Pattern Making- Valuable Lessons

This week in the evening when I could keep my eyes open after working with all day, I traced Lucy and made the pattern.

From making my my last three dog wall hangings (Jack, Toby, Molly & Maggie), I have learned some lessons when it comes to making patterns:

• Lighten the picture to make tracing easier.

• Use a light board when you trace.
• Capture the larger shapes. Trying to capture every single highlight and color can make a pattern tedious and confusing.

•  Use a pencil, lots of erasing occurs, as I decide the direction I am taking in tracing the pattern and number the shapes to correspnd with the fabric colors.

• After you have traced the shapes that make up the dog, line up the material you plan to use and number from 1-?.
• Remember to flip your pattern before you trace, if you didn't flip the picture before printing it

• Trace the the pattern pieces as if you are taking the "puzzle" apart.  On one dog wall hanging, I decided to trace all the number 1's, 2's, etc.  It was a mess trying to figure out which number 2 went where.
• Try to take and use your own pictures to make the patterns.  That way you can control quality and lighting.

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope your day was as nice as my day was with my family.