bump *
This thread's been sleeping for a while..
Thanks for the earlier help, educo! I'm pretty sure I talked about this old question with you here in another thread 
Anyway,
I just drafted a new pattern today ... my first-ever pattern that was successful
using Winifred Aldrich's
Metric Pattern Cutting book
I was really glad it looked close to the book's example
(Since I have time now, I put my "cheat" pattern aside where I just wrapped myself in saran wrap and cut those as patterns.. 
)
I was looking through
Reader's Digest Guide to Sewing about patterns though
And there are "
notches" on the patterns..
Diamonds that stick out of the pattern
Are those really useful? Shouldn't the patterns when transferred to the fabric match always? Since I'm drafting it myself, I don't have the notches in the patterns
Some examples in the book have two or three notches in a row (ie. 2 at the top of a skirt and 3 near the bottom of a seam to join two sides together)
They use dots for the joining of darts in a pattern