A few years ago I made a digital sewing course to help people gain the confidence to start sewing garments at home. In this course I stressed the value of customization for sewing your own garments. I am 5’8” tall, my daughter Amanda is 6’1” tall and our friend Angela is possibly under 5’ tall. If we all tried on the same dress or pants at a store, we would have very different results. Let’s celebrate our beautiful differences and the fact that we can customize patterns by learning a little about how to lengthen or shorten a pattern. All you need is a pen or pencil, a ruler, tape and some extra paper.For shortening a pattern, you will find the amount to shorten and then fold the pattern onto itself and tape to achieve this, shown here with this old McCall’s dress pattern. For lengthening a pattern, you will cut your paper to the inches or centimeters you’d like to add then cut the pattern apart and tape in the new section. Shown here again on the same pattern. Don’t forget to add marks of symbols that need to continue.
On many patterns there is a line indicating where to make this alteration. On the occasion where there is no line to lengthen or shorten the pattern, you will need to make your own. Let’s look at the Fabrics-store Gia Linen Jumpsuit pattern. It’s a great jumpsuit that I shared about here on the thread. This pattern can show us both the bust line and the leg area under the crotch. This line just under the bust works for dresses and tops as well. With the Gia, you would need to remark where you would like your belt loops to be placed but I like to find my natural waistline after the rest of the garment is finished before adding those anyway.

For pants/trousers the line will be just below the crotch or below the knee. We can also see I marked this spot on the Gia Pattern. On my own patterns for elastic waist pants, I have also often altered the height of the waist for high waist or low rise as well. This is simple to do if you aren’t adding a zipper. And as always, you can lengthen or shorten a pair of pants at the lower hem.
It is also possible to lengthen or shorten a skirt pattern, this one might seem tricky but it is an option as well. Just remember to make the outer lines come back together with your pencil or cutting. See how I made the fold line straight and then worked on drawing that outer line to come back together smoothly?
If you do not plan to make a sample piece or toile before making your finished piece, my suggestion is to always hold a pattern up to your body in front of a full length mirror to check length dimensions. So much frustration can be avoided this way. This is what we want out of a peaceful day of sewing – no frustration and the joy of slow fashion that is fully customized to your shape.