Hello and welcome to Professor Pincushion. In this tutorial I am going to be going over
how to cutout your pattern pieces. So you are going to need your pattern and also you
are going to use some scissors and I like to use my paper scissors and not my fabric
scissors. Inside the envelope you are going to have your tissue paper and this is what
the pattern pieces are printed on and you should also have some directions. So we are
actually going to look at the directions first because this is going to tell us the pattern
pieces that we need to cutout.
On page one of the direction you are going to see a diagram that looks like this so this
is showing you all the different shapes of the pattern pieces that are located on your
tissue paper and each pattern is designated with a number so if we look at the list below
it you can see what it's actually for. Number one is the bodice front, so this piece with
the number is the bodice front. Now in this particular envelope there is only one view
or one type of coat, this is for a coat and from this list it's all for the coat so I
am going to need to cutout every single one of these pieces so that means a total of twelve
pieces. If you happen to be doing a pattern that has more than one view in the envelope
such as this one it has view A and view B then you need to make sure that you are only
cutting out the pattern pieces for your view and you can tell because when you look at
the list and the name there should be a letter behind it. If there is no letter that means
it would be for both views, so if there was no A here and just that front view that means
piece number one would be for A and B. But in this particular case it is for A so if
I was doing this view here I would just put a check mark next to each one that has the
letter A just so I can keep track of which one I need to cut out. So all of these, now
this one here that says view A and B, here is view B so I don't need to put a check
mark next to these so it would be one through seven that I would need to cutout if I was
doing this one.
Once you know what pattern pieces you need to cutout you can then unfold your tissue
paper so we can look at all the different pattern pieces and if you are worried it's
too wrinkly you can always press it with your iron, just make sure you have it on a low
heat setting because we definitely don't want to sing a paper and make sure it's a
dry iron so you don't get water on it and we are going to take a look at this first
pattern piece just as an example and again you can see the brand right here also underneath
it usually you can see the pattern number so this is handy in case your pattern pieces
get separated from your envelope, you can look at the pattern piece and it will tell
you which pattern is for it and then you can put it back in the right envelope. Underneath
it if they are different views inside the envelope it should again list the view that
is for in this case it's for view A and it will have the number and again this number
corresponds to the list into the diagram that we were just looking at so everything stays consistent
and it tells you what it is, it's the front and then once you know yes I need to cut this
out because I am doing view A and I need pattern piece one then we can start cutting it out
and this is where my papers scissors are going to come in handy, I don't use my fabric
scissors because ones you start cutting out paper with them they tend to dull the blades.
So let's go ahead and get started, so you need to know what size you are going to do
and in this case just for an example I am going to do a size medium, so you can see
here there is a series of lines and you will have this, the size is listed out so I need
to find the medium and then I am going to do with the line that's right above that
one so I am just going to follow it along and sometimes you will see the size and then
you will have an arrow and the arrow is pointing to the line that you need to cut out, so it
just makes it a little bit easier if they can exactly fit everything and the information
that they wanted to do and this side where it's just a single solid line means it's for
all sizes. Now if you are cutting out more than one size or you don't want to actually
cut your pattern piece but you want to save it, you can use a tracing wheel and pattern
paper to make a copy of the pattern piece that way you kind of save this one if you
tend it to use it a lot or if you want to do more than one size so if you are interested
in that I definitely recommend checking out our tutorial on using the tracing wheel we
can show you how to do that.
So I am just coming in with my scissors and I am cutting right along the medium line.
Now you can either cut directly on the line or you can cut right outside the line, which
is what I like to do, I like to make sure that I can still see the line but some people
they just like to cut directly on the line. Whatever way it works best for you so I am
just going to go ahead and cut this whole thing out, now you will notice over here you
will see this little diamond shape, sometimes it's a half diamond so it might just be, just
the triangle. These are called notches and these are especially important in sewing so
we want to make sure that we have some sort of indication that there is a notch there
because notches are meant to help us put our pieces together, so it's kind of like putting
a puzzle together when you are sewing and we will match up this notch with a notch on
another piece so that's why they are there. So what I am going to do when I get to it,
instead of just cutting straight across and get a cut outside, it's a little awkward for
me and then to come back so basically I am just following along that same shape and some
people they like to just cut inward, if you do that just make sure that you don't cut
too far that you are cutting outside your seam allowance area because the seam allowance
is built into these pattern pieces so in this particular case it's a quarter inch so if I
cut inward I don't want to exceed more than a quarter of an inch, which is why I like
to just get outward then I don't even have to worry about it so I am just going to go
ahead and cut all the way around my pattern piece.
When cutting out your pattern pieces sometimes you will notice that lines will crisscross
each other, so if you have a problem following your line before you cut it out a good tip
to use is a highlighter and actually highlighting the line that you need to cut out so there
is no confusion when you are actually doing it. If for example, I am doing size six you
can just use my highlighter, highlight right along that line and you will see right here
it cross so then I got to find that line again and it's actually this top line because the
dashes are smaller for the size six and then I can just go ahead and use my highlighter
to mark that line. So again when I am cutting it out there will be no confusion.
Here is another example of a pattern and this is the one that's for my coat and in this
one it has the same information as the one we are looking at with Kwik Sew it's simply
just laid out a little bit different. You have the brand, the pattern number, the pattern
piece number right here and then what it is and you can see this one just has a single
line around the whole thing which means it's for all sizes and if you are unsure you just
have to look down here and list all the sizes that are in this envelope so everybody would
cut this out. Every once in a while you will see a pattern piece where they will just list
one size. So if this was for the pocket and it just says size ten and you need to cut
out a size twelve you would have to look over the rest of the tissue paper to find the same
exact piece that list size twelve. But I would go ahead cut this out just as I did in the
last one and you could see here is what I am talking about so this is another single
notch so it's not shaped like a diamond, but it's just a triangle on this side and we have
another one over here. This pattern piece that's right next to it so this is a double
notch so usually I can, you can do the same sort of thing where you are just cutting outward
on each one of these in order to indicate there is a double notch there or I just do
a great big one and then I flatten the top and for me that's just something that I
could look at and readily understand that that's a double notch. These little dots
over here you can just ignore, you just want to make sure again that you are cutting out
the right size and you can see a series of lines here and they will just do different
dash lines in order to indicate the correct size.
You can see the sizes and listen here with this particular pattern Butterick they actually
do number sizes not like Kwik Sew, so if I was doing ten I would follow the arrow up
and then I would make sure I cut on this line. Sometimes you will find that one single pattern
piece actually plays a role in multiple views. So if we take the example I am showing here
which is for a shirt pattern piece number seven is for views A and B, but the difference
is view A is for a short sleeve and view B is for the long sleeves. They are using the
same pattern piece but you will see a line that goes right down the middle so you would
cut on this line in order to get the short sleeve or cut on this bottom line to get the
long sleeve.
Here is the same sleeve pattern that we were just talking about and you are only looking
at a small portion of it because I want to show you that this line right here, right
above it, it says cut here for A, so they are showing you right on the pattern piece
where you need to cut out if you wanted to do the short sleeve. So if for example I was
doing size thirty four, I would cut along the size thirty four line and then ones I
get to the cut here line I am just going to pivot and cut along this line. If you want
to at some point make it a long sleeve just save the lower portion and you can always
tape it back together again. So if was going to do the long sleeve to begin with then instead
of pivoting here I am just going to continue straight down, we will just move this up and
I just want to stop right here. This line right here says lengthen or shorten here,
you sometimes get this on pattern pieces and it's for alteration so this is not a cutline
unless you are considering altering the sleeve and making it longer and let's just continue
down and here we get to the bottom of the long sleeve here so then I would just continue
cut along this line, you don't have to cut out on the pleat line this is actually a marker
that we would have to mark on a fabric and don't forget to cut your notch, but after
you finish cutting out all your pattern pieces then you can move on to the fabric layout
so definitely check out our video on that as well.
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