Perfect Fit: Using The Rub-... — Patternmaking For A

Once the perimeter of the front panel was pinned out, she took her tracing wheel. She firmly rolled the spiked wheel along the chalked-out seam lines. As the spikes pressed through the denim and the paper, they left a perfect, dotted trail on the paper beneath.

The art of dressmaking often feels like a conversation between the fabric and the form, but for Clara, that conversation had become a series of frustrating arguments. Her latest project—a vintage-inspired Dior-style jacket—was a masterpiece on the hanger, but on her own body, the shoulders pulled, the bust gaped, and the waist sat an inch too high. Clara was an expert at following commercial patterns, but she was realizing that her body did not fit the industry standard. Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit: Using the Rub-...

When Clara unpinned the jacket and lifted it away, she was greeted by a connect-the-dots version of her perfect-fitting jacket front. ✏️ Perfecting the Draft Once the perimeter of the front panel was

Clara cleared off her large wooden dining table and gathered her tools: The target garment (her beloved denim jacket) A large cork tracing board Dozens of fine straight pins Translucent medical pattern paper A tracing wheel with a serrated edge A mechanical pencil and French curve rulers The art of dressmaking often feels like a

She started by prepping the jacket. She buttoned it up and laid it completely flat. She realized her first lesson: a 3D garment does not want to lie flat on a 2D surface. To combat this, Clara stuffed a small towel into the sleeve to maintain its shape while she worked on the bodice. 📍 The Pinning and Rubbing

Clara laid a large sheet of pattern paper over her corkboard, and then laid the front panel of the jacket over the paper. Smoothing the fabric carefully to ensure the grainline was perfectly straight, she began the "rubbing" process.