How to know the size of a pattern?

[vw1262]

Alright I'm a complete beginner--I'm planning to use the patterns on this site to start making some spaulders. However, all the patterns I see (in general) don't have any dimensions or measurements. Is the implication we make our own measurements? How do we use the patterns exactly? Print them out?

This sounds like a dumb question but I am confused.

[Gordon Thompson]

Take a measuring tape and put it against body part, imagine shape of the piece and you will get dimesions you should scale pattern to, more or less (you can always add a centimeter or two on a pattern to be safe, you can always trim it after shaping).

[JT]

In general, the patterns on the Archive are shown on one (or more) 8.5x11" pages (i.e. a standard US sheet of paper).

However... just as you couldn't take a single pattern for a T-shirt and use it for all people, you can't use a single pattern for a spaulder (in your case) and have it fit everyone's shoulder. You will quite possibly need to enlarge or reduce it, and you might even have to "stretch" it more in one direction than another.

P.S. Not a dumb question at all.

[Kristoffer]

Build the pattern out of cardboard stock and try how it fits. Cardboard is cheap, fast to make iterations in and easy to mess around with in the comfort of your kitchen or living room.