Design Your Own Clothes

 I am fairly new to sewing clothes, having just recently started sewing again during lockdown 2020. While I love shopping for new patterns, the part about Sewing which really interests me is the part where you can make it your own or add a hack.

My sister bought me a lovely book for my birthday this year called Sew Many Dresses, Sew Little Time. I also have a book called Sewing Basics For Every Body. The first book has a number of basic bodice patterns, a number of skirt patterns, neckline templates and a selection of sleeve patterns. The idea is to mix and match to create a dress - as many as 200. The second book has a few patterns that can be personalised, one of which uses two patterns to create a boilersuit. I thought that maybe it would be great to take it a step further and look at adapting trousers and shorts and even Culottes to add to the patterns in the first book to work towards a stash of interchangeable patterns that can be used over and over to create many new original items of clothing that nobody else will have. Ideally, it would be lovely to incorporate components from other patterns to create new things

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I will take you through the process as I go. I will also do a series of YouTube videos to accompany this blog and show you what to look out for, as I find them.  Just to be clear, I am not an advanced sewer, so I will keep within the limits of my ability. Hopefully, it will be easier for others to follow, too. 

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In my normal work, I work on Autocad and I am involved in using some standard and fully bespoke products in the construction industry, often requiring bespoke ways of assembling (and checking by the Engineering department) to create what the client wants to a safe standard. 

I can't see how this process is any different. I am not talking about copying from patterns to sell, that would be an infringement of copyright. Nothing is stopping you from buying a collection of relevant patterns and adapting them for your personal use. 

I can't see why more advanced sewers could not build upon this principle for other types of clothes, like jackets. I think I will try making at least one jacket before I try this with a Jacket, but I think you get the gist... 

My understanding of the basics is that you start with a block or sloper - a pattern which you know fits your shape and then you build on that. In fact, it is possible to buy some sewing patterns that can be manipulated in Autocad. I think it would be a lot simpler and edifying to use paper patterns and tracing for this exercise. I want actual pieces I can join and cut a new outfit from in a relatively short time. I don't want a project to take weeks and I don't want to reinvent the wheel. 

I will start by measuring myself and checking which pattern size would be best. I will use a full dress pattern from the dress book and I will cut the traced pattern as directed in the book. I will also find a trouser pattern, trace and cut it out, being careful to include the waistline in all the drawings. I will use this to check the length and width of the matching skirt and tape the matching pieces to the table and to check the darts line up - I will move them if necessary. I will make the first in very cheap polycotton, and hopefully, I'll be able to actually get some use from it. 

Here, above is the size chart in the book, you will see my sizes should have been graded on the multi-size pattern.

I measured for ease in the length of the jumpsuit so that it is comfortable to wear. Obviously, dresses don't have this issue - I did not need to alter the length - I simply matched up the 'waistlines, clipped it and did some stretches to check the fit and length. This could be because the shorts were taken from a playsuit design - its still worth checking the length for your first make from any pattern for a playsuit.

Please note that some of the links here are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission if you buy anything from the links on this page. 

So first things first :

Here is the shorts the pattern I used :

I also used the basic bodice and skirt (for measuring and comparison) from this book:

The first thing I did was to compare the waist sizes and traced the patterns based on the waist measurement.

I compared the shorts pattern to the standard shift dress skirt pattern and adjusted the darts on the rear of the shorts. The front 'dart' is taken up where the pocket is sewn onto the shorts.

As it turns out, I needed to take in the bodice and the shorts at the hips and bust at the side seams - but this process is to be expected the first time you make a pattern if you choose not to grade according to the size chart. I have transferred these adjustments back to my paper pattern so I will not need to make this adjustment next time. I now also have a good template to measure a new pattern to - now I know this bodice has the right amount of ease and fits well. Something to keep in mind when using a new pattern - there is nothing stopping you from comparing the paper cut-out with a previously successful pattern.

I think that you can mix any pattern if you compare and match the waistline and darts from the original pattern piece you swap out.

This was the first time I made either of the patterns and I have worked out, by revisiting the pattern after adjusting the fabric version, that these patterns lend themselves well to grading between sizes. At some point, I will try a modification to this bodice to design something new.

Here is a picture of it before I finished the hems, sleeves and neckline. I am very happy with the fit. I will show you how it turned out in a catchup video soon.

If you just couldn't be bothered to sew a jumpsuit - now that the weather is set to improve - you can buy one like the one below and pair it, or this sewn one, with accessories like those below.

Black Espadrilles   Sunglasses   Handbag  Earrings

Playsuit you can buy if you don’t want to sew one

Please see the video that goes with this post - I actually show you the comparisons. I only 'talk' for the first 3,5 minutes or so, the rest is sort of a sew along - just showing the important bits.

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