Friday, March 25, 2016

Guest Post: Blending Sizes tutorial by Friends Stitched Together

Hi there - I'm Amy from Friends Stitched Together and CraftingCon and I'm so excited to be guest posting here at Project Run & Play! I've been following this contest for years and playing along is one of the main reasons I started blogging. I think my favorite theme so far was the recent cosplay week - I ended up sewing for it twice! The tutorial I'm sharing today sounds super boring, but it's so important - blending sizes in a sewing pattern! I think the older the person you're sewing for, the more important this is. John is just getting to the point where he's needing clothes that fit him well, so I've been practicing this a lot lately. 

How to blend sizes in a sewing pattern • a tutorial by Friends Stitched Together for Project Run & Play 
I'll start off with a pair of jeans. John is almost five; he's about 43" tall (typical size five), but has an 18" waist (size two or even smaller), so I'll be using the size two (blue) for the width and the size five (red) for the length. 

How to blend sizes in a sewing pattern • a tutorial by Friends Stitched Together for Project Run & Play 
Obviously, I have access to my own pattern pieces on my computer, so it's easy to make my own custom pieces (I'm using my Walker Jeans pieces in this example). For the other patterns I own I print out both sizes that I need and put the smaller piece on top of the larger. I line them up at the point of the crotch and then make sure the smaller leg is completely on top of the larger one. 
 
How to blend sizes in a sewing pattern • a tutorial by Friends Stitched Together for Project Run & Play 
Then you just trace around the smaller piece, but continuing the top and bottom to the height and length of the larger. This is especially important at the crotch area - there's enough of a difference between the two pieces that he would spend all day picking at his pants if I used the straight size 2 ;)

How to blend sizes in a sewing pattern • a tutorial by Friends Stitched Together for Project Run & Play 
And here is the front. Because the size two is lined up at the crotch, I followed the size five lines for the fly to keep it from getting too long. 

How to blend sizes in a sewing pattern • a tutorial by Friends Stitched Together for Project Run & Play 
The other important piece to modify is the back yoke. 

How to blend sizes in a sewing pattern • a tutorial by Friends Stitched Together for Project Run & Play 
Now you can just cut out the pattern pieces from the size five and not waste any more paper! I'm lucky enough that little brother still wears a size two, so I can use both pieces ;) I save my patterns in a folder for future use, so I always mark the size on the modified pattern pieces. For the rest of the pattern, like the pockets and waistband, you can just use the smaller size. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/271209705/walker-jeans-and-shorts-pdf-sewing?ref=shop_home_active_3 
Tee shirts are even easier! Line them up at the middle of the neck curve and trace away (this is my Jackalope Tee, which has a side panel, which is why the armscye looks so shallow). And that's it! Such an easy thing and it makes such a difference! 
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