Sewing – Page 5

How To Sew: Taking in Elastic Waist Pants (or Capris or Shorts)

TakingInElasticWaistPants

I’m working on a series of posts about adjusting clothing to fit. To see all of them click here – How to Sew.

My mom recently gave me a pair of capris that didn’t fit her real well (apparently they did until they met the dryer). She thought they might fit me. They are a nice slightly stretchy pair of blue capris. They fit me perfectly except for the waist – it was just slightly too big and gaped in all the wrong places – not good for a kindergarten teacher who needs to be able to move around.

To fix an elastic waist, you need to open up the seam, cut the elastic, resew it, and then close up the seam. Easy enough, right? First, look at the waistband to see how the elastic is put in. On this pair, the elastic is sewn to the capris at the sides.

See the stitching between my fingers? That’s tacking the elastic down. It helps make sure the stretch is even and helps the elastic not to fold in half.

To get to the elastic, you will need to remove some of the waistband stitches. Because the elastic is tacked down at the sides and because I don’t want to rip out the stitches through the elastic, I’ll rip open a small piece on each side of the side seam. If your elastic isn’t tacked down, you’ll only need one opening.

This is the stitching you will need to remove.

The opening only needs to be about 2 inches – enough to pull the elastic out and tighten it.

Seam Opening

Pull the elastic out through the openings and pin it to the desired tightness. Make sure to tighten the front and back equally if the elastic is tacked down. Try them on to be sure they fit.

Pinned Elastic

Double check that you’ve tightened the elastic evenly in the front and back if it’s tacked at the sides.

Make sure the elastic is pinned evenly in front and back.

Once you’ve tried them on and are sure you like the fit, sew the elastic together where you pinned it. Use a ball point needle and either a stretch stitch (I use a triple stretch stitch) or a zigzag to avoid having a tangle of thread. Trim the extra elastic close to your stitching – leave about 1/4″.

Trim elastic close to the seam

Spread the seam flat and using a wide zigzag stitch, sew it down. This will prevent a bulky place in the waistband.

Zigzag seam flat to prevent a bulky spot in the waist

Tuck the elastic back in the waistband and fold the fabric back down. Carefully sew it back down. In this case, I did what is called stitch in the ditch. I sewed in the seam made when the waistband was attached to the capris. This stitching is barely visible when finished. You do need to take your time doing it so that it looks neat when you’re done.

Stitch in the ditch to close up the openings.

The finished stitch in the ditch doesn’t show much.

Finished stitch in the ditch barely shows.

Finished capris – the elastic is evenly stretched between the front and back.

Stitch in the ditch all finished

How To Sew: Taking In A Smocked Shirt

I’m working on a series of posts about adjusting clothing to fit. To see all of them click here – How to Sew.

My daughter was given this shirt. She loved it and wanted to wear it to school right away. I didn’t pay much attention to the size and apparently didn’t really look at it when she tried it on. The back was so gap-py and the front kept creeping down lower than she likes. I put a rubber band around the back to take it in for the day (it was covered by her long hair).

too big shirt neck

The easy part of this was taking in the shoulder seam. I took in about 1/4″ – 1/2″ and narrowed it down to match the existing seam. This helped a little bit.

ShoulderSeam

When the shirt is on, you can’t even tell there’s a little extra seam there.
Take In Shoulder Seam

Fixing the smocking took some thought. My first thought was to add a piece of elastic over the top piece of elastic on the smocking. However, that didn’t work so well and I ended up taking it off. Plan B was to just take tucks on either side. That turned out to be much easier. I only sewed them at the top smocking seam line.

Make a small fold on either side of the smocking

The tucks are barely noticeable.

Now, she can wear the shirt without constantly pulling it up in front and pulling the shoulders back up.

Finished Smocked Shirt

How To Sew: Making A Poinsettia Shirt

I’m working on a series of posts about adjusting clothing to fit. To see all of them click here – How to Sew.

Adding to a store bought t-shirt is a simple way to dress it up for a holiday. For instance, I made these Christmas tie shirts for my boys a couple years ago. Several years ago, I came across this tutorial. I couldn’t wait to try it out, except it was winter and short sleeve shirts and flowers weren’t really on my mind. So, I modified it a bit and made it into a poinsettia. Perfect for a Christmas shirt! You can use a store bought shirt, or if you’re inclined, make your own. For the flower, all you need are a few scraps of Christmas material and a button.

I looked at several poinsettia pictures online and drew a petal pattern. The size of your pattern will depend on how big you want the poinsettia and how big the shirt is. For reference, my model wears a size 10.

I used two different materials. I cut 8 petals from one material and 7 slightly smaller ones from another. You could use the same material or all different materials. It’s totally up to you – customize it to your daughter’s (or your) taste.

Lay them out to make sure you like the look. Depending on the material and size of your flower, you may want more or fewer petals. Once you’re satisfied, pin the first layer down (actually, I sew four down and then lay the next four down). Sew around the edges using your favorite decorative stitch. I used a feather stitch and matching thread. If you’re using plain material you can use a contrasting thread for a little extra touch. If you don’t have a machine that can do different stitches, a straight stitch will work just fine. If you’re really ambitious, you can hand sew them on using a blanket stitch (there are lots of tutorials and videos on google).

Once the first layer is sewn down, lay out the second layer and pin them down. Sew them down the same way.

Tack a button down to the middle.

Make your daughter try it on and admire your handiwork.

How To Sew: Color Blocking a Shirt

I’m working on a series of posts about adjusting clothing to fit. To see all of them click here – How to Sew.

Did you ever find the perfect shirt, only it wasn’t the right size? Maybe you bought matching shirts for kids and then they weren’t the right size. Maybe you found the perfect shirt at your local thrift store and but it was a little too small. Maybe it’s a favorite shirt that’s shrunk a bit. No matter, you can use color blocking to make it fit again.

All you need is a coordinating material scrap that’s about the same weight as the shirt you’re fixing. For this shirt, I choose a plain color because there were already some prints going on. If it’s a solid color shirt, you could add a fun print.

First, take apart the side seams. If you don’t want to rip the seams out, you can cut very close to either side of the seams and remove the seam. Do it all the way up the side and down the arm.

Cut two strips of your material to the length of the side & arm. Don’t forget to add a little bit for the hems on either end and make them wide enough to allow for the seam allowance. I added 1.5 inches to the length and about an inch to the width. Hem the short ends – I made sure the hems matched up to the hems on the shirt so the sleeve hem was a narrow hem and the shirt hem was a little wider.

Pin the hemmed pieces to the sides making sure your hems are at the right end. Sew the seams.

Turn it right side out and admire your work. It’s really an easy project – less than an hour…probably less than 30 minutes if you choose to just cut the seams out.

Have your model try on the shirt.

How To Sew: Adding A Skirt to a Shirt

I’m working on a series of posts about adjusting clothing to fit. To see all of them click here – How to Sew.

My daughter has this long shirt/short skirt that she really likes. She normally wears it with leggings, but recently we’ve noticed that the skirt doesn’t quite cover enough and the tulle is pulling away from the seam. Since she really likes it, I’m going to lengthen the skirt a bit.

The first step is to remove the skirt from the shirt. You can either cut them apart by cutting very close to the seam or use a seam ripper to rip out the seam.

Then, because the tulle was ripping out of the seam, I serged it back to the underskirt.

My daughter picked out this chevron print to be the skirt. I cut a piece the same width as the current skirt and twice as long.

Then I sewed the ends together and hemmed the bottom (I used a rolled hem on my serger, but you can also fold the edge under 1/4″ and then turn it under 1/4″ again and stitch close to the fold).

Then, line up the top edges of the existing skirt and the new skirt and baste them together. Don’t backstitch – you’ll be gathering this to make the skirt fit the shirt.

Pull the stitches up so that it fits the bottom of the t-shirt.

Pin the skirt to the shirt making sure you catch all the layers and make sure all the layers are flat…nothing is more frustrating than having part of the skirt sewn into the seam! Then sew the seam. If needed, pull out the basting stitches. I only pull them out if they show. 😉

Then convince your daughter to try it on and admire your work.

Now it’s long enough that she could wear it without leggings!

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