How to use Soft Byte’s sewing pattern making software

Create bespoke sewing patterns with ease thanks to Soft Byte! Here’s how to use the Fittingly Sew 3 sewing pattern making software.

Phoebe Burt

Published: January 3, 2024 at 9:00 am

Creating your own sewing patterns is the next step in many sewists’ creative journey. It allows you to start making designs which not only fit you and your loved ones perfectly, but lets you create patterns for retail use.

Learning how to make sewing patterns by hand is a long process but thanks to modern companies like Soft Byte we no longer need to struggle!

Sewing pattern making software like Soft Byte’s Fittingly Sew 3, gives you the freedom to create your professional level patterns quickly and easily.

In this guide, find out why Fittingly Sew 3 is the best sewing pattern making software and learn how to use it.

Grab a coffee, it’s time to discover your digital sewing skills!

Why Fittingly Sew 3 is the best sewing pattern making software on the market

The new Fittingly Sew 3 is a brilliant tool that we love using when designing garments. Not only does it use a large range of measurements but it has no minimum or maximum sizes, making it completely size-inclusive!

Another thing we love about Fittingly Sew 3 is it allows you to design fabrics and patterns from photos, artwork or even pre-existing patterns. This gives you complete creative freedom, allowing you to use all kinds of sources as inspiration.

Not only that, but you can print your newly designed patterns on any home printer, or send a PDF to a print company to print on any size. Plus, you own the copyright to all your designs, meaning you can sell your beloved patterns on Etsy for the world to make.

Finally, we love the Fittingly Sew pattern making software because Softbyte is constantly improving and updating their software. The new Fittingly Sew 3 has improved seam allowance lines, automatic construction lines, user-definable notches and plenty more impressive features which makes pattern making stress-free.

Now we’ve shared the best pattern making software with you, it’s time to learn how to use it! Keep reading to learn how to use Fittingly Sew 3 to make patterns and fabrics.

How to use the Fittingly Sew 3 sewing pattern making software

You will need

Windows computer on XP or newer (not in S Mode)
Fittingly Sew 3
Tape measure

Step 1

Start by creating a sloper file (file>new sloper) with the measurements of the person who you are making the pattern for. You can save measurements for people with their name and contact details to build a database of measurements.

The program shows you how to take the measurements. You can work in either cm or inches (you can change that in your default preferences)

Step 2

The white area is your fabric area (Fittingly Sew will only print pattern pieces that are on the fabric area). You can set your fabric area to any size and you can set the right edge to a folded edge.

This helps you to work out pattern placement on screen if you are using fabric that you already have, or you can space out your pattern pieces and adjust the fabric space to find out how much fabric you will need.

Step 3

Print your sloper pattern on your home printer and follow the arrows on the pages to tape them together.

Tip: You can also save as a PDF and email it to a print company to print on bigger paper once you have your final pattern, but for testing, we would advise printing at home to save money.

Make your sloper garment out of cheap fabric to test the measurements. Go back into the measuring window if any sizing adjustments are needed.

Once your sloper file is correct, make sure you save the file.

Are you new to sewing?

Head over to our sewing for beginners guide which includes all the tools and tutorials you need to start your journey.

Step 4

You can then start a new pattern. Go to file then new pattern.

Adjust your fabric area if needed (click edit then preferences for current file). You can also adjust the seam allowance for the whole file here.

Once you have your pattern, you have the freedom to adjust the width of seam allowances on individual seams. Then set your sizing data. Go to pattern, set sizing data then select the sloper file you have already tested.

You can then add in a pattern template. You can change your wearing ease at this point too.

Step 5

As it is, if you have set your sizing data, then the sizing adjustments for this garment will already be done for you. You can now make any styling features you wish to.

You can drag points around on the pattern piece, change the neckline, change the length, add pockets, facings, buttons, and adjust seam allowances.

You can add, adjust, and remove darts. You can add extra points in, convert straight segments to curves, and add annotations, construction lines, and notches.

We strongly recommend playing around with the features to become familiar with them. You can read about them in the detailed PDF manual and see some of the features being used in the tutorial videos.

Whilst making styling changes, you can check your measurements by going to view>combined segment length. You can also use the measuring tape function.

Step 6

You can then print your pattern on any home printer and tape the pages together.

Alternatively, you can save as a PDF. Go to file, print, printer setup and select your Windows PDF printer from the drop-down menu then print.

Send to a print company to print on A0 and avoid taping together. You can then cut out your fabric like any paper pattern.

Step 7

You can also design patterns from scratch (go to file, new pattern then pattern new piece).

You can then add in points, curves, darts etc to create any pattern shape you wish. It is your responsibility to check sizing when drawing from scratch (either by using measuring tools, or importing sloper files to use as a size guide).

We suggest spending time playing around with this feature and reading the manual which comes with Fittingly Sew 3.

Step 8

You can also scan/photograph paper patterns that you have, set these as a background image in Fittingly Sew and use a new piece to trace around and develop your pattern.

To do this, have a pattern open, either a template or a new piece, then go to view, background image and open the file you want to use.

Use our collection of handy tutorials to learn more about adapting pre-existing patterns in Fittingly Sew 3.