Scaling Historic Patterns by Hand!
SO you've found a genuine, free historic pattern on Pinterest, and you're pleased because you're broke, and using an original pattern gives you authenticity cred. But there are no instructions at all!
How do you turn it into a pattern that works?
Top: a not-to-scale diagram, showing how the London Tube network fits together
Bottom: what the tube map looks like in reality.
Scaling up patterns by hand isn't challenging, so long as you can do fairly basic maths + use a long ruler. If you've done flat pattern drafting before, it's basically the same thing.
Historic patterns were often designed to use a specific measurement tape, unique to each book or magazine. Using the "apportioning ruler" of the right size was an early form of pattern grading. This method allows us to make a personal measurement tape, even if the original tape is absent.
Before you begin, I want to say that this looks far more complicated than it is. Anything which looks mathsy frightens me, and I was delighted by how simple and satisfying it was.
This is a set of 1907 Edwardian Drawers from tudorlinks awesome and awesomely huge free pattern collection. If you're having trouble visualising it, the section on the right marked "the bottom" goes around the leg; the line on the left goes around half the waist. The line at the top is the "center front", the back is the "center back", and you will need to cut two pieces and sew them together on these two seams. Don't worry, It took me some time to work it out too.
This pattern is not to scale! If we just blow it up, it'll be OK-ish, and we'll get away with it because drawers aren't fitted, but still. If we don't know how to scale up, we cannot use this pattern!
Don't start drawing yet, but here is what we are going to do when we transfer it to your paper:
1, The little A in the top, righthand corner is where we start. You draw a line down from A, and leftwards from A.
2. Then, you count the number of units down as indicated and make a mark at each point: 2.5, 4.5, 5, 6, 13, and so on:
3. Use a set square to draw lines at a right angle from each of these points across the paper:
4. Now measure from the vertical line the correct number of units from right to left indicated on the pattern, and make a cross at each of these points:
5. Connect up the crosses, and you have a pattern! Transfer any other pattern markings, and remember to add seam allowances if they don't seem to be given - which they are, in this case. Usually, on historic patterns, you must add seam allowances.
It's very tempting to jump in with a pattern like that and assume the numbers refer to inches. They don't. They are Arbitary Random Units. They're proportions and percentages.
ARUs are awesome! If we decide that 1 ARU == 1mm, we will be able to use this pattern to create tiny dolls clothes. We will start by drawing a line down the right hand side of the paper, and marking off the units as indicated: 2.5mm, 4.5mm, 5mm, 6mm, 13mm, and so on.
We can also set 1 ARU == 1cm, 1 inch, 0.75inch, whatever we choose. We could set 1ARU == 1km, and produce a workable pattern for a giant.
This is super useful to us as historic dressmakers. If you're not sure how a pattern actually works, you can produce a test version at a small scale very easily, by using a smaller ARU.
We need to find a length on the garment which we can compare to a measurement on our body. On this set of drawers, important lengths are:
For more fitted garments, decide which of the measurements is most important to fit your body: bust or waist are usually good options.
So 1 ARU == 0.6 inches long.
It's just ratios, and if you're stuck you can work it out with this calculator.
The waistline on the pattern is curved between two points, 32.5 ARUs apart. The pattern piece is, in fact, only half of the pattern: so the waistline is somewhere in the region of 65 ARUs in length.
Remember, though: scale isn't the same as fit. All we are doing is trying to make the pattern big enough to fit us, more or less.This pattern is proportionate to itself, and expects the user will have a certain proportion. By which I mean: if you have a huge belly and tiny, short thighs; or a tiny waist, and really long thighs; or any combo of the above, you may not have a 65 ARU waist/20 ARU waist-to-knee combo.
The goal of this stage is to rule out nasty surprises. What if my hunch that the drawers came to the knee had been incorrect? What if this was a rare example of Edwardian hotpants (the waist would be tiny, because I got the length measurement wrong) - or ankle-length drawers (the waist would be a sack)? By checking the waist, I've discovered that yes, my instinct was OK, they're going to come out more or less correct.
For a more fitted garment, you might want to make more than one of these checks at this stage.
Take a long, sturdy piece of paper, and draw a long straight line on it. Now start marking it off in 1ARU increments. For the drawers, I will make a mark every 0.6 inches, for a total of 43 marks, as the longest line on the diagram is 42.5 ARU long. This gives me a 25.8 inch/43ARU long ruler. Cut it out straight! We're going to use this literally as a ruler.
Now. Now we go back up to the instructions at the top of this post. Spread out your paper, and make a mark in the top right hand corner: this is A. Use your new ARU measuring tape and start measuring marks at the correct distance.
(Alternatively, you can convert each of the ARU measurements into inches using maths, and then draw out the pattern wholly with your inch measuring tape. This also works OK!)
Even though you've already done a bunch of stuff with rulers and pens, this garment still WON'T fit you perfectly (unless you are lucky). So now is the time to take your regular measuring tape - no more ARUs, thank goodness - and compare the measurements on your pattern to the ones on your bod.
This pattern is short on decorations. If you look at Edwardian drawers, you probably want to add some flounces at the knee hem, maybe some lace panels or strips and at last one ribbon. This is where you have to get creative, and use such patterns as a road map in combination with your other knowledge.
I do often dream of liberating more patterns by turning them into easy-to-use patterns, because I've learned so much from free resources and I want to give back. But having learned this method, I genuinely think it's a...you can give a man a fish, or teach a man to fish thing. I actually got into drafting BEFORE I ever used packet patterns. I was encouraged to go to packet patterns because I was struggling, but I've found that - the human body is such a varied nuisance, there's no such thing as a pattern that just fits. They all need adjustment, they all need fitting. I'd much rather do it from scratch and have control over the process. I could now make a range of drawers patterns for 7 sizes of approximate, imaginary women, but none of those garments would fit anyone exactly. Much better to write a step by step tutorial, and encourage whoever stops by to have a go.
So if you're skim reading this and saving it to a Pinterest board to use later, I want to encourage you to try it. It's moderately easy, and very satisfying, and it opens up a whole world of unique things you can make.
How do you turn it into a pattern that works?
Easy, I just take it to a copy shop and...
That's one way of doing it! There are lots of good tutorials for scaling up a pattern using your printer or a photocopier.- This is how we did it in the past - handy if you are interested in the history of home sewing and reconstructing their processes
- Some of us don't have printers, photocopiers or projectors
- Most importantly: some patterns are not to scale
Bottom: what the tube map looks like in reality.
Scaling up patterns by hand isn't challenging, so long as you can do fairly basic maths + use a long ruler. If you've done flat pattern drafting before, it's basically the same thing.
Historic patterns were often designed to use a specific measurement tape, unique to each book or magazine. Using the "apportioning ruler" of the right size was an early form of pattern grading. This method allows us to make a personal measurement tape, even if the original tape is absent.
Before you begin, I want to say that this looks far more complicated than it is. Anything which looks mathsy frightens me, and I was delighted by how simple and satisfying it was.
0. You will need
- Large piece of paper: wallpaper rolls, taped together newspaper, or fancy pattern drafting grid paper if you like
- Long ruler
- felt tips
- a french curve, if you're not confident freehand
- a calculator
1. OK, what am I looking at?
Genuine historic patterns are drawn on an implicit grid:
This is a set of 1907 Edwardian Drawers from tudorlinks awesome and awesomely huge free pattern collection. If you're having trouble visualising it, the section on the right marked "the bottom" goes around the leg; the line on the left goes around half the waist. The line at the top is the "center front", the back is the "center back", and you will need to cut two pieces and sew them together on these two seams. Don't worry, It took me some time to work it out too.
This pattern is not to scale! If we just blow it up, it'll be OK-ish, and we'll get away with it because drawers aren't fitted, but still. If we don't know how to scale up, we cannot use this pattern!
Don't start drawing yet, but here is what we are going to do when we transfer it to your paper:
1, The little A in the top, righthand corner is where we start. You draw a line down from A, and leftwards from A.
2. Then, you count the number of units down as indicated and make a mark at each point: 2.5, 4.5, 5, 6, 13, and so on:
3. Use a set square to draw lines at a right angle from each of these points across the paper:
4. Now measure from the vertical line the correct number of units from right to left indicated on the pattern, and make a cross at each of these points:
5. Connect up the crosses, and you have a pattern! Transfer any other pattern markings, and remember to add seam allowances if they don't seem to be given - which they are, in this case. Usually, on historic patterns, you must add seam allowances.
2. Scaling the pattern
I hope now you understand how we can turn those cryptic numbers into a pattern. But wait! What UNITS are we using?It's very tempting to jump in with a pattern like that and assume the numbers refer to inches. They don't. They are Arbitary Random Units. They're proportions and percentages.
ARUs are awesome! If we decide that 1 ARU == 1mm, we will be able to use this pattern to create tiny dolls clothes. We will start by drawing a line down the right hand side of the paper, and marking off the units as indicated: 2.5mm, 4.5mm, 5mm, 6mm, 13mm, and so on.
We can also set 1 ARU == 1cm, 1 inch, 0.75inch, whatever we choose. We could set 1ARU == 1km, and produce a workable pattern for a giant.
This is super useful to us as historic dressmakers. If you're not sure how a pattern actually works, you can produce a test version at a small scale very easily, by using a smaller ARU.
3. What ARU should I use?
Your ARU will be different on every garment. This is because various manufacturers used various tape systems. Always work this out afresh.We need to find a length on the garment which we can compare to a measurement on our body. On this set of drawers, important lengths are:
- will it fit around my waist?
- will it fit around my leg?
- what is the length like?
For more fitted garments, decide which of the measurements is most important to fit your body: bust or waist are usually good options.
Now the maths part
My waist-to-knee measurement is 20 inches. The waist-knee measurement in the picture is 31.5 ARUs. We are going to use ratios to discover what 1 ARU is equal to in inches.A = measurement in inchesIn our case, 20/31.6 == 0.63
B = measurement in ARUs
C = how many inches are equal to 1 ARU?
C = 1 x (A/B)
So 1 ARU == 0.6 inches long.
It's just ratios, and if you're stuck you can work it out with this calculator.
Checking against the pattern
I can now double check other parts of the pattern come to more or less the right place on the body, or are a size I expect.The waistline on the pattern is curved between two points, 32.5 ARUs apart. The pattern piece is, in fact, only half of the pattern: so the waistline is somewhere in the region of 65 ARUs in length.
That's a whole 10 inches bigger than my waist measurement: which is perfect, as remember the drawers are gathered at the waist. I tried it out with a tape too to see if it looked about right too.
1 ARU = 0.6 in
65 ARU = 0.6 x 65 in
65 ARU = 39 in
Remember, though: scale isn't the same as fit. All we are doing is trying to make the pattern big enough to fit us, more or less.This pattern is proportionate to itself, and expects the user will have a certain proportion. By which I mean: if you have a huge belly and tiny, short thighs; or a tiny waist, and really long thighs; or any combo of the above, you may not have a 65 ARU waist/20 ARU waist-to-knee combo.
The goal of this stage is to rule out nasty surprises. What if my hunch that the drawers came to the knee had been incorrect? What if this was a rare example of Edwardian hotpants (the waist would be tiny, because I got the length measurement wrong) - or ankle-length drawers (the waist would be a sack)? By checking the waist, I've discovered that yes, my instinct was OK, they're going to come out more or less correct.
For a more fitted garment, you might want to make more than one of these checks at this stage.
4. Making a measuring tape
We are going to make a measuring tape or ruler, set to your custom ARU size.Take a long, sturdy piece of paper, and draw a long straight line on it. Now start marking it off in 1ARU increments. For the drawers, I will make a mark every 0.6 inches, for a total of 43 marks, as the longest line on the diagram is 42.5 ARU long. This gives me a 25.8 inch/43ARU long ruler. Cut it out straight! We're going to use this literally as a ruler.
Now. Now we go back up to the instructions at the top of this post. Spread out your paper, and make a mark in the top right hand corner: this is A. Use your new ARU measuring tape and start measuring marks at the correct distance.
(Alternatively, you can convert each of the ARU measurements into inches using maths, and then draw out the pattern wholly with your inch measuring tape. This also works OK!)
5. Your new pattern
You now have a human-sized pattern! Transfer any other markings or instructions from your historic source to the pattern. Take a look at fashion plates and photos of costumes to help you work out how it all goes together.Even though you've already done a bunch of stuff with rulers and pens, this garment still WON'T fit you perfectly (unless you are lucky). So now is the time to take your regular measuring tape - no more ARUs, thank goodness - and compare the measurements on your pattern to the ones on your bod.
This pattern is short on decorations. If you look at Edwardian drawers, you probably want to add some flounces at the knee hem, maybe some lace panels or strips and at last one ribbon. This is where you have to get creative, and use such patterns as a road map in combination with your other knowledge.
6. Le voila!
I've been struggling to work these patterns out for a while now, and am kinda surprised by how simple and how elegant they are? Compared to a pattern in a packet, you always know that at least ONE of the measurements fits you, and they are very satisfying to construct. I certainly find this method a lot more intuitive, and under-my-control than trying to blow up an image via printer or photocopy.I do often dream of liberating more patterns by turning them into easy-to-use patterns, because I've learned so much from free resources and I want to give back. But having learned this method, I genuinely think it's a...you can give a man a fish, or teach a man to fish thing. I actually got into drafting BEFORE I ever used packet patterns. I was encouraged to go to packet patterns because I was struggling, but I've found that - the human body is such a varied nuisance, there's no such thing as a pattern that just fits. They all need adjustment, they all need fitting. I'd much rather do it from scratch and have control over the process. I could now make a range of drawers patterns for 7 sizes of approximate, imaginary women, but none of those garments would fit anyone exactly. Much better to write a step by step tutorial, and encourage whoever stops by to have a go.
So if you're skim reading this and saving it to a Pinterest board to use later, I want to encourage you to try it. It's moderately easy, and very satisfying, and it opens up a whole world of unique things you can make.
Resources
- American Duchess: a quick explanation plus a gorgeous photo of the skirt she made
- Festive Attyre: video tutorials, plus some useful detailed suggestions and comments on some popular books which use tapes
- Bustles and Bullets: a photo journal as the author tests out two patterns from this method
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