You may be a different size in different areas of your body – for example, a size 16 on the bust and waist, but a size 18 on the hips. If you already know this is the case, you can go ahead and ‘grade’ between sizes before cutting out your pattern. What this means is combining different sizes by drawing a smooth line from one size of cutting line to the next. For example, you might grade the pattern outline from a size 16 on the bust and waist, out to a size 18 by the time the pattern hits the hip line. Grading between sizes can’t be done indefinitely: I wouldn’t recommend grading a difference of three or more sizes. If your measurements have a difference of three sizes or more, make the garment slightly bigger overall and grade in between two sizes, and then adjust the pattern all over during a proper fitting.
Grading is the most common adjustment you can apply before cutting out your pattern. It’s easy to check whether you will need to do this and it’s also straightforward to do on a ‘nested’ sewing pattern (a sewing pattern that contains all or most of the sizes on the same sheet of paper), as you can see the outlines of all the other sizes and pick a different size line for different areas of your body.
1 First, write down your bust, waist and hip measurements.
2 Check these three measurements against the body measurements chart on the pattern. Circle the measurements in the chart that are closest to yours.
3 If all three measurements fall within the same pattern size, you don’t need to grade. If they fall into two or more sizes, or you end up right in the middle of two sizes,
