stitchu / sewing guide / How to lay out, cut and mark a sewing pattern

Lay out, cut and mark.

Most cutting mistakes happen before the scissors move: a piece off grain, a fold in the wrong place, two copies of the same side. Follow the layout, check the grain on every piece, then cut and mark in one sitting.

Prepare the fabric

Preshrink washable fabric and press out the creases. Fold it the way the cutting layout shows; folding right sides together makes marking easier, unless the pattern tells you otherwise.

Place the pieces

Large pieces first. Follow the layout for your size and fabric width, placing the large pieces first. Do not change the layout unless you know why it is drawn that way: many fabrics need every piece pointing the same direction.
Check the grain. Measure from each end of the grainline arrow to the selvedge or fold. The two distances must be equal; then pin or weight the piece at both ends of the arrow.
Use the fold exactly. A piece marked “on fold” goes exactly on the fold, so it opens out into one whole piece.
Mirror single-layer pieces. When you cut a piece through one layer, turn the paper over before cutting its second copy. Otherwise you end up with two pieces for the same side.
Pin sparingly. Pin at right angles to the cutting line, at the corners and along straight and curved edges. Only use enough pins to hold the paper; too many can make the piece come out larger.

Cut

Use sharp shears, or a rotary cutter with a ruler along straight lines, and make long, smooth cuts exactly on the cutting line.
Hold the pattern flat with one hand and do not lift the fabric off the table while you cut.
Do not cut out a garment with pinking shears.
Cut everything for the dress in one sitting: fabric, interfacing and lining.

Cutting checks and gingham

Checks are matched at the seamlines, not at the cutting lines, and they are easiest to place one layer at a time. The Pacific Northwest Extension guide to stripes, checks and plaids (PNW187) sets out the method:

Cut single layer, right side up. Place the paper face up for the first piece and face down for its second copy, so you get a left and a right side.
Place the main lines first. Put the strongest vertical line of the check on the centre front and centre back. With a front opening, it can sit the same distance from the centre front on each side instead.
Trace the check onto the paper. With the first piece in place, trace the lines of the check along the seamline you will match, in soft pencil. Lay the next piece over it with seamlines and notches together, copy the lines across, then place that piece so its traced lines sit on the same lines of the fabric.
Match where it shows. The centre front, centre back and side seams should match. Princess seams match only across: the vertical lines above the curve will not meet. PNW187 suggests patterns without princess seams or flared skirts for checks; both gingham samples have princess seams, so expect this.

Mark before you unpin

Transfer the markings as soon as each piece is cut, before you take the paper off: darts, pleats, tucks and matching points. If you are new to sewing, mark the seam lines too. Use a marker that will not damage the fabric and can be removed, and mark on the wrong side.

In stitchu’s sample patterns

Read from the five published sample patterns on 17 October 2026. Where a sample’s own instructions differ from the general method above, follow the sample.

Every piece says how to cut it, for example CUT 1X ON FOLD, CUT 2X MIRRORED or CUT 1X, and for a few pieces that are not symmetric CUT 1X RIGHT SIDE UP or FACE DOWN.
The layouts are drawn on fabric folded selvedge to selvedge. For both pink bow wrap minis, fold the fabric right side out: the pieces marked RIGHT SIDE UP or FACE DOWN are cut through the top layer only. The navy gingham mini’s layout asks the same for plain fabric.
In checked fabric, which is what both gingham samples use, the folded layout does not apply: cut single layer, right side up, laying each piece as drawn and again turned over for its mirrored copy, with about 0.5 m extra to match the checks, as described above.
Notches are printed as short ticks. Cut the piece out on its solid line, then snip 3 mm into the seam allowance at each tick; on a binding strip, which has no allowance, mark the tick with chalk. One tick marks a front edge, two ticks close together a back edge.
The keyhole binding of the pink bow keyhole mini is CUT 1X UNFOLDED, ON THE BIAS: the paper is drawn folded; trace it, flip it over the marked line for the full 567 mm strip, and cut it once in a single layer on the bias.

Sources

Download a free sample pattern Back to the sewing guide →

Before this: make a toile and move its changes to the pattern. Next: the order to sew. What each mark on the pieces means: pattern markings.