How To Make Your Favourite Outfit Live Forever

August 2009

31 August 2009 - Jo Williams

Do you have that favorite dress or outfit that you’ve worn to bits? Or, like me, the leopard-print dress that makes your daughter cringes when you wear it? You can make it live forever, you know.

Not to worry if the only pants in the world that fit you are no longer being made. You can make a pattern out of finished clothing and make your favorite garments over and over in updated and seasonally appropriate fabrics. It’s not that difficult, really.

Method 1: For clothes that you won’t wear again, all you need to do is rip apart the seams and copy the pieces onto pattern paper. You may need to cut some pieces apart, making sure you add a seam allowance on the paper pattern piece. Be sure your seam allowances are all uniform, and use a handy see-through ruler. Tip: I find the squared tracing paper very handy, with a grid of centimeter-width lines for reference.

Method 2: For clothes you still want to wear. You won’t want to take these garments apart, so you’ll need to lay each piece out on the pattern paper, and draw each piece, folding and re-folding to get an accurate copy. Start with a simple garment with few pieces, like a simple T-shirt or skirt, until you are practiced. After you draw the piece, add a uniform seam allowance. Pin the pieces onto the garment to make sure they are accurate. It’s rare that I get a piece perfect the first time, so I keep the paper scraps and tape close-by to add here and there to the paper pattern. Tip: I really love my French Curve! It helps when drawing the curves in your pattern pieces.

If you’re not the type to learn by trial and error, or if you haven’t the time, there is a great book that shows how to make patterns from finished clothes. Years ago, I had the aptly named book, Making Patterns from Finished Clothes, by Rusty Bensussen. (I loaned it out, forgot to whom, have since bought another copy:)

A Handy Skill

The best thing about learning to copy finished clothes into patterns is mixing and matching. Would you love this sleeve on that bodice, with the other collar? If you learn the skill of pattern-making, then the sky’s the limit to your creativity and individual style.

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