*If you need to see more detail in any of the pictures please click on them to enlarge.
Day 1 - Printing the pattern and Cutting
How excited are you?!?!!? An awesome sewing pattern for BOYS!!! Yes, yes, you can do this for girls as well. But, the pants in particular were designed for boys and there just aren't as many amazing patterns for boys out there as there are for girls.
Ok - so let's start by printing your pattern!
- This pattern prints in B&W, so make sure to set your printer to the grey scale or B&W setting to save on ink
- Make sure that you hit 'scaling none' or 100% for printing - DO NOT select 'fit to page'
Pattern Assembly:
- You are going to match up the numbers in the circles to create the pieces. *Note that this pattern does not print as a solid grid!
- As needed cut apart the pieces and rotate to fit together
*see on the right hand side that that one A 14 is flipped upside down - that means this piece needs to be cut off and flipped around - all your numbers and Letters will have the same orientation in your pattern piece.
- Once all your pieces are taped together, you can either cut out your needed size (this is what I love about PDF pattern, tape and cut and got) OR you can trace out the size you need on freezer paper or tracing paper. *Tip: To make cutting easier - trace your size with a highlighter, marker, or other crayon to make visually following your line ever easier.
- Stack your pattern pieces together with all the Pants patterns in one pile and all the Shirt pattern pieces in another.
Cutting Your Fabric
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| The grey corduroy and the grey gingham are for my pants, and the green Riley Blake Knit and Blue Zoofari are for the shirt. |
Shirt:
- Your front and back will be your main fabric; and your sleeve, pocket, and neck band will be your contrasting fabric. (My main is Blue Zoofari, and my contrast is the Green)
- Lay your pattern on the fabric to that the greatest amount of stretch is going across the pattern from side to side. (2 way stretch fabric will stretch A LOT in one direction and just a tiny bit or not at all in the other. 4 way stretch fabric will stretch both side to side and up and down. This pattern can be done in either 2 way or 4 way stretch fabric)
- Cut out your Pieces (note that the front and back are cut on the fold)
- You need 2 of the sleeves - the easiest thing you can do is fold your fabric in half and cut your pattern (this will give you mirror images). If you are cutting a single layer of fabric, you will need to cut one with the pattern printing facing up at you and a 2nd one with the pattern printing facing down.
- Make sure to transfer all the notches from your paper pattern to the fabric (you can use a fabric marker, chalk, pins, or cut in notches to transfer the markings)
- Place all you pieces for the shirt together and set to the side (if you ordered a kit from Whimsical Fabric, you can place everything in your handy-dandy drawstring bag)
Pants:
The initial notes are for standard cutting, I will have some notes for cutting for girls at the end!
- Ok first you need to look at what fabric you are using. If you are using a Print or Cord, listen to me very carefully (if you are using a fabric with NO direction - skip to the next step). Pick your direction right now. MARK the top of your fabric - I just use a pin to do this. Make sure that every single pattern piece that you cut has the top of the grain line facing the top of your fabric. If you are using Cord, then you have picked a fabric with NAP. Nap essentially means that your fabric will look different depending on which direction you hold it. SO right now, you need to pet your fabric - yep, go ahead and pet it. You will notice that the pile wants to go in one direction and your hand will move smoothly along it. When you go the other direction it will have resistance against your hand and will look like the pile is being pushed 'up'. You want your fabric to go with the smooth pile going down (so you would run your hand smoothly from the top of the pants to the hem).
- Cut out all of the pieces (except the waistband facing) from your main fabric.
*if you want contrasting pockets or knee sections, plan that out in advance - it could be really cool!
- The waist band fabric you will cut from a contrasting fabric (You'll want a cotton here)
*I also chose to cut the flap linings out of the same contrasting fabric, I highly recommend this for a more professional look!
- Make sure to transfer all the notches from your paper pattern to the fabric (you can use a fabric marker, chalk, pins, or cut in notches to transfer the markings)
- Pile all your pieces together and set aside in a safe place. *I like to pile all my front pieces together and all my back pieces together so that there is less likelihood of mixing them up!
FOR GIRLS:
- Make sure you double and triple check the measurement chart INCLUDING the finished measurements for the garment. These pants have a LOT of ease in them and have a full elastic waist band. If your daughter is slim I would recommend going down a size (or 2 - just watch your length) - it will keep a more feminine silhouette.
- The Cargo Pockets can be a Masculine detail... you could leave them off, or do just one for something different. If you want the e cargo pockets, consider sizing down to keep the proportion more feminine.
- Consider adding some details: embroidery or 'bling' on the back pockets and/or cargo pockets. You could add small bows to the cargo pockets or add some trim to the cargo pocket flap.
- The Knee darts are the last 'Guy' detail. If you want to eliminate them, you need to measure the width from top to bottom of the dart for your size (it should be around an inch). Subtract that amount from the top of the Knee Pattern Piece and cut. You will then skip the dart portion later.
There you go... everything is printed and cut out. Please let me know if you have any questions in the cutting process. In the next lesson we will start sewing the Shirt!
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