Tuesday, October 13, 2026
7:15pm - 8:15/30pm
Pre-Requisite: Try Sewing or recent sewing experience
This class also compliments Alterations Basics and Reading Commercial and PDF patterns, and can be taken in any order.
Please mark your calendar with the class date and time before registering, as this page may be difficult to access later. After registration, you’ll see a “Stop” page with your class waiver—please review it before closing your browser.
Maybe it's a favorite little fabric basket. A pillow cover. A simple skirt.
Or perhaps it's 1987 and you desperately need to replicate your toaster cover.
We don't judge.
In this 60-minute introduction to pattern drafting, we're learning how sewists take a simple finished object and work backward to figure out the shapes, measurements and sewing pattern needed to make another one.
And don't worry—we are NOT drafting custom-fitted clothing patterns. Nobody is measuring seventeen parts of your body. There will be no couture math emergency.
We're starting small.
We'll explore how to:
Look at an object and identify its basic pattern pieces
Take useful measurements
Turn those measurements into simple pattern shapes
Add seam allowances
Mark grainline, folds and other useful pattern information
Think about how pieces will eventually be assembled
Create a reusable paper pattern
Test whether your pattern actually works
You'll start with a guided Sewcial example so we can reverse-engineer something together before trying your hand at another simple shape.
You'll leave with your own hand-drafted paper pattern plus a much better understanding of how sewing patterns actually become...patterns.
But the bigger takeaway is learning to look at simple sewn things differently.
Instead of:
“Where can I buy a pattern for that?”
You might start thinking:
“Wait. That's basically three rectangles and a seam allowance.”
And THAT is a dangerous amount of sewing power.
This class is for curious beginner sewists who already have some basic sewing experience and want to understand what's happening behind the pattern.
Try Sewing or equivalent recent sewing experience is recommended.
This is an introduction to the concept and process of drafting, not custom garment fitting. We'll work with intentionally simple shapes and projects so you can actually understand the process in one sitting.