~E~

Oh.  Oh my.  Have you ever seen anything cuter?  Honestly?  

Shauna over at Shwin and Shwin made this adorable tee using Children's Fashion Workshop goodies, and talks all about it over on their site today.  I love the bubble sleeves. 

No, you go on over there without me.  I just died of cuteness. 

~E~

Hello, everyone!  It's Erin here, from Children's Fashion Workshop, and I'm excited and honored to be here today with Hayley to talk about refashioning with block patterns. 

Now, a block pattern, first off, is just a basic pattern that fits a certain size person.  What makes the block pattern into a cute style is what you do with it.  So you can change the neckline, put in different sleeves, add or take away ease to make it fit closer or more loosely, etc., but you know that it'll fit correctly if you start with that block pattern.  

I happen to have made a set of block patterns that I use to draft everything I design, but don't let my shameless bit of self-promotion make you think that my block patterns are the only way to go.  You really just need to start with a pattern that fits well, and however you can get your hands on that works just great.  

Once you've got a basic pattern, you can fiddle with it in a ton of ways to make it yours.  That's why using a block pattern goes so well with refashioning.  When I find something at the thrift store that begs me to turn it into a cute outfit for one of my kids, there are constraints on the amount and shape of the material that aren't there when I'm just working with flat yardage.  Sometimes (more often than not) I need to change my design as I go to work with the original garment.  Maybe I don't have enough of a solid block of fabric anywhere to cut the puffed sleeves I originally envisioned, but I have enough of this embroidered edge to make double-ruffle angel wing sleeves, and if it's my design, I can change my plan on the spot.

So the whole process becomes more fluid, with design melding into drafting into cutting and construction.  Often I'm still making design tweaks a step or two from finishing the sewing on a project.  Each project sort of takes on a life of its own in this way, and it's really a thrill to find out what the finished product will be.  I think, on reflection, that this is a very right-brained, creative approach to clothing design and sewing.  If you like things to come out precisely the way you've planned, and unexpected challenges give you hives instead of making your heart beat a little faster, it might be best to make all the changes to the pattern that you're going to make and then use flat fabric yardage to do your cutting.  

Whew!  All of that is just to introduce what we're going to work on today.  We'll be turning this:

(Ladies' sized hip-length top)

into this:

And instead of giving you carefully-thought-out steps to making one on your own I'm going to lead you through my thought process a little.  Since your own project won't be anything like mine, giving you steps to complete it wouldn't be very useful, would it?  

Here's my first little design drawing:

It's just a very basic sketch of what I'm shooting for: yoke style, ruffle sleeves, square neck.  When I refashion things, I like to try to keep some part of the original design as well as just using the fabric.  Then the final garment has a little more of its life story left in it, I think.  Besides, since it already looks a certain way, I don't have to think too hard about coming up with a totally new look for it!

I want to make a top for my two-year-old, and I want it to be similar in shape to the original garment.  It can be simple in design because all the embroidery's really going to be the star of the show.  

Now watch closely.  This is going to look complicated, but I promise it isn't, really.  It's just harder to explain than to do.  I'm going to do four things in this photo and explain them afterward:

(I'm using the size 2 pattern)

1)  I've shortened the pattern so that the waist seam is 1" below the bottom of the armhole.  Then I added a seam allowance.  This will let me see whether I like where my new waist seam will fall.  I can tell by looking at it here that that seam at the top of the elastic casing is going to run right along my new seamline.  I'm okay with that.  

2)  I cut the pattern down the center front.  I know it's going on the fold, and that I won't need a seam allowance or anything else there.

3)  I cut the neckline 1/4" larger than it was on the original neckline, but didn't change the shape.  Already I've departed from the design drawing.  I wanted to keep that jagged line of embroidery, and I think the round neckline will do that better. 

4)  I know I won't be changing the shoulder seam up or down, so I added a seam allowance and cut the rest of the paper off.  

(All of these pattern alterations are carefully outlined in my alteration lessons, so don't worry about getting all this.  If you're interested, you can learn more slowly and methodically than this!)

What I still need to know is what to do about the armhole and what to do about the side seam.  I know that I don't want any extra ease in the side seam, and that the bottom of the armhole needs to come up a little bit, because the ruffle only covers the top of it.  So I'll bring the bottom of the armhole up 1/2" so it doesn't gape open.  I'll also add seam allowance to the side seam and cut that paper off. 

Here are those things done:

Excellent!  There's the pattern for the bodice front done.

Deep, deep breath now, I'm going to cut along the bottom of that elastic casing...

And cut my bodice front out of the front:

Good!  Now I'll need to make the same changes to the bodice back pattern that I made to the front.  I'm not going to add a closure of any type, I'm just going to make the back extra wide and add a big block of elastic shirring in the middle.  So I'll need to take my bodice back pattern piece and cut it out, adding that width at the center like this:

giving us this:

Now I have the bodice front and back.  I need a skirt.  

Luckily, I already have a skirt just sitting there waiting for me, I cut it off back up there when I was making the bodice.  Just need to make sure it's the right length. 

Measuring the skirt shows me that I've got 18" from top to hem.  The entire target length of my top is 17", and the bodice minus seam allowances is 6" long.  So I need the skirt to end up 11" long.  Hm.  We need to lose 7".  

I've got these four bare inches between the rickrack and the embroidery here. It's almost like it's begging for me to make a nice tuck.  A 1" tuck will take out 2" of fabric.  Let's do the tuck first and then see how much we need to cut off at the wast.  That way we won't have to hem the skirt again.  

So I'll fold the hem up 3" all the way around:

and sew 1" from the edge.  

Pressing that down gives me this:

and the rickrack became all peek-a-boo!  Cute!

Now I'll measure it and take off what I don't need at the top:

I'll run gathering threads around the top of the skirt and set it aside.  (Tutorial on gathering threads here.) 

Now to put the bodice together.

First, I'll sew the shoulder seams.  

Then I'll deal with the sleeves.  Luckily, the skirt of the original top was lined with the same fabric as the top itself, so I have extra fabric to work with.  I'll need it for the sleeve ruffles and the neck and armhole bindings.

First I'll cut out my sleeves.  I'm just using the hem that's there, and making them about 1 1/2 times as long as the part of the armhole I want them to fill.  

Then I'll run gathering threads around the top edge of the sleeve, like so:

Now, the sleeve isn't going to go all the way around the armhole, so we'll put a little clip into the front of the armhole where we want the sleeve to begin, and a corresponding clip on the back where we want it to end.  My clips are about halfway down the armhole, at the same level on front and back. 

Now we'll match the center of the sleeve to the shoulder seam, and the two ends to the clips.  Right side of the sleeve is to the right side of the bodice.  We'll pull up the bobbin threads to make the sleeve a) ruffle and b) fit the space we've make for it.  Then we'll stitch that in place. 

Now we'll bind the entire armhole, right over the sleeve seam, using a double-fold binding:

Tutorial for double-fold binding here.

Then, because the sleeve is going to want to poke toward the bodice, which is the way we don't want it to go, we'll need to fold it toward the armhole, press it gently, and edgestitch right along the very edge of the sleeve, through the binding and everything:

See that little row of edgestitching?  That holds the sleeve down quite nicely.  Edgestitching tutorial here.

On the front, there's still that line of stitching that's tough to press down right, and is less than totally lovely.  

I still have the straps from the original garment, so I'll just cut one to the right length, and baste it along the lower edge of the bodice front there to cover that and add some rickrack pretty.  

That lower row of rickrack will get lost in the seam.  I'm cool with it. 

Now let's bind the neckline so that it's one less thing to worry about.  I'll bind it the same way as in the double fold binding tutorial, folding back the end like this so that it makes a clean finish.  

Here's the back, that we cut extra-wide so that we could add a block of shirring:

We'll add several rows of shirring, going in a rectangular serpentine fashion down the back.  So, sew a row from one marking to the other (the pins in the above photo are my marks), pivot, sew a couple of stitches downward, pivot and sew back to the first mark, pivot, a couple of stitches downward, etc.  Backstitch with a narrow stitch at the beginning and end.  Shirring tutorial here. 

We'll end up with the back looking like this:

Now the bodice is entirely finished except for the side seams.  No mystery there, we'll just sew the side seams, making sure the armhole binding matches up.

That finishes our bodice:

and now all that's left is to add the skirt.  

Since we did the skirt earlier this is the final step.  Believe it or not, I have a whole tutorial on adding a skirt here, so I won't explain the mechanics of that, except to say this.  Because there's heavy embroidery on the front of the skirt, I left it flat and pulled all the fullness in the skirt to the back.  So the back is very gathered and the front shows off that embroidery nicely.  

There's our bodice and waist seam:

And here's the whole thing, front:

and back:

And that's it!  Thanks, Hayley!

~Erin~

See you there!

~Erin~

This week, Alida at Alida Makes is running a giveaway of a set of our patterns/lessons.  She's graciously reviewed them for me and come up with this adorable coat for her adorable little girl.  (I mean, have you ever?)  

Hurry on over to see the whole thing!

~E~ 

Original pattern size: 2
Princess seams to shoulders
Round neckline, wide Peter Pan collar
Inverted pleat sleeves
Continuous bound placket at center back

Brown corduroy and pink linen.  I had just enough linen left over from the Grandmama's camellias dress for contrast pleats, collar, and front tab for this little confection.  One of the things I love most about designing clothes is how dynamic the whole process is.  I started out with an idea that was completely different than the finished item.  I had the idea for the sleeves and pleats in mind, and did those.  Then the dress asked me for a wide collar to match the sleeves.  I accommodated, and it got a little cocky and asked for the front tab and buttons as well.  In the end, it was a different creation than I'd envisioned, but better in so many ways. 

Pattern:

Follow the steps in "Drafting Princess Styles" and make these changes:

1)  No additional ease is added to the original pattern.

2)  Princess seams are added, from the shoulder seam.

3)  The armhole is not altered, and an inverted pleat sleeve is added.  2" is added at the sleeve center for the pleat, and the underarm seam is 1/2"

4)  The neckline shape is not changed, but is lowered 1" at front and shoulder, 3/4" at center back. A wide Peter Pan collar is drafted.  In the example, the width of the collar is the same as the shoulder seam length all the way around.  

5)  A continuous bound placket is used at the center back for a closure, so no pattern alteration is needed.  

6)  No additional style lines are added. 

7)  Seam and hem allowances are added.  

Cutting:

1 center front, on fold

2 side fronts

1 center back, on fold

2 side backs

2 sleeves

2 upper collar pieces

2 under collar pieces

1 neckline binding (length=neckline length plus 1" to fold under at center back, width as determined in French or Double Fold binding)

4 contrast pleat pieces, size as determined in partial length pleats

2 center front tab pieces, in whatever shape and size you like

1 placket piece (length=2x the finished placket length, width=1 1/2" wide)

Construction:

1)  Sew all four princess seams, up to the point where the pleat begins.  Insert contrast pleat pieces as shown in partial length pleats. 

2)  Lining up the princess seams, sew the front to the back at the shoulder seams.  

3)  Sew and attach the collar as shown in the flat Peter Pan collar tutorial.

4)  Sew the inverted pleat sleeves and set them in, using the flat method.

5)  Sew the side seams, from hem to sleeve hem.  

6)  Insert a continuous bound placket at the center back neckline. Place a sew-in snap at the neckline edge of the placket. 

7)  Sew a front tab as shown in design observed.  I used only two layers instead of the four we used in that project.  Place the tab on the front of the dress in the desired location, and carefully edgestitch it down, through all layers.  Sew two buttons to the tab, also through all layers.

And it's done!  Peek-a-boo pleats, wide collar, smart front tab, perfect.  A basket of goodies and she's off on some adventure of her own. 

~E~

This sweet, easy little sleeve is just a hair more involved than a plain, straight sleeve, but the inverted pleat at the center ups the appeal exponentially.

Pattern:

Add fullness at the center of the sleeve as shown in "Drafting Sleeve Patterns", in the section on drafting balloon sleeves.  Add twice the amount of width as the final pleat width.  

Construction:

Begin with the widened sleeve.

Finish the bottom edge.  I've used a 1/4", double-fold hem.

Fold the sleeve in half and baste along the pleat line.  This takes out all the fullness you put in in the pattern drafting stage, and makes the sleeve cap the same size as the armhole.

Press the pleat flat beneath the stitching.  I didn't even bother to round off the top of the sleeve, so I'll have to cut those points off now.  

Baste along the top of the sleeve cap, to keep the pleat in place. 

Now you can set in the sleeve.  I've taken the basting threads out to show you what the sleeve looks like flat (you can take them out at any point after sewing the top of the pleat in like we just did).

Here's what it'll look like once the underarm seam is sewn.  (I'm holding the seam closed because I want to set the sleeve in flat.)  

Now, it can be left just like this, or you can take embroidery floss and sew a little stitch, over and over, just through the folds of the pleat, to pinch it in and make the top puff like this:

And there it is.  Subtle, I think.  And just right. 

~E~ 

-Original pattern size:6
-Princess seams to armholes
-Squared neckline
-Short puffed sleeves
-Pleated skirt
-Invisible zipper at center back
-Bodice is lined with self-fabric

I found a little roll of ivory crocheted lace in a dusty secondhand shop years ago, sitting on a shelf next to a stack of musty books, waiting.  I brought it home, washed it (it was very dirty) and tucked it away in my trims box for just the right dress to come along.  It didn't, and it didn't, and then, one day this summer, I draped it across a little piece of pink linen I'd just gotten in the mail and knew the lace's time had come.  Put together they look classic and fresh, old and new, like Grandmama's camellia garden.

The dress is completely constructed first, and then the lace is added above the waist seam.  

 Drafting the pattern:

Follow the steps in "Designing Princess Styles" and make these changes:

1)  No additional ease is added to the original pattern.

2)  Princess seams are added, to the armhole, as shown in "Designing Princess Styles".

3)  The armhole is not altered, and a short puffed sleeve is drafted, as shown in "Drafting Sleeves".  The sleeve is 3 1/2" long at the center.

4)  The neckline is lowered 1" at the center front, 3/4" at the shoulder, and 3/4" at the center back.  The sides of the front neckline are squared from the shoulder seam.

5)  An invisible zipper is used at center back for a closure, so no pattern alteration is needed.  

6)  No additional style lines are added. 

7)  A pleated skirt is added.  

8)  Seam and hem allowances are added to all pattern pieces. 

Cutting:

Bodice:  Cut 1 bodice front, 1 bodice front lining from the same pattern piece.  Cut 2 bodice backs, 2 bodice back linings from the same pattern piece. 

Sleeve:  Cut 2 sleeves.  Cut 2 pieces of binding that are the child's arm measurement plus 2".

Skirt:  Cut 1 front, 2 back. The skirt will need to have a seam down the back to accommodate the zipper. 

Notions: invisible zipper, wide crochet lace

Construction:

Bodice:

1)  Sew the princess seams in the bodice.  Sew the princess seams in the bodice lining.  There will be 8 princess seams total.  

2)  Sew the shoulder seams in the bodice, and then in the lining.  

3)  Sew the bodice side seams, and then the lining side seams.

4)  Pin, and then sew the bodice to the bodice lining at the neckline.  Stop at the center back to allow for a zipper.

5)  Baste the bodice to the lining at the armhole.  

6)  Make puffed sleeves.  If you're using a heavy fabric, like linen, use double-fold binding instead ofFrench, to make things easier on yourself.

7)  Set in puffed sleeves.  

Skirt:

8)  Sew the skirt side seams.  

9)  Hem skirt, using a double-fold hem.  Stop hemming a couple of inches from the center back on both sides, to allow the seam to be put in later.

9)  Make pleats in skirt, press all the way down.  Baste pleats in place at waist seam.

10) Sew bodice to skirt at waist seam.

11) Insert invisible zipper in center back seam.  Instructions for inserting the zipper are in the zipper package.  After the zipper is inserted, the rest of the center back seam is sewn.  If we hadn't left the unhemmed bits in step 8, we wouldn't be able to sew this seam.  Here's the opening with the seam sewn:

That just needs to be handsewn in place after the center back seam is sewn.

12)  Add lace at waist seam.  Butt bottom of lace against waist seam, and zigzag over the lowest edge of the lace.  Pin in place and zigzag over upper edge of lace.  At center back, fold edges of lace under and handstitch in place.  

Give the whole thing a look-over for unfinished bits, thread tails, and spots that need pressing, and you're done.  Ready for a stroll through Grandmama's camellias? 

~E~

Sometimes you want a pleat put somewhere, but you don't need/don't want/don't have enough fabric to fold a pleat in all the way down the length of the seam you're sewing.  Maybe you want a kick pleat in just the lower back of a skirt.  I've put one at the bottom of each side seam on a sheath dress before and loved the effect.  

There are two ways to do this.  In the one described here, the separate pleat piece (pink) makes up all of the pleat, with the seam it's being inserted into (brown) only providing a seam allowance.  You can also cut the seam allowance on the garment large enough to make up the two halves of the pleat, and the separate pleat piece only large enough to provide the back panel.

This handy diagram shows what each of those methods would end up looking like, as though you're looking straight up the pleat from the hem:

For this tutorial, we'll add a partial-length pleat to a princess seam.  The pleat portion is a different color than the dress body, so that when the pleat opens, the color pops out and says, "Look at me!"

Begin with the seam sewn to the point where you want the pleat to begin.  Backstitch at this point, and press the sewn part of the seam open.  

Here you see both princess seams in the front of a dress sewn to that point:

Cut the pleat piece the same length as the open part of the seam, plus 1/2".  The width will be twice the finished pleat width plus a seam allowance on both vertical sides.  This pleat was to be 4" wide, so I began with a piece 8" + 2 seam allowances wide.

Hem the garment and the pleat piece separately, before sewing any vertical seams.  If you try to hem the whole thing after the vertical seams are sewn, the place where the hem crosses the seam will be bulky.  If you hem the pieces first and do the vertical seam across both hems, the pleat will be able to lie flat at the hem. 

Match the hemmed pleat piece to the hemmed garment piece, right sides together, on one side.  

Begin your seam at the bottom, so the hems match up precisely, and sew up to the point where you ended the seam.  Backstitch, and do the same for the other half of the pleat.  Here's the top of one of the seams:

Fold the pleat in, aligning it at the bottom first, and distributing the pleat evenly on either side of the seam. 

Press the pleat.  Pin the top edges of the pleat, only through the pleat itself.  Peel the garment back, away from the pleat, and sew this top edge together.  

This sewing serves two purposes: It holds the pleat together for what we're going to do in just a minute, and it finishes this seam, which will be exposed on the inside of the garment. 

Carefully pin the top of the pleat in place again, this time through the garment fabric.  

Now sew through all layers, from the right side of the garment, horizontally across the top of the pleat to hold it in place.  Backstitch at both ends.  This is where that extra 1/2" comes in handy.  You sew right across the pleat at the point where the original seam ends, and the 1/2" becomes the seam allowance for this seam. 

See how my stitching doesn't look exactly even?  It does from the right side of the dress.  Make sure it looks even from the right side first.  

The process for the other method I mentioned at the beginning is the same, except that the seams are at the outer edges of the pleat instead of right there together at its opening. 

Press it all one more time, and there you go:

~E~

And laws. a. mercy. has it been popular.  Far and away the most popular post on this website, and splashed all over forums everywhere and Pinterest too.  My little gift, I suppose, to the world.  

A lot of you have mentioned that you've used, or were going to use, the instructions to make nightgowns.  Today I did just that. 

And there's how it looks, in case you were wondering.  This one's a featherwale corduroy, soft and light.  The measurements, for reference, are these:  body length 33", ruffle 10", sleeves 8 1/2", armhole cutout uses a triangle with a 6" hypotenuse.  If you've read the original tutorial, this'll make perfect sense to you.  If you haven't, well, what are you waiting for?

~E~