Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit: Using the Rub-Off Technique to Re-Create and Redesign Your Favorite Fashions

What’s the Secret to Sewing Great-Fitting Garments? The Rub-off—the Insider’s Technique for Creating a Great-Fitting Pattern!

Do you love to sew your own clothes but find it difficult to make commercial patterns fit? Has your favorite blouse seen better days but is no longer available in stores? Have you gained or lost weight so that your most flattering skirt doesn’t fit quite right, or would you like to update it by remaking it in a new fabric or adding new details? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’ll find the solution right in your own closet—by creating customized sewing patterns using garments you already own and love to wear.

In Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit, Hollywood and theater costume designer Steffani Lincecum demonstrates the rub-off, a method of pattern drafting used by fashion and costume industry professionals that traces an existing garment or accessory without deconstructing or damaging it. Steffani starts with the basics, outlining two rub-off methods—tracing onto paper or draping with fabric—and explaining essential tools, materials, and sewing techniques. She then shows how to duplicate a skirt, a dress, a blouse, and a handbag, from rubbing-off the original, to creating the pattern, to cutting and sewing the new version, to making adjustments and incorporating a variety of other elements and details—not only refreshing your favorite fashions but replenishing your whole wardrobe with brand-new looks.

STEFFANI LINCECUM is a designer, patternmaker, and sewing instructor with more than twenty years of experience in film, television, and theatre. She has created custom-made clothing and accessories for such movies as Nixon and Primary Colors, Emmy Award–winning TV shows 3rd Rock from the Sun and Will & Grace, and celebrities Madonna, Bridget Fonda, Tea Leoni, and Debra Messing. Steffani teaches costume construction at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is a costume designer at the Children’s Theatre of Madison.