UPDATE: I’ve launched a course that covers all the information to use Illustrator to make PDF patterns. It’s the course I wish I had been able to find when I was starting; you can find out more here:
Now back to the original post.
Today I feel kind of between posts – The Sew in Tune series starts next week, I’ve been guest posting a bunch, and I’m up to my eyeballs in pattern drafting/details for my Blank Slate Basics ebook. And I’m in the middle of some huge (exciting) personal changes that I hope I can share with you next month. But twice this week I’ve been asked about how I go about making my patterns, so I thought this post could be an overview with a lot of links to resources for anyone interested in learning more.
There are two basic parts to making PDF patterns. The first is pattern drafting, and the second is pattern digitizing. So let’s start with drafting.
I’m self-taught as far as drafting patterns. I spent years sewing store bought patterns, and after a while I noticed that I could swap bodices, skirts, sleeves etc between patterns and basically end up with my own design. That’s how my mom and I made my wedding dress, and that’s how I began costume designing in high school. For a long time, modifying store bought patterns was how I sewed, and I got to be an expert at fitting patterns to my body. For more inspiration in this vein, I love
Suzannah mixes up a lot of dresses starting with store bought patterns. In her weekly Sewing Circle posts, she also takes pictures of dresses that readers send her, and gives her best ideas for which patterns to start with and what modifications to make to those patterns to get the look.
It explains rub-off patterning technique -which I demonstrate in this tutorial and this one . Then she shows you how to modify a basic pattern to get different designs. Well that was eye opening!
And from there it was another small leap to drafting from scratch. I started with this book
Though it’s old (the 1970s photos are fun) it is thorough in explaining how to measure your body and draft slopers, then create patterns from them.
I also found this book at my local library. It covers the same material as How to Make Sewing Patterns, but it focuses solely on women’s wear. There are a few more style variations covered more in depth in this book, and it also had sample ease charts that I found to be very helpful.
Well, then I got into blogging, and discovered Ikat Bag. LiEr covers a lot of what those drafting books cover, sometimes in much more depth, but specifically for children (which fashion books don’t consider). Check out her drafting series here.
As for digitizing, well that’s another learning curve. This tutorial from Sewing in No Man’s Land explains the basic process of scanning and digitizing a paper pattern using Photoshop (regular version, not elements).
My process is a lot like the one explained in that tutorial, but I use Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5) and iWork Pages (for Macs) to write my patterns. This is partly because of my background – working in a school where I was friends with the technology teacher, I learned to use Illustrator and Photoshop way before I started blogging because they were great tools (and available at school) to design show posters for the plays I directed. Pages is super easy to learn and export documents to PDF format; I use it to write the pattern instructions, and then I use Adobe Acrobat to combine those with the PDF file from Illustrator.
The other reason I use Illustrator is that the more I learn about the software (and there is a pretty steep learning curve) the easier it gets for me, and the more shortcuts I have figured out. For comparison, the Toddler Blazer – the first pattern I wrote – took me weeks because I was learning the specifics of using Illustrator for patterns. Last night I created a draft for a shirt and graded it to 8 sizes within a few hours.
The best resource I’ve found for using Illustrator for pattern drafting is the series of videos produced by Ralph Pink. In particular, this one, which takes you step-by-step (it’s 45 minutes long) through drafting a bodice in Illustrator – without drafting on paper first! – is great to see the process. And this one rocked my world with the shortcut to adding seam allowances.
OK, that’s all I’ve got for now, short of producing my own tutorial series on how I do what I do. Which is a possibility in the future, as I’ve found that this information is hard to find (hence my attempt to compile it in one place for you) and has gaps that I’ve learned about and solved as I go. But I’m still learning too, and before I teach something I want to make sure I’ve mastered it.
I realize this post is kind of a departure from my normal fare, so hopefully I haven’t bored you! Stay tuned for some more departures from normal this week as I ramp up to Sew in Tune.
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This is really interesting to me Melissa! PR&P definitely changed the way I feel about following patterns and freed me up to change everything I wanted to change. But those books look great for going to the next step. Thanks for sharing all your resources!
This is just the sort of information I am looking for – I’d definitely love to read a series on it. I am just trying to work out how to digitize my first pattern. I’m using Inkscape though as I’ve never used the Adobe products and can’t justify the big expense. I was wondering – do you only scan one size and then do all the grading on the computer? If so, would you have a paper copy for each size to refer to for measurements? Thanks so much for sharing all of this.
I tried using Inkscape but couldn’t figure out how to do things quickly that I knew how to do in Illustrator. It ran very buggy on my Mac and froze up a lot as well. But I’ve heard others rave about it. I know Illustrator is very pricey (you used to be able to buy it separately, and now you can only get it with the CS bundle, boo!) and I could only afford it because I’m a teacher and qualified for a huge discount. As for grading, probably the most accurate way is to do all the grading on paper and scan each. I am working on a quick way to grade children’s clothes directly in Illustrator (I used it on the shirt I drafted the other night) that I might share in the future, but it’s still in the testing phase for me right now and I’m not positive about the accuracy, so I don’t feel comfortable sharing just yet.
Thank you for answering my question – that’s really helpful. I have used Inkscape a bit for a few things, but yes, it has got a bit buggy with a large file. I’m getting more comfortable with it now though. I will have to see how I get on with it for patterns.
Thank you so much for this post, Melissa! You answered so many questions I’ve had about pattern making. I’m not anywhere near trying out pdf patterns myself, but it’s something that I might consider in the future. Thanks again for taking the time to share your knowledge.
thanks for sharing
Thanks for posting this. I have been wanting to make some patterns from outfits I made my daughter as a child. I may have some questions as I read more.
I started reading your blog back during when you were in American Crafter and I am really enjoying what you have to offer. I love sundresses and I also have a 3 y.o. boy to sew for, so your series this summer are right up my alley. Just wanted to say thanks for all your hard wrok!
Meant to say thanks for all your hard WORK.
I’ve often wondered about how bloggers digitized patterns! Thanks for the info– and good luck on your e book!
Thanks so much for all the info. I have Photoshop and have tried using it before, but I’m just not that familiar with the program yet. Hope I can figure it out eventually!
So cool! I just tried it out again using something simple, and it worked!
I didn’t find this boring at all. I’ve been checking our pattern making books from the library but I am still in the mixing up patterns or working something up from something premade.
Very insightful!
I used Illustrator at fashion school, and i really loved the pen tool for creating my lines. I don’t have Illustrator anymore and I really miss it :< I miss how professional it made stuff look
Thank you very much for this information! I’ve been sewing for a long time, but I’ve never been comfortable trying to make my own pattern because I just didn’t think it would come out right. This really helps me with my confidence.
Awesome post Melissa! Thanks for the tips. Metric Pattern Cutting For Children is the best book for drafting kids patterns I have seen so far.
Thank you for this post. I am in a patternmaking class right now for school (fashion design & merchandising) but we haven’t done anything yet to digitize patterns, that comes next year. Thanks for this post:)
-Reyna
http://www.glamglory.blogspot.com