Here’s my second sewing project I did for my little precious niece. It’s a ruffled pant from a pattern I bought on Etsy. Thought the description said it’s for beginners I found it a bit tricky. There were many terms I didn’t know and I had to look many things up but it turned out fine.
I only had one piece for the pant and 3 pieces for the ruffles, a thin and a thick piece of elastic band.
As mentioned in my previous post I had no clue how to make ruffles. The tutorial of this pattern described it but still I couldn’t imagine it. Therefore I checked YouTube and found a pretty good video on how to make fabric ruffles. The secret behind it is you have to chose the longest stitch so that the stitch isn’t so tight because you have to pull the bobbin thread after sewing so the fabric ruffles.
Before ruffling I sewed a very small hem on each stripe.
Then came the ruffles.
I did this with all the 3 different fabric stripes which I sewed on the pantie one after the other. I found that difficult since the fabric was crumpled and I lost some of the ruffles by pulling the stripe.
Here you can see that the ruffles are not as wavy as the stripe was before I sewed them on. But still you can say it’s a ruffle.
Now I could close the sides of the pantie…
…and insert the elastic band. Tricky again. As shown in the YouTube ruffle video I had to pull the elastic as it was shorter than the leg opening. Hassle! And my machine didn’t always hit the elastic. My patience faded. When the elastic was finally sewn on I turned it inside and had to sew over it again to have a nice cuff.
I had to do this 3 times. 2 legs and around the belly.
And all of a sudden the pantie was done. This took about an hour and some minutes. Not as easy as I thought but still the result is pretty lovely.
And it fit!! YAY. Now that my niece starts to walk the ruffles will always happily bounce around. I really enjoyed this!
That was sewing with a pattern number 2. Tricky but I realize as more as I practice the better it gets. I really fail better every time I sew. Have no fear! I can’t tell you often enough.
And another tip: I get asked many times whether I attended a sewing class or in general how I learned to sew. I made one class where every student could sew whatever he wanted and the teacher would tell you what to do. I decided to learn things I would frequently do as shorten the legs of a pair of jeans (I always have to) and I sewed a Gumdrop Pillow. That class taught me nothing about what needle to use, how I have to set my machine, what threads I would need etc. Basically I have no clue on sewing techniques. I just sew and when I face a problem there is still Google and even better YouTube. You can really type in anything you want and watch a video about it. That is my class. I learn from just doing it and YouTube. :-) So don’t be afraid and think you need a class. As long as you have the internet available you have the class right there. And each project will teach you a lesson.
Have a fabulous Saturday!
- author: lou
- category: DIY, handmade, sewing projects
- comments: 4
