Did you use patterns on your sewing projects? I always thought it would be fun to make some cute AB clothes and learn to sew but making them from scratch seems daunting.
No, I didnât! And it isnât daunting at all, itâs super easy to learn and very rewarding. Plan to make two the first time, one for practice and one with your refined changes.
First, choose your fabric, and make sure itâs the right type. You want a nice, comfortable, stretchy cotton, similar to a t-shirt or onesie. With a cute print of course ;) Note how fabric has a top/bottom and left/right, which you can usually tell by following the ribs. They should run vertically, so that the fabric stretches most from side to side, with the ribs stretching apart. If you donât get what I mean by ribs have a close look at whatever youâre wearing - the fabric should be made of lines running up its length, those are the ribs.
Fold your fabric in half so it doubles up. Youâre going to cut the front and back at the same time, then modify the front after. V important note: always cut your fabric right side to right side, as in the sides with the pattern should be facing one another. This is because you will later flip them inside out after youâve sewed them together, to hide the seam where you sewed. Always double check, right side facing right side!
Now lay down a nice fitting onesie so that it matches the ribs. Iâve made the mistake of cutting the wrong way, and the onesie didnât fit as the fabric didnât stretch the right way! So yeah, lay it down, and make it nice and flat and even.
Trace the onesie with a pencil, allowing a gap between your line and the onesie of 1-2 inches. I usually do 2 or more because when you sew the fabric together later youâre going to have a bit excess which you cut off to make it look nice. That means youâre slicing off a cm or two of fabric, and if you didnât allow for this youâre going to have a very tight fitting onesie. I reckon bigger the better, so start wide with your practice one. When you get to the sleeves, fold them in so you can continue tracing the body of the onesie. Continue around the collar and finish.
I donât usually bother with pins, but if youâve never cut fabric or used a machine before definitely pin everything together. Donât be shy, use as many as you need, then you wonât have to worry about messing it up by accident. Itâs always annoying having to stop to re-flatten and line everything up.
Now cut out both layers of fabric. You have your basic pattern, minus sleeves which weâll get to later. Time to refine the pattern, first by taking one layer which will be your back - fold it in half vertically and trim the edges so that they are even - you donât want a lopsided onesie.
Now for the front. You can either eyeball it, or you can lay your onesie down the other way around and kind of fold it up as you trace to get the line of the front collar - youâll need to bring it in (front collars hang lower than back collars) as well as the bottom where it comes in at the crotch. The back is wider to cover your butt, the front should be thinner to hug your crotch. Cut off the excess fabric. Make sure the fabric is still right side to right side!
I jump ahead here and sew the sides, just so I can tick something off the to do list. Look up some youtube sewing tutorials, or much better, ask someone to show you how to use a machine. Having someone actually sit there to answer all the million questions that will come to your head helps things along. I felt confident on the machine after a bit of supervision, and didnât need to ask for help after a week. So Iâm going to assume you have a bit of know how. Sew both sides, making sure you reverse stitch at the stop and bottom to secure the thread. Then sew the bridges between your shoulder and neck. Check your original onesie to see how they did it - you start at the bottom where your legs will come through, and finish at the armpit. Donât sew over the arm holes or collar! I donât know which stitch is the best to use - I just used the single stitch setting and havenât had any issues. An interlocker would be ideal, no clue how to use one.
Now lay down either the same or different fabric - Iâve found white/block colour sleeves and cuffs with a patterned body looks super duper cute!! Quadruple it up, two layers of right side to right side. Lay down your onesie and with the same width margin trace the sleeve. Cut out your four layers, pair them up (right side to right side) and sew the top and bottom.
Sleeves are a bit tricky to attach to the body, but luckily youtube comes through. You want to match an edge of the body to an edge of sleeve, right side to right side, pin them all together into a circle, then sew while slowly rotating. It sounds complicated, it looks complicated, itâs a breeze.
Now that everythingâs sewn together trim the excess fabric. Donât cut it too close to the stitch or you risk cutting your stitch or weakening the fabric. I can get a bit OCD, Iâll trim for an hour til itâs straight and even haha - itâs so not important, you now fold it inside out to hide the seams - looking good hey!
Now a bloody annoying part, cuffs. Again, youtube. Basically you take a heavily ribbed fabric - you can usually get prepared loops of cuffs or at least specific cuff fabric. Itâs usually a bit stretchy as well. Lay it against your onesie to get the length of your arm, collar and bottom cuffs. Cut them a bit smaller, like a centimetre - when you pin them to the onesie stretch them horizontally a little - then when you finish sewing theyâll pull in a tiny bit, making a nice fit!
So yeah, there are a few ways to sew cuffs. I use heaps of pins, folding a little lip in the cuff fabric, laying it against the fabric edge with the lip between the outer-cuff and the onesie body to hide the cuffâs edge, fold the cuff fabric over the edge of the onesie and flatten it against the inside. Then everything is sewn together. I donât expect you to follow that, you really need visuals hereâŚyoutube!
Finish all the cuffs and it should be looking pro! Same, trim the excess cuff fabric on the inside.
Last step, snaps. Head to your local fabric store and ask them how you attach snaps. They sell them in packs with a little tool that you fit over the top of a snap piece then hammer to attach it to the fabric. The annoying thing is the all the different pieces that make up the one snap, you need to get them the right way up, and make sure theyâre paired together, and perfectly snug under the toolâŚdefinitely by heaps more than you expect to us, I screw up at least two per onesie! Also, donât hammer too hard as the prongs on the snap pieces can rip at the fabric, especially if you have to remove a bung one and try again. Copy however many snaps you have on your original onesie, and the placement. Iâve found the best way is to completely attach a centre snap, try on the onesie and snap it to make sure itâs right, then take it off and attach one on either side, evenly spaced.
I think thatâs it! You can get creative with different colour combos with the cuffs, sleeves, eve the snaps. Itâs super fun, very easy, and so rewarding. Donât forget to post pics if you get around to it one day! (no rush, sewing machines ainât going anywhere :P )
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