I have a costume pattern that I'm sewing for our praise team girls. It's an adult pattern and I want to shorten the length. It say to shorten crease on easy-rule guide. When I fold to the amount I want, one cutting side lines up but the other side for cutting is not quite lined up? Am I doing anything wrong?
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No. What you need to do on the side that doesn't match up is 'true up' the pattern. Pin the folded pattern to another sheet of paper and redraw that cutting line so that it is one smooth curve. Cut along the new curve.
What I do with patterns is trace them onto another piece of paper before cutting, rough cut and do any alterations, then cut out. This gets pin-fitted to the person or dress stand, then THOSE alterations are added to the pattern before cutting a toile out of practice fabric (this can be brand new cheap calico, old curtainlinings or sheets - anything cheap/free that has a similar drape to the final fabric). The toile is then fitted and any alterations made before cutting the real fabric.
This gives you an exact pattern for the person wearing the garment and the original unaltered pattern, should anything go wrong. If you picked up the pattern on special offer at a dollar a shot, always pick up one for each person and a spare to refer to: it's actually cheaper than buying papaer to make your alterations! We never see patterns that cheap in the UK, so I always have plenty of paper for altering about.
Nope, just take a ruler and straighten out the cutting line -- if you are folding the original pattern, fold the excess instead of cutting it off so that you can unfold it when you want to use the pattern for a taller girl. (I always alter copies of my patterns, so that I can go back to where I started if I goof. Also makes it easier -- instead of pleating or patching the pattern, I can copy part of it, move it, and copy the rest.)
The above paragraph assumes that you are happy with the top and bottom of the pattern and want to take a chunk out in the middle. Rule One for altering is that you add fabric where you have too little fabric, and remove fabric where you have too much fabric.
If, for example, you are happy with the way a skirt fits but want it knee-length instead of calf length, you cut the pattern off at the bottom, where you have skirt that you don't want. If the skirt is straight on top and flares out at the ankles, and you want the flared hem at the middle of the calf, you would take fabric out about knee level.
Sometimes you need to take fabric out in more than one place, and sometimes you need to take fabric out in one place and add some in another place. Joy Beeson
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