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Pattern Making

What is Pattern Making?

Pattern making enables you to translate your designs from a single prototype into one (or many millions) of final products. It's a critical input into the manufacturing process for your designs. Click on any lesson picture, below, to learn more about that lesson. Note: You'll learn the most from our lessons by doing exactly what the teacher is doing using your own tools and supplies.

Beginner

Recommended Lesson Order

To begin, start by viewing our lesson on “How to Read a Ruler”, where you will learn how to read both an imperial and metric ruler and have access to free downloadable charts and tables to assist in converting inches to centimeters and centimeters to inches. Then, move to our lesson entitled, “Measuring the Female Body” so that you will be able to identify and extract the necessary measurements used in pattern making.

The next steps are to create a library of slopers. Slopers will become the foundation for all of your future designs. Start with our lesson on how to draft a “Straight Sleeve Sloper”, which will introduce you to body measurements, drafting terminology, tools and techniques. In our “Drafting a Shoulder Dart Bodice from Measurements” lesson, you will be able to draft a bodice from actual body measurements, from those of your dress form or from those listed on our Women’s Bodice Global Size Range Chart, The latter is one of the many free downloadable files we provide to our subscribers.

When you have finished drafting your bodice sloper, you will be able to advance to our dart-pivoting series of lessons where you will learn how to transfer darts to other areas of a bodice and draft a series of different necklines. To complete your set of foundational slopers, move to a “Basic Pant Sloper”, a “Straight Skirt Sloper” and our lesson on how to “Convert a Bodice Sloper to a Fitted Torso Sloper”. You will have now the beginnings of a valuable sloper library and will, by then, know how to use the most common pattern making tools and understand common pattern making terminology, such as “squaring off”, “trueing”, “blending lines” and the “slash & spread” method. Once you complete, a few Beginner sleeves and collars in this section, you’ll be ready for our Intermediate and Advanced pattern making lessons.

How to Read a Ruler
Beginner
Measuring the Female Body
Measuring the Female Body
Pattern Making
Beginner
Straight Sleeve Sloper
Straight Sleeve Sloper
Pattern Making Free Lesson
Beginner
Drafting a Shoulder Dart Bodice Sloper from Measurements
Basic Pant (Pants) Sloper
Basic Pant (Pants) Sloper
Pattern Making
Beginner
Pivoting a Bodice Shoulder Dart to a Side Bust Dart
Draft Straight Skirt Sloper
Beginner
Quarter Circle Skirt
Quarter Circle Skirt
Pattern Making
Beginner
Half Circle Skirt
Half Circle Skirt
Pattern Making
Beginner
Three-Quarter Circle Skirt
Beginner
Full Circle Skirt
Full Circle Skirt
Pattern Making
Beginner
Pivoting a Front Shoulder Dart to a Side Seam Dart
Pivoting a Front Shoulder Dart to One Waist Dart
Convert Bodice Sloper to Fitted Torso Sloper
Fitted Sleeve From Straight Sleeve Sloper
Petal Sleeve Draft
Petal Sleeve Draft
Pattern Making
Beginner
Short Flare Sleeve Draft
Short Flare Sleeve Draft
Pattern Making
Beginner
Transfer Side Bust Bodice Drape to Paper-Oaktag
Puff Sleeve Draft
Puff Sleeve Draft
Pattern Making
Beginner
Transfer Fitted Sleeve to Oaktag
Beginner
Bishop Sleeve
Bishop Sleeve
Pattern Making
Beginner
Long Bell Sleeve
Long Bell Sleeve
Pattern Making
Beginner
Flattening a Sleeve Cap
Flattening a Sleeve Cap
Pattern Making
Beginner
Convert Fitted Sleeve to Suit Sleeve
Beginner
Transfer Suit Sleeve to Oaktag Sloper
Beginner
Convert Suit Sleeve to Two-Piece Sleeve
Beginner
Suit Sleeve From Measurements
Beginner
Drafting a Flare Skirt
Drafting a Flare Skirt
Pattern Making
Beginner
Pivoting a Front Shoulder Dart to an Armhole Dart
Pivot 2 Dart Bodice Variation – Neck & French Dart
Pivoting a Back-Shoulder Dart to a Back-Neckline Dart
Transfer Torso Sloper to Oaktag
Beginner
Raglan Sleeve Sloper
Raglan Sleeve Sloper
Pattern Making
Beginner
Kimono Sleeve Sloper
Kimono Sleeve Sloper
Pattern Making
Beginner
Mandarin Collar
Mandarin Collar
Pattern Making
Beginner
Banded Collar
Banded Collar
Pattern Making
Beginner
Convertible Collar
Convertible Collar
Pattern Making
Beginner
Peter Pan & Roll Collars – Three Variations
Sailor Collar
Sailor Collar
Pattern Making
Beginner
Convert Fitted Torso Sloper to Suit Sloper
Mounting & Fitting a Suit Jacket Sleeve
Beginner
Introduction to Knit Fabrics
Introduction to Knit Fabrics
Fashion Lectures
Beginner
Knit Fabric Principles
Knit Fabric Principles
Fashion Lectures
Beginner
Drafting a Women’s Fitted Stable Knit T-Shirt from Measurements
Drafting a Women’s Relaxed Fit Knit T-shirt from Measurements

Intermediate

These Intermediate videos will teach you how to draft patterns from body measurements and how to complete more complex lessons, such as drafting a legging, a panty and a tent dress. You will also learn how to draft a series of interesting sleeve designs, such as the princess puff, leg o’mutton and a structured two-piece sleeve. In addition, you will be introduced to pattern grading techniques so that you can size your patterns larger or smaller. Our knit sloper series will provide you with a complete library of ‘cut & sew’ knit slopers. Then you are ready to move to our advanced lesson on drafting a women’s jacket.

Drafting a Hooded Knit Top
Intermediate
Drafting a Princess Puff Short Sleeve
Intermediate
Drafting a Leg O’Mutton Sleeve
Intermediate
Drafting an Extended 2-piece Sleeve
Intermediate
Drafting a Darted & Extended Sleeve Cap
Intermediate
Pivoting a Torso Shoulder Dart to a Waist Dart
Pivoting a Torso Shoulder Dart to the Side Seam
Drafting a Tent Dress
Drafting a Tent Dress
Pattern Making
Intermediate
Drafting a Jean-Style Pant (Pants)
Intermediate
Drafting a Dart-less Torso Sloper & Sleeve
Intermediate
Drafting a Side Bust Dart Bodice Sloper from Measurements
How to Fit a Classic Pant (Pants)
Intermediate
Princess Dress
Princess Dress
Pattern Making
Intermediate
High-Waisted Skirt
High-Waisted Skirt
Pattern Making
Intermediate
Introduction to Pattern Grading
Intermediate
Drafting a Legging
Intermediate
Drafting a Panty (Panties) Sloper
Convert Torso Sloper to Stable Knit Torso Sloper
Knit Stretch Reductions: Torso Slopers
Knit Stretch Reductions – Sleeve Slopers
Knit Stretch Reductions – Skirt Slopers
Knit Stretch Reductions – Pant (Pants) Slopers
Converting a Stable Knit T-shirt & Sleeve Sloper to 4-way Stretch Knit

Advanced

Drafting A Kimono Bodice with Gusset
Advanced
Drafting a Portrait Collar Jacket
Advanced
Drafting a Shawl Collar & Variations
Advanced
Pattern Making for a Full Bust Adjustment
Drafting a Women’s Jacket
Advanced
Drafting a Women’s Knit Unitard