I bought a dress as one to wear around the house — be comfy, but presentable! I wanted a pattern to make a few more. Pattern drafting from ready to wear is for intermediate to expert sewers who are comfortable sewing garments from published patterns and have a working knowledge of how garments are assembled. You copy the lines of each piece of the garment, add the seam allowances and then make a ‘muslin’, or test garment to try the fitting to make sure you got it right.

Take an existing piece of clothing and make your own pattern blocks. You already know which of your favorite clothes have a perfect fit.

How do you draft a pattern from an existing garment? In this article, I’ll show a drafting a pattern from a very simple dress that shows you the basics of drafting a pattern from ready to wear.

There are different methods for making paper pattern pieces. This is the method that I use and feel comfortable with. If you are new to making patterns from an existing item of clothing, try different ways to find the one you like.

One (1) Pattern

Pattern Drafting from Ready to Wear

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Active Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Intermediate

Learn how to take favorite ready to wear garment and make a pattern - so you can make it again in your own style and fabrics!

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It's easy to make your own patterns from your favorite clothes!

There are many different ways to make your own sewing patterns.

Materials

Pattern paper to fit all of the pieces on a garment, or printer paper taped together to be the size of all of the pieces on a garment, you can also use medical table paper or tracing paper.
Ready to wear garment that you want a sewing pattern from

Tools

Pencil
Sewing pins
6-inch sewing ruler
Optional: Pattern sewing rulers or French curve or hip curve ruler
Paper scissors
Pattern weights
OPTIONAL: Tracing wheel

Instructions

Start by laying out your large piece of pattern paper. If you make a lot of patterns, it is worth the investment in a large roll of pattern paper. If this is your first time, just tape a bunch of printer paper together with clear tape. You need the piece of paper large enough to lay each piece of the garment down flat.

Lay down your paper. I find it easiest to start with the main pieces of the garment. I'm copying this simple dress that I love to wear on hot days around the house.

Think about how you'll make the garment. With this dress, the center front can go on the fold. I folded the dress in have down the center front and laid it on the paper. Since I'll cut it on the fold, I just put the center front along the edge of the paper - one less cut of the paper!
With your pencil, draw a line around the first section of the garment, making sure it is laying very flat. (Note: Make sure you have a sharp pencil!)

I'm working with denim fabric, so it doesn't slip around. If you are working with a light weight fabric, use your pattern weights to hold the garment securely on the fabric.

Here is a close up of how I marked some of the lines. Pay attention to where you'll need to add extra fabric. Example is the top casing of this dress. I used my 6-inch ruler to measure how deep the casing is to make sure to add that 1-inch to the top of that line to make the casing.
Continue to trace around each of the pieces in the garment. Once you have them all traced, go back through and smooth your lines. This is where your French curve or Sewing Rulers can be helpful. Here you can see the side seam and my marks. These marked lines are your seam lines.

Don't forget to add your hem allowance!
Next, using your 6-inch sewing ruler, add your seam allowance. Most independent patterns use a 1/2-inch seam allowance instead of the 5/8-seam allowance of the big pattern brands. Add whatever you feel comfortable with. NOTE: Make sure to note on your pattern pieces the seam allowance you have marked!
Here is how the pattern looks with seam allowances added.
The last thing I do is trace the smaller elements. An easy way to trace a pocket is to open the garment on the paper with the pocket on top. Take a pin and make pin marks around the pocket that puncture the pattern paper. Only use this method on fabrics that pins won't distort (like this denim). This makes a line of tiny perforations that you can then trace on the paper. If you have a tracing wheel, that makes this job easier! Add your fold overs (like for the top of the pocket) and your seam allowance.
Cut out your final pattern and make a muslin to then adjust the fit to exactly what you want. A 'muslin' doesn't need to be in muslin fabric. 🙂 Use any fabric that you have in your stash that is suitable for the pattern. I had this print I bought off a clearance rack CHEAP just to make a muslin. It was cheaper than actual muslin - and if it fits perfectly, I can actually wear it! (Yes, I'm using cans as my pattern weights! They work great if you don't have pattern weights. I had just moved and hadn't found them in a box - yet!

Notes

Notes:

Make sure you have a very flat surface to work on so that your pattern is not distorted.
Since you'll be using pins or a tracing wheel, make sure your surface is protected from the marking. Use a cutting mat under your paper.
Always make a test garment, referred to as a muslin before cutting into your good fabric.

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Here is how I made my muslin from the printed fabric. I decided to start by making the self fabric ribbon for the neckline. When you are making your muslin, think about the order of how you’ll put together the garment. There are no instructions – you are making them up!

TIP: When I try something that doesn’t work, I make a note right on the pattern paper. If I do something and think of a better way to do it next time, again, I write it right on the pattern. This way, when I make the pattern again, I have all of my notes!

To make the self fabric ribbon for the neckline, I cut a piece of fabric 2-inches wide, which will give me a finished 1/2-inch ribbon. Start by folding it in half and pressing. This gives a pressed line to follow in the next step.

Then, fold each edge into the middle and press.

Then, fold in half and press again.

Topstitch along the edge.

And, the finished self fabric ribbon! If you don’t want to make your own, you can just buy a yard of ribbon from the store.

Now to put the dress together. I finished my edges with a zigzag stitch. Then I sewed the side seams together and pressed the seams open.

Putting the dress together. Side seams sewn and pressed open.

Make the pockets. I like this method because the top of the pocket is all finished. Again, I finished the edges with a zigzag stitch. Then fold the top of the pocket down, right sides together and sew the seam allowance on the sides of the pocket.

Turn it right side out and press. Press the seam allowances all around the pocket to the wrong side.

Pressing the seam allowances on the pockets

Place on the dress where you want the pockets and topstitch in place around the sides and bottom. It’s hard to see with this fabric, but here is the pocket on the dress!

Now to finish the sleeve edge. I just turned it in about 5/8″ and topstitched it down.

Then, I turned down the top of the front and back about 1″ (remember I added 1″ to the top) and sewed down on the edge of the fabric, so I can thread the self fabric piece through the neckline.

Thread the ribbon through the casings. I used a 30″ length, but adjust to your fit. I used a bodkin, but you can use a safety pin on the end of your ribbon to thread it through the casing.

Threading the self made ribbon through the casing for the neck

You can use a longer ribbon and tie a bow, but what I liked about my ready-to-wear dress it was easy to slip over my head and I didn’t need to worry about it coming untied.

I sewed the two ends together. Before you sew, make sure that there are no twists in the fabric! Ask me how I know? 🙂

Then, I moved the ribbon around until the joining seam was in the middle of the back of the dress. I then sewed it in place. This makes sure that the joining seam stays in the casing and helps so the ribbon doesn’t twist.

A little extra stitching to keep the ribbon in place

Hem the dress and it is done! This is a quick and easy dress to make – and super comfy! All you need is two lengths of 45″ fabric.

My finished dress made from a pattern I copied from a ready-to-wear dress that I loved!

Finished pillow case dress made from pulling a pattern from a ready-to-wear dress that I loved

The ready-to-wear dress that I pulled the pattern from:

The original ready-to-wear dress that I pulled the pattern from

Tips for how to make a sewing pattern

Use paper. Don’t use the grid non-woven interfacing. Paper may tear but it doesn’t stretch and distort. One of my first patterns I made I used the grid interfacing. Over multiple uses, my garments got looser. (I thought – yay! I’ve lost weight!) No, the non woven interfacing can stretch and distort.
Use a pencil. Don’t use a permanent marker for tracing the pattern pieces. Permanent markers are, well, permanent. You don’t want to mark up your original garment.
Make a test garment from the type of fabric that the original garment was made from. Example: A knit garment should be make in a knit fabric. Consider not only woven versus knit, but also the weight of the fabric. If a top was made in a light weight cotton, if you make it out of a heavy weight denim, it won’t fit the same way.
After you make your test garment, write your notes about fit or changes directly on your paper pattern so you’ll have them for future reference the next time you make a garment.
For your first pattern, copy a simple garment.
Make sure to mark button placements.
With copying sleeves, be sure to mark the front and back of the sleeve. Usually, the curves are different on the front and the back to give more ease and arm movement.

Enjoy your custom patterns that will fit your own body! Once you get going, you’ll have fun with pattern making from your own clothes!

Browse through all of the sewing projects on Create Whimsy.