Pattern Resizing

Justin's mother saved me her mother's patterns. I love them. I spent the other day, going through all the little girl dress patterns making sure I had all the pieces. Well, that got me all excited to sew, and I am always needing a good project to keep me busy. So today I made this: (the little blue dress)

Isn't it adorable! It reminds me of the Kennedy's, it's from that time and fashion- and is just so classic.

There was one problem. The pattern was for a size 4, and I wanted to make something she could wear sooner than that. I researched online and found a fabulous tutorial, and have some images for you who would like to try it themselves.

Since I don't have a little model to try it out on, I looked up all the basic measurements. I found one perfect size chart here with all measurements, that helped me to double check my changes. And one other children's size chart that I had to convert from metric.

Once i had the info I needed to do the work, I found:

• sharpie
• architectural fodder paper (thin tissue paper)
• tape
• sewing gauge
• scissors
• pins

Once I had my supplies together, I checked the back of the pattern for the size measurements according to the pattern. Then I wrote out the size changes and figured what the difference in inches needed to be. (this is also where this chart came in handy for figuring proper armhole depth and shoulder to edge of neck measurements, later after I made the changes, I measured the changes to make sure they were correct).

Step 1: Trace existing pattern onto fodder.

Step 2: Once you know how much space you need to subtract (or add), you need to think about

dividing this amount in half for the front and back. Then divide that by half again, since that piece will be on both sides.

Example: The chest measurement difference I needed was 2 inches total.

Which means I need to remove 1 inch on front / 1 inch on back.

The front piece is cut out twice, so the 1 inch needs to be halved, 1/2 inch removed from each of the two pieces equals one inch.

Here is the pattern being cut to remove that 1/2 inch.

When you cut the stripe down the pattern you only overlap it 1/4 of an inch on both pieces, because that will equal 1/2". I also removed that half inch from the front neck facing. To check my work I flipped it upside down on top of the changed pattern to see if the length was right.

(refer to the tutorial if confused)

On the children's measurement chart I noticed that the shoulder width was also needing to be smaller, so I took out 1/2 and inch there, by over lapping it 1/4" inch.

The second image show how much I had to take out of the armhole. This was a big difference, all at once. I overlapped it 5/8 inch, to remove the 1 1/4" inch that was too much.

Since I removed that space form the sleeve on the front and back I needed to do the same to the sleeve pattern piece. I also shortened it, about 1 inch, just cuz, I didn't want it to be too long. The dotted line, is where I drew the new sleeve bottom.

I repeated this basic process on the back piece. The only difference was that the facing and back were one piece so I had to remove that 1/2 inch from the facing portion as well. On this image you can see an arrow for all the areas I took space out. Lastly I removed 2 inches from the length. According to the pattern you just added or subtracted from the bottom, so that is what I did here. I recommend doing this very last, because I didn't and when I began removing width, it messed up the hem, better to just wait til all the other changes are made.

I taped everything like mad so that I wouldn't have to waste more paper to copy the pattern onto in order to cut it out.

I used some old lilac fabric I had and lace. I just need to buy some buttons for the back. The pattern took about 3 hours. It wouldn't take that long a second time, but I had to figure it out a bit! And I haven't sewn clothing from a pattern in years. But this was SO fun!

And two more- I might change out the little buttons on the front for bigger ones. What do you think, do they seem too small? (that was all I had on hand)

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Alterations

In the tradition of projects, these three alteration projects took up last Thursday. It was so fun to sew again. I really haven't made much of anything for so long.

I just altered three pre-made finds.

The first is a plaid summer dress from my sister. This is part of the maternity clothes collection that was passed to me! Yahoo! Only one problem, I am the tallest girl in the family, by 3 inches, to my tallest sister. Noelle who sent me this is 5'5", so I really needed an extra 5 inches of fabric, in order to move around with out exposing myself. So here is what I did:

I added some scrap fabric I had to the bottom, but then it didn't look finished, so I added a band around the upper waist. I am really excited for this now! I think it looks so summery!

Front and Back (it is so much harder than you think to take pictures of something you are wearing...)

Then for my birthday, I picked up this adorable knit dress at Walmart. I think it was only $14.00- dang good deal. And it looks so cute for maternity, but again, I like it just a little longer.

I used another scrap of I had of black knit, and jimmy-rigged a hemline that matched some of the other details. This was a little harder, because I didn't have a serger, and the other ruffles, were finished with a serger, but I think it sorta worked out. I wore it to church on Sunday!

I hope you can see the ruffling I added. It is hard to tell with the black knit, what is going on.

And I just had to add the picture of Kitty checking out the handy work! She is so cute and fluffy!

Lastly, I wanted to make some maternity pants, that didn't have a waistband that was tight- meaning no elastic at all!! I am so anti-waistbands right no I can't even tell you. I went to the local Salvation army and bought a pair of jeans (on a 50% off day- so $3.50, score!) They fit my legs and thighs, then I just sort of experimented with finishing the new knit waist band.

Next time I won't cut off the back waistband, I am not sure why I decided to do it this time, but live, do, and learn.

First, I pulled them on and pinned around the curvature of my new belly.

I cut off the top of the pants along that curve.

Here is my belly with them cut off so you can tell what I mean about cutting bellow the new curve of my belly!

I then measured the width of my belly (only on the front from side to side approx 22", and the height I'd like the band to go.

For example, from the lowest point, I wanted the band to be 7" tall, but from the side I only needed 4.5". I folded the knit fabric in half, the height I needed it to be. 7 inches. That fold will be the top of my band.

Then I laid the pants below the fabric the now measured 20" wide and 7" folded (or 14" long) and eyeballed the curve as I cut from 4.5 on the side to the center lowest point of 7 inches. Then folded that first cut half over the other un-cut half, and used it as a guide for the other side. (hope that makes some sense)

I then cut a band for the back, and sewed the sides together, and folded the bad side in and pinned them to the outside of the cut pants, like so:

When I was done sewing the pined area on, this is what I had:
And with a shirt pulled low over it, you can't even tell!

I might try this again.... later.

For now we are on to other projects!

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Tuxedo Time

So we had this tux, and Justin looked so good in it I asked my dad to take some pictures of him for me. I jumped in with the dress I made for the wedding, but I look so incredibly tired I don't really like much of my own pictures, but boy does Justin look nice.

Yucky! I don't love this picture, and unfortunately I closed my eyes in every other picture we took! URGH! But you can see the dress I made for the wedding. It was fun to make, I haven't really "sewn" anything from a pattern in quite a while.

My eyes are practically closed, not because I was blinking but because I was so darn tired.

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