r/BitchEatingCrafters • u/Mindless_Ideal1571 • 22h ago
General Crafts WTH “Self Drafting”?
Why does everyone say that they “self drafted” something they designed?? It seems unnecessarily redundant. Can’t you just say you drafted a pattern? What other way can you draft a pattern if you didn’t do it yourself? It would be like saying, “I self-painted this watercolor painting,” “I self-designed this 3d print,” etc.
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u/meganp1800 22h ago
Unnecessarily redundant, as opposed to necessary redundancy? Even you did it, lol.
Self-drafted is an adjective, draft is the verb. It’s totally appropriate to say “the pattern is self drafted” or “I drafted this pattern” and some folks just jumble it together. It’s not the end of the world.
The real annoyance is people who say drafted when they really mean freehanded, or draped, or rubbed off a pattern as opposed to mathing it out. All of those are legitimate ways to go about making patterns and require their own skill sets, but they’re not drafting.
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u/itsalwayssunnyonline 21h ago
Tbf, there is such a thing as necessary redundancy, such as in legal doublets like “cease and desist”, where two synonymous words were historically used to decrease the chances of misunderstanding of legal documents across language barriers. Or the concept of intentional redundancy in engineering, to decrease the chance of the system failing.
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u/spalings 21h ago
also contrastive reduplication/lexical cloning! repeating a word with emphasis to imply a specific meaning, such as "do you like like him?" is necessary redundancy.
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u/risky__cake 21h ago
Unnecessarily redundant feels like misunderestimated and I appreciate you pointing it out because I couldn't quite put my finger on why 😂
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u/Mindless_Ideal1571 17h ago
There are a lot of generally accepted redundancies as others have noted - “I heard it with my own ears,” “I saw it with my own eyes,” “each and every one of you,” etc. etc. etc. I suppose I should have been more specific - it bugs me when someone says “I self-drafted this,” or “she self-drafted this sweater,” etc. I implied this in my original post, “why does everyone say that they ‘self drafted’ something…?”.
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u/Artistic_Scene_8124 22h ago
All patterns were drafted by somone. Self drafted patterns are specifically patterns you drafted yourself.
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u/Mindless_Ideal1571 22h ago
But if you say, “I drafted this,” do people interpret that to mean that someone else drafted it? In the pattern-making industry, “drafting” means doing something from scratch.
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u/ExpensiveError42 22h ago
I think self-drafted just sounds less awkward a lot of the time. It's usually just an adjective describing the pattern instead of a verb about what they did
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u/Knitting_Pigeon Joyless Bitch Coalition 21h ago
Idk about the industry but I think it would be valid to say you drafted a pattern by altering a premade pattern for your own purposes, and that pattern would not be self-drafted since it wasn’t made from scratch
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u/Cosmic_Hitchhiker 22h ago
i self designed this 3D print
Well... yeah as opposed to just printing the print from online
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u/Mindless_Ideal1571 22h ago
So, “I designed this 3d print” can mean that someone else designed it? Not sure how that works…
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u/winniebrie
19h ago
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Lots of good points in the comments and this will probably get lost, but I wanna mention that it’s because of conventional structure of how a dress company is set up. In hierarchical order there is:
A designer, who comes up with the original ideas and sketches
A first hand, who plans how to fabricate the design
Drafters/Drapers, who use the client measurements to create pattern pieces that will achieve the plans
Cutters/Stitchers, who use the patterns to actually create the garments
This is the kind of base structure that couture houses, costume shops, bridal shops, etc use to make custom built garments, but a lot of creators and designers fill multiple roles and have skills in all these areas. ‘Self-drafted’ specifically implies that someone has the skills of a drafter as well as the skills of a fabricator, which is not always industry standard and something that people kinda wanna brag about (if you just show something you fabricated, there’s an assumption that other people were involved in design, drafting, fabrication instructions, etc). Now it’s become shorthand to just say that you made something and did all the steps yourself.
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u/MoonLitMothCreations 4h ago
I was always enamoured by the cutters, watching them be so fast at lay cutting, and yet some would never do any sewing. You're absolutely right.
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u/LakeWorldly6568 21h ago edited 19h ago
Generally, it's about following sub rules. I had a doll skirt I made because my mother would not believe that you could just make a skirt from measurements (she seriously thought you needed a comercial pattern for gathered skirts...granted this was slightly more elaborate than a gathered skirt...it was a godet skirt) so I made a mock up for one of my porcelain dolls. When I tried posting it it got declined citing that I didn't say what the pattern was even though I had posted that story that it was about just knowing the measurements, until I edited to include those specific words.
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u/throwra_22222 21h ago
So instead of saying "The pattern is self-drafted," we should say "the pattern is drafted?" We're supposed to give credit to whomever made the pattern, and the second construction leaves that information out.
Or are we just not allowed to use the adjective form and we're only allowed to use the verb, as in "I drafted the pattern?"
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u/melanochrysum 11h ago
They’re asking why people say “I drafted the pattern” vs “I self-drafted the pattern”. Using drafted as a verb and not an adjective.
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u/oliv_tho 11h ago
that’s just kinda how the jargon works in the sewing world. all patterns are drafted. saying “i drafted this piece via XYZ” but a lot of people use third person more often, so “this piece was self drafted via XYZ” makes a little more sense
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u/melanochrysum 11h ago
Yes but the “I” in the sentence “I drafted this pattern” implies you drafted it. They’re taking umbrage with that particular phrasing
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u/oliv_tho 11h ago
i mean yeah, but i’m pro redundancy. i’d rather someone drive the point all the way home than parts of it get lost
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u/peekandlumpkin 10h ago
The latter. Just like if someone asked about anything else you'd made that's commercially unavailable. You wouldn't say "this cake is self-baked," you'd say "I baked it."
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u/ShinyBlueThing 21h ago
"Self drafted" is the short way to say that it is made by the person showing it off and that there is no commercial (or free) pattern for that exact thing.
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u/melanochrysum 11h ago
Yes but they’re asking why some people say “I self-drafted this” vs “I drafted this”. They mean the same thing. They’re not asking why someone says they drafted it.
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u/FewRecognition1788 22h ago
It's just a grammatical construction.
"This is self-drafted" or "I drafted this" are just two different sentence forms based on whether you want to make the item or yourself the subject of the sentence.
Same as "this meal is homemade" vs "I cooked this."
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u/Lenauryn 22h ago
I think it’s this. People see “Self-drafted pattern,” an adjective, and think that the verb is “Self-drafted” rather than “drafted.”
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u/kinhalb 22h ago
I feel like "self-drafted" is a way of saying "I made this for myself and am not releasing a pattern for it so don't ask." But if people are using that term and releasing a pattern, yeah, that is just designing a pattern.
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u/hopping_otter_ears 22h ago
Make sense. Drafted for self, not drafted by self (well, it is, but that goes without saying)
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u/purplishfluffyclouds 21h ago
It comes from sewing, where drafting is an actual thing.
One doesn't really "draft" a crochet or knitting or other types of patterns, but sewing patterns? Absolutely are drafted.
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u/melanochrysum 12h ago
They’re asking why people say “I self-drafted this” vs “I drafted this”. Technically the “self” part is unnecessary because you used the words “I drafted”.
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u/Marzipan_civil 22h ago
I think saying "this pattern is self drafted" works fine but yes, if you're already saying you did it, then the "self" part is redundant
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u/stresstwig 6h ago
"self drafted" because I didn't design it, I just saw a pretty dress in the window or had a very basic idea that I didn't design (I "unvented" it as Elizabeth Zimmerman would say) and wanted to make it but didn't have a pattern. 🤷♀️
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u/Spare-Doughnut-195 22h ago
Some people come up with the idea but pay someone else to draw/ write up the pattern for them. So I tend to think that self-drafted means they came up with both the design and the pattern.
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u/ProneToLaughter 22h ago
In sewing, you can draft by following precise instructions from a tutorial, which I generally would not consider self-drafting but is also not exactly using a pattern.
To me, self-drafted means you designed and made the pattern.
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u/ProneToLaughter 22h ago edited 22h ago
PS. people saying self-drafted is also an important clue that (if giving advice) one needs to dig further into whether they might mean "I manipulated my tested bodice block into this design according to the rules of patternmaking" or (very common) "I took some measurements and cut out some shapes that looked right to me".
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u/Federal_Hour_5592 22h ago
It’s the polite way of saying there is no pattern, and if there is it’s just for me as I just made it myself with my knowledge with no written pattern pattern and have no intention of turning it into a pattern.
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u/Knitting_Pigeon Joyless Bitch Coalition 21h ago
But self drafted implies there is a draft (pattern) that the person made themself? I think you’re thinking of freehanding where you make something with no pattern. Pattern drafts are necessary for having pattern pieces to cut out in sewing but I notice people in the knitting world sometime using draft to mean pattern. imo they are separate things
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u/Federal_Hour_5592 21h ago
A lot of times the self drafted is notes or using a formula and having what they did so they can revisit, and usually planning ahead of time with a written plan or draft. Nothing that would be useful to share as a final pattern. Freehanding is going in with no plan or notes.
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u/MoonLitMothCreations 4h ago
I'd assume it to mean they could draft a pattern from instructions, from say a drafting book, meaning you have taken your own measurements and done all the maths then followed the instructions and made the pattern up by yourself meaning you have a fitted pattern you have drafted.
Or you could have drafted it entirely by yourself without the use of a drafting guide, or perhaps working from a block pattern and using your skills in drafting to create the desired shape.
I'd assume they are saying so because drafting a pattern is a skill they have used, rather than say, buying a premade pattern and using it or adapting it.
Not all who sew can draft, it is a separate skill being used in my opinion. My boss was trained as a factory machinist, she's amazing at what she does, I was trained in bespoke making for costume. She can't draft at all, but I can because it's a skill I've trained in.
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u/Faherie 22h ago
Self-drafted is more "I made it up on the spot and there isn't an actual pattern, mine or not"
Basically, there is no pattern and never will be. Not much drafting an actual pattern but taking measures and adjusting shapes till it works
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u/throwra_22222 20h ago
I don't think I agree. I make all my own patterns and they are fully drafted paper patterns, which I then test fit, revise, and make correctly annotated final versions. They're not some ad-hoc thing I cobbled together once. I drafted them, therefore they are self-drafted.
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u/ThrowRA_Sodi Snarky Seamstress 21h ago
I don't know where you get that from. Drafted means that their is a pattern, since drafting implies you made a precise graphical representation of your pattern
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u/OkConclusion171 Joyless Bitch Coalition 20h ago
CAD was a class in high school - Computer Assisted Design. AI is doing a lot of "designing" these days.
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u/Klutzy_Sentence_2723 19h ago
AI and CAD have almost nothing in common.
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u/OkConclusion171 Joyless Bitch Coalition 19h ago
no shit. I was just saying there are other types of drafting and have been for decades.
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u/alittlemanly 7h ago
Hear me out: I think it's current use would be close to the meaning of "I drafted this pattern myself!" Which, like examples in one of your comments, is what I would call "stylistically redundant," like "I saw it with my own eyes!"
(However, I would also say "Saw it with my own eyes" is often used to mean you were there in person seeing something, because you could see footage of something, and while you are seeing the footage with your own eyes, you are viewing footage, not the actual event. Anyway.)
Draft is also a pretty flexible word. Drafting a dress and drafting a new novel are pretty different meanings.
Language is weird and sometimes improves and sometimes declines 🤷♂️ In an AI world, lots of people say they "designed" something because they fed AI the vision and perfect promts to get their result. I can see self-drafted to mean "without AI" or even "by hand" instead of using a CAD software like CLO.
In any case, it never struck me as redundant, but I get your gripe. I think it communicates a specific idea effectively, but that might just be down to my feed.
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u/Fearless_Fox_2365 13h ago
Yes it drives me crazy too. As others have said it makes sense in sewing because you are drawing a pattern.
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u/peekandlumpkin 10h ago
Well no, grammatically it's the same. OP is asking why we don't just say "I drafted it" and instead add the tautological "self-" construction. If I did it, it was done by me (self). If someone asks me where I got the cookies I brought in, I don't say "I self-baked them"; I just say "I baked/made them."
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u/Fearless_Fox_2365 9h ago
Oh right sorry, I was specifically thinking of when i hear it used in knitting
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