In Part 3 of my No Rules Draping series, I’ll show how I work back and forth between flat pattern pieces and my customized dress form to create a garment that fits my body. In Parts 1 and 2 of this series I demonstrated how to get a dress form that fits and ways to use the dress form as a design tool. Now I want to share the way I most often sew using the dress form, which is to work back and forth from 3-D to 2-D: 3-D is my dress form and 2-D is a tried-and-true (T&T) flat pattern.

A T&T pattern is one that has been used before (tried), maybe a lot, and one that has been worked around enough to know that it will fit when it is made up (true). You may be one of the lucky people who can sew a pattern right out of the pattern envelope and have it fit. If you are like me, however, you may spend a good deal of time tweaking a pattern into one that earns the T&T title. I use the T&T pattern as a starting point for different versions. When I am creating new takes on a favorite silhouette, my dress form is my best sewing room tool.  Working back and forth between a pattern that I know works and my dress form that I know fits, is my favorite way to design and sew. Let’s work through an example to illustrate the process.

Choose pattern and fabric

I started with my woven T-shirt pattern. It is often the one I go to as the starting point for tops, dresses, and jackets because I know the shoulders are going to fit. Shoulders are a particularly tricky fitting…