Tag Archives: pattern

And, cut (your pattern out)!

This week, the grand unveiling of our summer sewing project!  Drumroll please!

Before and after! :)

A supersweet upcycled shopping bag!

I’m also pleased to introduce my husband Zac who wants to learn to sew (he’s got big dreams of making his own camping gear).  He offered to be my guinea pig and model for this project, and he’s just as excited as you are!  :)  So here we go!

You’ll need:

  • a tshirt (any size will do; ours was a child’s large)
  • 2/3 yard of fabric (either 45″ or 60″ wide) if your tshirt is less than 18″ wide.  If your tshirt is wider than 18″, you’ll want 3/4 yard.
    We’re using two different pieces, since we had some scraps lying about.  
    You could also use clothing, but part of today’s lesson will be cutting on grain.
  • Some newspaper if you’re making your own pattern (I explain the measurements you’ll need below), or you can download the pattern I used here- you’ll need to tape it together and adjust it for the width of your tshirt.  Don’t worry, it explains how to.  :)
  • A measuring tape or ruler or both
  • Scissors
  • A marker or pen
  • Fabric/sharp scissors (nothing dulls scissors faster than paper, so my fabric scissors are used for nothing but fabric.  It’s one of our house’s cardinal rules.  Seriously.  Don’t cut paper with my fabric scissors.  You will pay.  :))
  • Pins
Step 1:  Measure the width of your tshirt.  Ours is 15.75″ wide, and the pattern download is made for a shirt that’s 15.75″ wide.

Measuring the width of our tshirt!

Step 2:  Next, let’s dive in to prepping our paper pattern pieces!  You have two options here-
You can either make your own newspaper patterns like I did, or print out a copy of my pattern, and follow the instructions therein to make the adjustments you’ll need.  Either way, you’ll rock it:  if you have a straight edge ruler and a calculator (or super fast arithmetic brain :)) I say go for making them yourself.  Otherwise, kick butt on taping those 8.5″x11s” together, and then follow the instructions to make adjustments for whatever size shirt you have.  One note:  if you use the pattern download, it has notches and you’ll have a chance to practice matching them. :)  When you cut your pattern pieces out, go around them.  Make little triangles sticking out of the fabric, just like they look like :)
If you’re making the pattern yourself, cut out 3 rectangles of newspaper, and don’t forget to label them!  Check out the grainline on the download- make your’s parallel to one of your pattern edges- it doesn’t matter where your’s is, as long as it is in the correct direction.
  • 1 for straps (or maybe you could use an old belt?)
    We liked 24″ long by 3.5″ wide
  • 1 for the bottom band (that gray houndstooth on the photo above)
    Take the width of your tshirt in inches, add 1.25″, and make a rectangle that length by 11.625″ (.625″ = 5/8″ if you’re reading your ruler)
  • 1 for the top band
    This rectangle should be the width of your tshirt + .625″ long x 3.5″ wide
Step 3:  Pre-wash, dry and iron your fabric (if you haven’t already).  It’s best to always iron your fabric before cutting something out.  Exceptions are if you are using fabric that can’t be pre-washed (like if the care instructions are dry clean only); then you might not need to.
Step 4:  Cut the hem off your tshirt!  Here we go (top 2 photos)!
Next cut off the torso of the tshirt just below the armpits.  Use your straight edge and draw a line from armpit to armpit right on the shirt if you don’t have nice lines to follow like we did :)  You’ve got your bag middle!

Getting the tshirt ready to be a bag!

Step 5:  Lay your fabric out folded in half with the selvages together.  Try to get the selvages perfectly match for the entire length of your fabric.  Smooth the fabric out so that it’s not lumpy.  If your fabric is lumpy near the fold, it might’ve been cut off grain, and you can check out the video from last week for tips on how to straighten it out.

Remember what the selvage looks like? It's the edge that's a bit more tightly woven, and perpendicular to where they cut the fabric at the fabric store.

Step 6: Now we’ll start positioning pattern pieces on the fabric; we’ll mimic the diagram provided in the pattern (also below.  Note that two different sizes are shown in the layout diagram below, click to enlarge.)  For part of the cutting you’ll have the fabric folded in half, and for the last piece, you’ll have the fabric laid out so that it’s only one layer thick.  Remember that the grainline on each of your pattern pieces should be parallel to the selvage.  Whew!  It’s not as complicated as it sounds, I promise!

Cutting Layouts A & B

Step 7:  (The next couple steps are interchangeable- I’m just going to pick a pattern piece and start with it :))

Put the edge of the bag top band piece (pattern piece number 2) on the fold.  Pin each corner down, and smooth the pattern piece to the other two corners.  Pin those corners down, then go back and pin the middle of the piece.  Use pins every couple of inches- you want to make sure that the fabric doesn’t slip around while you’re cutting the piece out.  But don’t cut yet- let’s get the other pattern piece pinned down first.

Pinning on the fold

Step 8:  Let’s pin the bag straps, pattern piece number 3.  Zac and I used a different fabric for this one, but your steps will be the same.  Because it’s a scrap and the selvages were gone, we ripped the fabric along the grainline like I showed you in last week’s video and are pretending that that’s our selvage.  Make sense?

  • Pin the pattern piece to the fabric right at the arrow on one end of the grainline.
  • Measure from the grainline to the selvage/edge of the fabric.  Remember this measurement; in our photo, it’s 1.875″, so that’s the measurement I’ll use as I explain how to do this below :)
  • Now, smooth out the pattern piece down the grainline to the other arrow.  At the other arrow, measure from the grainline to the fabric’s edge.  If it’s not 1.875″ or whatever your measurement was, use the pin anchoring the other grainline arrow as a pivot point to slide your pattern piece closer to or further away from the edge of the fabric until the measurement matches- now you know that your pattern piece is perfectly on grain!  Pin the pattern piece to the fabric when the measurement from the selvages match at top and bottom.
  • Now pin along the center of the grainline (you can check here too to make sure that it’s still the same measurement away from the selvage- this is especially important if you’re working with a super long pattern piece, or super slippery fabric).
  • Next, smooth out from the grainline to the four corners of your pattern piece.  Pin the four corners down.
  • Now pin along the edges so that the fabric won’t slip as you cut it out.
  • Hooray!  You did it!

Pinning the bag straps- pinning on grain

Step 9:  Cut these suckers out!

It is time to cut!  The last pattern piece will only be on one layer of fabric, so we’e gonna cut these two pieces out.  On the straps, pattern piece number 3 (bird fabric above & below), cut along all 4 edges of the pattern, right next to the paper.  On the top band, pattern piece number 2 (grey houndstooth above and below), cut along the three edges that aren’t the fold.  DO NOT cut on the fold line!  :)

Cutting double layers out- bag top band on fold and bag straps

Step 10: Lay out the bag bottom panel (pattern piece 1)

We only need one of this piece, so we can unfold our fabric, and although we might have just made the selvages disappear when we cut out the other fabric pieces, those pieces were cut on grain, right?  And since the pattern pieces were straight lines, we can use them to measure the grainline from for this piece.  Make sense?

  • Pin the pattern piece to the fabric right at the arrow on one end of the grainline.
  • Measure from the grainline to the edge of the fabric.  Remember this measurement; in our photo, it’s 6.375″, so that’s the measurement I’ll use as I explain how to do this below :)
  • Now, same as before, smooth out the pattern piece down the grainline to the other arrow.  At the other arrow, measure from the grainline to the fabric’s edge.  If it’s not 6.375″ or whatever your measurement was, use the pin anchoring the first grainline arrow as a pivot point to slide your pattern piece closer to or further away from the edge of the fabric until the measurement matches- now you know that your pattern piece is perfectly on grain!  Pin the pattern piece to the fabric when the measurement from the selvages match at top and bottom.
  • Now pin along the center of the grainline.
  • Next, smooth out from the grainline to the four corners of your pattern piece.  Pin the four corners down.
  • Now pin along the edges so that the fabric won’t slip as you cut it out.
  • Hooray!  You did it again!  You’re an old pro by now!  :)

Pinning on grain, one more time

Step 11:  Cut this piece out!  Since this one wasn’t on the fold, we’ll cut around all four sides.

Cutting the last piece - so close!

Boom.  You just cut out the pieces to make a super sweet bag!

Zac with his cut out pattern pieces! What do yours look like?

Hang tight with those pieces- swing by next week for sewing machine basics, then again on June 28th for sewing instructions (or sign up to get updates emailed on the homepage :))!  Can’t wait to hear how your bags will turn out!

Have any questions or thoughts?  Please comment below!

Tissue Paper Everywhere: Home Sewing Pattern Basics

Dear Reader!

It’s here!  The Summer Sewing Tutorial is kicking off today with an exploration of basic pattern contents.  And how!  :)

Since you already know how to read the back of a pattern, I thought we’d just dive in to what you’ll find inside the pattern envelope, followed by a pictorial glossary of pattern markings.  Please comment below to let me know what questions you have or if anything is unclear!  I hope you leave this post feeling a little bit more confident about kicking butt on the project we’ll be working on over the next few weeks, as well as any projects you take on in your sewing nook.  :)

Just in case you’re looking for more, one invaluable resource I love is the Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing.  I had to buy it for college and have held on tight.  An amazing resource I turn to time and again.

Let the games begin!

So the contents of most pattern envelopes are pretty much the same.  Inside you’ll find:

  • The pattern pieces themselves (usually multiple pieces are printed on the same sheet of tissue paper).  They are numbered, and each is identified by name and style (if your pattern will make more than one garment style…).  Often a garment is symmetrical, so one pattern piece will work for each half of the garment.  The pattern piece will tell you whether to cut 2 pieces, or one on the fold, which we’ll get to in a couple of weeks.  :)

    A few pattern samples from different companies

    Can you find the pattern company, pattern number, piece number, piece name, and how many pieces to cut on each of these? What other information do you see? Hint- click on the image to see a larger version :)

  • A diagram with the silhouettes of all the pattern pieces and their names/numbers.  Awesome for figuring out which pattern pieces you need for your project

    What can you learn from these diagrams? Click on the photo to see a larger image and explore!

  • A guide for laying out and cutting your pattern pieces with fabric.  It’ll help you know which pieces need to be cut on the fold and which pieces need to be cut more than once.  I lovelovelove trying to squish my pieces as close together as possible and use less fabric than the project calls for.  But that’s me :)

    Click on this image to blow it up and then explore. What do you see? Notice fabric widths, and right/wrong side of pattern/fabric.

  • Sewing instructions!  I’m sure you won’t have any trouble figuring these out :)
And now, on to decoding some of the typical pattern marks you’ll find when you start looking!
  • Center front, center back

    The center front and center back of a garment are always labeled, whether through the “place on fold line” (like that below), stitch line, or just labeled solid like like the one above.

  • Circles

    Helpful guides for matching sections that join together. They might also indicate construction details like where a zipper ends.  Note that these ones are marked according to size, but they might not all be.

  • Cutting line

    A heavy outer line showing where to cut. This one has different cut lines for each of the sizes indicated. You might also see cut lines within a pattern, for example, if there’s an option for a lower neckline or shorter hem.

  • Darts

    Two legs (sewing lines) that meet at a point somewhere towards the center of the garment, darts help your clothing hug your body. The circles are there to help you match the legs when you’re sewing.

  • Grainline markings

    It’s a straight line that has arrows on each end- you’ll align this line with the grain of the fabric, and we’ll learn more about what that means next week.

  • Hemline

    You’ll find the hemline at the bottom edge of the garment- if there’s no line that says “Hem,” you’ll find a marking like the one above that tells you how much fabric to fold up when you are sewing your hem.

  • Lengthen or shorten line

    You typically find these near a waistline or hem of a garment. You can use them to make adjustments for petite or long sizes. Which of the pattern pieces above has a visible shorten or lengthen line?

  • Notches

    Single and double notches are shown above. You might find these on any edges that join another edge- when you sew, you’ll match notches to accurately join pieces.

  • Place-on-fold bracket

    This grainline marking with arrows means that the edge of this pattern (the black line) should align perfectly with the fold in your fabric when you’re cutting it out (we’ll talk more about what that means when we layout our project to cut out). You’ll often find this marking on skirt fronts or shirt fronts- pieces that are mirrored. :)

  • Zipper position

    This shows where your zipper will be on your seamline. The top and bottom markings show exactly how long the zipper should be (remember how your notions list on the back of the pattern will tell you what size to buy? You might have to shorten it, which is super easy :))

Whew!  And that about does it for today.  What do you think?  Did you learn anything new, or did this reinforce what you already knew?  I’d love to hear what you think- please comment below!

Can’t wait to see you next week when we dive into fabric basics via video :)

xoxo

Tutorial: How to read the back of a home sewing pattern

Some of my favorite vintage patterns

Sooooo hard to read the back of a pattern for the first time. The guidance of a patient friend, relative, teacher or fabric store clerk can be invaluable.  This week I wanted to try to help unveil the mystery with a super primitive infographic (though truthfully, “primitive infographic” feels like “jumbo shrimp” to me.  I take that to mean my infographic is anything but primitive!  :)).

Simplicity #7092

I think pajama pants are a great beginner’s project.  I’ve had luck teaching with Simplicity pattern #7092 (though there are many other pajama pant patterns; this is just one I’ve used with beginners for sewing lessons).

It says it’s a one hour project- I think that’s accurate if you’re a pajama pant making machine (I sold pajama pants in the dorms in college to help pay for study abroad in Paris and have it down to an hour), but if you’re a beginning sewer, I’d plan on 2-4 hours…  A lovely afternoon!

From the front, you can see the different options inside  the pattern- they all look like a drawstring pant, at different lengths.  On the back you’ll find drawings of the garment back, along with suggested fabrics, a list of other goodies you’ll need for the project and a size chart, among things.  See below an annotated pattern back for this pair of jammie pants, or click here for a pdf with live links.

A little step-by-step – click for a pdf of the image with live links

So what do you think?  Does this help?  Have you ever had or needed help reading the back of a pattern before? Please comment below!

And if you take the plunge and make a pair of pajama pants, post a picture on LVEO’s facebook page!  :)

xoxo

Powered by WordPress. Designed by Woo Themes