Making Patterns and Altering with clothing from your closet

[angelmage99]

This is a WIP Please do not post until the second page is completed. I am willing to answer all questions.  

[angelmage99]

Making Patterns from Old Clothing

Do you have a favorite shirt that has a hole?
Do you have a costume that you want to redo, but not a pattern to make it from.
Did you buy a cheap costume and now want to make it better?

Well this is your section. We'll talk about the ways you can reserve a pattern for future use.

1. Making Reference Images and Notes.

Before you take the clothing apart you may want to take pictures of what the final product should look like, from all angles, and detailed notes of any special material needed.

The materials could refer to what type of fabric the piece was made up. You could use the tag on the back of the piece that will tell you the details of the material used. You also can label it by time of material such as cotton type or knits.

While you're making your notes you may want to include a list of none-base fabric pieces. These include, but not limited to: zippers, interfacing, bias tape, hooks, and and buttons. Note the location of each piece on the clothing for better accurate reproduction. You may even want to use a measuring tape and write measurements down for best results.

Also make sure to not design aesthetics like darts, gathering, and pleating. These pieces are more functional to the overall look then a button is and should be noted.

If you are just making making the pattern in hopes of making similar clothing, but reproduced clothing, then ignore decorative pieces, but still note functional pieces to recreate a similar design.

As you seam ripe you want to continue to make additional notes of what pieces to where for sewing later.




2. Start Seam Ripping

What's seam ripping you ask? Seam ripping is the process of pulling seams apart and is easy, but time consuming task. This task will ask you if it's worth your trouble just for this one piece.

Seam ripping has it's advantages over buying a pattern instead. First is if you find a piece, but not a pattern then you can seam rip to turn the piece into a pattern, the second advance is if the item your seam ripping is poor quality then you can just save that item to make better quality items of the same style, and third is that by seam ripping vs. cutting off the seam, it will allow you to have that right fit without adding seam allowance when remaking an item.

There are several ways to seam rip and all depends on the tools that are being used. Seam ripping can be done with a pair of scissors. If you are doing it with a pair of scissors it's recommended that you get a small (hand size) sharp pair of scissors. Using a smaller pair of scissors allows for a closer cut and you're less likely to cut into the fabric. The other option is to use a seam ripper. These tools are used to rip seams out and are designed just for that. You hook the tool under the seam and push it forward. Be careful. Never put your hand in front of the seam ripper. You could get hit by the sharp end and it's a painful wound to deal with till it heals.  

[angelmage99]

Saving Your Work

So now you've seam ripped and you taken all the notes you needed. What next right? Well you have too options. First you can just save the shirt or the other option is to draw it out on paper. there's pros and cons to doing both. Let's take a look.

Keeping in it cloth form:
Pros: Last longer than paper, Cheaper for an individuel piece
Cons: Harder to make altered pieces, may alter the size of your clothing if not careful, if you need a different outfit you may or may not have to seam rip another piece of clothing

Turning it into paper form:
Pro: Easier to make additional pieces to change up the look, Cheaper in the long run, keeps size closer to what you want, and easier to alter from individual piece
Cons: More money in the short term, may have to redraw pieces with age.

The choice is yours, but whatever you pick please always keep a copy of some form to your work.  

[angelmage99]

Resizing using smaller clothing

So sooner or later you're going to find the right item, but it's too large, or on the flip side you order something online and it comes too large as well. Never fear, you may salvage this situation by making clothing that will fit just right with using other pieces of clothing that fit the way you want it to.

The method of altering depends on the article of clothing. For the sake of this tutorial I will only talk about pants/shorts, skirts, Dresses, and Shirts. Should you want to know what to do with other clothing then please ask me and I'll type up how to do other pieces of clothing.

Pants/Shorts

Pants and shorts are the easiest to alter in length. First remember that you can also turn pants into shorts. How you are going to do this is by taking the the piece you want to alter and folding it in half by putting both pants legs together and pulling the crotch out. Put it down in a safe spot to alter it. Next you'll do that same thing to the pants/shorts you and it to become. Once both are folded, put the pants you want to alter down first then the pants/shorts you want of the same length. Make sure that the crotch pieces are lined up and not the waist/hip lines. If you do it at the waist/hip it may not come out right.

Once they're lined up put a marking of some sort on the longer pair. Make it about 1' below the shorter pair. This inch will become your hemline. Cut both legs at this mark. From there you're going to fold them hem, pin, and sew on both legs and Tada! Pants/Shorts are now done.

Shirts/Dresses

When altering shirts and dresses so they have a closer fit you'll put the smaller on top of the bigger shirt again. You'll want to centralize it based on the collar position. You can then cut and resew the sleeves if any. Remember to leave room for seam allowance.  

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