Tutorial: How to Make a Pattern for Jersey Maternity/Pregnancy Tops

Two weeks ago I posted about some maternity jersey tops I made for a lovely lady who currently has a bun in the oven. I said that, if enough people were interested, I'd be happy to make a tutorial on how to adapt a jersey top pattern into a maternity/pregnancy friendly one. A lot of people voiced a desire to see such a tutorial, so as promised here it is!

Aside from the glow of knowing I could share some sewing knowledge that would help others, that post also made me really happy when I got a few comments from lovely ladies saying how much they would have loved to have receive the pregnancy tops I made Emily when they themselves were pregnant. I hear from my friends and acquaintances who have been pregnant how poor the selection of clothing available for maternity can be, unless you have a lot of money. I'm all for wardrobe self-sufficiency, so if this tutorial can help a few women alleviate a couple of wardrobe head-aches during a time that is apparently to tricky to dress through, then I'll be very pleased.

Which pattern? Which size?

The pattern alterations I'm describing here are to materni-fy fairly fitted jersey tops, so close fitting T-shirt styles like Burdastyle's Lydia, Sewaholic's Renfrew or my very own vest/camisole/singlet pattern are all good starting points.

Now, I've never been pregnant myself, so I've only got my friends' word on how their bodies changed during pregnancy to go by. So, from what they say, I'd recommend starting with a size larger or half a size larger than you made/would have made before you (or whoever you are making this top for) were pregnant. This will accommodate for the fuller bust, hips and so on that usually accompanies the expanding bump.

For this tutorial I used my downloadable vest/camisole/singlet pattern. I had in mind a pregnant friend  who used to wear UK size 10-12 before her pregnancy, so I started with the size 12 on the pattern.

Please note: every body is different, and I'm certainly no expert on the variety of pregnant ones! Please use this tutorial as a guide rather than gospel. You may find your (or whoever this top is for's) bump may be higher/lower/larger/smaller than the garment produced from these instructions can suitably accommodate. Therefore, you may need to make some changes to the instructions below and try again before you get a successfully fitting garment. Do leave a comment below to let us know how you got on, it may help out others who are giving this a go.

Step 1:

Hold your front pattern piece against your body and figure out where your natural waist line is on the pattern. Make a pencil mark on your pattern 5 cms / 2" above your natural waist line on the side seam.

Step 2:

Make another mark 14 cms / 5 ½" below the first mark.

Step 3:

Transfer those marks onto your back pattern piece at the corresponding point on the side seam. 

Step 4:

Get a piece of pattern cutting/drafting paper (the back of wrapping paper, grease-proof paper or baking parchment can be used if you don't have pattern cutting paper) and draw in your centre front line. Line up the centre front of your pattern piece on the line. Make sure you have extra space on the paper at the bottom of the pattern.

Step 5:

Trace round the top of your front pattern piece until the lower side seam mark. Make both side seam marks on the pattern paper. Remove your original front pattern piece.

Step 6:

Measure 12 cms / 5" down from the lower side seam mark roughly parallel to the centre front and make a third mark.

Step 7:

Place your original front pattern piece back on your paper, making sure both centre fronts are matching up. Align the lower mark on your original front pattern piece with the new third mark on your paper.

Step 8:

Draw round the original front pattern piece from the lower mark and around the bottom of your pattern. Remove your original front pattern piece from your paper.

Your side seam should now look like the picture below, with three marks and a gap between the lower two marks.

Step 9:

If you simply draw a line between the two lower marks, your side seam will look crooked. You need to make a smooth line with a gentle curve.

See in the picture below, to make my side seam into a nice gentle, smooth curve, I actually started my extended line at the side seam before the middle mark and ended it at the side seam below the lower mark.

Step 10:

When you are happy with the smooth line you have created, erase the middle mark and any confusing lines which are messing up your new side seam.

If you bring your original front pattern piece against your newly drafted maternity front pattern piece to compare them, the difference should look like the picture below.

Side Seam Construction Notes

Your new front pattern piece is now obviously considerably longer than your back pattern piece. This difference of measurements is contained between the two sets of marks (you have an upper and lower mark on the side seam of both your front and back pieces). Begin stitching your side seams from the top and stop when you reach the first marks. Now you will need to gather the extra front piece fabric into the distance between the marks on your back piece so that your lower marks can meet and you can finish stitching the rest of the side seam to the hem.

You may wish you create 'tram lines' of wide straight stitch within the seam allowance between the two marks on the front piece and gather this section before you begin stitching the side seams. Or you may choose the more renegade approach like me and create the gathers by eye by pushing the extra front piece fabric in with your fingers as you stitch the side seam. Alternatively, you may prefer to create little pleats rather than gathers to feed in the extra front piece fabric.

Hem Band

Now to make the band that attaches to the hem. This band is not essential and can be omitted if you wish, but it really helps to keep the hem of the top under control underneath the bump, it stops the garment from riding up and generally gives shape to the whole garment. Plus, the band will stop the hem of your top from getting misshapen or baggy quickly when the garment gets taken on and off repeatedly.

   The additional band will make your top a bit longer than the original pattern intended, which is probably a good thing as a maternity top that is a bit short probably isn't going to feel very nice or be very practical. But exactly how much longer you want the maternity version to be is, of course, up to you. Because the original vest pattern I have been using is a quite a long length already, plus my pregnant friend is quite petite, I opted to fold back the hem allowance of the original vest pattern before adding my band so the overall length will only increase by a small amount.

Step 11:

The band is made from one long rectangle and is cut from the jersey fabric so the least amount of stretch runs lengthwise (usually along the grainline which runs parallel to the selvedge). To figure out the length of your hem band, measure the bottom edge of your front pattern piece, minus the seam allowance. Then measure the bottom edge of your back pattern piece, minus the seam allowance, and add it to the front measurement. Multiply this figure by two to get the total length of your garment hem. Next, minus 4 cms / 1 ½" which makes your band a bit smaller and therefore tighter than the bottom of your garment hem. Then add two seam allowances so you can stitch it together on one side. For example, the seam allowance of my vest top is 1 cm, so I added 2 cms. 

Hem Band Construction Notes

To construct your top with a band at the hem, stitch one side seam together, but leave the other open for now. Then fold your band in half along the length and pin it to the bottom edge of your garment at the beginning and end, against the right side of the bottom edge of your top. Find the midway point of the band and pin it to the side seam point on the top. Add a few more pins in between if you wish to secure the edges together when you sew them. Because the  band is slightly shorter than the length of your garment edge, you'll need to stretch the band slightly as you sew to ease them together leaving no excess garment at either end of the seam and no pleats or tucks along the seam. Now your band is attached to the bottom edge of your garment, you can stitch your second side seam together, which will bring the band ends together as well as part of that seam. 

If any of this doesn't make sense, or you'd like to add anything you think would help someone trying this out, please leave a comment. Good luck and happy materni-sewing!

Lace Appliqué Bolero Shrug

One of the things I worked on during Me-Made-May '12 was figuring out how to work my reversible bolero shrug into my handmade outfits. At the time, I'd just finished it and was hoping it would provide a me-made alternative to the ratty secondhand and thrifted cardigans I always rely on to provide much needed layers. I succeeded in working it into different outfits and it is now a fully integrated wardrobe item. So what do you do once you've made a successful new garment that you enjoy wearing? Make another from the same pattern in a different colour, of course!

So when some stinky synthetic red double knit appeared at work, I thought 'Aha!'. I wear lots of colours that work well with red and I felt that a red bolero shrug would be very useful addition. I used the same pattern as the first version (pictured above) and decided to make it double layered like the first as well. Unlike the first version, I actually had enough red double knit to cut both the layers from so I didn't need to worry about different colours peeking out like I sometimes do with the emerald/black version.

But how to make it more interesting than just a plain red shrug? A post I wrote for the Colette Patterns blog a few years ago discussed lace appliqués and their ability to lift a solid coloured garment. I dug around a found a pretty floral corsage-style lace appliqué. It was actually quite a bit bigger to begin with, but when the shrug was half-made, I positioned the appliqué on the shrug and kept trimming sections away from the appliqué until it reached a proportion and placement that looked good. I then hand-stitched it to the bolero before attaching the two halves and completing the construction of the garment. 

But wait, where has the appliqué gone in the photo above? Well, it's double sided, isn't it?! Genius. When I'm wearing an outfit (an anchor-based outfit for example) that wouldn't suit the introduction of a lace element, I can turn the shrug inside out and wear the plain side.

Aside from colour and the lace detail, the other difference between this version and the emerald/black version is the altered the width of the sleeves. The first bolero shrug definitely feels a bit 'jacket-y' because of the sleeves. For this I wanted to achieve a more cardigan-like garment that would fit under a coat or jacket with ease. All in all, I'm really happy with this garment, but the fabric is a bit of a disappointment (aside from the smell which remains slightly even after washing!). As someone committed to using secondhand fabric only, beggars can't be choosers, and it turns out this synthetic double knit doesn't hold it's shape as well as the emerald or black double knits I used before have. The red garment is a bit baggy at the bottom at the back, and the collar area doesn't sit quite as cleanly as I would have like. Still, if the fabric can keep its sh*t together enough for a few months of wear, it will have been a success and a worthwhile sewing project in my view.

Me-Made-Outift of the Week

Me-mades:

Navy cropped trousers

Captain Jacket

Mariner T-shirt

New red bolero shrug (not previously blogged)

Pants (knickers)

(Necklace by Rock Cakes)

After last week's not-quite-so-successful nautical ensemble, I was determined to do better and nail an outfit comprising of the kind of themed garments that I seem to be developing a reputation for! I feel much happier with this one. Not only does it look less uniform-y, but it's also really comfortable. I've very excited to unveil my new red bolero shrug, which I'll blog about next week. Happy Sunday!

Refashion Friday Tips: How to Use T-shirts to make Vests / Camisoles /Singlets

It's Friday!!!! You know what that means? Yep, it's time for another instalment of Refashion Friday. Today I want to talk about using existing T-shirts to make the vest/camisole/singlet pattern I recently released for free download. I've made a few of these vests using old T-shirts now and it's been a lot of fun making this super-quick project out of garments that were otherwise heading to the textiles bin.

I love the idea of taking a big old T-shirt you no longer wear and making something useful from it, possibly to sleep in. Or maybe even use an old T-shirt that your partner or family member used to wear that reminds you of them or has a nice memory attached to it. I'm now wishing I hadn't chucked out my old Nirvana and Newman & Baddiel T-shirts! Anyways, on the practicalities of this project.

Once you've downloaded the pattern and instructions, it's time to select your raw material. Plain T-shirts are great for a clean simple look (particularly if you want to wear it under other garments that might be a bit sheer) but lots of fun can also be had incorporating existing prints or features into your final garment.

To illustrate this post I selected an old Quiksilver T-shirt and a grey marl T-shirt with a little pocket detail. Both T-shirts are mens garments, the red one a large and the grey one a small. At risk of stating the obvious: the larger the original garment, the easier it is to position your vest pattern pieces onto it. In fact I could only squeeze out a vest a size smaller than I would have preferred from the small grey T-shirt. It's easy to forget how slim hipped some guys can be. Even if you are a petite chica, it might be tricky to get your vest out of a particularly small or slim mens T-shirt.  

I'm sure there are plenty of equally great ways to prepare a T-shirt to recut, but I'll show you the way I've found to be quickest. I find it easier to give the T-shirt a quick press with the iron at the start so it is nice and flat. When the vest pieces have been cut, the raw edges have a tendency to curl so pressing whilst it's still in garment-form is simpler. Then I roughly remove the sleeves.

Next I cut up along both side seams.

At this point the shoulder seams and neck hole is still intact because there's no need to cut them, but you may prefer to cut along the shoulder seams and separate the front and back so you are dealing with them separately. I fold the front and back pieces in half along the centre front and centre back. This may sound easier than it sometimes is because often the fabric for the original T-shirt wasn't cut well so the hem might not lie evenly as it does in the picture below. Make sure the hem lays evenly and at a right angle to the centre front or centre back.  

When placing the front pattern piece on the front half of the T-shirt, I made sure the pocket was sitting in an appropriate position for the vest. Luckily it sat in a good position and I was also able to incorporate the original hem. You can see in the photo below that I aligned the fold line of the pattern along the bottom edge of the T-shirt because I didn't need create a new hem.

I wasn't quite so lucky when cutting out the vest from the red T-shirt. For the red T-shirt's logo to sit in a good position, the front vest pattern piece had to sit too high on the T-shirt to be able to incorporate the original garment's hem (see below). You win some, you lose some. I'd like to find another T-shirt with a big printed design and try cutting out the vest so that only part of the design ended up included in the vest. I think that would give a cool effect and really play off the fact that the vest used to be something different in a former life.

Is anyone planning on making their own version of the vest/camisole/singlet pattern this weekend? If so, what fabric or garment do you plan to use? Happy sewing lovely peops.

Free Downloadable PDF Pattern: Vest / Camisole / Singlet

I am so thoroughly excited to be able to offer you my first self-drafted FREE sewing pattern!!! It consists of two downloadable PDF documents, one containing the pattern pieces and the second containing full instructions on how to use this pattern and construct the garment. You will find links to both PDF documents on my 'Free Patterns' page.

This pattern has been graded to include UK sizes 8 - 16, which is US sizes 6 -14, Euro sizes 36 - 44 (Australian, Japanese and Italian sizes also explained in the size guide in the instruction PDF). It needs less than 60 cms or 1 yard of jersey, or even a large T-shirt plus some elastic and thread. Full details are included in the instructions document.

Thanks to the eccentricities of language and cultural difference, there appears to be no single English word for this type of garment, what I grew up calling a 'vest' is known to others as a 'camisole', 'singlet' and probably a myriad of other terms. But what I think most would agree on is how useful this type of garment can be. Whether you live somewhere that gets very hot, or are planning a holiday/vacation to such a place, this little garment might be just the ticket. Equally, if you want to keep warm, this will create a welcome extra layer under your clothing without adding bulk to your outfit. I can also recommend them for sleeping in!

This is such a speedy sewing project, and a great way to use up small amounts of jersey. I'll be specifically addressing how to use unwanted T-shirts with this pattern and sharing extra tips for doing so this Friday as the next instalment of my weekly Refashion Friday feature. So head over to the 'Free Patterns' page to download your own copy of this pattern and instructions.

I'd like to say a massive thanks to Claire from 'Sew Incidentally' for digitising this pattern and for being so patient and generally awesome. A truly generous lady.

Soon to come: free pants / knickers / undies pattern. Combined with this vest pattern, you'll be able to make yourself a super-cute undies set!

Me-Made-Outfit of the Week

Me-mades:

Navy sateen tulip skirt

Jersey peplum top

Captain Jacket

Pants (knickers)

Vest (camisole)

(Second hand cardigan)

When does 'put together' cross over into 'uniform-y'? That's my question today. This is my best outfit this week, mainly because it's been a shitty week and I've pretty much been wearing the same sloppy trousers each day until today when I decided to celebrate the weekend by wearing a skirt. When I was planning on what to wear with this super comfy navy sateen skirt, I thought these garments would work well. But upon reflection I think they may work too well, you know as in kind of like a uniform? Maybe if I'd chosen a denim skirt the look would be a bit more casual? Hmmm, there's a lesson to be learnt somewhere here, I'm just not quite sure what it is...   

Refashion Friday Tips: How to Select Jeans for Refashioning

(image source)

I very much believe that there are no 'right' or 'wrong' ways to do anything when making garments. There are indeed a whole load of techniques, methods and approaches you can learn, but it's personal preferences and inclinations that determine when and how any of them should be implemented. This is partly why sewing is such a creative activity. And sewing's openness to interpretation and free-wheeling is even more pronounced when it comes to refashioning or remaking existing garments, when  maybe your text book's technique suggestion might not apply.

Because there are no 'correct' or 'incorrect' approaches, I am no more qualified than the next sewer to make a judgement on how to refashion unwanted garments. However, I have spent an unusually large amount of time thinking about and 'practising' the art of refashioning over the last couple of years during which I have accrued lots of tips, tricks and techniques that might come in handy to those who are a little newer to it. Equally, I'm sure there are loads of things I can learn from other sewers, and that's why sewing blogs are so frikkin' awesome!

All my 'Refashion Friday' posts will be about reusing unwanted garments that are very common and easy for most people to get hold of. It shouldn't be too much of a challenge to source any of the basic garments from a charity shop/thrift store/op shop, if not from cupboards in your own home!

Today I want to talk about one of the most common garments on the planet: jeans. With something as ubiquitous as jeans, surely we can come up with some awesome things to do with some of the unwanted ones? Of course we can! But first up, with jeans being in such ready supply, what should we look for when picking some to start a refashioning project?

What do you plan to make? This is going to have a big impact on what pair of jeans you choose. Broadly speaking, most projects I've seen that started out as a pair of jeans fall into one of two camps.

(image source)

The first are projects that still very much retain a jeans-like appearance like cut-off shorts, skirts made from unpicking the inside leg-seams and stitching them down in a different position (example pictured above), simple shoulder bags made from the top of jeans, and so on. For these types of projects, you need only concentrate on the appearance of the top section of the garment and the sizing.

The second type of jeans-based projects use the original garment as a source of denim fabric. This camp of projects are my personal favourite because there are less restrictions in terms of imagination, but they can also require a bit more thought when selecting the initial garment/s.

Size of the jeans. As with all refashioning and remaking of existing garments, the bigger the garment, the more fabric you have to play with. That is why, unless you are planning on making something from the first camp of projects that require a certain waist measurement, you may be best to entirely disregard women's jeans when shopping in the charity shop. The larger sizes of men's garments, when cut apart or unpicked, can provide you with a huge amount of fabric.

When trying to get the most fabric from the jeans, you'll find widest part will be what I charmingly call the 'under-bum area'. From the side seam to the inside leg, underneath the back pocket, is a wealth of denim. So, as grim as this sounds, this area might be your first port of call when assessing the condition of your prospective pair of jeans. Any fading, thinnest from wear or even holes (see picture above) will restrict the amount of harvestable denim from that section.

Similarly, you need to watch for other areas that are easily damaged through wear. To state the obvious, thinning, fading and holes appear most frequently at the knees and back heel area (see picture above). Both will effect how useful the legs of the jeans are to you, especially the knee-area. Fading is one thing: you might actually want to incorporate some cool knee-fading or 'designer' fading and worn effects into your project somehow. But be careful that the knee area  hasn't worn too thin or even become permanently misshapen (see picture below) through the original owner's wear and tear.

Side seams. Unless you are planning on only harvesting long strips of denim, you'll probably want to cut up along one of the side seams to lie the denim flat to get maximum use from the legs. You can lie the centre front of a pattern piece along the side seam and get a fairly decent sized piece out of some jeans. If that is something you might want to do, a straight legged style of jeans (se picture below) might be important rather than a flared or boot cut style that will have curved leg seams and restrict your options. Also, if you want to retain one of the leg seams in your project, before you get too scissor-happy, decide if it's the lapped seam with its twin rows of top stitching or the standard seam with no visible stitching you want to be at the centre of your pattern piece, as most pairs of jeans have both forming each leg.

Another point to consider if you choose to select men's jeans for your project is that dude's jeans are not made with any quantity of stretch (elastane or lycra). Unless you are dealing with some hipster skinny jean styles of course, (and if you are, good luck harvesting any denim from them!). Once again, it barely needs stating, but consider what type of thickness or properties of denim will work best for your project when choosing jeans to work with. Strong, thick denim (like the jeans in the picture above) can be ace for certain things (bags, facings etc), just as lighter or stretchier denim is better for other things. If you require some stretch for your project (maybe you are creating a bustier, for example), I'd advise trying to find a large size of women's jeans for your purposes.

(image source)

My final point is colour. Most likely, whatever you make from jeans will be formed from panels (ideas to come in future instalments of 'Refashion Friday') and it is also very likely that your project may require more than one pair of jeans. When faced with multiple pairs of jeans, its amazing how much variety within 'blue' or 'black' there can be. It can be a bit of headache if you want to match colours exactly to create a very cohesive look to your final project. When I want to create something with a single tone and shade, I often use jeans from the same brand (usually Levi's or sometimes Wrangler) as you have more control over the uniformity of colour. Please remember that lots of fun and interesting effects can be created by combining slightly or very different tones and shades of denim jeans in the same project (see picture above).

Now I fear I've either put you off trying to work with jeans because I've laid down heaps of things to consider, or you think I'm slightly mental for spending quite so much time thinking about other people's unwanted jeans!