Multiple pattern sizes

Does anyone have an easier way of using the multiple sizes of a pattern without tracing the pieces? This is quite a time consuming task if you don't want to cut the pattern to one size. Suggestions would be much appreciated.

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Does anyone have an easier way of using the multiple sizes of a pattern

I don't have time for tracing either, so I just cut out the biggest size and either carefully cut the fabric under the pattern to the right size, or I fold back the pattern to the right size, sometimes I have to make little snips. I do this mostly with kids patterns because when my kids get bigger I want to use the patterns again, but don't want to buy them for each size. especially handy with 3 kids in 3 sizes!

Also handy for me because I can use the same patterns for myself and my mom and sisters, we are all different sizes. I also do it for my husbands stuff just out of habit.

Michelle Giordano

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Reply to
Doug&Michelle

Sounds much easier Michelle, thanks. It's so simple, I don't know why I didn't think of it before!

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You could buy multiple copies of the same pattern if you want to make it in more than one size--- especially McCalls and Simplicity which are often on sale (here anyway) for .99¢ or $1.99 each.

I would only add that with decent tracing paper like canary-yellow (used by drafters and architects), you get much faster with a little experience. I trace all mine freehand--- using no curves or straight edges except for grain lines--- with a medium-tip indelible pen. Reasonably priced canary-yellow is available at Art Mart in 4 or 5 widths between 12" and 36" on 100' rolls. Indelible pens cannot bleed thru as they do with other media.

Reply to
Phaedrine

A sliding glass door makes a terrific "light table" for tracing and if you are on friendly terms with your physician and/or his staff you can sometimes score a roll of exam table paper, works very well for tracing.

Val

Reply to
Valkyrie

take it to a copy shop that does 24 x 36 blue print size and copy it.

Reply to
small change

Since I can't draw a straight line, tracing is out for me! I fold the pattern to the right size - this gets a bit complex for curvy bits though! In really difficult spots I draw the general direction of the pattern onto the fabric with chalk, which brushes off easily. For some reason I can cut straighter than I can draw so this system has always worked for me.

Reply to
Viviane

I can't draw a straight line, either, so I use clear rulers and French curves when tracing.

maer in Florida

Reply to
maer

I'm probably too fussy (obsessive-compulsive?) about cutting, but for me, precision at this step...cleanly cut straight edges, smooth curves...is necessary to get final results I'm happy with, and I almost

*have* to have an accurately traced pattern that includes necessary alterations.

Cutting out used to be my most un-favorite part of the sewing process. I hated the way tissue patterns slid around on silkies; split when I pinned them to thick woolens, marked with dressmaker's carbon or tailor's tacks; had to be taped at alteration points...and heaven forbid that a previously used pattern, altered with tape, needed to be pressed before an encore performance--yikes, don't touch the iron to that tape! And "tissue-fitting a pattern?" I have a copy of a book based on that premise, but it doesn't work for me because tissue patterns tear, buckle, and sure don't drape like fabric.

Then from somewhere came the advice to trace patterns on cheap non-woven interfacing, (later 'red dot' tracing stuff, it's made by Pellon, I think). It clings to fabric, so usually needs no pinning...is durable, pieces can be machine-basted to check for fit. The perfect mate for rotary cutting. I no longer hate cutting out.

Although tracing a pattern could seem tedious, it's a good opportunity to concentrate on details and whether or not there's something specific to be careful about. The speed of rotary cutting means that a big mistake can be made very quickly!

The great thing about sewing at home is that we're all free to work in ways that suit us individually. There are no sewing police.

Doreen in Alabama

Reply to
Doreen

I have gotten in the habit of tracing since some patterns are printed on both sides of the paper and you can't cut one piece without damaging another. For the DGC I use the KwikSew Sewing for babies/toddlers/ children and keep the smaller patterns I cut out for the next child to grow into. Marked, of course on each piece for the size :-)

Jean M.

Reply to
Jean D Mahavier

I'm amazed that so many people find copying a pattern a horrible chore -- it's less trouble than cutting a pattern out of fabric.

Perhaps it's because all my patterns are made of something at least as sturdy as newsprint, so that they are easier to copy than tissue patterns? (Ironing a tissue before you try to copy it helps. Don't use steam or starch.)

Most likely it's the tools. I have an old-fashioned dropleaf-expansion dining table, which provides plenty of room to lay a pattern piece out flat even without any of the expansion leaves in.

Maybe that's why copying a pattern is easier than cutting one out: even with all four expansion leaves in and both drop leaves up, there sometimes isn't room to lay out *all* the pattern pieces at the same time; then I have to lay out on the floor, pin the pattern to the fabric, and cut the fabric into pieces that will fit on the table.

(Well, it's *mainly* because I don't care about the grain of paper -- and paper never slithers, especially when held down with drafting tape or removable correction tape.)

Then there are my rulers. I haven't any special rulers such as I read about in pattern-drafting books, but there's a yardstick over every doorway -- note to self: I really, really need a yard-and-a-quarter stick; even a meter stick would be a big help -- and I have a bunch of drafting tools left over from when I was an editor.

The drafting board is too small for anything much bigger than ledger paper, which renders my T-square totally useless, and the french curves don't come into use near as often as cups, saucers, and jar lids, but my twelve-inch forty-five degree triangle is in constant use for drawing bias lines, squaring things up with the grain line, drawing parallel l lines, and as a straight edge that's longer than my twelve-inch ruler and handier than a yardstick.

There are other leftover rulers, including a steel one that I use to tear newsprint off the roll. (more often, I use the roll as a guide for drawing a line across the paper, then cut along the line with 12" editing shears.)

I have one special sewing ruler that I bought in Ben Franklin's in Wailuku, back when Ben Franklin was a dime store. It's a strip of bamboo marked without numbers, just lines and dots, and intended to measure from the middle to both ends. It's very useful for centering things. Though the lengths of the markings don't correspond to any units that I've ever heard of, I sometimes use it for measuring when I don't need to write the lengths down. (It's 15

7/8"/37.7cm long, divided into two, ten, twenty, and one-hundred parts.) And it's more convenient than my foot rulers for drawing straight lines.

A child's protractor is handy for making two lines cross at right angles. Some rulers have lines -- or pairs of points

-- at right angles to the drawing edge.

ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL: a few sheets of typist's carbon paper. Tracing around the edges of a pattern is all very well, but patterns invariably have marks on the interior -- and I greatly prefer a thin line drawn at right angles to the seam line to a notch snipped in the edge. Sometimes I snip the notch too, so that I can stencil it on with chalk, or put a marking pencil through it, but always there is the drawn line to show where the center of the notch is.

Since I seldom use transparent paper, carbon paper is also essential for putting under a pattern while I'm marking the top.

When lines are straight, I mark just the corners, then draw them with a ruler. I often lay a ruler on a seam line or the grain line, mark extensions of the line on the margins that will be cut away, then draw the lines with a ruler after removing the original pattern or folding it out of the way.

A gentle curve can be drawn with a straightedge by regarding it as a series of short lines: Put the ruler on three points, draw the line between the first two, put the ruler on the second point, the third point, and the next point, draw the line between second and third, repeat. (In shorter words, stop drawing and shift the ruler *before* it leaves the curve that you are tracing.)

A curve too sharp for a ruler, but not sharp enough for the french curve -- or jar lid -- can be drawn by marking a series of points, then standing on the inside of the curve and rotating your arm around the shoulder or elbow as you eyeball your way from point to point. In this case, never draw *to* a point, only *through* it on your way to another point.

If a curve you've drawn along the edge of a sheet of paper looks a bit wobbly, don't worry about it -- the scissors will smooth it out.

Patching and piecing: sitting here at the computer (in a dim light that doesn't show details), I see, among the patterns hanging on the wall, one notch that has been obliterated by ironing on a snippet of woven interfacing, a neck that has been raised by attaching a bit of paper with removable correction tape, and *three* patterns that have been modified by basting on a piece or basting in a fold. (Take stitches at least an inch long, secure ends by overlapping, tying the ends of the thread together, sharply changing direction, or starting and ending on a single layer of paper.)

The removable correction tape is under-represented, of course, because I almost always remove it.

I also see a lot of old-time lick-and-stick *fabric* gummed reinforcements that have been used to repair worn hanging holes. Should I ever run out of them, I'll have to iron on a snippet of interfacing and re-punch the hole; the plastic reinforcements now available would melt if touched by an iron.

Somewhere, perhaps in an envelope, there is a pattern that was pieced by overlapping the pieces and slipping narrow strips of gum arabic (modern equivalent: Stitch Witchery) between the layers. I also recall using narrow strips of iron-on interfacing to "tape" two pieces of paper together.

Joy Beeson

Reply to
joy beeson

Joy, Thanks for your little seminar on tracing patterns. I always trace out my patterns because I need to make a lot of alterations for any top I make. I do use some of the ways you mention because I figured out early on that I could get along without a lot of fancy equipment. I have some straight edges and a French curve (that I consider to be useless.) I can never make the darn thing fit into the curve I need. As result I have always drawn curves with a series of short lines.You have given so many other helps that I will read and incorporate into my pattern tracing habits. Thanks again, Juno

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Juno

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