How to cut a sewing pattern

So you finally bought your first sewing pattern. But not you’re sitting with the next question. How to cut your sewing pattern. There are so many confusing lines and things. What if you cut the wrong part of the pattern and mess up the pattern? After all, the sewing pattern cost a lot of money and now you have to go cut it!

The first thing you need to know before you even consider how to cut a sewing pattern is NOT TO USE THE SHEARS YOU BOUGHT TO CUT FABRIC. You need a completely different set of sewing shears to cut a sewing pattern. The reason is that the sewing pattern is made of paper, however thin that may be, and the fabric scissors cannot cut paper. If they do, the fabric scissors may go blunt, or most certainly will go blunt over time. This means you won’t be able to cut the fabric anymore.

Alright! Get on with it! I came here to learn how to cut a sewing pattern! Not to read about sewing shears! Well it’s fairly easy. The sewing pattern is made to cut along the size that you need. I will assume that by the time you are reading this page, you have already found out how to measure yourself or the person you are going to be sewing for. The measurements you took, along with the measurements on the back of the sewing pattern’s envelope should give you an indication of which pattern size to cut. So to go ahead, you can cut along the size line of the size of the sewing pattern that you want to cut.

But STOP! Do you want to use this sewing pattern again for something else? Do you want to use the other sizes too? Because if you do, I wouldn’t just go ahead and cut the sewing pattern. I would firstly cut the biggest size, the outer layer of the sewing pattern. That way, you have the other sizes too. You correct the size issue when you cut the sewing pattern on the fabric by making folds in the pattern that you have just cut. I can show you how to make the folds in the pattern if you click on the highlighted link.

Many people will tell you that you do not cut a sewing pattern using only the outside line (biggest size). They have their methods. That’s all good and fine. They can have their methods for cutting a sewing pattern. I have my own methods that have worked for me over twenty years.

The sewing pattern has now been cut to the biggest size. The next trick is to put it down on fabric and cut the correct size of the sewing pattern for the garment you need to make. To find out more about how to cut the sewing pattern out on the fabric you want to use, click here to find out how to lay out a sewing pattern on fabric.


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