---
title: It's still easier to just do it on paper
date: 2023-10-19T07:11:07.481Z
slug: 2023-10-19-paper
author: Thomas Wilson

---
About three years ago (several months into a novel coronavirus pandemic) I decided I wanted to learn to sew, and about a year ago I started to get pretty serious about sewing my own wardrobe. 

To do this, I have had to really engage with pattern drafting.  That's the act of specifying the 2D shapes that you cut out of fabric (which might be the garment cloth, a lining, interfacing, etc.), and which you then assemble to make the garment. 

It *feels* like this shouldn't be such a hard problem.  Yes "all bodies are different" but really those differences aren't very big are they?  I've the typical human body shape (a seemingly proportional torso, four limbs, no notable physical absences or irregularities) - so drafting a pattern for me should be pretty straight forward.

You can see where I am going with this.  Believing that was a stupid thing to believe.  If a garment doesn't fit right, it's probably because there's either too much or too little cloth somewhere.  But that could be anywhere on a body or garment.

For example, I have particularly chunky thighs for my size (hopefully from cycling).  But on a trouser pattern, the thighs can be a liminal no-mans-land between the seat (butt) measurement and the ankles.  On the patterns I was drafting (which I have taken wholly from a published and respected author) there is no *thigh* point.  

It therefore wouldn't be possible to just "widen at the thigh point".  It would be a case of adding some width, probably at a point between two pre-existing lines.  Which would add/subtract cloth from the whole garment, and would need to be reflected symmetrically on the left-right axis, as well as the front-back.  It would also add/remove cloth from the garment which could cause pulling or sagging.  

It's not *just* adding another point.

Sure, I might deviate from a typical or normal body in only a handful of ways - but there's maybe several hundred *possible* deviances.  

The idea that one could reasonably account for these possible variances in a standard-issue pattern would get in the way of just getting something done.

A few weeks back I started an online cohort course for making a suit jacket.  It's run by [The Tailoring Academy](https://www.tailoringacademy.co.uk/), and I'm only four weeks in (of about thirty) so I am withholding judgement - but I *think* I'll be able to a make a jacket I am proud of for my wedding in July 2024.

The first section of work as all about drafting by hand (on paper, not with CAD) the building blocks for the pattern: a front, side, back, and upper/lower sleeve pieces.  These are all drafted semi-separately but all need to fit together.

The problem: what if the pieces won't fit together?  E.g. what if there is too much cloth at the top of the sleeve to fit into the arm hole (scye) comfortably?

The solution:  just cut them out, measure some things, and compare them to each other.  If you need to re-draw some lines, then re-draw them.

The alternative of adjusting the drafting method to completely remove this need to check and compare the pieces *might* be possible, but it would probably be a lot more effort (for pattern-maker, and also for anybody drafting the pattern).

Pattern making and sewing has taught me that sometimes, it is just easier to do it on paper.  It might feel inefficient, and sure it might hypothetically be solvable - but the problem at hand is making a really nice suit jacket.   

The solution is hundreds of hours further down the rabbit hole of geometry and fashion design, or forty minutes of cutting paper and measuring with a ruler.

Just use the paper, dude.