FreeSewing.org has user-generated, made-to-measure patterns that might be perfect for your next sewing project.
Last year, I discovered the perfect resource for adventurous, DIY-minded sewing, and I am SO into it!
FreeSewing.org is an open-source platform for user-created made-to-measure sewing patterns. I’ve worked with user-created sites before and I love them (I still miss you every day, Craftster!), but the open-source part was new to me, and it took a while to get used to it.
I’m still just a baby with the open-source stuff, but just the 1% I understand has revolutionized my sewing!
After you create a free account for FreeSewing.org, the first step in creating a made-to-measure pattern is creating a Measurement Set. As a self-taught sewist, even this was new and highly educational for me, because I’d never taken, or even known about, some of these measurements. Like seat circumference–it’s possible to sew pants that actually fit my butt if my seat circumference measurement is baked into the pattern! Shoulder slope was another new one to me, but it’s great for getting really well-fitting tops.
The really fun part comes after creating your first Measurement Set, though–now you get to decide what you want to sew!
To make sure that you can access all the customization options in the pattern you want to create, even if you’re a newbie with open-source, you probably want to set up the User Experience in your account to “reveal all the features.” I sometimes like a weird amount of seam allowance in my patterns, especially when I’m sewing a muslin, and until I told User Experience that I wanted ALL the features I could not for the life of me figure out how to adjust the seam allowance on the patterns I created. But now it’s always an option and if I want to give my pattern 1″ seam allowances, I can.
And that’s just one example of the customization you can do on these made-to-measure patterns. On the Lumira Leggings, for instance, you can adjust the ease based on the stretch of your fabric, which is SUCH a big deal to me because although I do love myself a pair of compression leggings, I really love myself a pair of comfy jersey knit leggings even more. Before I found this leggings pattern I’d tinkered away at other free or purchased leggings patterns, trying to get exactly what I wanted, but it’s so much easier to alter the Lumira Leggings pattern to work with my fabric choices than the other way around.
As a self-taught sewist I’m still a little loose on many proper techniques, so I’m still working my way up the learning curve of a lot of what FreeSewing.org offers. I was able to play around with the measurements of the Charlie Chinos pretty well to get the look I wanted, because I’ve sewn a lot of pants so I already more or less knew what to do. But the Jaeger Jacket had a lot of tricky pattern details that I couldn’t quite work out how to incorporate, and when something goes wonky with an armscye, you might as well just start sending me thoughts and prayers because lord knows *I* don’t know how to fix it!
That’s not *exactly* why this Jaeger Jacket that I sewed ended up sleeveless–that’s because I was sewing it from trampoline webbing and it turns out trampoline webbing actively fights being sewn and it would have taken a power far stronger than my basic sewing machine to get a cross-seam stitched–but to be honest, the sleeves on the muslin looked pretty weird, too.
I know that sewing a dress suit out of trampoline webbing isn’t a typical project that needs to be addressed by commercial patterns, but still. I could not have sewn this dress suit out of trampoline webbing with a commercial pattern. Where would I even have begun? I’d need a formal jacket pattern that fit a female-figured torso, and even that on the smaller side, with enough ease to accommodate absolutely no stretch to the fabric, but not enough ease to be baggy, with extra length in the torso but an extra narrow neck, and as few pattern pieces as possible because trampoline webbing does NOT like to be sewn.
But thankfully, it came out great!
Freesewing.org is, like it says on the box, totally free to use, but you CAN support the site by becoming a FreeSewing Patron. They also have an Instagram, a subreddit, and a YouTube channel… and a Discord, but even though my teenagers are all about the Discord I don’t really know what that is, ahem. It’s different from Slack, right? Or no?
P.S. Do you love the idea of free patterns, but you don’t need the whole made-to-measure thing? Check out my list of my favorite free vintage patterns here, and my list of free patterns from indie pattern companies here.
Thank you for your kind words, and sharing your review Julie. It means a lot to me to hear our efforts are appreciated.
Joost
(aka that guy who runs FreeSewing)