Organizing All Those Self-Drafted Patterns

by Debbie Bowles

I love drafting my own patterns.  The idea of going from a concept, to drafting that concept, to sewing a garment tells my complete story of garment construction. I’ve been pattern drafting for several years, and I have a chunk of self-drafted patterns.  So how do I organize it all?

Basic tools of my organization:

• Clothes rack
• Plastic clip pants/skirt hangers
• Ziploc bags of various sizes
• 5×7 sketch book with colored pencils
• Tagboards in a variety of colors
• Rolls of drafting paper
• Lead pencils, rulers, fashion rulers

With each drafted pattern, I have an accompanying colored pencil drawing of my garment.  When I’ve completed sewing the garment, I put it in a quart sized Ziploc with the pattern, the picture, and fabric scrap.

Then I use my clip pants hanger to clip on the gallon Ziploc, and I attached the sloper to the hanger hook.

As you can see, I’ve accumulated a variety of slopers and patterns.  This pattern drafting process is so much fun because through this method I can focus on interesting detail construction instead of the basic fitting of each garment.   I already know the fit is good before drafting the details.  As a result, everything I make is my own design.

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You can learn this pattern drafting method too by attending Designing Divas, the fourth Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. 

We meet at Christ United Methodist Church, Plano, in a large classroom where each person has a table to complete their own drafting. 

This summer is a perfect time to join Designing Divas.  Our project is drafting a knit sloper.    Hope to see you at Divas – where pattern drafting is so much fun (and easier than you would think.)

Debbie Bowles