Made By A Fabricista: Did someone say FREE??? All about Free Sewing Patterns

Hi sewing friends! I am SEW excited to share this blog post with you today! This is my fifth post with Fabric Mart since I did a guest post late last year and then joined the blogging team in 2024 but I would say this is the post that 1) I worked the hardest to create, and 2) the one that has me the most excited! Today I am going to talk about FREE sewing patterns, showcase a few free patterns I’ve sewn, and then share some very exciting news at the end of this post about an upcoming!

First, let’s talk about free patterns – where they come from, why they exist, and how you can find them. But first, here’s a recent free pattern I sewed. This is the Finn Crop Tee from Petite Stitchery. I used an ITY (Interlock Twist Yarn) for this one and I was able to squeeze it out a yard of a fabric. ITY is one of my favorite fabrics to dress up a t-shirt and it wears well across all seasons. And Fabric Mart gets the most AMAZING designer deadstock designs you will ever see! Petite Stitchery offers eight (yes, EIGHT!) free patterns on their website, no code required.

There are many sources of free sewing patterns online. For this post and for my upcoming project, I focused on professional pattern designers who offer projector-friendly files. I am a paperless sewist so this was critical for me. If you print the tiled patterns at home and tape them together, you will be able to find even more free patterns. Speaking of free patterns, here’s another! This is the Harper Cardigan from Sinclair Patterns, free on their website, no code required. I used a soft Hacci sweater knit for this version. I think this would be a great pattern to use up smaller pieces of sweater knits, as I’ve previously made cardigans where I used leftover scraps of a different sweater knits for the neck and hem bands. 

So why do pattern designers offer free patterns? Does it hurt their business? Absolutely not! Pattern designers draft and launch free patterns all the time, and they do it for a few reasons. First, they want to give sewists who are not familiar with them a feel for their drafting, construction methods and style. And second, it’s good for business. If you like the free pattern, you’ll likely come back and buy a pattern in the future. And third, this also enables them to create a connection with sewists that they use to communicate and promote in the future. Many designers will have you join their Facebook group or sign up for their newsletter to get a code for the free pattern. So it’s good business for them to offer a free pattern or two. 

I will also add – I find that many free patterns in general are great for stash and scrap busting for a few reasons. First, you can take some fun risks and use a fabric long in your stash that maybe you’re not quite sure what to make with it. Free pattern + stash fabric = extra responsible sewing…which = buy more fabric to reward myself! I call that “Sewist’s Math”. 😊 And second, on the scrap busting piece, you can easily color block so many of these patterns, especially the t-shirts, so can use up your mid-size scraps. I have a color blocked sweatshirt in the works!

Time to share another sew! Here is a pattern I recently discovered while doing research for this post. This is the Reine Sweater from Styla Patterns. It has this really cool gathered shoulder detail and raglan sleeves. I used a buttery soft yoga knit I picked up here a few months ago. I love to use athletic knits for non-athletic wear…because to be honest, I don’t do a lot of athletics. 😊 Despite this being an athletic knit, it also has tons of drape which worked very well for the gathers.  I love how this one turned out! It’s available a direct download in their shop. Styla has five free projector friendly and highly size inclusive free patterns – two dresses, leggings, a top, and a sweatshirt pattern. You could build a whole wardrobe just from their freebies!

So how do you find all these free patterns like I did? One way is to visit the websites and join the Facebook groups of pattern designers who you already have experience with and like, as you are more likely to have a good fit with the free pattern they offer. 

Here is a pattern I sewed from a designer I really like and so knew I’d get a good fit. These are the free Foxglove Leggings from Rivet Patterns. I made an adjustment to the crotch curve that is fairly typical for me (a round pubis adjustment). Rachel has instructions on how to do this on her blog under fitting advice, and I also did the back waist pocket hack, also from the blog. I used some leftover French terry from years ago. I had bought four yards on a great sale here and saved all the leftover pieces because it was such a high quality terry. I believe it is a bamboo French terry which just feels amazing. Leggings are a fairly low yardage project as well – plus you can color block them and use up smaller scraps. I didn’t make them for this post but Pirates for Patterns Peg Legs leggings (also free) has an add-on for color blocking the sides of the leggings. I’ve worn these a bunch since making them last month. Rivet offers four free patterns in their shop. So far I’ve made two of them!

Another way to find free patterns is to search online – I certainly googled “free PDF pattern” about a million times while working on this post. You do have to sort through a lot of unrelated hits when you search that way. But here’s a gem I found from a new to me designer – Tiana’s Closet. This is the Sasha Hi Low woven tank with split hem. I used a polyester crepe fabric I picked up here last year for maybe $3 a yard and squeezed this out of one yard of it. And I have enough left to make pants! I originally thought the fabric would be challenging to sew because it is lighter weight but it was actually pretty stable, and I love the preppy but stylish grid pattern. It was such a great deal! This was intended to be my toile since I wasn’t sure of sizing and fit but it turned out well – and I definitely plan on making more of them. It’s my $3 top! One fair warning on this website- there are a lot of free patterns but also a LOT of pop-up ads. DO NOT click on any of the popups when trying to download a pattern; you download patterns from links, not downloaders on this site. I will also share that there are minimal instructions with the patterns. For example, with this top, there was no mention of how to do the split hem. So I winged it!

And here’s an example of a free pattern where you can get a code or the pattern by signing up for the designer’s newsletter. This is the Kirsten Tee from Maria Denmark. I signed up for the newsletter and received the files via email. This is a basic and easy to sew dolman knit tee. I really needed a plain black tee in my wardrobe so this was perfect to use for that. I used more of the leftover French terry yardage, same one I used for my leggings. This is another great low yardage project – I believe I used less than one yard.

And finally, I am really excited to share some news that I think will help you more easily find all these amazing high quality free patterns and many more. For the last few months I’ve been working to collect information on free sewing patterns and build a database. And I’m putting that database online for the sewing community to access starting early November! You can find the site two ways - you can either go directly to the site at coolsewingstuff.com (cut and paste into your browser) and that will take you to the list, or you can head to my Instagram account and find the link in my bio. 

I’m really excited to use my Fabric Mart fabric to sew up a LOT more of these free patterns in the coming weeks! I’m launching with a good number of patterns (50+!) and I’ll be adding new ones each week, plus sharing when I sew them up. Please come visit me on IG and follow me so you don’t miss any! And I feel like my next blog post may include a few free patterns too. 😊

Happy Sewing!

Andrea  |  @happy.things.here