Sewing.com - Making a pattern from a RTW garment

In our first installment, we discussed taking the tools required, taking the old garment apart, and some hints about keeping half of old blouse, in this case, whole as a guide. Think of the uncut portion of the blouse as your pattern. The techniques and order used for this project can be used for virtually any garment. Take notes as you take your old garment apart; you never know what detail you will need when you starting putting the new one together!

In this segment, we'll be cutting and putting our new garment together. You are encouraged to experiment and break some rules. What we're showing you here is an example of what can be done and is by no means the only way to do things.

As a reminder, on the left the half of the blouse that was not taken apart and was used as our pattern for reconstructing the garment. On the right is the finished product. From ruined blouse to new blouse in a short period of time; all it takes is some patience and a little knowhow, and a lot of "hey, I can do this!"

Begin measuring the pieces of the old garment that serve as your pattern for cutting. This will give you a guide as to how much fabric you will need in order to cut appropriately.

After deciding on your fabric choices and sizes based on your measurements above, lay out the pattern pieces (the old garment components) on your fabric. Be certain to cut in such a way that you allow for seam allowances and to correct any "mistakes" you may have made taking the garment apart. In this case, the pocket (right) had some rough edges and we had to smooth out the new pocket seam lines with careful cutting.

Continue to cut out your pattern pieces. In the case of our blouse, we have the front/top, front facing, back (cut on the fold), and sleeve below.

Our pocket was cut out of fabric that matches the bias neck binding (to be created and applied later in the construction process) and one of the fabrics in the patchwork portion of the front. After it was cut (see pocket placement on fabric above), it was taken to the ironing board and prepared for application using the usual pocket methods of finishing the top edge; stitching the top down right sides together, trimming, and turning; and pressing the seam allowance to the wrong side before pinning to the blouse front bottom pattern piece (right).

The bottom front and top front pieces for both the right and left sides were then sewn together, and the front pieces sewn to the back. The facing was simply applied and turned under, pressed and top stitched (the facing, as shown in a photo above, was cut to fit the length of the front opening seams and finished on one edge).

The sleeves were gently eased into the sleeve opening and stitched. At this point, the side seams were sewn within 4" of the bottom of the garment. The original garment had an opening at the bottom of the side seam that was turned and hemmed. We followed the construction of the original garment for this treatment.

The new and old were placed side by side on the dress form (or you can lay them out on a table) and the markings for the frog closures were made. We chose frog closures because the original garment had them and it added a unique flair to this patchwork garment. We ended up blending an Oriental style blouse with an old American type of fabric selection.

Bias binding, created from strips of fabric that match the pocket and some of the patches, was applied to the neck and top stitched in a tidy fashion.

The frog closures were aligned and stitched to the garment by hand.

The hemline for the sleeves and bottom of the blouse were turned, pressed, and pinned for hand stitching.

You did it!

The finished blouse is a hybrid of design and fabric choices that counter the design. The frogs add an Oriental flavor to an almost early American type of blouse. That's the beauty of doing it yourself; you can take any garment and create something unique and different by following some basic concepts.

Inspect your RTW garment before deconstructing it. If you intend to wear the RTW again, you may want to consider making a pattern out of paper and not taking it apart. Note how seams are put together and where there may be a tuck or a dart before beginning your reconstruction adventure. Be patient and don't work too fast. Get it as right as you can the first time so you don't have to do it over. Go a little crazy with fabric selection; this is your chance to shine. Why let a ruined piece of clothing go to waste? Remake it!

The bottom line is that this type of project should be fun. We'd love to see examples of your reconstructed RTW garments. Contact us at info@sewing.com if you have some to share!