Reducing seam allowances from commercial tissue paper patterns

Following from the previous post, this is the first time I've ventured into Vogue Patterns, who only sell in tissue paper format up to this day.  Doing the whole seam allowance modification thing was a hurdle to me, but I found out how easy this actually is.  I thought it was easier to add seam allowances to patterns that did not have allowances (e.g. Japanese & Burda digital).  But turns out it's equally as easy either direction.

The tool you need is the see through ruler with heaps of lines through it that give 1/8" divisions.  The best size I've found for this is the flexible lightweight plastic ones that are about 2"x14".  Either buy one, or you can always your own using a sharpie and A4 acetate plastic for this purpose, which is an oft repeated task.  I found that the lightweight flexi ruler just makes the job fast.  

Commercial patterns come with 5/8" seam allowance which is ridiculous by any stretch of the imagination.  Jersey commercially uses 1/4" (= 2/8") seam allowance.  So, just go inward from the cutting lines by 3/8" using the ruler.

One of the best tricks I saw on craftsy from one of the pattern alterations instructor was going around curved edges.  She just went for it.  I mean she just used that ruler and didn't think too hard.  She just drew those long straight lines from the ruler as she moved the ruler around the curves - fast.  This is actually super smart.  Because even you draw "excessive" straight lines, all the lines overlap to produce the new curve that you need.  The main thing is speed.  This is way faster than trying to draw dots at intervals for the corrected seam allowance, then drawing a line to connect them later.

So, it's actually super fast to use a gridded, transparent, lightweight ruler because of the way can just lean into the measurements.  With the right ruler seam allowance alterations is a spiffy job.  Once you know which line on the gridded ruler to reference your changes to... away you go.

The other big tip is that reducing seam allowances on tissue paper patterns works in your favour.  Because the tissue paper is so thin, you can use an ink pen and it will leak through onto whatever is underneath.  On the outside of the cutting lines, I taped the tissue paper down to my new drafting paper (which needs to be sturdy for jersey fabrics... at home printing paper is thick easily thick enough, which is about 80gsm... or roll of craft paper, or whatever).   Once finished, I simply lifted off the original tissue paper template and bent the sticky tape around to the back of the tissue.  It's not worth trying to remove the sticky tape from tissue; tissue is far too fragile.