What Big Tall Small 2 Actually Is
Big Tall Small 2 is a patternmaking and grading tool used primarily in apparel production. It automates the process of taking a base block or sloper and generating grade rules across multiple sizes, then scaling those to produce a full size run. The software handles the mathematical interpolation between points on a pattern piece so you don't have to manually recalculate every notch, dart, and seam line. I use this mainly when a brand sends me a spec sheet with five size ranges and expects the patterns back the same day. Without automation, that process takes roughly six to eight hours per style. With Big Tall Small 2 it's more like forty-five minutes to an hour, depending on how many pattern pieces are involved. The workflow goes something like this. You import your base block, usually in DRAFT format or sometimes a PDF with clear vector lines. You define your grade rules, which means setting the increments for each measurement point across sizes. Then you run the grade and export the result. That's the gist of it. The real work is in getting the grade rules right.
I've seen people skip the manual review step and just accept the exported pattern as-is. That's where things fall apart. The software does exactly what you tell it, not what you meant. If your chest grade increment is off by two millimeters, every size above the base gets increasingly wrong until the final size is essentially a different garment. One specific problem I ran into last month: a client sent me a jacket pattern with an asymmetric zip placket. The software treated both sides of the placket as identical mirror pieces and mirrored the grade equally. The zip allowance ended up shifting on one side only, making the garment impossible to assemble. The fix was to separate the placket into two distinct pattern pieces before grading, then reattach them afterward. Takes an extra ten minutes but saves you from finding out during cutting.
Why the Grade Rules Matter More Than the Software
The program itself is competent. The bottleneck is always the person defining the grade rules. A standard size chart might tell you a chest measurement goes from 38 to 46 inches across four sizes, but that doesn't tell you where those inches distribute. Do they go entirely into the side seams? Or do they split between front and back, with extra ease added to the back only? Industry-standard practice splits the grade roughly 60-40 between front and back for most woven garments, with the back receiving slightly more due to posture compensation. But that's a starting point, not a rule. Knit fabrics behave differently because stretch distribution changes how grading needs to work. I've had cases where applying a woven grade rule set to a jersey knit resulted in sleeves that were two sizes too tight at the bicep line. Another thing beginners miss: not all measurements grade linearly. Armhole depth, for example, often requires a non-linear adjustment because as the chest grows, the armhole doesn't deepen at the same rate. Big Tall Small 2 supports non-linear grade curves, but you have to set those up manually. The default is always linear interpolation, and linear interpolation on armholes produces armholes that look correct on paper but sit awkwardly on actual bodies.
Get the Full Details
Export and Quality Check
After grading, always open each size in your drafting software and visually compare the grainlines. The software can shift grainline orientation during grading if you haven't locked it properly. I've caught this on a shipment of eighty patterns where the grainlines rotated three degrees across sizes. The garments looked fine sewn together but hung wrong on the body. Check your notches too. When a pattern is graded, notches migrate slightly. If your original block had notches placed at precise intervals for assembly alignment, the graded version may have them drift. Re-marking notches after grading takes about five minutes per pattern piece and prevents assembly errors later. The software also doesn't account for fabric weight in its grade calculations. A heavy wool coat and a light cotton poplin shirt might have identical dimension grades on paper but drape very differently in reality. I adjust the grade rules manually for heavy fabrics by adding roughly three percent extra ease at the hem and lower body areas. It's not a hard rule, but it prevents oversized hems on heavier materials.
When It Doesn't Work
Big Tall Small 2 struggles with complex draping patterns, bias-cut pieces, and anything involving significant positive ease that changes proportionally across sizes. If you're grading a coat with a full lining and a separate underlining, you need to grade each layer independently and then check how they interact at the seams. The software won't flag mismatches between layers. Also, the software has limited support for flat-knit seamless garment grading. If your product line includes any seamless construction, you're better off using a dedicated knitting software package instead. The grade rules for seamless construction operate on fundamentally different principles than cut-and-sew grading. For a quick reference on how it works in practice, the official documentation covers the basics but skips most of the edge cases. I'd recommend pairing it with a printed grade rule checklist and running your first three graded patterns against a physical fit sample before trusting the automated output for production.
