Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Summer Hack-stravaganza with Inspinration

This next post in our Summer Hack-stravaganza is so fun!  Miranda from Inspinration always sews such delightful clothes for her kids, and today is a fine example of that!  Here's Miranda with the full scoop:


Welcome to today's stop on the Hack-stravaganza pattern tour! I am Miranda from Inspinration and I played around with the Foliis by Sofilantjes and the Abby's Marigold pants by the Wolf and the tree. Both patterns are amazing as they are with enough cute details to sew plenty according to the instructions. Although they are great, I always like more options and presume you do too, so I made adjustments to both to broaden the set of options even more.

To the Abby's Marigold pants I added inseam pockets (which forced me to create a side seam) and I finished the bottom with a cuff containing elastic (this way you can keep the trousers rather long without them touching the floor). I turned the Foliis is a short sweater by dropping the zipper. The outfit that I made is exactly how our middle daughter loves to dress. She prefers softs trousers, with pockets and short tops. In this blog post, I am showing you how I hacked the patterns and if you want to take a closer look at the entire ensemble, you can visit the blog post on my own site.

Abby's Marigold pants with inseam pockets and elastic cuffs:


Step 1: Cut off the bottom of the trousers to create a new length suited for adding cuffs. To do so, first determine the height of your finished cuff. I would advise taking the height of your elastic, that gives the cleanest look. In my trousers, it is more because I forgot how tall our girl had become and the fabric that I really wanted to use was a bit too short...   I love hacking, but it is often also out of necessity because I either made a mistake or do not have enough fabric. Cut of the height of the cuff plus 3/8" from the bottom of your trousers (you add the extra 3/8" because the original hem is 1/2").

Step 2: Draw the cuff. The width of the cuff should be the width of the bottom of the trousers. The height is the height of the elastic times two plus two times 3/8 seam allowance. For example, if you are using 1" elastic your cuff should be (2*1"+2*3/8" =) 2 3/4" high. This is the minimum height, you can, like me make taller cuffs if you like the look or are out of fabric ;)


Step 3: cut the trouser pieces halfway in two to create a side seam. This step is only needed if you want to add pockets.

Step 4: Add 3/8" seam allowance to both sides of the cut. The piece with the smaller curve is the front.


Step 5/6/7: Draw the pocket based on the front leg. The top of the pocket should align with the waist curve. The left straight line (blue) is the pocket opening. Measure the width of the hand of recipient and add 1/2". Make a 90-degree angle and add 3/8" (the seam allowance.) Finally, draw the outer curve such that the hand will fit in the pocket. The green line shows how deep the pocket should be. The exact shape is not that important as long as the blue line is high enough such that the hand can go in the pocket and the top should align with the trousers. I remember being nervous drawing my first inseam pocket, so if you are as well that is fine. As long as you stick to the basic rules: top of the pocket being the same as the top of the trousers and taking into account the size of the hand, it will work.



Step 8: Place one pocket on a pants piece, right sides facing (the green indicates the wrong side of the fabric).  Sew on the 3/8"seam allowance from the top to the bottom of the pocket. Repeat for the other three legs.


Step 9: Place a front and back leg on top of each other, right sides facing.

Step 10: Sew around the curve of the pocket all the way down to the bottom of the pants.

Step 11: The side seam is now closed except for the top. To make adding the waistband easier, it is recommended to make a temporary basting stitch at the top of the trousers such that the top is also connected. Lay the leg pieces precisely next to each other at the top. Alighn the top of the pockets to the top of the front legs (the pockets are therefore laying under the front leg pieces). Make a temporary basting stitch in the seam allowance at the top of the pants. Continue the standard pant's instructions.

For the elastic cuff: measure your elastic by determining what is comfortable on the ankle of your recipient and also goes over the foot! The cuff is added in the end and is attached the same way as the waistband (check the instructions of the pattern).  Close the band into a loop. Fold in on itself to only have the right sides out. Sew it to the bottom of the trousers but keep a small hole. Pull the elastic through (with a safety pin or your other preferred tool to pull elastic though). Hand stitch the hole closed.

Foliis as a short sweater:


Step 12: Take off 3/8 seam allowance from the front, and cut that piece on the fold as well.

Step 13: I wanted the sweater to be a bit longer than the cropped top so I ADDED 3/8" to the bottom of the front and back. This will result in a truly short sweater, so you can also add 2" and you will still have a rather short sweater.  I made the waistband in the same fabric, not in ribbing, so I redrafted the waistband to exactly match the bottom of the bodice. Cut two on the fold; this way you will have two seams aligning with the side seams. Add the waistband according to the instructions but now you can sew all around like with the sleeve cuffs.



Step 14/15: Now that the front does not have a zipper, you have to slightly adjust the construction of the hood. It will require a bit of extra hand sewing. Before attaching the out hood in step 25, first, fold the front curve 3/8" inwards, the curve that will be against the face. Iron the 3/8" flat. Pin the outer hood to the neckline and make the folded edges meet, sew in place around the entire neckline.  When you are adding the lining (in step 26 and 27) you will not be able to pin and sew down entirely until the neckline. Just leave 2"open and close that by hand as well.

Hopefully I have inspired you to hack even more!

Thank you so much Miranda!!!  Your pattern hacking skills are so useful to make exactly the items your children love and most importantly, WEAR!  I know I'll be using that pocket tutorial...so helpful!

Today's giveaway:

Enter to win 2 patterns of your choice from the Project Run & Play shop in and of these 2 ways:

Follow Project Run & Play on Instagram and comment on the post with this dress.
Follow Inspinration on Instagram and comment on her post with this dress.

Come back tomorrow for more of the Summer Hack-stravaganza tour!!!






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