How to lay out a sewing pattern correctly

If you’re about to lay out your first sewing pattern but you don’t quite know how to go about it, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, I am going to show you how to lay out a sewing pattern on fabric. There is another article I wrote on how to cut the pattern.

Once you have the pattern that you have decided to use, and checked the measurements on the back, you will know which size to use on your sewing pattern. The trick now is to cut out along the lines of the specific size that you need for your pattern.

The first thing to do is to fold the fabric in half length ways and lay it out straight and nice on on a flat surface such as a table or a pattern board etc. The fabric needs to be folded with the right side of the fabric inside and the wrong side on the outside.

The next thing is to lay the pieces out on the fabric, in such a way that it will fit. But you need to be careful how you lay out the sewing pattern pieces as not all pieces gets laid out the same way. Some pieces needs to be laid out with “cut on fold” and others need to be laid out along the grain line. The indication for cut on fold is an arrow that shows inwards (First pic) and the indication for a grain line is a straight arrow with two points in 180 degrees (second pic).

The grain line of the fabric is usually the direction in which the side seam (edge) of the fabric is running.

Lay out the sewing pattern on the fabric, with the “place on fold” arrow on the fold of the fabric so that it cuts double fabric, but on the fold. In other words, once you open the piece after cutting, it will be a full piece covering both sides of the body, not just a half size.

Lay out the other pieces of fabric as indicated with the grain line matching up to the grain direction of the fabric.

Once you have been successful in the lay out of the sewing pattern, it’s important to indicate all pattern marking. You can do this with either pins or a fabric marker or even just a pencil. You do not need fancy tools when working with sewing patterns, even though they will make your job easier.

Now that you’ve learned how to lay out a sewing pattern, and you’ve done all the pattern markings, you can go ahead and cut out the sewing pattern on the lines. Be careful not to cut the pattern itself as that will ruin your pattern and make your sewing shears blunt, which is something you don’t want.

Remember to pack away your sewing pattern that you used to learn how to lay out the sewing pattern so that you can use it again on the next item of clothing that you want to make with this particular pattern.

I hope that you’ve learned how to lay out a sewing pattern today. This is the way I lay out my sewing patterns and it’s always worked for me. There is an article on how to cut your sewing pattern that you can read if you’re unsure about how to cut the pattern before you lay out the pattern.

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