Pattern

The Sloper: One Fitted Pattern Behind Many Styles

Custom dressmaking frequently begins with the creation of a sloper or block: a basic pattern for a fitted, jewel-neck bodice and narrow skirt, made to the wearer's measurements. The sloper is usually made of lightweight cardboard or tagboard, without seam allowances or style details, because its job is not to be a garment but to record a body. Its shape is refined by making a series of mock-up garments called toiles in the United Kingdom or muslins in the United States, fitting each one, and transferring the corrections back to the cardboard. Once the sloper's shape has been refined, it can be used in turn to create patterns for many styles of garments with varying necklines, sleeves, dart placements and so on. Every new design then starts from a fit that is already proven, so the patternmaker experiments with style rather than re-solving the same fitting problems each time.

Home sewing patterns serve the same purpose for the domestic sewer in a ready-made form. They are generally printed on tissue paper and sold in packets containing sewing instructions and suggestions for fabric and trim, and modern patterns are available in a wide range of prices, sizes, styles and sewing skill levels to meet the needs of consumers. Because one printed design must fit many bodies, home sewing patterns are graded — redrawn to fit larger and smaller sizes than the original design. Ebenezer Butterick invented the graded sewing pattern in 1863, originally selling hand-drawn patterns for men's and boys' clothing, and in 1866 Butterick added patterns for women's clothing, which remains the heart of the home sewing pattern market today.

Patterns in Commercial Clothing Manufacture

Industrial patternmaking begins with an existing block pattern that most closely resembles the designer's vision of the new style. Patterns are cut of oak-tag paper, punched with a hole and stored by hanging with a special hook, so the working set for a style stays together and can be retrieved intact. The pattern is first checked for accuracy, then cut out of sample fabrics, and the resulting garment is fit tested. Once the pattern meets the designer's approval, a small production run of selling samples is made and the style is presented to buyers in wholesale markets. Only after the style has demonstrated sales potential does the expensive, detailed work of full grading begin.

Following grading, the pattern must be vetted: the accuracy of each size is checked, and seam lines are compared directly where pieces join, so a sleeve graded up still sets into its armhole. Once these steps have been followed and any errors corrected, the pattern is approved for production. When the manufacturing company is ready to manufacture the style, all of the sizes of each given pattern piece are arranged into a marker, usually by computer — a layout that nests the pieces economically across the width of the cloth. The marker is then laid on top of the layers of fabric and cut. If the style sells and proves quite popular, its pattern may itself become a block, with subsequent generations of patterns generating from it, so one successful design becomes the fitted foundation for the styles that follow it.