#grading sewing patterns

Sizing Up with Help from Adele Margolis

This 1940s peasant blouse, Butterick 3853, pattern came in size 18 which back then meant it fit a woman with a 36" bust. Yes, we have resized wildly since then in part because people got bigger but also because they have always been vain and like to quote a small number instead of a plain number of inches. I made this pattern for myself - see earlier blog post– but then I needed to change the size by 4" for a friend so what to do?

I turned to Adele Margolis’ book from 1969 called How To Make Clothes that Fit and Flatter which shows you how to grade a pattern, that is, how to change it from one size to another. They do this with computers at design houses, but she teaches you the split or tuck method where you cut or fold the pattern, and the slide method. I tried the slide method this time, and it worked perfectly and fit my friend fine. Even though this is a peasant blouse so there is some leeway in the fit, those are set-in sleeves and the drawing up around the neckline acts as darts would, so the fit through the shoulders must be correct. This is actually the muslin, made out of a rayon fabric, but it turned out so well that I sewed the seams shut, finished the edges, and she now has it as a second blouse. The actual fashion fabric was a fancy cotton also in a blue print.

Using a Vintage Sewing Pattern: Step 3

So you have copied your vintage pattern pieces and their instruction sheet (that was step 1 and 2 from last week). This is this point where your efforts will either be small or large depending on how close to your size the vintage pattern is. Unfortunately, the further you go in the past, the smaller the patterns tend to run as everyone was shorter and smaller in the past. If you got exactly your size, congratulations, you are a lucky woman, and we’ll see you next week. For the rest of us, read on…

if the pattern is only one size away from your own measurements, then you can get away with an easy solution: simply add or subtract the difference from the side seams. So, if you have 38″ hips and the pattern is for a 36″ hips, add 1/2″ at each side seam, and you are good. See the top photo. Ditto for the bodice pieces and the seam of the sleeves.

But if the pattern is more than one size away from your measurements, i.e. more than 2-inches difference, you had better grade the pattern. Grading is done by computers at pattern companies and garment manufacturers, but it was originally done by hand. The photos above illustrate approximately where you would add or subtract to create larger or smaller sizes. I learned this technique for grading from reading Adele Margolis’ How to Make Clothes that Fit and Flatter (1969) (more on that book next week).

So, first you mark where you will be adding or subtracting inches, and then you can do one of two things: EITHER spread or overlap the pattern pieces, taping them to a second sheet of paper below or taping the overlaps down (this is called the slash and spread technique). This takes a fair amount of scotch tape, but it works. OR you draw a line on a second sheet of paper upon which you align your pattern piece, and then you slide the pattern piece up or out, or in or down, the 1/8″ or 1/4″ inch (or more) that you need and trace around a expanded or contracted section of the pattern as you go. Margolis says this is faster, but not for the inexperience grader. No matter how you choose to go, some of outer pattern lines will get jagged from the slashing and spreading, so you will want to smooth them out. You may want to use a styling ruler to help with this, see last photo.

I got my ruler here:

http://sewtrue.com/Store/Styling-Design-Ruler-P241.html