How to make a Pattern

We all have that favorite shirt or pants that fit perfectly and you wear until it is worn out. What do you do to replace it? You can search until you find it or you can do what I did and make your own pattern. I have a lot of sewing books and they are all helpful but what it boils down to is practice, practice, practice. My sister had a favorite pair of knit pants that frankly should have been trashed long ago. Here is the easiest way to do a pattern.

1) take a good look at the item if it is a shirt be aware you will need  the front, back, sleeve, collar and any other section. Pants you need front, back, waistband, pockets. Always start simple you can move up to complicated when necessary. In this case the pants. I needed one front and one back panel. you can either unpick all the stitching or do it the lazy way. in this case I cut the left front out and the back right by cutting into the fabric on the opposite sides leaving me with this.

2) then lay the fabric on paper. My sister is a teacher and had several large writing pads about 24" by 36". I like this paper because it is lined and easier to mark. However any large paper will work. I have used wrapping paper which I bought on sale after Christmas  a large roll is better then tissue and easy to story.

once you lay the fabric on top mark the paper 1/4 inch all round making sure to mark where pockets and any darts go, then cut. this leaves you with a nice pattern.

If I am going to use a material that has less stretch I would mark 3/4 to 1 inch around the sides depending on the material. You do not need to do this for the mid-seam and crotch area.

3) cut out the material making sure that you mark which is front and back. Chalk works good for that. I wrote it on the inside until I had it all assembled.

The pants only needed to be hemmed. for pants that have an elastic waist I prefer doing a separate waist band this gives it stability.

Pants with elastic are one of the easiest to do and for those of us plus size I found that doing a longer pocket set in the side means that when you sit down the stomach expands nicely with out being too tight and when standing the pocket looks normal. This really only works when the inside of the pocket is made of the same material I also made them a little deeper so if she has anything in the pocket it won't fall out when she sits another problem for the plus ladies.

this if the first of several pants cut from design that she knows fits her well and is lot cheaper then trying to find a pair. 

when you finish the best way to store the pattern pieces is a ziplock bag. I write out the information on paper making sure to notate how many pieces. also on the pattern pieces themselves so that I do not mess them up I will put 1/5, 2/5 etc  and the pattern number is the date 111012

Have fun and don't be afraid to practice. 

Necessity blah blah or whatever works

I had an idea but thought it was crazy then I saw someone else pin about a skirt made out of a sheet with a pretty pattern and decided okay maybe I was not that crazy. Fabric can be expensive especially if you are sewing something that is really only meant to last a few months or can be damaged easily. Such as my sisters bed dresses, (see prior post) or around the house shifts for me and my sister. So I looked at the sheets and found Walmart had a sale on Twin flat sheets for 4.00. I decided that white was too boring and decided to twist the fabric then soak in a large pan of dye. I took it out of the dye still twisted then loosened it up dip it back in then tossed in the washer, the picture is not the best but you can see streaking the dye did nice marbling effect.

 Then I laid out the pattern which fit very well is little left over. Since the dress is not too fitted the twin size worked best. 

Now that I know it works I working on one with stripes and plan to get more in different florals. The dress takes about 1/2 a day to make including dying and the material cost was 4.00 for the sheet and 1.50 for a 1/2 bottle of dye. You cannot beat that with a stick. 

Well It's December

I did not think it had been that long since I posted. Sometimes I think this year just shot past us. Halloween was fun and at least the costumes were easy.

The boys decided that they were going to be zombies, tear up an old shirt using pinking shears for that nice ragged look and add some red material to the inside. Add mask instant zombie. Not too sure what the fascination with zombies is evidently it is big with both small and large boys.

I did a nice witch costume for my niece based on this design.

It came out pretty good except I can't find the pictures oh well. I am going to see about re-fashioning the top to something she could use everyday. We had a garage sale and I cannot believe the stuff we are finding. Somethings of course do not get sold due to sentimental value but others are just piling up. For those that have to combine households you know what I mean. There are only so many dishes and gadgets that one house needs. I love garage sales because it is a way to make a little extra money for little effort. Whatever is left I am going to call the Salvation Army and ask for it to be picked up. I am going to rent a small storage unit and need to cut down the pile of stuff. There are several large items we are trying to sell on Craigslist and Etsy. I also have several sewing projects I am going to post separately  We are enjoying the last week before school lets out and all the demons are loose.