Pattern Drafting

• Introduction
• Materials
• Determining Critical Measurements
• Drawing the Tree
• Playing "Connect the Dots"
• Seam Allowances
• Oh, Those Pesky curves
• But How Do I Do Panes?!
• Could You Be More Specific?
• Recommended Reading

Introduction

I'm sure that every one who sews their own costumes with any eye towards authenticity has, at some point or another, noticed that the selection or ready made patterns hovers somewhere between abysmally scant and absolutely pathetic. This leaves us with two choices - having a wardrobe of garb that all looks basically the same, or making our own patterns. The process of making up patterns is known as "Pattern Drafting", and in my experience, it is generally brought up in somewhat hushed tones and approached with fear. There's really no need for all that apprehension. Pattern drafting, especially for the Elizabethan era and before, is a fairly straightforward process. They hadn't come up with anything like darts yet, and all shaping was done at the seams of a garment, or via gathering. This is the proverbial piece of cake.

I actually enjoy drafting my own patterns. It gives me full control over the style of the finished gown, and it is one of the purest forms of applied geometry that I am familiar with. (Note: this process does not need to involve theorems put forth by dead greek guys unless you really want it to, and then you're on your own - I'm going to leave formulas out of this for now.)

This page will not cover specifics (i.e. "How do I draft a 1575 spanish doublet?"). It is intended as a general resource on the methodology of pattern drafting. For those of you who are familiar with such terms, I do not use a toile, draped or otherwise, nor any other "modern" or fancy approach to this process. I use the 'graphite streaks on flat dead trees' approach. This method can be divided into several nice, easy, and hopefully completely not intimidating steps, as outlined below. I will try to describe the process itself to the best of my ability, while attempting to keep things on a general enough level that the methods described can be used for basically any garment in period. If you need specific clarification on something, or wish to provide general feedback on this page, please email me. My plan is to eventually add pictures for some of this. Let me stress the word "eventually" here....

Materials

In order to draft a pattern, you will need something to draft the pattern onto, something to draft the pattern with, and at least one form of measuring device.

My personal preference is sturdy tissue paper (the stuff that stores wrap glass in works great), a pencil, a dressmakers tape measure, and one of those architect's rulers with the built in Tsquare on it.

I know of other people who use muslin, an indelible marker, and a tape measure. The advantage to drawing the pattern directly onto fabric is that you have your mock-up as soon as you are done drafting. I do not use a mockup, and I hate both drawing on fabric and drawing with something I cannot erase, so I stick with my nice free paper. Do whatever you are most comfortable with, but I would advise using something you can erase at least the first few times you try this.

Determining Critical Measurements

Basically, any major point of reference on a pattern is a critical measurement. Everyone who sews knows that you have to know your chest, waist, and hip measurements. People who sew a lot also know their nape (neck) to waist measurement, seat depth, inseam, etc. When you are determining what measurements are critical for a given pattern, remember that you will need to know the height and width of the final piece. You will also want to know any measurement that deviates from that height and width, and how far away from the height and width that occurs. If I were drafting a corset for myself, for example, I would want to know my bust and waist measurements, how far above and below the waistline the corset extends (both in front and in back), my armpit to waist measure, how wide my armpit is, how wide the front of my waist (no curves, just right across the front) is, and the measure around the bottom two ribs. Now, I've got three circumference measures there (bust, bottom of ribs, and waist), so I will need to know how far apart these are. I also need to know how far it is around from my armpit to the center front and center back of me. (Most people are not really symmetrical.) I am going to use these measurements to chart out an outline of my pattern piece, so it is better to have too many of them than too few. You will want to write these measurements down, and label them clearly. I usually make a list of measurements that I will need before right after I make the design sketch, and before I start measuring anything. (I forget crucial things like the height of pieces otherwise.) Note not only what the measurement is for, but how far it is from which reference point. Something like "Armpit -> Waist, 9", 5 3/4" from Front Center Waist and 8" from front center bust" (yes, sometimes you will need two reference points).

Drawing the Tree

"Tree" may be the wrong word here. What you will end up with will look more like a Kanji character.

You will start with the major pair of perpendicular lines that the tree will grow off of. From the corset example above, I would use the height of the corset, and the waist measurement. If I were making a sleeve, I would use the outside length of the arm and the width of the elbow. Whatever you choose, you will need to have the lines appropriately positioned with reference to each other - if it's a corset, that means that the waist line is smack between the height-of-corset-above-waist and the length-of-corset-below-waist measures.

Now you are going to start charting out all those lines that you measured earlier. Work from the most major reference lines out to those that are not used as any sort of reference. If you are a very exact person, this can be a slow and painstaking process, but it is necessary. As you gain experience, you will get a good idea of what points you need for what pieces.

(Now, the astute will notice that most pieces of a pattern are symmetrical, and can be drawn as a half. Do not forget that this means you will be halving some measurements but not all of them. If you're clever enough to have figure out that you can do this, go for it. Basically, you will be halving most of the measurements that are perpendicular to the fold line.)

You will want to make a nice big dot at end of lines that determine the pattern. (ie, a dot at the outside end of the height-at-waist dot, but not one at the waist end, or dots at both ends of a total length line, that sort of thing.) These dots don't have to be the size of Kansas, but you should be able to find them easily amongst all the lines.

Playing "Connect the Dots"

See all those dots? Connect them. Sometime you'll want a curved connection, like along the bottom or a bodice or doublet, and sometimes you will want a straight one, like along a laced closure. Do what makes sense. If you've gotten this far, you should be able to see the basic shape of the piece already. Once you have that line drawn, go over it in a crayon or something so you can see it easily.

Now, here's the trick: This 'basic shape' is extremely fitted. you'll probably want to add at least a little bit of ease. If you're trying to draft a pattern for a 'poofy' item, you'll want to add a *lot* of ease. This is not terribly complicated - all you are doing is enlarging parts of the basic shape. For example, if I have drawn a basic shape for a sleeve, I will have a roughly arm sized pattern. If I really want a great big poofy sleeve, a la the sleeves on that gorgeous red doublet in the Katherine Parr portrait, I will need to make the sleeve both wider and longer. (Trust me, the best way to get a lovely poofy sleeve is to make it longer, not to make it much much wider. It needs to be some wider, but the length will help more.) I'd want to make my sleeve pattern about 6" longer, and about 13" wider (this is a guess - I use the extremely scientific method of playing with different size loops made with my measuring tape to determine how large around poofy things ought to be). Now, where do you add this extra, and how do you do it? Normally, on any tapering piece, I will add extra length somewhere towards the middle, closer to the widest part. I will add the full measure of the extra width at the widest part of the item, then re-mark the taper so that the width is added proportionally. (Adding 5" to an 8" wrist measurement is, proportionally, a much larger change than adding 5" to a 13" upper arm. You must always be mindful of proportion.) Now, how to you do this? Well, if you're a good judge of proportion, you can sort of eyeball it. For something like a sleeve, with that nice rounded sleevehead, that can be a real bummer because you run the risk of distorting the curve badly. The second method, and this is the one I often go with, is to get out your scissors. Chop up the piece along the most critical lines - for example, the outer arm length, the inner arm length, and the two sides, then at the elbow and mid upper and lower arms cross all these pieces. Spread them out on another piece of tissue. You want them all in the right order, but spread out enough to give you the larger shape you desire. Once you have them all positioned, secure them somehow. I use pins into my cardboard cutting board, but that's mostly because I'm psychotic about tape. Now, trace around the outside of the new pattern shape only - no need to go around all the individual pieces, just get the outline down. Now, you'll probably want to make ticks on that outline to note where the most critical lines are now - this will probably be about even between spread pieces. Remove those cut up pieces. You might need to retrace along the line to smooth it out. Voila! Now, you're ready to add in the seam allowances. Yuck.

Next page....