top tip matching patterns

One of the advantages of making your own clothes is you can avoid pet ‘hates’ and things that generally get on your pip about rtw (ready to wear) clothing – I recently spotted this very cute playsuit and was then disappointed to see the mismatching of the central motif down the front of the garment #grrrrrr.

Leading me onto this week’s top tip.  A little insight into the art of pattern matching.

Decide which is the most prominent seam to match on the garment – usually the centre front and back.

Don’t try and cut your pieces on a double layer of fabric as you cannot see what lurks beneath the top layer and therefore you cannot control where the pattern lies.  Cut one side of the garment – say your back left bodice then flip the pattern over.  Fold in the seam allowance where the garment is going to match (in this case the centre back) so that you can see the stitching line and therefore have something to match the pattern to.

There follows examples of pattern matching on the centre front and back of a dress I have just finished using Butterick 6055.  I used the stripes to create a chevron effect and then cut the pockets so that the side seam band of pattern wouldn’t be disrupted.  I also employed the width of the stripe to create a central block of fabric and so emphasise my shape and set off the collar nicely.  It is going on it’s first outing tomorrow!