Pattern Making and Tips

I love to wear knit clothing it is just so comfortable! I have a few shirts that I absolutely love and want in a bunch of colors as you may know from reading about my tank tops. Anyway, I got a bunch of beautiful knit in down town LA that I have been dying to work with. So, I am going to attempt to do a tutorial on making a pattern from existing clothing and give a few tips on working with knit. But, before we start, I would suggest copying a favorite tank top or basic T first. Ok, here we go...

This is what I have and want to make. The purple will be the shirt. I though about doing that white and purple as the back on the top where the shirt has the lacy part. But, I didn't think that would work well since the material is very thin. So that other material will probably become a scarf.

Here is what I need...

Lets start copying. First, iron your paper and clothing. 

Now turn the shirt inside out and fold it down the center matching the seams. Put the center fold on the edge of your paper.

Trace your shirt onto your paper, at the bottom allow enough for the hem (this is where you can make your shirt more perfect add more to make it longer, or take away to make it shorter). If the shirt was sherged, you won't have to add seam allowance, it's already there because you are not tracing where they sewed.

My line is not perfect, I will fix that after I remove the shirt.

Trace along the top also.

Now for the arm hole, it makes it a little more accurate if you take a pin and poke holes along the seam where the arm hole is. Then lift the shirt and draw along those holes you poked.

Ok, lift your shirt and see what you have. Here is when you can make a few adjustments like making a fitted T a little wider at the waist so it doesn't creep up. Or take that favorite shirt in a little where it's too loose. Once you finish that, label the pattern piece. I labeled mine and wrote where the fold of the shirt was "center fold" along the edge of the paper.

Cut that piece out. This is where my shirt is a bit different then a basic T. If you are doing a basic T, your pattern piece will be done. For me, it's not. My shirt had some gathering in the front so I have to adjust my pattern piece. I measured from the top of the front to where the gathering was (3 inches) and made a mark. Now I know where my gathering will be. In order for the shirt to fit normal when it is gathered, you can't just make the edge longer, you have to take the shape of the finished garment and stretch that out by making slashes in the pattern. So, between the mark I made at 3 inches and the fold edge, I made a couple slashes and extended them by a 1 to 1.5 ratio. This gives me just a slight gather.

After that I put it on top of another newspaper and re-traced it. Don't forget to label the final pattern piece.

Next, I did the same to the back, but there was no gathering so I was done once I traced it.

Last, I did the sleeves. These sleeves were a little tricky, there was gathering in them on the front and they were bigger in the front then the back, so I couldn't do them like a basic sleeve. I had to basically roll them around while drawing what I needed. (I will have another tutorial on sleeves VERY soon!)

See, not your normal sleeve.

Now, for cutting the fabric. When I work with knit, it only took me one time to learn, never lay it out on the carpet and cut there. I always go to the table where it will slide easily. The carpet tends to stick to it and it stretches all wrong. You DON'T want the knit to stretch as you are tracing and cutting.

I smoothed out my fabric and folded it...

Placed my pattern piece on the fold where the label tells me to...

Traced it, then cut it out. I did it again with the back.

Now for the sleeves, I folded the fabric, placed my pattern onto, traced and cut it out. This time not on the fold. I did that 1 time and I have 2 sleeves.

Here are my pattern pieces all folded still. The sleeves are on top of eachother. You will notice on mine, the shoulder piece is only on the back of the shirt. Looking back closely at my shirt, the front didn't go to the shoulder, it was the sleeve that went there and the "kind of" bias tape connected the sleeve and the front of the shirt. Your shirt should have the shoulder that connects at the top of the front and back.

Time to sew. Unfold the pieces and lay them right sides together. Pin them a ton! I pin knit a ton so it doesn't stretch or slip out of place when sewing. Sew in a zig zag on the edge, then go back down and sew a straight line right on the edge of the zig zag. (This seam doesn't need to be stretchy.)

When sewing knit, I start about 1/2 an inch from the edge so it doesn't get bunched inside the machine. Then, I flip it around and start where I started sewing the other way off the edge. You will understand better from the picture.

After I sewed the sides, I sewed the arms the same as the side with a zig zag and then straight line after. Last, the finishings. (Hems, bindings, etc.)

Looking at the front of the shirt, it had kind of a bias tape along the top. 

I say kind of, because with knit, it doesn't have to be cut on the bias. Anyway, I made that by cutting out an inch of fusable interfacing and ironed that onto an inch of my fabric. Then I ironed it in 1/2 and ironed the 2 sides into the middle. To sew it on, I did it just like you would bias tape...

Open it up, pin it onto the inside...

Sew along that fold mark near the top.

Unpin and fold it around to the outside. Looks nice, huh. Can't even see the stitching.

Now sew the other side down. I did this without pinning, it works better for me since it's so thin. I just go slow and fold and guide it with my fingers as I go.

Once it is all finished, the hems are done in a zig zag so they stay stretchy with the shirt, time to try it on. The best part!

Yeah! It fits. I love the fit of this shirt, it's loose enough that I can eat and my belly doesn't pop out out of the shirt. But it's not too loose that it looks frumpy. Very summery too. No off to the Clipper game on a beautiful warm night.


Happy sewing!


I am linking with: 
DIY Home Sweet Home
Keeping it Simple - Motivate Me Monday
Sumo's Sweet Stuff
Mad in Crafts
Not JUST a Housewife
All Thingz Related

Planter Boxes

1st we have gopher removal...

Well, it is greener then running the hose through the holes for hours. That didn't work anyway.


So you have probably figured out, we have a BIG problem in our garden. That's right, gophers! We thought we caught the little critter, but the next day there were more holes. He is just going up and down the rows eating all my cabbage, broccoli and now he has started to attack the strawberries. Oh My Goodness!! This is so frustrating. We have a little fence around the garden to keep the rabbits out. Putting that up was a ton of work. We used a trench digger to dig down about a foot for the fence and it is about 3 feet high. Works great for the rabbits, but not enough of a barrier for the gophers. So, now we are building planter boxes. Only 1 a months so we can afford it.

We used cedar because cedar and red wood are supposed to hold up in the weather. Cedar is less expensive then red wood, so that's what we choose. The wood also has to be untreated so there are no chemicals to get into the soil. We bought the wood for about $80 and we had to line the bottom with tight chicken wire. That cost about $60, but we will get 3 bottoms out of them. The box is 8 x 4 ft. You can buy them ready to be assembled, but I think they are a bit more expensive for a smaller box.


Here are a few pictures of the construction.

We used these 4x4's to connect the corners, holes were drilled then the screws.

The wire mesh or chicken wire was laid across the bottom...

Then it was held in place with staples from a staple gun.

The lovely box is finished, easy. Now to clear the spot in my sad looking garden.

I must give you the excuses about why my garden is so sad right now. The rain made the weeds grow wild and there are SO many weeds. Then after the rain, it got really hot here, about 80 for a while so the broccoli just flowered away. The garden was all confused, winter stuff stopped growing, spring stuff started, then it got cold again. In the 30's at night. So, there you have it... we are between seasons and nothing grows well. Now I will show you a picture of the SAD, sad garden...

Can you see that red cabbage lying upside down? I picked that up to find a big hole where the roots should be.

Ok, so a couple of things are growing well, the chard that I thought was rhubarb and the artichokes.

Here is what I am dealing with...

Ok, now back to our little planter box. We had to get some dirt, some from the store and some from the rows the the gopher is eating...

Fill it up...

Add some worms...

I almost forgot to tell you what the grey stuff is besides the planter box. I took some ash from the fire place and set that along the outside to keep the ants away. Our strawberries have become the ant hill capital of the garden.

And our lovely box is finished. 

Well, almost. It needs the bell pepper plants and a bit more dirt. Not much though. I am still moving my onions out of my rows and taking dirt from that.

I hope you will check back to see the bell peppers growing. We will be buying them at the arboretum sale in 2 weeks. In the mean time, I'm going to get back to sewing. 

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Sandwich Wraps

Since you guys so kindly told me how much you loved my snack packs, I have been meaning to get to another project that is WAY over due. My sandwich wraps. 

C has one that I bought for too much money since I do sew myself and L doesn't have one at all. So, I am going to try this tutorial thing again with it. It's a little more complicated then the snack packs, but still pretty easy.


First, you will need:
1. Cute Fabric - scraps works well
2. Velcro
3. Food Saver bags
4. Tape

I cut a rectangle 10 x 13.5 inches. You need 2 in the fabric and 1 in the plastic. Save the other 1/2 of the food saver bag for the other sandwich wrap or make a snack pack with it. The sandwich wrap could have been a little bigger, 13.5 x 13.5, but that was as big as I could go with the bags. Then, I cut of the corners. Also, cut an inch of velcro.

Take one piece of the fabric and tape it right side of the fabric to the wrong side of the plastic. Tape, not pin because the pins make little holes in the plastic. As you are sewing, take the tape off just before you get to it. Sew all the way around. This is so the cute side of the fabric shows through when your child opens their lunch.


Sorry! I don't have a picture of this step.


Now, take the other piece of fabric, place the rough velcro on the right, long side in the middle and sew that on. Another opps on my part. I didn't take the picture of this step on the cherries. Also, I hadn't cut the corners yet. I hope it still makes sense. So, use this picture for velcro placement only.

Now, place that piece of fabric with the velcro on it right side down on the right side of the plastic. Slip the soft velcro inside with the fuzzy side toward the plastic. Don't do it the wrong way like me. Now, sew almost all the way around leaving one short side open.

Trim the edges.

Flip the wrap right side out and fold under the open side then sew. NO top stitching, it just makes little holes. Again, sorry! The picture is in the wrong fabric. I chose not to do the tutorial in this fabric because I only did one piece of fabric. It's just not as nice when it's done that way because you can see all the raw edges through it.

Now, it's done. You just need to fold it and put something a little heavy on it over night so the creases form.

There, now you have a reusable baggie for your sandwich and for your veggies. I hope you are inspired to be green and sew. One your kiddos open it up, it's a little place mat.

All of this fabric was scraps I had from past projects. None was bought and my scraps don't ever get thrown away. They come in very handy.


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