I’ve recently relocated countries and well, everything is wrong. I can’t find clothes that I like. I left my belongings in my home country, and with that, my sewing patterns. So now I’m sitting with a huge problem. I’m in a foreign country, I have none of my favorite sewing patterns and so my only option is to resort to making my own sewing patterns.

I’ve done a lot of research into making my own sewing patterns. The one thing that I’ve realize is that with my twenty two years of experience in sewing my own clothes, and the success I’ve had recently in copying patterns, that I can in fact succeed in making my own sewing patterns. It IS possible. I can do this.

So without further ado, I will explain the different ways that we can make our own sewing patterns. There are several methods, but I will explain three of the main methods here, in this post.

Tracing my own sewing patterns

The first way that I started making my own patterns started back in my home country when I felt ready to start “spreading my wings” and exploring more sewing knowledge. It is basically called “tracing patterns from favorite items of clothing”.

To do this, you need your favorite item of clothing. For my example I would use a simple “short”. Basically, you would fold the front part of the shirt or pants in half, on the seams, and trace it onto some form of paper. After it has been traced, you literally have “half” the pattern as it’s a fold, so you need to also remember to make the part where you folded the pattern a “cut on fold” part of the pattern. I will explain more about tracing patterns in a future post. You then trace the back of the pattern the same way and to both pieces, you would need to add a seam allowance.

Making a block pattern

Another way of making my own sewing patterns as I have discovered is making a block pattern. This is a basic pattern that fits you snug according to your exact body measurements. It’s quite a bit of math and working out equations to get all the measurements right. But anybody can do the math and with today’s calculators this is made easy. Especially if you’re not good at division! It really is simple math and nothing to fear. Anybody can do it.

Making my own block sewing pattern is easy and I will explain it in detail in a future post. However, you do need to have your exact measurements to be able to do this.

Draping fabric

Another way of making my own sewing patterns is not really a sewing pattern to start with. It’s by draping fabric on to a mannequin. Yes. Literally drape the fabric in the way you want the dress to be, pin and sew. This is a method that I have not explored yet and hopefully never have to do. For the purpose of this website we will focus on patterns, adjusting patterns and so forth.

Making my own sewing patterns is fun and easy as I’ve recently discovered. I’m incredibly happy that I managed to successfully make my first block pattern a while back. And in the next post, I would love to share with you how I went about making my own block sewing pattern.