[Piano music plays]
Hey there!
Today I'm going to be making a bodysuit.
The material's you're going to need for this project are:
Jersey fabric which stretches in one direction; And I used about 1 yard for this project - obviously
the amount you need is going to depend on your size;
Something to make a pattern on, like newspaper, craft paper - I'm using butcher's paper;
And some fold over elastic.
And you're going to wanna grab a couple of yards *slash* metres of this as well.
And of course, all your standard sewing equipment - thread, scissors, a sewing machine - etc.
Alright!
Let's get started!
You will also need a tight-fitting singlet top and your favourite pair of underwear,
as this is going to be what we base our pattern off!
The first thing that I did was to put on my singlet top and good-fitting pair of underwear,
and I made a mark of where the two overlapped.
Then, I placed these two items of clothing down on top of some pattern paper, and I put
pins in that spot where they overlapped, to turn the two into a kind-of one-piece item
of clothing.
Next, I grabbed the clothes in the middle, and I folded them in half lengthways, so that
the front of the singlet top and the underwear were on the OUTSIDE of the fold.
I laid this down on top of my pattern paper, taking care to make sure that it was laying
nice and flat and perfectly folded in half.
Then, I grabbed a pencil, and made a note of where the gusset of the underwear begins.
If you didn’t know, the “gusset” is the part of the underwear that has a double-layer
and looks like this.
It’s… the crotch bit.
Next, I traced around the whole thing like this, excluding the gusset, straight down
onto my pattern paper.
To trace out this leghole section here, without moving the clothing and mucking up the pattern,
I grabbed a pin and I made little holes by poking the pin down into the pattern paper
underneath.
I then used this as a kind of dot-to-dot, and I joined the small holes on the pattern
paper up with a pencil.
Then, tracing around the entire shape with a pen, I ended up with this - my front pattern!
Then, grabbing my singlet/underwear thing again, I unfolded it, and then I folded it
lengthways in the OTHER direction, so that the back of the singlet and underwear are
now facing OUT.
Again, I took care in folding it so that it was folded in half perfectly, side seams matching
up, and then I traced around it like THIS, again, excluding the gusset.
The gusset begins HERE so I am tracing around THIS entire shape.
The last piece that I need to trace out is that gusset!
Again, I folded the piece in half before tracing.
So, the gusset is this shape HERE, the entire part of the underwear that’s composed of
two layers instead of one.
So, I traced around this shape, again using that PIN method to make holes in the paper
underneath when there was fabric in the way.
The straight edge of the gusset pattern will also be placed on the fold of the fabric when
cutting the fabric out.
And, here’s all three of the pattern pieces that I’ll be using to make this bodysuit!
You should draw a little note onto the pattern, in case you forget, that the pattern will
need to be placed down onto the fabric with the stretch running in this direction, and
also that the straight edges will need to be placed on the fabric’s FOLD.
So, I cut the pattern pieces out along the lines, and now it’s time to use them to
cut out some fabric!
I placed my jersey fabric down on my sewing table, folded over once, with the fold HERE,
and then I placed my front pattern piece down onto this fabric so that the straight edge
is aligned with the fold in the fabric.
I then cut around the pattern, using my rotary cutter.
And, unfolded, the front piece looks like this!
I did the exact same thing for the gusset pieces, except that I cut out TWO of these
instead of one.
And I did the same thing for the back piece.
So, all up, I’ve now got these FOUR pieces of fabric.
Now it’s time to construct the bodysuit!
First we will start with the gusset.
I placed the two gusset pieces together like this, right-sides together and I sewed down
the sides using a straight stitch.
I then turned the gusset inside-out, so that the seams are now on the inside of this piece.
Next, I lined the thinner-end of the gusset up with the front piece of the bodysuit, everything
facing right-sides up, and then I placed the gusset onto the bottom of the front piece
like this, right-sides together.
Then, using a zig-zag stitch, (and you could also use a serger), I sewed the front piece
and the gusset together like this.
Next, I placed the back piece right-sides DOWN on top of the front, lined up the side
seams, put pins through both sides to hold them together, and I sewed straight down the
side seams like this (and this is also done either using a zig zag stitch or a serger).
Lastly, I flipped this over and I sewed the gusset to the back piece, using a zig zag
stitch, like this!
And now, the basic bodysuit has been constructed!
– And I totally forget to get a good shot of this step.
My bad.
But basically it looks like this, but with the bottom seam all sewed up.
Next up, I’m going to add fold-over elastic as a contrasting finishing to the neckline,
underarms, and legholes – so I’m adding it to ALL of the raw edges – as you can
see how I’ve done it in the finished product here.
Now, let me introduce you all to this new love of my life, my new obsession: fold over
elastic.
Fold over elastic looks like this.
It’s got a straight line down the middle, and it has one shiny side and one matte side.
That line down the middle allows you to easily fold the elastic over in half.
This type of elastic gives you a super quick and simple professional-looking finishing
for raw edges, especially on stretchy fabric, which is why I now love it so much.
So, first I turned the body suit right-sides out.
Using a zig zag stitch, the next step is to sew the fold over elastic to the WRONG side
of the fabric.
That line down the centre of the elastic should line up with the raw edge of the material.
So, over at my sewing machine here, I used a normal-width zig zag stitch to sew the elastic
onto the wrong side of the bodysuit.
While I was sewing, I also stretched the fold over elastic just a bit, which will make the
elastic sit nice and flat when I’m done, and give the bodysuit a good, close fit.
Also note that I have the shiny side facing up, because I want the matte side to be visible
when I’m done.
I also didn’t cut the elastic until I reached the other side.
When I got to the other end, I clipped the elastic about one inch longer than the material’s
edge.
You’ll see why I’ve done this in just a bit.
Now here’s the fold-over part!
Because the elastic folds over at the centre, I simply folded it over, in half, towards
the right-side of the fabric!
Then, I put this back under my sewing machine and, using a much narrower zig zag stitch
this time – one that's about half the width of the zig zag I used before – I sewed the
elastic down onto the right-side of the material, with my needle as close to the elastic’s
edge as possible.
And that’s how you apply fold-over elastic!
It’s really quick, easy to do and gives this really nice-looking finishing to the
raw edges.
Anyway – enough about how much I love fold over elastic.
I then did the exact same thing for the rest of the neckline and the armholes.
Then, to apply the elastic to the legholes, I did the same thing but I left an overlap
of about an inch of elastic when I came back around to the start.
I then grabbed a lighter and I ran it very quickly over this cut edge to stop it from
fraying, and then I folded the elastic over, and sewed it in exactly the same way as I
did for the armholes and the neckline.
Back to the top of the bodysuit, I used that same lighter trick to prevent the ends of
the fold over elastic from fraying, by quickly running the lighter over those edges for 2-3
seconds.
Then, I grabbed another two pieces of elastic to use as my straps – I’m actually using
the remainder of my fold over elastic, sewn in half, but proper lingerie strap elastic
would also be a good option.
I am now going to attach each strap to the front of the bodysuit, HERE.
Notice how the bodysuit tapers off into a triangle shape, with 2 pieces of overhanging
fold over elastic?
So, I inserted one end of a strap into these overhanging fold over elastic pieces, like
this, and I sewed it to the rest of the elastic, like this.
Then I repeated this for the other strap!
Once both of the straps were sewn to the front of the bodysuit, I tried it on, bringing the
elastic over my shoulder and seeing where it meets the back, and then cutting the elastic
strap to this length.
And I did this for both straps.
Then, I inserted each of the elastic straps into the fold-over elastic on the back of
the bodysuit in exactly the same way as I did for the front -making sure the straps
weren't twisted as I did so - and, I’m DONE!
And this is how it looks!
[Funky electronic piano music plays]
I’m mainly planning on wearing this bodysuit with cute high-waisted things like shorts
and skirts and jeans.
The advantages of wearing a bodysuit as a top is that it doesn’t come untucked and
it stays close-fitting to your body.
And I also think I’ll do a version later on that has a snap-closure at the crotch so
that I don’t have to get naked everytime I go to the bathroom but hey – if you’re
trying to recreate this and you want to add snap-closures, it would be pretty easy, just
don’t sew one end of the gusset to the main bodysuit part and sew on some snap closures
instead – but the second-ever bodysuit I've ever made, I’m really happy with how this
turned out!
Okay, thanks for watching!
You should totally go follow me on social media if you aren't already!
And a HUGE thank you to my supporters on my Patreon page - because of my patreons, I was
able to get this.
This is my new sewing workstation and because I suffer with a lot of chronic pain and fatigue
this is SO much easier to work on!
I don't have to lie down like several times everytime I try and sew and film a video.
It's AWESOME.
And my supporters helped me to raise the money so that I could get this!
So thank you SO much to my Patreon family.
If you wanna become a Patreon supporter, and watch the silly vlogs that I make that don't
make it to the youtube channel, and special things that I do just for my patrons, you
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Alright, self-promo time OVER, thanks for watching and I'll see you all next time.
Bye!
I rely on my fans to keep me going.
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