Love Notions patterns are drafted for the 5’5″ woman. Pattern altering is easy even if you are shorter or taller than that standard. Ladies patterns include a lengthen/short line. Additionally, bust, waist and hip lines are also marked to make it even easier and more exact to adjust for height.
A good rule of thumb for adding or removing length is to add/subtract one half inch for every one inch over or under the given height.
Pattern altering for adding length
This example uses a 5’8″ women where extra length is needed for the legs.
- Cut on the lengthen/shorten line.
- Spread the piece apart the desired additional length needed. For this example our height is 5’8″. Using the rule of thumb above we’ll spread the pieces 1.5″ (.5″ x 3) apart.
- Place a piece of paper underneath the two pieces and tape in place.
- Our final step is to blend the side seam since adding that length causes a jump. There are two ways you can do this. Either blend from the top down, which will add some ease to the bottom and at the hem, or blend from the bottom up, which will remove ease from the area where you cut the original piece. This is pretty much a personal preference. For a top like the Laundry Day Tee you’d probably want to blend from the bottom up because there is already plenty of ease in the waist and hips. For a dress like the Tessa Sheath Dress you’d probably want to blend from the top down since there isn’t very much ease to begin with.
Pattern altering for removing length
This example uses a 5’4″ woman with a bust that is one inch higher than the marked bust line.
- Cut on the bust line.
- Overlap the pieces the desired amount needed to subtract. For this example we’ll overlap the pieces one inch. Place a piece of paper underneath the two pieces and tape the pattern pieces in place.
- Our final step is to blend the side seam to smooth out any jumps created. Again, depending on the fit of the garment you may want to blend up to keep the ease or down to remove extra ease. For this example we’re working with a fitted dress so we’ll blend down. Just smooth out the curve of the bust.
