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Transcript:

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Caroline: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s topic: Getting Started with Pattern Drafting.

Caroline: Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: How are you?

Helen: I am doing so good. I’m so excited for today’s topic. It’s gonna be amazing to introduce some of our listeners to the magic of pattern drafting.

Caroline: Yeah. This topic is right up your alley, and I’m really excited to dig in and learn more. I think you’re gonna be the guide, and I’m gonna be the… What’s the right word? Learner.

Helen: Learn-ee.

Caroline: Learn-ee. It’s gonna be fun though.

Helen: Yes. I think it’s going to be very fun. I will try to be the guide. Pattern drafting is, honestly, still pretty new to me. We have a pattern drafter for Helen’s Closet, so I don’t draft the patterns myself for the business. I have in the past, and I’ve learned how to, at the start of my business, but I’ve since handed it off to the pros. But I’m really excited to share what I know plus all of the amazing research that our assistant Lisa has done for this episode. So, hopefully, it’s gonna be a good intro point for anyone out there who’s interested in learning how to draft patterns.

Caroline: Yeah, and, okay, Helen, I think you’re not giving yourself enough credit because you’ve been working with patterns for a pretty long time. You sew so much. You try out all kinds of patterns from all different companies, and you stare at patterns all day long with your company. So I think that, like, while maybe you don’t draft patterns very often, you’re pretty familiar with the topic, I would say.

Helen: That’s true. I have intimate knowledge of patterns. We’ll put it that way.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. Well, before we dive in, we have some listener mail from Mara:

“Hi, Helen and Caroline. I made my own wedding dress last year, and I’m shamelessly obsessed. I attached a photo. There are almost zero resources in the sewing world for making your own wedding dress, especially a formal one with a lot of structure. During my research phase, I used blogs and YouTube channels about wedding dress alterations to learn how they are constructed and what works and what doesn’t. The blog Fit for a Queen was my favourite – her blog is an absolute roast of modern wedding dress design and workmanship. I think it’s cool that she makes alterations in such a way to preserve seam allowances, etc. for ‘the next bride.’ After the wedding as I preserved my own dress, I learned some tips from a gown preservation company that I desperately wish I had known beforehand. I had to deconstruct some layers of the dress and put it back together in order to pack it away. If I had known before, I would have made those layers more easily removable.

“My dress used the Orange Lingerie Esplanade Bra as the basis for the bodice front, with a self drafted bodice back and a HUGE circle skirt with a train. The bodice has 5 layers – bra foam cups, then silk habotai, 2 layers of bra tulle, and 1 layer of appliquéd lace. The skirt has 6 layers – silk habotai, 2 layers of stiff netting, 2 layers of garment tulle, and 1 layer of appliquéd lace. There’s much more to its story, but I’ll stop there!

“Anyway, I wanted to add Dharma Trading Co as an excellent source for silk in many different weaves. They stock a few solid colours now, but since they’re largely focused as a supplier for textile artists, most come in solid white to allow for dyeing and painting. Their prices are always better than typical fabric stores, but they put a lot of research into their fabrics. They can also send a swatch kit which is a great way to compare weaves and learn about the weight and opacity.”

Mara included a photo of her wedding dress. It is absolutely stunning. So thank you so much for your email, Mara.

Helen: Yes. Thank you, Mara. It is so beautiful. We’ll put it in the show notes. I think this is, kind of, like, my dream wedding dress. Like, I want this exact dress.

Caroline: Yeah, mhm.

Helen: So, so, so pretty, uh, the lace, the tulle.

Caroline: I know! The lace and all the layers. I’m sure the resources, uh, you shared, Mara, will also be very helpful for our listeners wanting to make a wedding dress or other formal gowns. So we’re gonna link up, um, those websites in the show notes, as well. And you have to just go and look at this photo. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Helen: Okay. Are you ready to get to the show, Caroline?

Caroline: I am ready. I have my coffee. I have my stress ball. I’m ready.

Helen: Hopefully, it won’t be too, too stressful. We’re just talking about pattern drafting. We’re not actually doing it today.

Caroline: Oh, no. This stress ball is so that I don’t constantly flail my hands while I’m talking, Helen.

Helen: Right. Of course. Well, pattern drafting is a big and rather complicated topic, but we get messages all the time from people who are interested in drafting their own patterns instead of buying commercial patterns. But why would you want to do that?

Caroline: That is a great question, Helen. Pattern drafting is a great way to level up your sewing abilities. You can make custom designs that fit you perfectly, and it expands your ability to be creative with your sewing. You’re not limited by the patterns that already exist. You can make your dream designs to your own proportions.

Helen: Yeah. So we prepared this episode with home sewists in mind, people who want to make sewing patterns for their personal use, not necessarily people looking to become professional pattern designers. However, all the info in here may be a great starting place for those people, too.

Caroline: And we’re not gonna be talking about draping today. This is a separate skill set. In fashion design programs, draping and flat pattern drafting are completely different courses, so we will not be covering that today.

Helen: Maybe a future episode on draping.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Now, there’s a topic I know nothing about.

Caroline: I have a very limited knowledge of draping from when I went to fashion school.

Helen: Yeah. One last thing before we start, I just wanna say that you can totally do this. Just because pattern drafting isn’t a common skill doesn’t mean that you can’t learn to do it and do it really well.

Caroline: So, so true. I hope that at the end of this, I’m gonna feel like I can draft myself a pattern.

Helen: You definitely will. Okay. One caveat, maybe several caveats. Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to do it. So let’s really take some time to consider: is pattern drafting right for you?

First of all, ask yourself: do you find that you need a lot of adjustments to make commercial patterns work? If your proportions or size are outside the scope of most patterns, you’ll probably get a lot of benefit out of the time that you put into pattern drafting. All the adjustments and grading that you usually need to do to make a pattern fit well will be built into the pattern from the start if you draft it for your own body.

Caroline: Mhm. Another question you can ask yourself is: do you like tailored garments that fit really well? Drafting your own patterns can give you the close fit that you want, and the commercial patterns that need the most adjustments are the ones that lay close to the body. So drafting a pattern for this kind of garment might actually be a similar amount of work to adjusting and fitting a commercial pattern for some people.

And if you prefer a loose or relaxed silhouette, it might not be worth it to learn drafting. The stuff you would draft would fit similarly to sewing patterns, like commercial sewing patterns. And in this case, pattern hacking can save you a lot of time and sweat, maybe some tears. It’s, kind of, like, drafting lite. So pattern hacking is a totally valid way to, kind of, put your own spin on a pattern without getting deep into drafting.

Helen: Totally. Next question: do you find math, puzzles, and design fun and rewarding? We hear from sewists sometimes who love the engineering aspect of sewing and drafting. They enjoy working out how to transform flat material into a three-dimensional object. And there is a fair amount of math in pattern drafting. Fair amount is, like, lite.

There’s a lot of math in pattern drafting, not super complex math, but it’s still math. If the thought of doing a bit of geometry makes you feel, kind of, queasy, that’s a factor to consider if you are trying to decide whether or not drafting is for you. And if the thought of a bit of geometry makes you feel really excited, that’s a good sign that you might want to take on pattern drafting.

Caroline: Mhm, and there are pros and cons to drafting your own patterns. So let’s go through some of those, Helen. First up, a pro, is that the patterns you draft are made to your unique measurements, so you don’t need to wait for pattern companies to make things in your size or your proportions.

Helen: And a con is that it usually takes a lot more time and energy than sewing from commercial patterns. Not only do you have to learn how pattern drafting works, but you also have to go through a bunch of steps to transform your slopers to even a simple garment, like, an A Line shift dress. A button down shirt or a jeans pattern would take even more time and effort.

Caroline: Another pro is that you have total control over the design of your pattern. It doesn’t matter if there’s no pattern out there that matches what you have in mind. If you can dream it, you can make it yourself.

Helen: Another con. I’m doing all cons.

Caroline: I feel like, Helen, you’re being a real downer right now.

Helen: I’m sorry, I’m being so negative. It’s just, I’m very elitist when it comes to pattern drafting, and I don’t want anyone else to do it.

Caroline: Okay, how about I take this con and then you can take some pros?

Helen: Thank you.

Caroline: Another con is that it may take some financial resources to learn and use your pattern drafting skills. You’re gonna need books, classes, and tutorials to learn from. These could be free or low cost, but if you want more support, you might end up taking a more expensive class where you can communicate with a teacher. You’re also gonna need supplies. We’re gonna talk about supplies more soon.

Helen: Yes. A pro is that drafting and testing outfit is usually very low stakes. You’re just playing around and experimenting. No precious fabric is being used, and it can be really fun to just play around and have fun with that design process and not have that, like, high stakes of the fashion fabric involved.

Caroline: Yeah, totally. A con is that you will not escape making muslins and doing fit adjustments, if you draft your own patterns. In fact, you will probably make more. And this is just a normal part of the process of making a garment that looks just how you like it. Using your own measurements may save you from hav-, making a lot of dramatic fit adjustments, but there’s still probably going to be style adjustments and small fit adjustments you’re going to need to make. And this is especially true when you’re just getting started with drafting.

Helen: And now for the final pro: drafting your own patterns can be very rewarding. As sewists, we know how satisfying it is to make something from start to finish. Learning to draft your own patterns totally brings that to another level. It’s, like, making an amazing salad, but you also grew the vegetables yourself. Full on.

Caroline: Love that.

Helen: It’s my dream.

Caroline: Okay. We also wanna note something before we go on. Drafting resources like books, tutorials, and even classes are very gendered. Most drafting materials associate women with one body shape, and men with another body shape, and they don’t even mention or acknowledge people that are neither gender.

Ideally, there would be more resources that would, for example, say dartless shirt instead of men’s shirt because men are not the only people who might need or want a shirt that’s flat across the chest. We discussed this a lot with Emilia Bergoglio in Episode 188. So if you’d like to learn more about degendering fashion, check that one out. And we really hope there will be more drafting resources in the future that don’t divide this knowledge along binary gendered lines.

Helen: Yes, that would be amazing. Sometimes you even have to buy separate books for men’s or women’s wear. It’s, like, everything is so…

Caroline: Ridiculous.

Helen: …binary. So that can be a little intense.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Okay. Let’s start by talking terms. What is pattern drafting? Pattern drafting is, fundamentally, making a plan to fit flat materials around a three-dimensional form, and that form is your body.

Caroline: And most pattern makers work from slopers or blocks. So sloper and block are usually interchangeable terms. There are some people out there who will define them a bit differently, but they can’t seem to agree on the difference. So in this episode, we’re just gonna call them slopers. A sloper is a basic pattern with no design features, minimal ease, and no seam allowance.

Ease is the extra width and length added to a pattern so that you can move around in your clothes. So to make a specific pattern, a pattern maker makes design adjustments to a sloper. For example, to make a mini skirt, a pattern maker would trace off a skirt sloper and make changes for length, closures, pockets, et cetera. And then they would add seam allowance, and it would be ready for the muslin stage.

Helen: Yeah. And the core slopers are the skirt sloper, bodice sloper, pants sloper, and sleeve sloper. From these four slopers, you can make so many different styles, but those aren’t the only slopers you can make. You can also make a tailored jacket sloper, a coat sloper, a legging sloper, a knit bodice sloper, and more.

Caroline: And you’re gonna need different slopes for woven and knit fabrics. Knit fabrics stretch, so they will have different ease requirements, and they usually don’t need as much shaping as woven fabrics.

Helen: Yes. So you don’t see a lot of t-shirts with, like, eight darts in them, you know?

Caroline: Yeah. That would be a pain to sew.

Helen: There’s one more term you might come across in pattern making that is related to slopers, and that is moulage. Love this word. A moulage is a pattern that is precisely fitted from neck to hips. There is no ease in a moulage. Some people use a moulage to draft a sloper by adding some ease to it. It’s up to you whether you want to make one. It’s a very interesting experience to make your body double in fabric. Amy from Cloth Habit made a moulage and wrote about her experience. We’ll link a blog post of that in the show notes.

In my opinion, you don’t really need to make a moulage to make great patterns. If you think it’s interesting or you’d like to go couture level in your pattern making, then go for it. Um, but if you’re just getting started, I think a sloper is where you wanna start.

Caroline: Mhm. Agreed. Okay, let’s talk about tools. We’re gonna assume that you have regular sewing tools like pins and fabric scissors, so we won’t name those. But we’ll start with some must-have tools and move on to nice-to-have tools. So on the must-have list: a large surface. A big table or kitchen island is helpful. If you’re spry, a stretch of floor works. If you’re in a small space, a sturdy folding table is a possibility.

Helen: Yes, you also will need paper. You’ll either need tracing paper or a transferring method, like dressmaker’s carbon paper and a tracing wheel. For your slopers and final patterns, you’ll probably want a sturdier paper, like brown craft paper, or maybe you can find a roll of, like, just plain white paper.

Oftentimes if you go to Staples, you might be able to find these kinds of things. And when you’re just getting started, use what you can. You know, use your, your parchment paper in your kitchen drawer, if you need to. It’s okay. You don’t need anything fancy. Just give it a try.

Caroline: Mhm, and then rulers and curves. A metre or yard stick and a tailor square. The vast majority of us will need curved rulers to draw smooth curves, and that is okay. A French curve and a hip curve are good to have. There are also combinations of the two you can buy that are called design curves. And alternatively, you could use a flexible ruler. This is great for marking out curves and measuring them at the same time. You’ll want the kind that will hold its shape when you bend it.

Helen: Yeah. I have a little flexible ruler, and I really like it for quick measuring of curves. Super handy. You’re gonna need paper scissors. Don’t use your fabric scissors, please, and get yourself a good pair of paper scissors that feels comfortable in your hand, especially if you are left-handed. Get some left-handed scissors.

Caroline: Yeah, you’re gonna be cutting a lot of paper with pattern making. You’re gonna need marking tools, a pencil and eraser to draw out your pattern. It’s really nice to have coloured pencils for pattern changes, too, so you don’t get confused by which line is which. You’ll also need a marking tool for marking your muslin. If it’s not a wearable muslin, you can use a regular pen or marker. But if it is a wearable muslin, use a marking tool that’s removable on the fabric you’re using.

Helen: You’ll need plenty of tape as well. When you’re making style changes, you’ll be cutting into your pattern, moving it around, taping it back together. So make sure you get yourself a tape, and a tape dispenser is really handy as well.

Caroline: Measuring tape. So it’s a good idea to remeasure your measuring tape every once in a while. Hold it up against a metre stick or yard stick to make sure it hasn’t stretched out.

Helen: Pattern weights are essential as well. These can be big metal washers, soup cans, cutlery. Whatever you want to hold your paper and fabric while you’re working. Of course, cute, specially made pattern weights are nice, too. There’s lots of those on Etsy, if you’re looking to invest in something.

Caroline: Mhm, and some fun DIYs online, too, if you wanted to make your own. Then you’re gonna need muslin fabric. So this doesn’t have to be fabric made specifically for muslins, but it can be nice to have a bolt of that around. It’s important to try and match the weight and stretch percentage of the fashion fabric you want for the final garment.

Helen: Yes, and I like having a bolt of muslin. Once you find one that you like, if you can get your hands on a bolt of it, because then it’s consistent, and you know what you’re working with. And if you’re using a different fabric for each different muslin or sloper you’re making, you are going to get slightly different results. So it’s important, I think, to use consistent fabric if you’re getting deep into the pattern drafting process. I buy bolts of muslin from HomeTex, and we’ll link that up in the show notes.

Caroline: Okay, on the nice-to-have list, do you wanna start us off, Helen?

Helen: Sure. Nice to have is a pattern notcher. A pattern notcher cuts out thin, little rectangles of paper. You can use this to mark seam allowance, centre lines, front and back of a pattern, and, of course, the little notches on the edge.

Caroline: I love my pattern notcher. Okay. An awl is really nice to have as well. An awl is a pointy, metal tool that’s used to make holes, and pattern makers usually use awls to mark dart points and pocket, trim, and button hole placements. So these are really handy to have around if you don’t wanna, like, use a pin or something and, like, struggle with that.

Helen: Yeah, or just, like, jam your finger through the pattern to make a hole, but you have to mark through.

Caroline: Or, like, a pencil. I’ve done it all.

Helen: Totally. A Simflex gauge is another really fun tool. This is a metal tool with points and it, kind of, expands and contracts to make the same distance between each point. They’re really handy for marking buttonholes, pleats, and tucks. They look, kind of, like, a garden trellis or like a wine holder.

Caroline: I have one of those, and it’s really rude because it doesn’t, it’s not actually even in between the points, like, something is off with the, like, calibration of it. So, like, near the edges, it’s, like, further apart than in the middle. And yeah, just wanna mention, measure in between your points to make sure that it’s accurate cause mine is not.

Helen: Get yourself, like a, a brand name one or quality one.

Caroline: Like, good quality one. Yeah. I probably got it in the bargain bin. Let’s be real. Um, okay, software is also something that you might want to invest in that would be nice to have. So you can absolutely draft patterns with pencil and paper, but there are some advantages to using software and making digital patterns.

You’re gonna be manipulating your slopers digitally, so it’s easier to make changes and then reverse them. You won’t have to retrace your pattern every time you make a change. If you have dreams of becoming a commercial pattern designer, you’re probably gonna wanna get familiar pattern making software.

Helen: Yeah. So when you’re looking at software programs, you might come across the term CAD software, C-A-D. CAD means computer aided drafting. It’s not Canadian currency. Sometimes computer aided design. This means that the program has features that are specifically for pattern drafting, as opposed to something like Adobe Illustrator, which is a vector graphic software that can be used to draw anything, like, mathematically correct, but it doesn’t go that extra distance to make it three-dimensional.

Although there are some tools in Illustrator that allow you to, like, add dimension to things, but I won’t get into that. Illustrator’s not necessarily the place to do pattern drafting. It’s easier to do it in a specific pattern drafting CAD program.

Caroline: Okay, so here are two of the CAD programs that we’re familiar with. And by we, I mean, not me, Helen.

Helen: These are the two that I have heard referenced a lot because they are relatively affordable entry points for people, especially just those of us who wanna play around with pattern drafting and not necessarily invest, you know, hundreds or thousands of dollars in software.

Caroline: Yeah, cause they can get really expensive. It’s a pretty big investment cause they’re meant for companies, right?

Helen: Exactly.

Caroline: They’re not necessarily designed for, with individuals in mind. So Seamly2D is a free open source program made specifically for pattern drafting. Our former guest Rachel Gilbert-Burns has a fabulous series of walkthrough videos for it on YouTube, so we’ll link those in the show notes. That’s Rachel from @MminimalistMachinist, and they’re invaluable for learning how things work. So we’ll definitely make sure we link those up.

Helen: Yes. Wild Ginger is another set of software programs that we’ve heard good things about. Their pattern master program is not for drafting. It’s a set of patterns that can be customised by entering your measurements which is pretty cool.

Then, the Cameo Apparel Pattern Software System, on the other hand, does have tools to draft patterns from scratch as well as grade them and make a pattern booklet in the end which is pretty cool.

Caroline: So cool. Okay, so, Helen, you work with a pattern drafter, so you don’t need any of this software for your workflow, but have you experimented with any of these?

Helen: I have not, actually. I do experiment sometimes drafting patterns flat in Illustrator because you can do that. It just takes a little extra time. It’s much easier to do a CAD program because it’s actually built to do that.

Um, but what happens once I get the pattern back from my grader, it’s got all the size lines and everything. It’s come out of a CAD program. And then I import it into Illustrator because Illustrator is a vector graphics program that’s mathematically based and accurate. I can import CAD files into Illustrator, and then, we can start manipulating them.

And by that, I mean, like, changing all the line weights and adding all the labels and checking that all the notches are in the perfect place and doing all the stuff that needs to happen before it can actually be sold to the consumer as a pattern that they can use at home.

Caroline: Okay, so interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

Helen: Yeah, no problem. We’re actually gonna talk about Illustrator right now, I realised.

Caroline: Perfect. Do you wanna take it away?

Helen: Okay. Vector programs are also popular for drafting patterns. These programs are not made specifically for sewing patterns, but they have super accurate ruler and drawing tools, so they work really well.

Adobe Illustrator is popular because it’s relatively easy to use and very powerful. You pay a monthly subscription fee to use it from the Adobe Creative Cloud.

And there’s also a program called Adobe Fresco, formerly known as Adobe Illustrator Draw which is like Illustrator, but for the iPad, and that one’s free, and it is possible to draft patterns on it, so you can play around with that.

Caroline: Cool. Okay. Inkscape is a free vector program. It’s not as easy to use as Adobe Illustrator, but if free is your budget, you might feel fine about spending more time learning it. And also, we should mention that you don’t necessarily need to draft digitally. You can draft a pattern on paper, and then scan it into a vector program.

Helen: Yes. When I first started my business, this is what I did. I drafted pen and paper, and then I took it to a print shop that had a large format scanner. They scanned it for me, and then I brought it into Illustrator, and I retraced it. It took a while. Like, it was not the most efficient way to go about things, but it is definitely doable.

Caroline: Wait. I feel like when I met you, there was a time when you cut up your pattern into smaller pieces and scanned individual pages on your home scanner and then…

Helen: Caroline, don’t tell people this!

Caroline: No, I just, that’s, like, commitment, Helen. I just remember…

Helen: I couldn’t figure out how to get the thing, the physical thing, into the computer. Like, it took me a long time to learn all of these things, and…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: …I would search for, like, large format scanners, but all the businesses I found that offered that service were, like, architectural firms and stuff.

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: And, like, they weren’t gonna take my, like, one piece of paper and scan it for me. So it took me a while to find a print shop that would do that for me. So in the meantime, yes, I would draw a grid on the paper, I would cut it up into individual sheets, and I would scan it on my home scanner.

Caroline: It’s, I think it’s genius. Like, I think if you’re gonna be, like, scrappy and, like, you wanna do it all at home. I feel like that is an option for people.

Helen: Yeah. A very annoying option.

Caroline: If time is not an, a factor for you. You have stretches of time ahead of you, then you can, you can try that method.

Helen: Okay. We mentioned Amy from Cloth Habit already, but she also has a post on her blog about drafting patterns with software that goes into more depth about these programs and more. We’re gonna link that in the show notes. Definitely check it out if making digital patterns sounds exciting to you.

It’s cool that some of these CAD programs offer, like, a starting point base block or sloper, so you don’t actually have to do that step. It might not be perfectly tailored to your measurements, but it’s something that you can use and start to tweak and just play around with and get started right away.

Caroline: Okay. Let’s go through the steps of drafting a sloper. So this is an overview. We won’t be able to go over every tiny detail, but hopefully, this is gonna give you an idea of what the process is gonna look like, and you can dive in further if this is something that you’re interested in.

So the first step to drafting a pattern is to measure your body. You’re gonna need a lot of accurate measurements. So having a friend to help you wield your measuring tape is a good idea. If that’s not possible for you though, you can do a lot with a couple of mirrors. And the goal is to measure yourself without contorting your body a lot.

Helen: Yes, you have to stand or sit as naturally as possible in this step.

The second step is to draft your sloper. You will take your measurements and, with a bit of math, draw out a basic pattern on paper. This part, I think, is really fun. I enjoy puzzles. I don’t so much enjoy math, but when I have done this in the past, I’ve found it so much fun. It’s like a connect the dot drawing. You put a dot over here and then you measure, you know, three and a half inches over and a quarter inch down, and you put another dot, and then, you get to connect them, and bam shoulder seam, like…

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: It’s really fun to do this part even if the end result doesn’t work out. It’s just interesting to create a pattern from these dots, and then, connect the dots. Amazing. Any good book, course, or tutorial will walk you through this step-by-step. You use a calculator to make the calculations quick and accurate, and the calculations aren’t complex. They’re usually something like a quarter of your waist measurement plus 1.5 centimetres. Then, you make that calculation. You take that number, and then, that’s where you would draw your next or make your next line.

Caroline: Mhm. Yeah. So if you’re, like, drawing the, where the waistline is, it’s only a quarter because you’re only drafting the front, only half of your front piece, right?

Helen: Exactly.

Caroline: So you’re taking full waist measurement divided by four and then that 1.5 centimetres is ease, right?

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Oh, okay. Cool. Okay. The third step is to fit your slopers. So you will make a muslin of the flat pattern you just drafted. First, you’ll need to trace off your sloper and add seam allowance. Since you’re fitting, you probably want a larger seam allowance, at least an inch. And then cut out your mulin, baste it, and try it on. Make any fit adjustments and adjust your pattern accordingly.

And if you’re wondering why you need to make fit adjustments after drafting a pattern to your own measurements, here’s why. Bodies are complex. Sometimes we have asymmetries. One shoulder is lower than the other. Your back is really curvy. Measurements can only tell us so much. Three people with the same measurements can actually look really different. So the flat pattern will get you a long way. The muslin process will account for how your flesh is distributed. Ew. That’s a weird way to say it, but it’s true.

Helen: Your flesh.

Caroline: Your flesh.

Helen: Think about your flesh. So after you make changes, keep on with the muslin-ing process, you feel happy with the fit, and then finally, you’re gonna trace off your sloper onto a sturdier piece of paper. That’s when you’re gonna abandon the parchment paper and get yourself some nice card stock so that it will be ready to use and also reusable without getting, you know, trimmed away slowly over time or getting crumpled into a hot mess.

Caroline: Right. Cause this sloper is, kind of, gonna be the basis for your future pattern drafting. It’s not really a pattern in itself, but you’re tracing it on heavier card stock because you know you’re gonna be using it repeatedly every time you draft a new pattern style, right?

Helen: Exactly. You want it to be a sturdy enough card stock that you can lay it down on a fresh sheet of paper and just run your pencil along the edge. Easy peasy.

Caroline: Mhm. Okay. So how would you use this beautiful personal sloper that you just made, Helen?

Helen: You could hang it on your wall. It makes a beautiful art piece. There are almost unlimited styles that you can make from your sloper. You can add or remove ease to make things looser or tighter. You can move darts around. You can convert darts into pleats or gathers or seams. Change necklines, and hems. Add or remove volume, like taking a classic skirt and making it into a circle skirt. You can do plackets, cuffs, and pockets, all those fun details. It’s really up to you. Like, the design possibilities truly are endless.

Caroline: Yes. I love that you can literally do anything.

Helen: Do anything right.

Caroline: You can do anything. Okay. Most of the style adjustments you’re gonna make will follow these general steps. So the first thing you’re gonna do is trace off your sloper. Then, you’re gonna cut into your sloper. And then you’re gonna move the pieces around either by spreading them apart, overlapping them, or pivoting them like a door on a hinge.

So, for example, take a classic bust dart. You can move that dart from the side seam to pretty much any location on the bodice, just by rotating it around and keeping the point on the bust apex.

Helen: Yes, it’s truly amazing. I love these, sort of, pizza pie chart diagrams that are in a lot of drafting software where it’s like the bust dart then becomes a waist dart or a shoulder dart or a French dart or even a neck dart, like, coming from the neck, even from the centre front.

If you have a centre front seam in your bodice, your dart can actually come from that centre front seam, and you can split that dart into multiple darts and put them in lots of different locations. It’s really amazing. You’re just taking this one little wedge of volume and you’re changing either the location or the distribution of that volume, and you can put it anywhere.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. It’s really cool to see, like, creative placements of darts, and you can even, like, split that dart into multiple darts for, kind of, style reasons. So, yeah, there’s just so much you can do.

Helen: Next step is that you’re gonna add your seam allowance so that you can then take this and sew it. And then you’re gonna make your muslin, and that is when you’re gonna be able to evaluate all of the decisions that you made and question everything and then start over if you don’t like how it turned out. Keep on with the muslin-ing process until you feel happy with how it looks. And once you’re happy, you just trace it out off, and you’ve drafted your first garment pattern.

Caroline: This is so exciting. I’m sure this must be, like, the most fun part is when you’ve, like, drafted your pattern. You’ve muslin-ed it. You’ve figured out exactly how you want it to be. It looks great. And then you can cut it out of your fashion fabric, and it’s, like, your first self-drafted pattern. It’s so cool.

Helen: I know! It is. It’s really, really cool and exciting.

Caroline: Okay. And, of course, each style change is gonna have specific instructions for where to cut into your sloper and what to do with the pieces. You’re probably gonna wanna follow instructions or tutorials that are specific to the change you want to make to your sloper. It’s not a very intuitive process. It’s more of a formula. I think with time it might become more intuitive, but at the beginning, follow instructions so that you know you’re going in the right direction, and you don’t have to start over.

Helen: Yeah. And if you’re following a book or a course, you’ll often start with easier things and move on to more complex things, so you can, kind of, follow along and learn as you go. But there are some basic principles for making patterns from your sloper.

We mentioned slashing and spreading. You can do that to add volume. Slashing and overlapping will remove volume. Some of you may have already experienced this with lengthening and shortening a pattern.

You won’t usually overlap your sloper because it already has very minimal ease, so you don’t wanna go negative, especially if it’s designed for wovens. Um, so you’re likely going to be adding volume, but who knows? Maybe you’ll add some and then you’ll be like, ah, I wanna remove some, so you’re gonna be doing both those things.

Caroline: Yeah, and when you cut into your trace sloper and rearrange it, the line it creates where you tape it back together will probably be jagged, so you’re gonna need to redraw the line to make it smooth. This is called truing. You may find this in some pattern instructions where it says to “true up your pattern” after doing an adjustment.

Helen: Yes, and you can also equalise pattern pieces along seam lines. So, for example, a front and back trouser might have shaping on the side that causes the seam line to be too long on the front versus the back. To equalise them, you’ll lay the front piece over the back piece and mark out a line that’s in the middle of the back and front side curve. Just so that your seam line for both the front and back pieces matches perfectly.

Caroline: Yeah, this is, kind of, hard to visualise with words, so…

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: Maybe we’ll try to include a photo in the show notes if we can find one, uh, so you can see what we mean here.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: And you’re gonna make changes on the shape of the garment first, then move on to smaller pieces like colours, pockets, cuffs, and facings, and you’re not gonna add seam allowances until the pattern is complete.

Helen: Yes. This allows you to continue prioritising the accuracy of everything because once you add the same allowance, then things can start to get harder to gauge whether they match up perfectly because you’re not measuring along the edge of that pattern anymore. You have to measure along the seam line, and that really just starts to get tricky when you’re working with the pattern. So that’s why you wanna add it at the end to keep your life simple.

Caroline: Mhm. That makes a lot of sense.

Helen: Yeah. Now that you have an idea of what the process is like, let’s go over some learning resources for you. Books are a really economical way to learn pattern drafting. Even textbooks will be a lot cheaper than taking, like, an online class or an in-person course, especially if you get them used. You can also check out the selection at your local library.

I wanna start with two that I’ve used and enjoyed using. They both include step-by-step instructions for drafting that, like, dot-to-dot calculation, connect the dots thing we were talking about earlier. The first one is Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear by Winifred Aldrich. There’s a men’s wear edition for that, as well. There’s that gendering thing we were talking about. And the other one is Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong. Fellow Helen. I’m preferential to this one for that reason.

These books are often used as textbooks in pattern drafting classes. They’re detailed and dense with information. Good choices if you want to be sure you’re learning everything about the process. Patternmaking for Fashion Design is a little expensive, but if this is something that you’re interested in learning about, it is, like, thick and dense with knowledge, and it really walks you through lots of different, uh, alterations you can make to your slopers, and I found it to be a really fun book to play around in.

Caroline: Mhm, and you never know, you might be able to find it on eBay or something for…

Helen: That’s true.

Caroline: …a more affordable price.

Helen: Or ask a friend who’s been to fashion design school if they have a copy.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. Our assistant Lisa has a book called How to Make Sewing Patterns by Donald H. McCunn, and the advantage of this book is that it’s made for home sewists, so it has some good advice about making a sloper for your individual measurements, rather than designing for standard retail fit models. The illustrations are really great for understanding how a two-dimensional piece gets shaped into a 3D garment. However, the information is not as complete as the ones Helen recommended, and if you get the first edition, there are some very 1970s illustrations.

Helen: Lauren Digby, who guested on our Petite Sewing Episode, self-drafts a lot of her clothes, and she told us that her favourite book to learn from was Building Patterns by Suzy Furrer, who is another former guest of ours. We talked to her about making a sloper. We have a whole episode with her about that, so definitely check that out, and check out this book as well. It sounds great.

Caroline: Love it. Okay. Online courses is the next thing we can talk about. It gives you the advantage of seeing pattern making techniques being performed in action on your screen. So our former guest Suzy Furrer also has some great classes on Craftsy. Her Patternmaking Basics series is a good start. These are videos and not interactive.

And Suzy also has pattern drafting classes available through her website, Apparel Arts Productions. And these are more expensive than the Craftsy ones, but they’re live classes with instructors you can communicate with which is a big help with something as complicated as pattern drafting.

Helen: Yes. Pattern Workshop is an online course that has two options: pro and personal. The pro focuses on not only making graded digital sewing patterns for sale, but also packaging and selling and marketing them. The personal course is abbreviated and is focused on making digital slopers and patterns for your own use. Very cool.

Caroline: Cool. I didn’t realise there were two options with that class. That’s awesome.

Helen: Yeah, she recently did an update. Well, recently, I think last year didn’t update to this course, so it has changed a little bit. So go check it out.

Caroline: Yeah, definitely a popular one in the sewing community Pattern Workshop.

Mhm. Okay. Former guest Brooks Ann Camper has three classes for sewists who want to learn pattern drafting: Skirt Skills, Smarty Pants, and Top Class. In each class, you draft and sew a garment according to your measurements. It’s like a combo drafting and sewing course. So you can check out Learn with Brooks Ann for more info. We’ll link that up in the show notes.

Helen: Uh, and Brooks Ann is such an amazing teacher. Like, I know that not only would you learn pattern drafting basics, but also pick up so many amazing skills along the way. Like, she blew my mind every 10 minutes when I took a class with her.

Caroline: We know, Helen. You talk about Brooks Ann with so much love.

Helen: I know. I’m a huge fan.

Caroline: You are a huge fan. I love it.

Helen: Another former guest, Alexandra Morgan, has two classes available for making slopers. They are Designed to Fit: The Bodice Block and The Custom Stretch Knit Bodice. I love talking with Alexandra, as well, just, like, a fountain of knowledge. So I bet those courses are great.

Caroline: Yes. Sew Over It has an Introduction to Pattern Drafting course where you make and fit a bodice sloper and a skirt sloper. And then you draft a shift dress pattern from them. So this is one to check out as well.

Helen: Ooh, very cool.

In-person classes are the last thing we’re gonna touch on and, kind of, the ultimate in support and hands-on learning. Check out the course catalogue at your community college and see what they have to offer. If they have pattern drafting classes, maybe that’s something that you can take as, like, a continuing education thing. And this can be a fabulous way to learn from an expert in an in-person setting with classmates. I mean, that just sounds lovely. I’d love to do anything in person these days.

Caroline: Right?! Okay. If you live in a big city, you might have some more in-person options. For example, Mood has pattern making courses in LA and New York. So you can Google your city specific options. Um, that’s always a good idea.

Helen: You can also take private lessons if you know a pattern drafter local to you, you could ask them if they consider offering private lessons and what they might charge for that. The worst that can happen is they say, no. They’ve probably been asked before, so they probably already have an answer. Um, but maybe that is a service that they offer. And that could be a really great one-on-one, hands-on way to learn.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, Helen, I feel like this episode would not be complete if we didn’t get your story of, kind of, how you got started. I wanna hear your story. I want you to fill our audience in on your own journey with pattern making because maybe they wanna design and sell sewing patterns, and I think it would be really fun to hear where you started off.

Helen: Yes, I’m so happy to share. It really has been not a very long journey. So if you’re out there thinking this is something that you might be interested in, I can tell you that it is possible to design and sell sewing patterns if you want to. And the way that I went about it was I took Pattern Workshop. That’s the course we were mentioning earlier hosted by Lauren Dahl.

And, uh, when I took it, it was designed specifically for people who wanted to do this for a living, uh, which was amazing to me because when I saw some of the other indie pattern designers out there, I thought, how did they learn how to do that? Is there, like, an online course or something? And then I found this course and I was like, oh, literally, this course is designed to help you to get to that point, and I thought that was so cool.

So I took that workshop, learned a little bit about pattern drafting, muddled through my first pattern, the Winslow Culottes, which are still one of our bestsellers and still an amazing pattern. I absolutely love sewing and wearing those. Still super proud of them, but it was a struggle. It took me months to draft that pattern and figure out how I wanted it to be.

And then Lauren Dahl, also in Pattern Workshop, walks you through how to digitise that pattern. We talked about adding those line weights, notches labels, things like that, making it ready for sale, turning it into a print at home pattern, so tiling so that people can print it off on their home computer and tape it together, or home printer, and tape it together, etc., and also making the instruction booklet, which I’ve mentioned on the show before is my absolute favourite part of the pattern design process.

I love the technical illustrations, and I love the instructions, walking people through how to successfully make something, giving them everything they need to feel confident while they’re sewing. Like, that is definitely my favourite part. I totally fell in love with that aspect of it when I was taking the course. So it really validated my decision or my interest in becoming a pattern designer because I was like, this is the part that I’m really good at and the part that I’m gonna excel at and that I wanna share with the world.

The pattern drafting part, I did find challenging. And that is why I, eventually, after my first pattern, I decided to get my patterns drafted professionally by somebody who has years of experience with pattern drafting. Because that way I can make sure that they’re the best they can possibly be. And I can focus on the elements of the design that I really enjoy.

Same goes for grading. Grading patterns is also a whole other area of expertise. So you definitely want to outsource that if you can afford to when you’re first getting started because it will just give you a much more accurate and successful pattern in the end, and it’s not terribly expensive to have something graded, so I definitely think it’s worth it. So once I, kind of, got the reins a little bit, got my sea legs, figured out what I was doing, launched my first pattern, started the business. That was when I was like, okay, I’m gonna outsource the drafting and grading, and I’m gonna focus on making this bomb-ass instruction booklet and…

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: …marketing the patterns which is another part of the business that I really love, sharing with everybody the hacks and the designs and, and, um, hanging out in the community with you all. So I do think there’s lots of different paths you can take.

If you are, like, really into the drafting and you wanna draft your pattern yourself, there are certainly pattern designers out there that are doing that, and then, they’re outsourcing the making of the booklets and the marketing because that’s not their jam. So you don’t have to do it all to do this for a living.

Caroline: Mhm. I think that’s, like, a lesson in, in running and growing a business is, like, there does come a point where you can’t do it all.

Helen: Mhm.

Caroline: And it is totally okay to outsource the things that maybe you’re not the most skilled at or you don’t enjoy the most so that you can spend your time focused on the things that you do love. And in the end, I think that’s gonna make you love your business more and, kind of, be willing to stick with it for the long haul. So I think that’s, like, such a good call, and it is not necessarily something that I think the general public knows is that, sewing pattern designers are not always actually drafting their own patterns.

That is such a skill. And people go to school for that for years, and then work in the industry for years and years to gain knowledge. So working with an experienced pattern designer that can draft for you and a grader that can grade, according to grading rules, I think, is just, like, Invaluable for a small business to be able to work with that skilled person to help you, kind of, bring your patterns to a different level. So it’s so interesting to hear how, how you went about it.

And I, kind of, wanna know more about the instruction booklet cause you said that this is, like, your favourite part, but how long does it take you to put together an instruction booklet? Like, do you spen-, is that a, a really large part of the production of your pattern is, like, diving into the booklet?

Helen: It is. I actually have somebody now helping me to write and illustrate the instruction booklets as well, and I work closely with her. We go back and forth, writing it all out in, like, a Google Doc, figuring out how we wanna word everything, what tips we wanna include, marking out all the steps so that when we go and put it into the booklet, we’ve got it all planned out.

And then we also make an Illustrator file, many, many art boards, one illustration per art board. And that’s the each individual step on each art board. And we go back and forth on that as well. So she illustrates, and I’ll come in and make comments and changes. And we just, like, work on it until we feel it’s complete. And then once those two, kind of, separate elements are done, we bring them together into Adobe InDesign to make the final booklet.

And a lot of changes happen at this point because it’s amazing what happens when you see the text next to the picture. And then oftentimes, either the text has to be tweaked or the picture has to be tweaked to make it perfect, and adding little arrows and things just to make things crystal clear. But yeah, that’s a big part of the process. It can take, for us, and we’re not working on it, you know, eight hours a day every day, but it takes us about a month to make, like, a really good, solid, finished booklet.

Caroline: Mm. And your booklets are so good, Helen. And I have to say…

Helen: They’re very long.

Caroline: They are, but they’re just everything in there I think is so important. And you really do come to it from a place of, like, this person might be a beginner. They might not know a lot about sewing. So you inject so many little tips and tidbits and extra knowledge in there that’s gonna help people, not only sew this garment, but also, like, learn skills along the way and learn terminology and, kind of, the why behind why you’re doing certain things. So I think it’s just really fun to read through your booklet cause it’s, it’s a great learning experience, too.

Helen: Yeah. And we’ve been trying to include more adjustment pages, as well, alteration options, how to do basic adjustments, grading between sizes, full bust adjustments, small bust adjustments, things like that. Trying to bake those into the pattern even more because we are a PDF only company. And one of the reasons that I’ve continued in that business model is because there’s no limitations to the amount of paper that we can use for these booklets.

So they’re, like, little books, you know? You’re, like, buying, like, a little novel, and I love that there’s so much to learn within each of them, but yeah, I work really closely with all of my freelancers that work with me now, and it’s very exciting to be in more of a director role, um, but still feeling like I have a hand in everything.

And that goes for the pattern drafter, too. Like, although we’re outsourcing that it is a close relationship, and we do still have to go back and forth just like we were talking about in this episode. Like, I send her a concept, a flat sketch, um, and sometimes some inspiration pictures to communicate things like how much volume or the kind of style or vibe I’m looking for. And then she’ll send me back the first draft. I will then print that out. We have to sew a test. We have to test fit it. We have to think about all the little details. I’ll get back to her. And you, as a designer, get to decide things like how deep you want the hem to be, how big you want the pockets to be. Is the collar the right proportions? Maybe you want the sleeve to be longer. You might wanna add a view or remove a view. There’s so many decisions to be made. And so there is a lot of back and forth, and you are designing while they are drafting. So it can be a really fun process to be in as well.

Caroline: Mhm, and I mean, it’s not just the process of, like, the designing, drafting, getting the booklet ready. You also have to then have, like, a website where you can sell your product and branding and an Instagram and maybe a TikTok and…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: …you know, figure out the whole marketing strategy. So can you talk about that a little bit, too? Like, can you think back to when you started your business and how basic were you able to go at the beginning and how did you, sort of, build on that over time?

Helen: Very, very basic. And I think it’s even easier now, especially on the website front to set up, get yourself set up with an eCommerce site, or, you know, you have the option of selling on Etsy. A lot of pattern designers do go that route initially because it’s already set up and ready to go, but you can start a Shopify or a Squarespace or whatever you want to do for your website fairly easily and affordably nowadays which is amazing.

But I think as far as marketing and social media and building up the audience and the newsletter and all that stuff, just remember that every single person working in this space, or any space, started from nothing. Like, it, you are not gonna go from zero to 60. You are going to start somewhere, and that’s totally fine. And you don’t have to be perfect right out the gate. In fact, when you are a smaller designer or, like, a fledgling, little business, it can be really great to bring some of that struggle and authenticity and, and nose to the grindstone, kind of, attitude and messaging into your brand because people really love following along with those kind of stories.

I mean, don’t make it up obviously, but bring your authentic self. Tell people how you’re building the business. Share that with your audience because that will draw people in and make them interested in what you’re doing and make them wanna support you in what you’re doing. So I don’t think you need to shy away from that.

You definitely don’t need to have picture perfect polish on everything. I think photography was my biggest struggle in the beginning because I wanted my pattern photos to look like the top designers in the industry. And I just could not figure out how to do it. It took me years to figure out how to do it, to find my style, to get the right equipment. It’s really expensive to have the right lighting, to hire photographers. Like, all of that stuff has come with time.

And even when I look back at, like, the original photo shoot for Winslow and things like that, like, it’s fine. It was great at the time. It was exactly what it needed to be. And I think people actually were drawn to the fact that it wasn’t perfect, so don’t shy away from that. Embrace that, and just start where you’re starting. It’s fine.

Caroline: It’s so true. Like, at the end of the day when I’m choosing a pattern that I wanna make, I’m looking at the design of the pattern. I’m looking at, uh, the size range. I’m looking, you know, I’m looking at, um, the details. I’m not necessarily looking at what the photos look like on the pattern designer’s website or, you know, whether or not they look like they’re the most experienced pattern designer out there. It’s really about the garment that I wanna make, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Helen: Yeah, and make, obviously, the best possible product you can so that you’ll get those good reviews from people who are making it. And it will just add to the experience that your customers are having when they’re going onto Instagram to look for other makes of the pattern and they’re reading good reviews and they’re seeing cute photos, and that all really helps to start building the trust and the foundation for your business.

So, of course, an excellent product is paramount. But then past that, just do your best with the marketing. Just do your best with the social media and the website building, and you are going to improve over time, and, like, I’m still improving. It’s, it’s a never-ending process.

Caroline: Yeah. How many years have you been doing this for?

Helen: I’ve been doing Helen’s Closet for six years, but the first year of that was blog only. So I didn’t have products available, but for the first year I was blogging something every week. I was making a new pattern from somebody in the community for my own sewing adventures. Although, even at that time, I had it in mind that this is something that I might wanna do because I was really intrigued by the patterns.

And I was like, I wanna make these, what’s the best way for me to learn more about this? Well, make a bunch of them. Make all of the different pattern designers that are available. Try a bunch of different styles. Learn what people are offering and what they’re not offering and then share that online so that people can follow along with my journey.

And that was a really good, again, just a foundation for my business because it gave me a little bit of an audience at the start and just really let me enter into the community and interact with people and make connections and feel like I was a part of this before I started selling things.

Caroline: Mhm. Yeah. Well, is there anything else you wanna share about your pattern designer journey?

Helen: Oh my gosh. I don’t think so. I think, again, this episode was more for home sewists who are interested in pattern drafting. And I don’t want to be saying, or implying that once you learn how to pattern draft, you need to sell patterns. It’s absolutely not the case. I think pattern drafting can be just a really amazing personal journey as well.

It just happened to be a business for me. And if that’s something that is also exciting for you, then I just have to say, go for it. There’s plenty of space. The water’s warm. Jump. Come on in.

Caroline: Aw, well, thank you for sharing. It is so inspiring to have been watching your journey over the last five, six years. And, um, it’s, it’s just really fun to see how far you’ve come. And, um, I’m sure a lot of our, our listeners are inspired by that, too, if that’s something that they wanna do. And if not, remember, you can just draft patterns for yourself, and that’s awesome, too. And it’s a great skill to have just for your own personal sewing journey.

Helen: Totally. Okay. You can probably tell from how long we’ve gone on for that this is a bit of an info-packed episode. Pattern drafting is not for the faint of heart, but it is a wonderful, satisfying mountain to climb if you’re up for it. And if you decide to take on this challenge, let us know if you do. And if you already draft patterns, we’d love to hear about your favourite tips and resources, or let us know if we got anything wrong. Thanks for listening and happy pattern drafting.

Caroline: Thanks.

That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Caroline, at BlackbirdFabrics.com and Helen at HelensClosetPatterns.com! We’re recording in beautiful, I guess it’s pretty beautiful, British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: Go to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re gonna be filled with links and pictures from the episode, all of those resources that we mentioned. If you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at hello@LoveToSewPodcast.com.

Caroline: And if you love Love to Sew and want more, you can sign up for our Patreon! For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pictures. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, if you can, for more info.

Helen: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week.

Caroline: Bye.

Helen: Bye.

Caroline: And Sew Over It has an Introduction to Pattern Drafting course where you make and fit a bodice slope and a slurt, sklurt sloper. Oh my gosh.

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