Lengthening or shortening a commercial pattern is actually quite easy to do and necessary if you tend to find that patterns are generally too short or too long for you. As a petite person myself, I tend to find everything too long, especially pants.
The pattern companies know that not everyone is the same and have, therefore, conveniently placed lines on patterns indicating where it will be the easiest to shorten or the lengthen and still be able to maintain the integrity of the pattern. By using these lines you can length or shorten before you cut out your fabric, thereby saving yourself a lot of trouble later in your project. Not only does this apply to pant legs but also to commercial tops where you can sometimes lengthen or shorten the torso area. If there are no marked lines for shortening or lengthening, just shorten or lengthen your pattern piece at the bottom of the pattern. Be sure to maintain the integrity of the pattern shape.
After you get the hang of sewing, you'll learn what works best for you and feel comfortable altering your own patterns so that everything fits you perfectly.
we don’t have a tutorial on this. Do you also feel the armhole is too big as well? Because you can fold the pattern (from armhole to center front/center back) to shorten it just like it’s shown in the this tutorial. You just want to do it towards the top of the armhole where the armhole curve is more on the straight side. The problem is that it would decrease the armcycle as well.
What if you need to shorten the portion above the armhole because it is too long from shoulder to underarm? Would that not require redrawing the armhole? I need help with that. Do you have a video on that?
yes, you can use this to adjust the back pattern and bring up the waistline but you’ll have to increase the length again at the bottom of the pattern, otherwise the front and back side seams won’t match. I found another blog that shows an example of this: http://www.sewmelodic.com/2014/02/sway-back-pattern-adjustment-in-dress.html
Hello, is this method used to make a swayback adjustment by maintaining the same grainline on the pattern?
not in this tutorial. I actually cut or fold the pattern depending on what I need to do.