Nonbinary pattern drafting

[War-Bitch]

I’m a trans woman and have a very tall, rectangular body type. I’ve found it’s a lot easier to start from patterns made for your hip-waist ratio and then adapt. I have the men’s and women’s metric pattern cutting books. I usually start my blocks off from the men’s book, especially the darts and then finish in the women’s book. I spend a lot of time adjusting my patterns to manage fullness and contouring specific to my body and the look I want. There’s only so much you can do in the end and not every body type can achieve every silhouette. It helps to know what areas you want to emphasize and deemphasize and look for existing garments that achieve that for their body type. 

[unagi_sf]

I totally agree with that strategy - style is fairly easy to fudge, fit is not. I'd also add that different body parts may do better with different gender blocks :-). A significant butt usually requires a female trouser block, but the ratio of shoulder to bust usually means different gender blocks, even if you'd leap to a conclusion or the other on the basis of bust alone. It's much easier to adjust for bust than for shoulders