How To Make Sewing Patterns

Books I Used to Learn How to Draft Sewing Patterns

Hey y’all, today I’m back with another of your sewing questions answered and sharing how to make sewing patterns in response to “how did you get into pattern design?” I’ll be showing you four of the patternmaking books I learned from, and for further reading you can find more of my book reviews here. And if you have a sewing question for future consideration, you can submit it here.

The four books pictured above are some of the mainstays on my journey to learning pattern drafting. I will say here (as well as in my video review below) that none of them has been fabulous for plus size drafting. For that I’ve had to use a solid patternmaking skills foundation (which I did get from these books) and real life fitting of plus size bodies to learn. And really, these books are conceptual in that regard. They’re designed to teach you to draft for “average” bodies. To learn how to fit more diverse, real world bodies you have to practice, no matter the size.

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To learn pattern cutting, (which is another way to say pattern drafting – phrasing seems to vary by country) I used several books, and I still have many in my personal library for reference when I run up against a flat pattern question. These are the books that I found most helpful (commissions earned on these links).
How to Make Sewing Patterns
Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear
Patternmaking for Fashion Design
Pattern Magic

I made a video with my thoughts about each of these books. I talk about the best pattern drafting book for beginners, the most comprehensive pattern cutting book and the one to take your patternmaking skills to the next level. You can watch below or on YouTube here.