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How to Make A Pattern From a Garment You Love

May 24, 2016 by Hanne 4 Comments

I’m quite sure you know this feeling: once upon a time, you owned a gorgeous, store-bought garment that actually fitted perfectly. This is wonderful. What’s not so wonderful about it, is that after wearing it all the time, it reaches this point where you really cannot wear it any longer!

What to do?

It isn’t always easy to find a pattern that matches the style lines and ease of the beloved garment! To avoid fitting problems and to make sure your new garment looks exactly as the old one, there is one perfect solution: copy the garment!

This tutorial shows you how to copy a garment without taking it apart!

original and rub off dress

On the left: a picture from me wearing the original dress. I loved the shap and the comfort of this dress, but the fabric is piling already.

On the right: my rub-off dressin a sparkly fabric. I feel like a million bucks! I also added some width tot he hip area to give myself a bit more wearing ease.

Now, onto the tutorial!

What you’ll need

  •  A large piece of cardboard
  • Paper scissors
  • Pattern paper/ tracing paper
  • Pins
  • Sharp pencil
  • Ruler
  • Original garment
  • Tape
  • thimble

How to copy a garment

Step 1

Place the piece of cardboard flat on the table (or on the ground if your table isn’t big enough). Place a layer of pattern paper on top of the cardboard. Place your garment as flat as possible onto this surface.

lagen karton patroonpapier kledingstuk

Step 2

Start by pinning one part (for example: front piece) onto the cardboard, using pins. You pin straight through the seamlines. Make sure your pin goes through the garment, the pattern paper and into your cardboard! This is where a thimble or pins with a glass head come in handy. Trace the whole piece of this garment with pins. Don’t worry about the other parts yet, we’ll get to those soon!

speld nauwkeurig in de naden van het kledingstuk

 

Step 3

Remove pins and garment from your pattern paper and put the garment aside. If everything went okay, you will find your pattern paper to be pierced. This holes are the holes made by your pins. They form the pattern piece.

gaatjes van spelden zijn zichtbaar

Step 4

Connect the dots! You can use a ruler or curve if necessary

gaatjes van spelden verbinden

Step 5

Name your pattern piece and write down which garment it belongs too (for example: dress Hanne) Make sure you mark all seams, grainline, if the piece needs to be placed on the fold and so on! Make sure you also add placement markings for pockets, darts…

If you prefer seam allowance on the pattern pieces, add those as well. Usually it’s about 1 cm – 1.5 cm for seams and 2 cm – 2.5 cm for hems.

Repeat this process for each part of the garment: front, back, collar, sleeves…

 pattern piece finished

Below you can see my finished pattern pieces

ga zo door tot je alle patroondelen hebt ovegenomen

You are ready to go ahead and cut out your fabric and sew up your garment! Happy sewing!

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Hanne
Latest posts by Hanne (see all)
  • How to Make A Pattern From a Garment You Love - May 24, 2020
  • How to Make A Pattern From a Garment You Love - May 18, 2019
  • How to Make A Pattern From a Garment You Love - May 24, 2016

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Filed Under: Clothing Tagged With: Guest Post, Hanne, Sewing Clothes, Tips and Techniques

Comments

  1. Louise Kittredge says

    June 1, 2016 at 12:00 am

    How do you deal with darts, since the pin holes don’t show the amount of fabric pinched together into the dart?

    Reply
  2. Mimi says

    June 2, 2016 at 11:25 pm

    What a fantastic idea! You are wonderful! Thank you so much. Now to my question: How to I make the grain line? How do I know where to put it, the the material later falls on the body in the right way?

    Reply
  3. Sue says

    July 12, 2016 at 9:36 am

    How do you now where to put it on straight of grain etc

    Reply
  4. Sue says

    July 12, 2016 at 11:20 am

    How do you now where to put fabric on straight of grain etc

    Reply

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