Taking the Leap: Understanding Sewing Patterns – Part 2, Cutting out the fabric pieces

Yesterday, I shared with you about the information on a pattern envelope. Today, let’s take a look inside.

Your first reaction when opening the envelope might be “OH MY GOODNESS! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY TISSUES!?!?! I thought you said this would be easy? There are so many. I don’t even know how to fold them up again to put them back in the envelope!”

No worries. Let’s not even look at the patten tissues yet. Let’s pull out the directions first.  

Which pattern pieces?

On the directions, there will be an area showing all the pattern pieces included in the entire pattern set, and which pieces are needed for which project.

Remember there are 8 different projects included in this envelope and there are 16 pieces included to make all 8 of them. We are only making one of them today, and, I kid you not, we only need ONE piece – piece number 16 (red highlighting). Feeling better about all that tissue now?

Out of whole big wad of tissues, find the tissue with peace number 16 on it, and lay it out flat. (If your pattern tissue is super crinkly, flatten it with a DRY iron first before you begin.) Set everything else aside. We won’t be needing them. Just don’t ask me how to fold them up. I still haven’t figured that one out yet.

What’s with all these symbols?

All those symbols on the pattern might look a little crazy at first, but our pattern directions are the gift that keeps on giving. Check out the glossary on the first page.

The only symbols we are worrying about today are the notches, the cutting lines, and maybe the lengthen/shorten lines.

Cut out the pattern.

Find the thick black cutting line marked with your size (again, mine is size L). Cut just outside the line all the way around the pattern.

There is a bit of a trick for this, because piece 16 is for both the pants and the shorts. If you are making the shorts, you will need to cut along the line marked “Cutting line for View H”.

If you are making the pants, you can trim off the extra little triangle that is for the hem of the shorts.

Make pattern adjustments.

To make my pants longer, I cut through the pattern between the lengthen lines, spread them apart 2 inches, and taped tissue between them.

Cut out the fabric pieces.

Again, our directions come to the rescue with a recommended cutting layout.

Unfortunately, these layouts can be tricky to interpret. But with the help of the directions’ “Special Cutting Notes”, we will muddle our way through. Do you see that star-asterix thingy on the layout (red highlighting)? Look over on the cutting notes to see what they want you to do.

Following these directions will insure that a vertically directional print (known as “nap”) won’t be going two different ways on your pants. That would be frustrating and awkward.

Ultimately, what we end up with is two layers of fabric, right sides (the pretty “outside” sides) facing each other. 

Next, lay the pattern piece printed side up on top of the fabric. Line up the grain line, the long double ended arrow, with the grain of the fabric. (What is fabric grain?)  The grain is pretty obvious on this striped fabric.

With the pattern positioned properly, pin it to the fabric.

Then, cut the fabric out around the pattern.

One last thing, we need to transfer some pattern markings. In the case of these pants, just snip out each of the notches. They will be very handy to have later. There are some on the center back seam, front back seam, and on each long edge of the pant leg.

That’s it for cutting out the fabric. Next time we will get sewing!

SEE PART 3 HERE!

Any questions about how to interpret the cutting directions?