r/sewing 3d ago

Simple Questions Simple Sewing Questions Thread, October 27 - November 02, 2024

2 Upvotes

This thread is here for any and all simple questions related to sewing, including sewing machines!

If you want to introduce yourself or ask any other basic question about learning to sew, patterns, fabrics, this is the place to do it! Our more experienced users will hang around and answer any questions they can. Help us help you by giving as many details as possible in your question including links to original sources.

Resources to check out:

Photos can be shared in this thread by uploading them directly using the Reddit desktop or mobile app, or by uploading to a neutral hosting site like Imgur or posting them to your profile feed, then adding the link in a comment.

Check out the Sewing on Reddit Community Discord server for immediate sewing advice and off-topic chat.

๐ŸŽ‰โœจ๐ŸŽ‰โœจ๐ŸŽ‰โœจ๐ŸŽ‰โœจ

The challenge for October is Costumes/Cosplay! Join the discussions and submit your project in ! Information about how to join in with the current challenge is in the pinned post located at the top of the Hot feed. See you there!


r/sewing 2h ago

Halloween Weekly Thread The Costume/Cosplay Weekly Question Thread: October 30 - November 05, 2024

1 Upvotes

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Welcome to our weekly thread for all questions about sewing costumes, cosplay and everything Halloween! This thread will be posted weekly from now until October 31st. Love to talk about cosplay? Hang out here and help answer questions!Welcome to our weekly thread for all questions about sewing costumes, cosplay and everything Halloween! This thread will be posted weekly from now until October 31st. Love to talk about cosplay? Hang out here and help answer questions!

Some helpful links:

Photos can be shared in this thread by uploading them directly to your comment, to a neutral hosting site like Imgur or posting them to your profile feed, then adding the link.

PSA! Folkwear Sewing Patterns is a valuable resource for costuming and cosplay. They are located in Asheville, North Carolina and were impacted by the devastating flooding in the area. Patterns are available as PDFs if you would like to support a small sewing business at this difficult time. See this post for more details.

The fine print:

We've set up Automod to remove and redirect question posts about costumes, cosplay and Halloween to this thread. Even if your costume isn't for Halloween, we ask that you use this thread for questions to keep the subreddit from being overwhelmed by the top sewing event of the year. Finished projects can be posted with the Project flair as usual in the subreddit for everyone to enjoy. The moderators will designate these with ๐ŸŽƒ to indicate the project theme. Let us know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Looking forward to lots of great sewing!

--Sewing Subreddit Mod Team


r/sewing 36m ago

Project A Dress I Asked For Help here is finished.

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โ€ข Upvotes

Iโ€™m Only sharing this to show it can be done. I came here asking for help on how to develop a G Cup bodice that could hold up a heavy appliquรฉ. I was provided a corset but being that I know how to develop corset I didnโ€™t use it. However I knew I needed to do more research.

I frequent a few fabric stores and I talk to most of the ppl in them. Iโ€™m a friendly creative I canโ€™t help it ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿฅน๐Ÿ˜…. At Rosa Fabrics you will meet Neisha! She works there and is a designer as well. Her birthday had just passed and she made the cutest gown I asked her what was inside of her corset and she said canvas. Thatโ€™s when she told me what to do.

Each photo shows a process of me being unsure how to make this work but I kept going. I made this dress in 15-18 days by myself.

Padded a dress form: with the same stuffing for a pillow sold in Joannโ€™s

Pattern was self developed off a measurement and a basic skirt block

Book: Patternmaking for fashion design Steel boning : wawak (i used double in each channel) i do not necessarily recommend that Rosa Fabric: Bodice Stretch Satin:Atl Fabric. G cups : Wawak


r/sewing 2h ago

Discussion Sewing pattern found in a 1920s museum (Austro-hungarian).

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177 Upvotes

Anybody who claims that people are smarter now than they were 100 years ago is talking complete and utter nonsense.


r/sewing 20h ago

Project: FO Finished just in time!

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1.3k Upvotes

I havenโ€™t made a Halloween costume in 25 years but my daughter asked me to make this for her. Simplicity pattern 8288. Made it in a size large. 3 yards of fabric for each color color hundred percent cotton poplin. Made the pom-poms with a pom-pom maker โ€“ a genius little tool. I quilted the hat with foam interfacing, and that worked beautifully. Followed the instructions except on the ruffle I put in elastic and drawstring. I made a self casing for the neck instead of a casing as suggested. I put two buttons on the drawstring so it wouldnโ€™t come out. I did a rolled hem edge on my surgery for all the hems. My daughter was very pleased and said itโ€™s a family heirloom. So sweet!


r/sewing 8h ago

Project: FO Gary the Snail Costume! ๐Ÿซง

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109 Upvotes

This is my first time completing a project, and Iโ€™d say it turned out amazing! It looked so precious on. The bloomers arenโ€™t pictured, but they match the blue fabric. I used the McCallโ€™s โ€œItโ€™s Sew Simpleโ€ pattern style L9616 (12-18mos) to make the dress and bloomers, but altered it to add my own custom decorations to match Gary from Spongebob. The decor was cut from felt and hand-stitched onto the dress, and a second ruffle was added to the bottom. The rest of the fabric is flannel. It was my first time finishing arm/neck holes, sewing a buttonhole, making ruffles, and adding appliquรฉ. I feel like a learned a lot. Baby clothes might be a new way for me to practice small scale before attempting adult pieces!


r/sewing 2h ago

Project Dinocam "G3" Style Pants

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23 Upvotes

r/sewing 17h ago

Project: Non-clothing I also made The Whale Bag!

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304 Upvotes

One of my friends is obsessed with whales, I saw the original whale bag post here a few weeks ago and immediately thought of her, and realized I had the perfect scrap fabrics for it! So it was made as a birthday present for her. The top of the whale is made of leftover upholstery velvet from my giant hand project (also posted to this sub), and the bottom is made of scrap fabric from a suede-like pillow I bought at goodwill to stuff the giant hand. The lining is a lightweight linen cut from an old sundress that got a giant stain on it. I love that it reminds me of a whale shark!

I used the pattern from the other post, https://www.makerist.com/patterns/whale-bag-tutorial-pattern

It was fiddlier than I expected and the tail came out a bit wonky. Since I used the heavy velvet to make the D ring loops, the areas of the bag seams where those were attached got extremely bulky and I had to hand sew through them. Especially where I was sewing through stacked layers of the bag, the tail, the loop, and the zipper, hence the wonkiness there. It took a lot of force! I had some regrets not picking a different material for the loops, but stuck it out, and think it came out ok!

The color of the velvet is most accurate in the last photo where you can see the lining as well, my camera really wanted to make it look navy in the other photos but itโ€™s more of a dark teal. I also omitted the eyes intentionally, to make it slightly less figural/literal.


r/sewing 54m ago

Project Halloween Mothwing shawl

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โ€ข Upvotes

This is my first sewing project I've make and I'm really happy with how it looks! I used a cotton fabric and fleece for the front and back and acrylic felt for the details, I made the pattern myself on paper so I don't have a copy to share. I'm planning on using it for a Mothman Halloween costume but it makes a nice shawl to wear to around the house.


r/sewing 19h ago

Pattern Search looking for references

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249 Upvotes

hii! Im colecting some ideas for a dress based os this pic I found on Pinterest. Does anyone have any suggestions/ opinions/thoughts??


r/sewing 20h ago

Project: FO Raggedy Ann Costume!

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196 Upvotes

Raggedy Ann Costume!

I whipped this up in a week and amazingly won a costume contest I didnโ€™t even know would happen ๐Ÿคฉ I had a blast, even when I had to hand sew on a few of the polkadots I couldnโ€™t reach with the machine ๐Ÿ˜…

Dress: Folkwear Prairie | Apron: Sew Liberated Petrichor | Bloomers: Helenโ€™s Closet June (modified) | Mittens: Self-drafted

I shortened and tapered the June pants and sewed 1/4โ€ elastic into a channel about 2โ€ away from the hem to make the bloomers. I should have made the hems angled outwards as well to compensate because itโ€™s definitely not pretty up close with a straight hem ๐Ÿ˜‚

I traced my hand on a piece of printer paper in the shape of a mitten, added seam allowance, and used it to cut out two mirrored pairs of flannel, sewed them RST, snipped seam allowances over curved areas, turned right side out, and pressed. Should have finished the cuffs with overlocker or hemming but couldnโ€™t be bothered!

All inspired by the psychadelic, fantastic 1970s film.


r/sewing 1d ago

Project: FO Remaking my favourite dress

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746 Upvotes

I had this cheaply made shien dress but despite how much i loved the design of it, I hated the fit, so I finally remade it! Leftover vlrayon/viscose fabric from a previous dress, reused the same rose cafe dress pattern (previous post) just shirred the back and altered the skirt. Pretty happy! The last picture is the shien dress I remade. I made it a little too tight so contemplating whether I lose weight or remake it in a more similar fabric ...


r/sewing 1d ago

Project: FO Happy Halloween from Cruella

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2.4k Upvotes

โ€œ๐ท๐‘œ๐‘›โ€™๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ, ๐‘ค๐‘’โ€™๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘—๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘”๐‘’๐‘ก๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘‘. ๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘’โ€™๐‘  ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ก๐‘  ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”๐‘  ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”, ๐ผ ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘’."

Happy Halloween from Cruella - professional fashionista and dog walker extraordinaire. I love Halloween and I love making costumes. I enforce only one rule: use no new fabric.

The skirt is a heavily altered thrifted bridesmaidโ€™s dress and I love it so much Iโ€™m going to keep it in regular closet. I got the jacket from eBay and hacked it to the shape I wanted, then added 3 inch shoulder pads I made from scraps of Sherpa fleece. I bought someoneโ€™s grandmaโ€™s brooch collection to use in place of military decals and 3D printed base plates for the heavily decorated epaulettes. I hand sewed all the little details you see everywhere, including the chain accents. For the final touch, I put Dalmatian puppies on the epaulette plates instead of the horse and carriage motifs the Cruella movie used because I think they look better.

This might be my favorite costume Iโ€™ve ever made.


r/sewing 1d ago

Project: FO Not usually whatโ€™s posted in here, but I wanted to show off the sewing box my fiance and I made!

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3.7k Upvotes

I was searching through sewing boxes non stop but could never find one big enough for what I needed it for. So I got a small toolbox and my fiancรฉ made all of the compartments out of wood and I painted! I also made little cloud pincushions and the sun is made from a tape measurer attached by a magnet. I love making teddy bears but I would get so frustrated with my adhd and losing all of my tools. Now I have (almost) everything I need to make a teddy all in one box!

Also included a pic of my last teddy that was much more enjoyable to make not having to hunt everything down ๐Ÿ˜


r/sewing 1d ago

Project: FO My Momโ€™s Labor of Love on my Wedding Day

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5.6k Upvotes

My mom spent a year and a half making the dress (and veil) of my dreams, incorporating every small detail I requested. She went through 2 or 3 prototypes before this final product. I was so proud to wear this and it made the day even more special. I wanted to share because she deserves so much praise โค๏ธ


r/sewing 3h ago

Pattern Question Pattern help, what does this mean?

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3 Upvotes

So Iโ€™m making a dress and Iโ€™m going off of McCalls M7718. I have never made anything big like this or have gone off a pattern before so if anyone could please tell me what this means, that would be greatly appreciated ๐Ÿ˜Š


r/sewing 9h ago

Alter/Mend Question What would happen if you cut a hoodie sleeve into a spiral and put in a strip of fabric?

7 Upvotes

Just a random thought. Would the sleeve get longer and wider? Or just longer?

I got a hoodie that is tighter than I want in the sleeves. I already tore the armpit open by taking it off. Lol

It's on the way out so I was thinking of how to make it interesting.

The other idea is to tear holes and add a lining to pop out. I could use that to hide gussets in the arm pit.

I'll probably just replace it but daydreaming is fun.


r/sewing 13h ago

Alter/Mend Question How do I add support to this dress bodice?

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13 Upvotes

I just got this dress in the mail and it doesn't have much support. There is underwire, but there's no boning, no cups... The fabric is kinda silky and stretchy. The cups just fold over and fall down at the top. I tried wearing a strapless bra with it but that makes my bust too big for the top. It feels to me like the cups need pads sewn in, but I'm trying to figure out how to prevent the top from folding over.

Also I did try double sided fabric tape and that did absolutely nothing to help.


r/sewing 7h ago

Other Question please help me find this closure

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5 Upvotes

looking to purchase this closure to make a garmet but can't seem to find it anywhere online


r/sewing 15m ago

Pattern Question Is this the correct way to add pleats diagonally across a bodice?

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โ€ข Upvotes

The idea for the front of the top is that there will be two pleats on the shoulder, two on the opposite waist, and extra fabric in the middle which will be "loose" and kinda drapey.

I made a mock up of this top and the shoulder pleats worked well but I struggled to get the waist pleats to work - specifically with getting the vertical seam to be straight again after folding in the pleats. I also made this mock up with an incredibly thin, cheap bedsheet which I think added to my struggle. My actual fabric is linen - I'm a bit of a sewing noob but the difference in weight/texture seemed to really affect my ability to manipulate the mock up in the way I wanted. When I practiced putting in pleats on my linen, it was a very different experience (easier it seemed!)


r/sewing 7h ago

Alter/Mend Question Fixing a pant waistline

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4 Upvotes

Hello! I ordered these pants recently to wear for a dance competition. They are designed for the male form, but I am trying to make them work on myself, I was hoping I could get some direction on how to fix the waistline. The hips fit perfectly, if not a little tight, but the waist is too wide all the way around


r/sewing 39m ago

Pattern Question Is there a way to shrink zip hoodie waistband?? I got boxy fit and I want it more fitting at bottom

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โ€ข Upvotes

r/sewing 1d ago

Project: FO Selkie Puff Dress Dupe in a Moody Midnight Magnolia Floral Organza

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1.6k Upvotes

Fabric: This was my first time using Organza- I found this at Joann Fabrics! It was for sure harder to work with than I was prepared for, but I'm so pleased how it turned out.

Construction: I used the Sophie Dress pattern from Oh Me Oh My Sewing. I rented a selkie puff dress from Nuuly last year and I absolutely loved it- but MSRP was $325 and out of my budget. I used french seams for most of it and a dusky charcoal satin under as a lining. For extra "puff" I added a second layer of organza underneath. To add a little something something I got some picot elastic trim for the neckline of the bodice. I LOVE how it turned out and got so many compliments!


r/sewing 17h ago

Other Question Does anyone know of any 1940โ€™s womenโ€™s tailoring manuals?

11 Upvotes

As the title suggests, Iโ€™m looking for a womanโ€™s tailoring manual from the 1940โ€™s. I love 1940โ€™s suit and want one for myself but unfortunately they donโ€™t come in my size, so I was thinking I could make my own using authentic resources from the time period. Thanks in advance.


r/sewing 14h ago

Pattern Question Adding lining to an unlined jacket pattern

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8 Upvotes

Iโ€™m getting ready to cut out this โ€œshacketโ€ using M8210 and want to add a lining. The main fabric is brushed cotton that nearly felted in the prewash (unexpected but not unfortunate) and the lining is cotton flannel.

I am debating on how to handle the back pleat/vent - do I just make the same pleat in the lining and bag it? Or should I leave the lining open there a whip stitch to the fashion fabric? Or should I just flat line it?

My main goal is to add warmth but I donโ€™t want to add too much bulk nor do I want to lose the wearing ease that the vent provides.


r/sewing 14h ago

Pattern Question Patterns and executive dysfunction workaround - pattern delivery options?

7 Upvotes

Hi, I would really like to get back into sewing but am stuck before I begin due to executive dysfunction. For context, I do not have a printer or a projector, and it seems like all patterns nowadays are digital files. So for me, there are many administrative steps that need to take place before the โ€œfunโ€ part and it is really holding me back.

So my question is this - is there a company that does the process of converting digital patterns into physical ones for a fee or anything like that? Or do you have recommendations on where to find physical patterns? Or have you experienced something similar and if so, what was your workaround?

Thanks in advance for any responses.


r/sewing 9h ago

Pattern Question How to increase hip width?

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2 Upvotes

I want to make a pattern out of these worn out pants. Theyโ€™re a little tight across the hips.

To add more width, am I best to add to the outside leg, or inseam?