What Is Design Ease in Sewing, and Why Is It Important?

Dropped armholes, voluminous sleeves, oversized fits, structured dresses, flowing skirts, what do all these have in common? They all exist thanks to design ease. Design ease is your key to getting the aesthetic and fit of your garments. Let’s discuss how its relationship with wearing ease, the methods to determine it, and its role in sewing.

Wearing ease is the added dimension in a garment that allows comfortable movement. Design ease, on the other hand, refers to the portion of the garment beyond the necessary wearing ease—creating the overall silhouette envisioned by the designer.

To visualize wearing ease, pin the garment at the point where it extends beyond the necessary movement allowance. As long as you can still move comfortably, what you’ve pinned is design ease.

Design ease is a designer’s tool for crafting desired silhouettes. It is what helps you achieve a specific aesthetic by allowing certain areas of the garment to go beyond the basic wearing ease requirements. This is a creative element that lets you bring your vision and style to life, translating creativity into real-life garments.

Since design ease parts from wearing ease, it’s important to determine your own preferred wearing ease amounts. To do this, download your FREE Wearing Ease Calculator now. This tool allows you to compile your measurements, body stats, and ease preferences to customize your ease standards. Fill out the form above to get it right now!

Master Garment Ease: Make Pattern Corrections Before You Cut & Sew a Fitting Sample.