Beginner Sewing: How to Trace Clothes to Create Patterns
Summary
No pattern? No problem. In this one I take a pair of 1960s Lilly Pulitzer shorts (already seam-ripped by their previous owner) and trace them onto paper to make a brand-new pattern, then sew a fresh pair out of a vintage tapestry. If you can do a leaf rubbing, you can do this.
- Open the garment all the way up, lay it flat, pin it in place, and trace. Type A or throw-it-on-the-paper, both work.
- Label everything as you go and add seam allowance to your traced lines.
- Pockets can be traced too, like a leaf rubbing, so you do not have to take them off.
- French seams are your friend when your fabric frays like crazy.
Links & resources
- Singer (my Shopify Collabs link): https://collabs.shop/wqlefh
- Depop: https://www.depop.com/timetowastevintage/
Shop related items
Transcript
Today I'm going to show you how to take something you love and turn it into something else that you love through the power of tracing, baby. I have these 1960s Lily Pulitzer shorts and we're going to turn them into the ones that you just saw. Let's CUSS go.
Hi. Hello. So the easiest way to get a pattern when you don't have a pattern is to just trace some CUSS you already have, babies. So these are some 1960s Lily Pulitzer shorts that were actually sent to me having already been seam ripped. So the previous owner had already deconstructed these shorts to be able to do exactly what I'm showing you how to do here. So if you are a type A person, what you're going to do is open those things all the way up, lay them flat, pin them into place, and then start tracing. If you are more like me, you're going to throw them on the piece of paper and hope for the best. That's just my whole ammo. But I do try to at least show you the right way here. I am labeling everything as you see. I'm making little notes of what goes where and where I got the pattern from. And then I fight with scissors for a long time to cut the whole thing out.
After that, I noticed, oh look, there's this pocket. What do you do now? I don't want to take the pocket off. You trace that CUSS. Look. Just just like those leaf rubbings we did back in the day when we were little kids. You just kind of press, you find your lines, you draw them on there, and then you add in a little seam allowance for yourself. It's not that hard. You can do it.
Now, the thing about me is I don't like to use patterns because I don't like to follow rules and I see a pattern as a rule. So as soon as I start cutting out clothes with a pattern, I to not maintain. After this step, you just apply the pattern to the fabric you want to do, and then bada bing, bada boom, you'll have yourself a pair of shorts. Here are the ones I made out of a vintage tapestry. I didn't record the sewing process, but you can see here what I did. I used French seams on the inside because this fabric was fraying like crazy. If you need a tutorial on French seams, let me know. I can do that for you. Uh this is my favorite part where I just totally missed part of the hem on the shorts. And another view of the inside with the French seams. And then here's what they look like on. These were an extra large, and they have a 46 in waist and 46 in hips, so they're a little big on me. And the pattern does not allow for side pockets, but we do have that back pocket. Not too mad at it. Anyway, go forth, prosper. You're amazing. I believe in you.
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