Pattern Forge: drafting a sewing block

Pattern Forge drafts a block — the plain, close-fitting foundation shape that costume patterns are built from — to your own measurements, and tiles it across ordinary printer paper so you can tape it together and trace it.

The three blocks

• Bodice block (Bella) — a fitted torso base with bust darts. The foundation for a corset, a jacket, an underbust harness, or anything that sits close over the chest.
• Body block with sleeve (Brian) — a straight torso-and-sleeve base. The usual starting point for an armour undersuit, a bodysuit, or any sleeved piece.
• Trouser block (Titan) — waist to floor. Trousers and leggings, or the leg foundation you build greaves and thigh straps onto.

Drafting one

1. Pick the block

   Choose by what you are making, not by what you own. A breastplate strapped over a bodysuit starts from Brian; a corset starts from Bella.

2. Fill in what it needs

   Each block lists the measurements it requires and counts how many are still missing. They pre-fill from the Measuring Room — anything you have measured is already there, and anything missing can be measured or typed without leaving the page.

3. Draft

   The pattern is drawn beside the form. Adjust a measurement and it redraws — this is the cheap place to be wrong, long before fabric.

4. Print at true scale

   The draft tiles across letter or A4 sheets with alignment marks. Turn off “fit to page” and “shrink to fit” in your print dialog — both silently rescale the pattern, and a rescaled block is not your size any more. Print the test square first and measure it with a ruler before printing the rest.

Where it runs

In your browser. The draft is computed on your device from numbers already on your account, and nothing you draft is uploaded.