Basic dressmaking question

[BroccoliSpears]

I have a sewing machine and a small girl.

I have never made anything more challenging than a humbug cushion, 20 years ago at school.

If I buy a simple pattern and some fabric, will I be able to follow the pattern and make a servicable sundress for my little girl?

Or even a top for myself?

Is it relatively straightforward?

I've been looking at the Clothkits website, but it seems fairly pricey to make a dress that way.

If you can stitch a straight line , pick one that says easy (or ask in the shop) and have a go. Just don't choose any expensive fabrics until you have more confidence.

Yes, I think you could, quite straight foward, if my Y11's can do it any one can!

You should be fine, I would think. Simplicity have a range called "It's so Easy" - this pattern has a simple sun dress as well as a trousers and top combo so you save on a second pattern if you get really into the dressmaking thing!

Also, I don't know how old your dd is, but if she is little, look for fabric for her in the remnants baskets in fabric shops. You can often get a metre or two of gorgeous fabric for half price that way.

Thank you for the encouragement.

I realise it's a bit of a silly question, because you don't know if I'll be any good or not.

I am encouraged by your positivity and will have a look for patterns once dd is in bed this evening.

I love new projects!

Those clothkits are v cute. I love the prints. They are a bit £ for something to make yourself, but then I was in French Connection last summer and there was a very sweet dress for little girls. It was just printed cotton, no trimmings, no darts, no lining, literally 2 triangles of cotton held together with little straps. And they want £54 for it!!! Fcuk that. Although I did feel utterly like my mother as I walked off muttering "I could make that for £5 in half an hour."

Ooooooooh. My mum always dressed up in Clothkits stuff. I've just been on the site - lovely fabrics.

I've just e-mailed my mum in the hope that she'll find them irresistable for dd.

Patterns are easy to use - just follow the instructions.

Most patterns are graded by technical difficulty, so pick an easy one to start with.

I have just finished making 11 nuns' costumes today - we are doing Sound of Music at school.

I bought a simple pattern and some fabric at the market today!

Dd been a bit full on today so no chance to explore it all yet. Very excited about having a go!

AND... it cost £4.50 for the fabric and the pattern.

And... there are 2 different dresses, capri pants, trousers and two tops on the pattern!

(Though I only got enough material for one dress. Walking before running.

(Can you re-use patterns? I think you can)

Clothkits? I'm hyperventilating with excitement! Darn it, the website has crashed.

You can re-use patterns if you are careful. If say, you have a dress in two different lengths, when you first cut it out, cut to the longer length and then fold the pattern to the shorter length to make that. The thing I find really annoying is that if you have a multi-size pattern, you can't re-use it to make a larger size unless there are separate pieces for all the sizes, which there rarely are.

if in doubt, baste before you sew. It will make things slower, but more likely to work. The worst things happen when you slap together two bits of fabric with pins, run them through the machine and it slips. Baste it, take the pins out, check it's aligned correctly and then sew! Oh, and iron your seams out so they lie flat. It looks much nicer!

Yes you can re use patterns, I have loads of patterns from the 60s which belonged to my mum and I still use them. If you want to strengthen them, use brown parcel paper, just draw round it, cut it out and then pin to the pattern.
If you want to check for fit, you can make up a muslin first in dirt cheap gingham (the inch per square kind), that way if you need to alter you will see how many inches by looking at the gingham.
And Florence is right, baste, that way you can rip it out easily if it's not right.

Oh and I forgot I always iron the pattern first, to take the folds out and make sure that it lies flat.

Baste?

Umm, what is basting?

Basting is when you use a long stitch (you can alter the stitch length on most machines) to hold it together, so if it doesn't look right, you don't have the fiddly job of ripping out tiny little stitches.
So you make it up with long stitches first, then, when you're happy, just rip 'em out and use a normal stitch length.

If you get more involved with dressmaking this is a really good book to help you understand. Very clear.
I've got a copy, if you want to borrow it but, I will need it back.

Thank you Ranting. Makes a bit more sense than the butter

That's a very kind offer to lend me your book. Thank you for the recommendation. I shall see if they have it in my local library - they're often quite good with crafty books.

RH is right, although I think for a beginner basting by hand is easier - just do simple running stitches (in out in out) that you can pull out easily. Mind you, I haven't sewn anything since the yellow ra-ra skirt I made when i was 15...

(I always called it 'tacking' - basting is US usage afaik)

This dressmaking malarky must be catching as I'm planning on making some simple fleece pinafore dresses for DD (mainly as she's too skinny and too tall for bought ones in her age size!!)