A Guide to Reading and Cutting Out Sewing Patterns

Sewing patterns are the foundation of every handmade garment, guiding you from fabric to a finished piece. Yet, for beginners, those lines, symbols, and terms can be overwhelming. But here’s the good news: reading and cutting sewing patterns is a skill you can easily master. In this guide, you’ll learn how to interpret patterns, measure accurately, and cut with confidence. Whether you’re sewing a classic blouse or a cosy hoodie, these tips will help you get it right the first time.

Understanding sewing patterns

Types of sewing patterns: commercial vs. indie patterns

Sewing patterns typically fall into two categories, each offering distinct advantages:

• Commercial patterns: Produced by well-known brands like McCall’s, Simplicity, and Butterick. These patterns have been tried and tested for decades, include detailed instructions, multi-size options and an extensive range of designs.

• Indie patterns: Designed by smaller, independent creators, these patterns are often fashion forward and include extensive tutorials, sew-along videos, and community support. Whereas the commercial patterns have line drawing diagrams in the instructions, some of the indie patterns will even include colour photos. Lots of beginners like to start with indie pattern brands.

Key components: envelopes, instructions, and pattern pieces

• Pattern envelope: Shows the finished garment design, available sizes, fabric suggestions, and difficulty level.
• Instruction sheet: Provides a step-by-step sewing guide, fabric cutting layouts, and sewing tips.
• Pattern tissue or paper sheets: These sheets contain all the shapes you need to cut out, often with different styles of line markings to indicate the multiple sizes.

How to read pattern difficulty ratings

• Beginner: Simple designs with minimal pieces and easy-to-follow instructions.
• Intermediate: Projects that introduce techniques like darts, zippers, or pleats.
• Advanced: Complex garments with detailed construction and tailoring.

Decoding pattern symbols and markings

Common pattern symbols and their meanings

• Notches: Small triangles or lines that help you align fabric pieces accurately for sewing.

• Grainline arrows: Long arrows showing how to align the pattern piece in relation to the fabric grain or selvedge.

• Fold line: A bracket symbol indicating where the fabric should be folded instead of cut. Often there will be two arrows pointing towards the edge of the pattern piece and wording such as 'on the fold' to indicate which side of the pattern piece to line up with the fold.

• Seam allowance lines: Dotted or dashed lines marking the stitching area between the fabric edge and the seam (these won't always feature on all sewing patterns).
• Dart lines: Triangular shapes that help shape fabric for busts, waists, and hips.

Understanding notches, grainlines, and cutting lines

• Notches: Use them to match up sleeves, bodices, or any sections that must fit together. Single notches usually indicate the front, while double notches mark the back.
• Grainlines: Align the arrow parallel to the fabric's selvage (finished edge). Misaligned grainlines can cause twisting or puckering in your garment.
• Cutting lines: Patterns often include multiple cutting lines for different sizes. A good tip is to carefully trace your size with a highlighter before cutting to avoid mistakes if you are a beginner.

Choosing the right pattern size and making adjustments

How to measure your body correctly

• Bust: Measure around the fullest part of your bust and under your arms keeping the tape snug but not tight.
• Waist: Find your natural waistline by bending sideways to see where your body creases then stand up straight and measure where your body creased.
• Hips: Measure around the fullest part of your hips, typically 20-23 cm below your waist. Make sure your legs are together.
• Back waist length: Measure from the base of your neck to your natural waistline.
• Inseam: Measure from the crotch to your ankle for trousers.

Comparing your measurements to pattern size charts

• You may find your bust waist and hip measurements fall into different parts of the size chart, this is actually very common. If this is the case you can 'grade' between sizes by redrawing the lines to blend from one size to another and we have a video on our YouTube channel to help you with this.

• Look for finished garment measurements: These indicate how the garment will fit, including ease, which is the difference between your body measurements and the finished garment measurements. Sometimes there is so much ease you won't need to grade between sizes for example on an oversized shirt or jacket.
• Sometimes they are featured on the pattern packet, but there will often be more information on the actual sewing pattern pieces.

• Check for multi-size patterns: Many patterns feature nested sizes, allowing you to blend sizes easily between bust, waist, and hips.

Preparing fabric for cutting

Selecting fabric that matches your pattern recommendations

• Match fabric type to the pattern: Follow the pattern’s recommendations, you'll usually find a list of similar types of fabric that are suitable for that design on the back of the pattern packet.

• Consider fabric weight and drape: if you want to sew hard wearing trousers that are quite structured like jeans a medium to heavy weight fabric will work, whereas light to medium weight fabrics with lots of drape will work better for skirts and dresses that you would like to 'flow'.
• Check fabric stretch: Some patterns are designed specifically for fabrics with stretch whilst others are for woven fabrics. Sewing a pattern designed for stretch fabrics in a woven can result in a garment that is too tight due to the 'negative ease' built into stretch pattern designs.
• Sewing patterns designed for stretch fabrics will often have a 'stretch test' on the packet somewhere so you can check your fabric is stretchy enough.

Pre-shrinking and pressing fabric before cutting

• Wash and dry your fabric: Follow the care instructions and wash before sewing to prevent shrinkage of your beautiful new handmade garment after you've made it.
• Press with an iron: Smooth out wrinkles to ensure accurate cutting. A good steam iron is a very good investment for a budding sewer!

Cutting sewing pattern pieces accurately

Essential tools for cutting

• Fabric scissors: Sharp scissors for fabric only - using them to cut paper or other items can severely blunt the blades and make cutting fabrics difficult.
• Rotary cutter and cutting mat: Some people prefer to use a rotary cutter and cutting mat, which is especially useful when working with slippery fabrics or for patchwork and quilting pieces.
• Pattern weights: Hold pattern pieces in place without damaging the fabric like pins.
• Small embroidery scissors: Are useful for clipping notches and trimming threads.

Techniques for cutting straight and curved lines

• Use long, smooth strokes for straight lines and cut curves with smaller snips.
• Cut on a flat surface and don't be tempted to lift the fabric with your hand, glide the scissors between the worktop and the fabric and keep your non scissor holding hand out of the way!
• Make sure the pattern piece is securely in place on the fabric using pins or pattern weights.

Transferring pattern markings to fabric

Best tools for marking

• Tailor’s chalk: there are a wide range of tailors chalk options to choose from including traditional tailors chalk triangle pieces to chaco pens, which use a roller to distribute chalk onto the fabric in a line as you draw. Chaco pens are great for precision and accuracy.
• Fabric marking pens: there are a wide range of fabric marking pens, some come with an eraser, some are water and air erasable or vanishing. A nice fine tip is helpful for precise markings.
• Tracing paper and tracing wheel: For this method of marking the fabric tracing paper is placed on top of the fabric and as the tracing wheel rolls over the paper it distributes markings from the paper onto the fabric.
• Hera marker: A Hera marker is like a blunt knife and will score lines on fabric without damaging or breaking the fibres - great if you don't want to mark your fabric with pens or chalk for any reason.

Techniques for transferring darts, notches, and pleats

• For darts: the dart legs and dart point need to be marked on the fabric to use as a guide to sew the dart in the right place. The dart point can be indicated with tailors chalk or tailor tacks (hand sewing a little cross in thread to mark the spot). Dart legs would most commonly be marked with tailors chalk or by snipping a small slash into the seam allowance.
• For notches: notches can be marked by snipping into the seam allowance (although some would argue this can weaken the seams) or by snipping a triangle out of the seam allowance so that the triangle protrudes the edge of the rest of the fabric.
• For pleats: tailors tacks or tailors chalk are commonly used to mark pleats onto fabric before sewing.

You can find lots more information on choosing, preparing and cutting your fabric in our in depth blog article here.

Working with complex sewing patterns

Understanding multiple pattern views and variations

• Identify your view: very often there will be multiple designs or 'views' included in one sewing pattern and they will usually be given a name such as 'view A, B, C' and so on. Usually there is a list of which sewing pattern pieces correspond to which view in the instructions. It can be useful to highlight the ones you will need to make sure you cut the right ones out.

• Follow the correct instructions: when multiple views are included in one sewing pattern parts of the instructions will apply to multiple views and parts of them only to one of the views. This will be clearly marked in the instructions, but if you are beginner it might be helpful to read through the instructions before starting and highlight the relevant sections to your view. Once you're more experienced you just need to keep checking you are following the right ones. Experienced sewers are actually more likely to skim read and make a mistake here.

Dealing with multi size sewing patterns

• Trace your size: when a sewing pattern includes multiple sizes it can be helpful to trace your size onto tissue paper. Drawing over your size in a dark pen on the original pattern first can help the lines become more visible through the tissue paper. It isn't necessary to follow this step, and many sewers don't trace patterns, but if you want to have access to the other sizes in future or want to experiment with fit without changing the original pattern it is a useful step.
• Use a highlighter: sometimes people like to highlight their size on a multi size sewing pattern so it is easy to see which lines to cut out. Again this isn't necessary, but some sewers prefer to do it to avoid confusion.

Building your sewing confidence

Key takeaways for mastering pattern reading and cutting out

• Take your time when cutting your sewing patterns out and following the instructions. If you cut the wrong size out by accident or skip vital steps in the instructions it will reduce your chances of a finished garment you are happy with at the end.
• If you are a beginner it can be tempting to try and race ahead and get to the really fun bit - the sewing, but it's helpful to try and accept some of the less sexy bits of the process like cutting out and pressing are just as important for getting a good result at the end. Also, once you've built your understanding in this area you will be able to complete these bits more quickly and easily you just need to give yourself time to get there.
• Practice adjustments: once you've tried a few simple garments with a good amount of ease so fitting or grading isn't as important, it is a good idea to make something a little more fitted and to make a toile (a practice run in cheap fabric such as calico) to see if you can spot areas you might need to tweak fit wise.
• Once you start doing this experimentation is key, which is why making a toile is such a great way to learn. It doesn't matter if something doesn't work out on the cheap fabric and you can use it as an opportunity to learn. You can watch our helpful YouTube tutorial on how to sew a toile here.

Next steps for improving your sewing skills

• Practice is just so important to progress on your sewing journey as is the ability to accept 'mistakes' and to learn from them. Experimentation and trial and error are honestly the best ways you can learn to sew and improve your skills, even if it means a few 'dud' projects along the way, it is all learning.
• Don't be afraid to experiment with new techniques and our best advice is to use scraps of fabric to do this. You don't need to do it on your work in progress/garment you can recreate similar conditions using offcuts of the fabric you are working with and test things out before sewing on the real thing.
• If you are a beginner you may also find it useful to read our beginners guide to reading and understanding a sewing pattern article.
• Get involved with the sewing community - follow us on Instagram and YouTube to connect with other keen sewers and share useful information and tips.

Bringing it all together

Mastering sewing patterns is more than a technical skill—it’s a creative expression. With every project, you’ll gain confidence, refine your techniques, and enjoy the satisfaction of creating something truly unique.

So, what’s your next sewing project? Will it be a cosy hoodie for a loved one, a stylish dress for yourself, or perhaps a quilt to cherish? The possibilities are endless, and you can embrace a lifetime of learning through sewing.

Whenever you’re ready to start your next project, visit Sew Essential for expert advice, inspiring patterns, and all the tools you need. Your sewing journey is just beginning and we're here to support you every stitch of the way - hurray!

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