digitizemypatternHow to make a pattern from a garment
Copying a garment means getting each of its pieces flat, one at a time, and recording the shape. Two routes do it: a rub-off, where the garment stays whole and you trace one section at a time, or unpicking a worn garment into its pieces. Either way the result is paper, and paper photographs into a cutting file in about a minute a piece.
Updated September 3, 2026 · digitizemypattern
Should you unpick the garment or trace it whole?
Unpick it only if it is worn out or if you are ready to lose it. A rub-off keeps the garment wearable and is accurate enough for most things; unpicking gives the true piece, including how much was eased into a seam, and it is the only honest way to copy a tailored jacket.
The garment survives
Pin one section flat at a time and trace its outline onto paper, then add seam allowance yourself. Curved seams and gathers are where it drifts, so mark them and check them against the garment afterwards.
The true shape
Take the seams apart, press each piece flat and you have the pattern the factory used, ease and all. Photograph the pieces before pressing if you want a record of how they went together.
Rub off, then verify
Rub off the simple pieces, unpick only the one that fights you, usually a sleeve or a collar. Most of the garment stays whole and the hard piece is right.
How do you get from a flat piece to a file?
The same way any paper piece does. Lay it on a surface of a different colour with one sheet of Letter paper beside it, shoot straight down, and the outline comes back at true size with the notches marked. Four steps and about a minute per piece.
Flatten the piece
Press it. A fold or a curl lifts the edge off the table, and the outline follows the lift.
Put the sheet in frame
One ordinary Letter sheet beside the piece, not under it. That sheet is the ruler that fixes real inches.
Mark before you shoot
Draw the notches across the edge with a pen and rule the grain line on the piece. Drawn marks are picked up along with cut ones.
Correct, then export
Drag any point that is off, then take DXF, tiled PDF and PLT in one archive.
What has to be added by hand afterwards?
Three things, and no software decides them for you. Seam allowance, if the piece you copied was a sewn piece rather than a pattern piece. Ease, if the original fabric stretched and the new one does not. And the fit changes you were going to make anyway, which are the reason most people copy a garment in the first place.
Nothing is added or removed automatically here: what lies on the table is what comes back in the file. That is deliberate. A tool that quietly adds half an inch is a tool you cannot check.
How close is the copy?
On our control photograph the automatic trace put 95 per cent of its points within 1 pixel of the paper edge and found all six notches, six out of six; one pixel there is about 0.02 in. For a piece shot straight down in even light we quote about 0.06 in. Measured 3 September 2026 on the sample photograph published on this site.
The larger error in copying a garment is not the tracing, it is the flattening. A knit that was cut with negative ease will not lie the way it hung, and a pressed curve is not the curve that was sewn. Cut a toile from the copy before you cut anything you care about.
Questions about copying a garment
Can you get a pattern from a photo of someone wearing the garment?+
No. A photograph of a garment on a body carries no flat shape and no scale, and anything produced from it would be a guess. The pieces have to be flat and photographed one at a time, with a sheet of paper in frame.
Do I have to take the garment apart?+
Not for a rub-off: you pin one section flat and trace it onto paper, then photograph the paper. Unpicking gives a more exact piece and is worth it for a tailored garment or one that is already worn out.
What about seam allowance?+
Add it yourself, in your CAD or on the fabric. A piece copied from a sewn garment has no allowance on it, and nothing here adds one silently.
Can I copy a stretch garment this way?+
You can copy the shape, but the fit depends on the new fabric. Measure the stretch of both fabrics and adjust, or cut a toile first. The file records the piece, not the elasticity.
Is it legal to copy a garment I own?+
Copying something you own for your own sewing is what home dressmaking has always been. Selling copies of a design somebody else made is a different matter, and nothing here changes it. We do not inspect what you upload.
How many photographs does a shirt take?+
One per piece: front, back, sleeve, collar, cuff, plus facings. Each comes back as its own file, which also keeps the pieces named and apart.
Keep reading
Copy the jacket you cannot replace.
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