In Threads #174 (August/September 2014), Connie Crawford shares the secrets behind the very useful technique of grading a pattern by hand.

Pattern grading can seem mysterious to home sewers, but it needn’t be. Grading is the proportionate increase or decrease of a pattern from one size to the next. You can grade patterns up (make them larger) or grade them down (make them smaller). Whether you wish to grade a single-size or a multisize pattern, you need to understand the principles by which patterns are graded, as well as the method of hand grading.

Knowing how to grade patterns by hand is an essential skill for any patternmaker, whether professional or home sewer. Even professional pattern graders learn this hand-grading technique before they move on to grading by computer.