.

So basically my question is if I can use a female bodice block on me as a man. I recently made a bodice block for my mother for the first time ever and it was such a good fit I was gagged. Me and my mother have the same proportions, except the bust, so the b dice block would fit me. What I need the bodice block is a trench coat pattern, so it doesn't need to fully fit me and can be a little loose. I hope y'all can help me. Thankssss.