Since starting the Q&A series a number of years ago, we have consistently received questions about how to make a pattern from an existing garment.
And I get the appeal.
We all have a piece in our wardrobe that we love, but for some reason or another can’t purchase again. It may no longer be available in the shops, it might be vintage, we may have picked it up in a market overseas. Or, we may have a piece in our wardrobe we just love but the fit is not quite right, or there’s just that one thing that would make it so much more practical.
But any time I thought of making a resource about it I just couldn’t wrap my head around how to go about it. It felt like such a huge topic and one that would be new to almost everyone in our community. Although it’s not terribly difficult to do, it does involve knowing some pattern making concepts and also being able to then assemble a garment without instructions.
It takes some troubleshooting and problem solving to trace a garment correctly and then make a pattern that will actually work. I banked it away in the back of my head and just kept making projects that felt possible and achievable.
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Three years into Curated and I have watched our community go from strength to strength with their skills. Although most of our community have not been there since the very first projects, I still see our community of Foldies like a living organism that is learning and growing collectively. There is something about the skills and confidence of our founding members that spurs on new members to jump in and give things a go. As members share their projects (and more importantly the learning journeys that got them there) new members feel inspired and encouraged to try the projects themselves.
Then it came time to plan the projects for 2024 and I was going through the suggestion list again. The concept of copying clothes came up again, and suddenly it didn’t feel daunting. After doing such an amazing job with our other pattern making resources I knew our community had the skills to draft patterns. In fact, I’ve seen them create patterns that are so far away from the original and so creative that I knew the skills for copying clothes were already there, it was just up to me to create a resource that showed how to do it in the clearest way possible. And I must say, as an educator that is my jam.
HOW EMILY GOT STARTED ON THE COPY YOUR CLOTHES SKILLS KIT
I don’t remember learning how to draft a pattern from an existing garment. I must have learned it at university but I don’t remember the specifics. It feels like something I have always known how to do though, and it’s a skill I use regularly in my creative process if there is a design feature or shape I love on a piece in my wardrobe that I’d like to incorporate into a new design.
Like any project, before getting started I like to check what’s already available. I don’t want to replicate patterns or content that already exists. That’s boring for both me and our community. I found there were a number of online blog posts and videos about copying your clothes. Some encourage you to unpick your clothes (I didn’t want our community to do that), while others go through the concepts quite broadly, but don’t provide the detail that I have found is helpful to understanding the process fully. Others didn’t have the level of professionalism in the drafting of the pattern that I always want to encourage in our community.
I realised that what I needed to create was a process that started out with the very basics and then built on that with a number of tutorials, whilst also referencing pattern making techniques that aid in the process. For example, how to use a French curve, how to check and true a pattern etc.
This project makes sense as the next skill for our community to learn because it doesn’t only teach pattern making skills. It also means that our community can draft exactly the kind of patterns they want to wear.
Our Hack Kits include a huge amount of options, but the designs included are always going to be the ones I am drawn to as the designer of the content. Whereas, by learning to copy your clothes, the sky's the limit with the types of garments you can create!
I hope this inspires you to join our community this month - we’ve had lots of new members with the release of this project (which is ALWAYS encouraging!), and we can’t wait to help them level up their patternmaking skills.
Happy patternmaking and sewing!
Emily
WHAT YOU’VE BEEN MAKING…
Ormond coat by Cady, a Curated by ITF member
Ormond coat by Morag, a Curated by ITF member