Complete Pattern Check

What you are trying to accomplish

Review the evidence PatternForge has for every piece and for any seams you explicitly said should match. Resolve missing information and failed checks before arranging or exporting the pattern.

Why it matters

A printable outline is not automatically a usable sewing pattern. Another sewist needs to know what each piece is, where it sits on grain or fold, how many to cut, which line controls sewing or cutting, and what allowance decision was made.

Matching seams also need deliberate evidence. PatternForge cannot guess every edge that will be sewn together; it checks only the relationships you declare.

Pattern Check also cannot prove that a required answer is correct merely because one was selected. If the source does not establish the sewing or cutting line, grain direction, fold, cut quantity, or allowance, leave that item unfinished and consult the original pattern or instructions instead of guessing.

Pattern evidence

Safe next step

Step by step

1. Choose Check Pattern in the workflow ribbon. Open the Pattern Check evidence.
2. Review every piece, not just the currently selected one.
3. Give each piece a meaningful name. “Piece 1” and “Untitled piece” are not finished labels.
4. Confirm that each outline is closed.
5. Answer Sewing line or cutting line? for each piece only from source evidence. Leave it unfinished if you cannot tell.
6. Use Place the grainline, or establish a real fold edge for a half piece. Do not use a generic centered arrow without confirming fabric direction.
7. Answer How many to cut? from the printed piece, envelope, or original instructions. If using 1 on the fold, answer whether you traced the half or whole piece and verify the chosen fold edge.
8. Make an explicit seam-allowance decision: add one when the outline is a sewing line, or confirm that the traced cutting line already includes it.
9. Add useful notches and marks. They are advisory in PatternForge, but they may be essential to constructing your particular design.
10. For seams that should be compared, open Advanced → Seams & matching, choose Match two edges, and select the two sewing edges.
11. Use match length for edges intended to be equal. Use ease only when the difference is intentional, and record the intended amount. Set a tolerance that reflects the construction; do not enlarge tolerance simply to hide a mismatch.
12. Return to Pattern Check and resolve every seam shown as warning, error, or broken. A real out-of-tolerance declared seam cannot complete the check.
13. Confirm that true size is independently checked. A photo-based pattern with size merely set, stale, or unchecked cannot truthfully complete Pattern Check.

What success looks like

• Every piece shows all required readiness evidence.
• True size is trustworthy.
• Every declared seam relationship reports All good or an individual okay status.
• No relationship points to a deleted edge.
• You can explain any intentional ease and its construction control.
• Check Pattern is complete because the evidence passes—not merely because the screen was opened.

Common problems and recovery

• Pattern Check is green but no seams are listed: That means no seam relationships were declared. It does not prove that all construction seams match. Add the important relationships yourself.
• Two edges differ: First decide whether the difference is intentional ease, gathering, pleating, or stretch. If not, correct the geometry or trace rather than moving a notch to disguise the difference.
• A relationship is broken: One of its marked edges was deleted or replaced. Delete the old relationship and mark the current edges again.
• A fold item looks complete but no fold edge prints: Use the half-or-whole fold question to establish a real fold edge. A note alone is not enough.
• The scale blocks completion: Open Set & Check Size and use Measure to verify.
• An optional notch is missing: Decide from the sewing sequence. Optional to the software does not mean unnecessary to the garment.
• You altered a piece after checking: Reopen Pattern Check and review its shape, details, and seam relationships again.
• You export past a warning: PatternForge marks the file DRAFT. That is evidence of an unresolved caution, not approval to cut or sell.

Quick safety check

Ask: “What did PatternForge actually check, and what did I never declare?” The answer should include every piece, true size, required details, and your explicitly marked seams. Fit, fabric behavior, construction order, and undeclared seams still require human review and, for a new design, a sewn test.

Related tools and next step

Review shape findings in Adjust Shape and Use Shape Check. When Pattern Check is clean, continue to Arrange Pieces for Print.