(upbeat music)
- [Annika] A little content warning for this video,
We'll be discussing body size and measurements
quite in depth in this video.
So if you find that difficult to listen to,
then you can skip the part of the video with the timestamps
listed now on the screen.
This video is supported in part by Skillshare.
Hello, what is sewing on my dudes?
Today I'm gonna be making something out of this book,
which has the very catchy title,
"Collection of Fresh Summer Dresses.
"Easiest to Make With Some Fashion Tips."
So I found this in a vintage store,
and it's actually a translation
of a popular Japanese sewing book from the 1980's.
(upbeat music)
And it was so popular it was translated into English.
And some of the translations are really (laughs) good.
Really very good.
It was like it was all done by Google Translate,
if Google Translate was around in the 80's.
Cutter shoes with punch holes, cool enough!
Sloppiness is an art of expression.
And don't forget, I feel public gaze on my back.
Now, apparently the dresses are easy.
It says that everything can be finished in half a day.
And apparently they fit any body.
Small, medium, and large, depending on how she wears.
They are quite small.
More importantly, making this for me,
so I wanna be able to fit in them.
It's all in centimeters, so I'll do my best
to translate to inches, for people who use those.
So their standard height is 158 centimeters.
And then we have bust 80, waist 60, hip 88.
Which is much smaller than me.
But they do say they have a margin if you are
bigger or smaller by 10 centimeters, then it'll be fine.
Which is a big margin, but I guess they're all pretty baggy.
So giving it the largest possible margins we've got,
Alright, so comparing this to my measurements
now this is looking like it might just fit me.
The height is bang on, so that's great.
My bust is a little bit bigger,
but the difference is so minimal
and the clothes aren't meant to be fitted,
so I doubt it'll matter.
And my hip measurement is also very close to this.
The only major discrepancy is my waist measurement here.
And this is with the quote-unquote larger error of margin.
But we'll just see what we can do with that.
It's nearly there, so I think it will work,
especially as they're real baggy styles.
All right book, you talk a big game,
but let's see if you can live up to your claims.
Okay, plot twist.
I'm gonna make a romper, not a dress.
I am going to make this one,
because there only has one pattern piece.
And I'm old, and sore and have creaky joints
and I can't sit on the floor all day.
Plus, it's got shirring and that is my jam right now.
And like all the other drawings,
they've got some helpful fashion pointers.
Madras check and gingham become a marine scene.
And a mini-length such as this makes both the plump
and the slim look cute.
Hey book from the 80's,
that's almost some body positivity you got going on there.
The secret of getting brown skin
is to tan gradually on cloudy days.
Knew it?
Yikes.
Okay, so all I have to do is
to make this into a pattern piece
and then use it to cut out fabric I guess.
So, I'm going to pull out some butcher's paper
Hi, it's my fabric room.
I don't think I've ever shown you all this.
Butcher's paper.
The pattern was just too big for one piece
so I've had to add a second.
All right now to put this, onto this.
And I've never actually done something like this before
so wish me all the luck, please I need it.
So basically, what I did was to copy
this pattern down onto my butcher's paper
using the measurements given on the pattern
which are written in centimeters,
to guide how long each edge and each bit needed to be,
I used the straight bottom edge of the butcher's paper,
for the straight bottom edge of the romper pattern
to save me having to draw one line there.
Then I decided this would look good filmed from above all
time lapsed and super pro, you know.
But jokes on me,
'cause you can't see my pencil markings on the paper
from this distance, like at all.
So after standing up and realizing this, I re-traced
all the pencil lines in a thick marker
so you can actually see what I did.
And you know what?
I actually did a pretty good darn job.
They both actually look like the same thing
and it's in scale too, as far as I can tell.
So, yay!
Now, because my waist measurement
is the one measurement that's a little too big,
I'm gonna add a bit of extra to the waist
by making it larger at the waist point here
and then extending the pattern to there at the waist
and smoothing the line back up to the bust
and down to the hips.
(upbeat music)
Now, according to the book I can now add
whatever size seam allowance that I want
around the outside of the pattern.
So I'm gonna add a seam allowance of 1.5 centimeters,
that's 5/8ths of an inch, all the way around the sides.
I'll then sew with a one centimeter, or 3/8ths of an inch,
seam allowance to make the romper just a little bit bigger
than it would've been otherwise.
Seeing as I was on the larger end of the sizing,
creating a large seam allowance and then sewing
with a deliberately smaller seam allowance
is a good way to slightly increase
the size of non-fitted patterns, up to a point.
So this is something I cannot figure out.
It says to add seam allowance yourself
but it doesn't mention anything about hemming allowance.
So I don't know what to do for
the top and bottom of the romper here.
I'm not sure if the hemming allowance
for the top and bottom has already been added
or if I have to add that.
So, that's something we're all gonna figure out together.
To be on the safe side, I'm just gonna add it
because I can always take away fabric
but it's not so easy to add it.
So I decided on an extra 2.5 centimeters, that's one inch,
hemming allowance on both the top
and the bottom of the pattern.
I drew on the seam allowance by first
marking at regular intervals
where the seam allowance will go
and then, basically, I joined all those marks up,
kind of like a dot-to-dot,
to get an even seam allowance all around.
After cutting it out, to add that extra
hemming allowance at the bottom,
I just added a little extra strip of paper
that was 2.5 centimeters, one inch, wide.
Now, I'm gonna use this pattern
to cut out two pieces of fabric of the same size.
It is time to choose a fabric from my stash.
In the illustration they are using some kind of gingham,
so I'm gonna be thoroughly unoriginal
and use gingham myself.
So first, as all good sewers should do, I ironed the fabric.
That's definitely me there, ironing the fabric.
It's definitely me.
- You know, sewing's not just the fun part.
People like Annika really put in the hard yards
to also do the boring bits like the ironing.
- [Annika] So after ironing the fabric,
I folded it in half.
Here's the folded edge,
and then next, I'm gonna lay the pattern down
flat onto the fabric.
Hey Luc.
- Hi.
- [Annika] And the next step is to cut around the pattern
through both layers of fabric
and we'll end up with two symmetrical pieces of these
in gingham fabric.
I usually put a bunch of heavy stuff down
onto the pattern to hold it in place on the fabric
and then cut around it with my rotary cutter,
because in the past seven years or so that I've been sewing,
I still somehow haven't managed to get,
or make myself any sort of pattern weights.
Now we've got two of the pattern cut-out,
identical shape but symmetrical,
and my fabric.
Okay, now there's no sewing instructions
so I'm really gonna be making this up as I go along.
I figured I would sew these just like a pair of shorts
because that's essentially what they are.
So first, I placed the pieces of fabric
right sides together,
I clipped them, and then I sewed down these edges here.
Then I flipped it so that
the side seams were now in the middle
and I lined up the front crotch with the back crotch,
clipped them together with my clips
and I sewed them together like this.
Then I tried it on.
Hmm... (laughs)
So remember when I made it a bit bigger at the waist?
Yeah, that didn't work out as I was expecting.
And it wasn't even needed because
this pattern really is quite baggy,
baggier than I thought it was gonna be,
so it allows for plenty of room for my stomach.
I really didn't need to make it any bigger.
And the bulge in the pattern just kind of makes it
bulge out here in a very unflattering way
but I'm not sure the shirring will be able to fix.
So I unpicked everything,
and what I did was to remove the added belly part
on the actual paper pattern first,
restoring the pattern to its original state,
seam allowances included.
So then I put the paper pattern back down
on top of the fabric pieces
and cut off that extra belly part
to make them the same as the original pattern.
And then I sewed it back up just like I did before.
So I'm not gonna bother showing you that.
However this time, I also remembered to finish all the seams
with an overlocking stitch as well.
So it was for the best really.
Now it's looking all right.
Well, okay, it does look a little bit
like a Tweedledee cosplay at this point,
but hopefully that particular aesthetic
will be erased by the shirring.
Now while it's on my body, it's a good time
to figure out how much I need to hem the top edge
and the leg holes by.
I have a really short torso,
so I was actually able to hem it by a lot at the top edge
about six centimeters, which is a little over two inches.
So I pinned it roughly where I wanted it to be hemmed,
then I took it off
and I folded the top edge over twice to that length,
then I ironed the folded edge,
and then top-stitched all the way around
the top of the romper.
Nice.
Now to add the straps.
And the instructions are lacking because there aren't any.
And therefore this drawing is very much
up for interpretation.
For example, are both straps together
equal to 60 centimeters long,
or are the straps 60 centimeters long each?
There are not enough instructions in this book.
After throwing a little tantrum,
I decided that 60 centimeters seemed like
the reasonable length for each strap
by using my flexible tape measure to check out both lengths.
Each strap will definitely have to be 60 centimeters.
That's 23 and a half inches
for those following along at home in imperial.
And because, I'm assuming,
each strap is supposed to end up one centimeter wide,
that's 3/8ths of an inch,
I multiplied that by four to give me four centimeters.
So the fabrics I need for the straps will be
two of these, each 60 centimeters by four centimeters.
To make each strap, I first pressed
the long rectangle in half length ways
with my iron to make a nice crease right down the middle.
Then I folded each half of the strap in half,
towards the middle crease, ironing it down
to make yet another two creases.
Basically what I've done is
quarter each strap with creases, length ways.
Then I folded the whole strap in half
along that middle crease, folding in each crease.
And then I sewed along the open edge
with a straight stitch to close it up.
On both ends of each strap,
I cut the ends with pinking shears to prevent fraying
then folded the ends over like this once,
and then sewed them across here.
I then attached one end of each strap to the romper,
both 12 centimeters, that's four and 3/4 inches,
from the center front seam,
sewing them on at two points, here and here.
Now, it's time to stop this looking
like a Tweedledum cosplay and add that shirring.
I'll be adding three rows of shirring
at two points on the romper,
'round the top of the bust and around my natural waist.
First I'm gonna do these top ones.
Now I have a whole video up on shirring
if you don't already know how to do that.
I'm gonna assume you've all watched that video already,
so let's get shirring.
I did the first row of shirring one inch,
that's 2.5 centimeters from the top edge,
going all the way around the top of the romper
until I reached the first stitch.
By the way, to finish off the ends of the shirring,
I did a back stich on each end, which secures the top thread
but the elastic on the underside can still come undone
even when you've back stitched.
So I left the elastic ends long
and then when I was done each row,
I tied the ends of elastic together,
doing a couple of knots to secure them
before cutting them short.
The second row of shirring is going
just underneath the first one,
and instead of drawing a guideline in chalk or something
all around the romper for me to follow,
I'm setting my needle to the far left,
insert witty political joke here,
and then setting the presser foot down so that
the right edge of it is just next to
that previous row of shirring.
And then I used the presser foot as a guide to keep
this row parallel with the last one.
Same thing with the third row.
And now I've got the top part shirred,
I'm gonna try it on, see how it fits,
and figure out where I need the waist shirring to go.
So the pattern told me to put the waist shirring
right up here,
but that's way above my natural waistline,
so if I just followed the pattern,
it wouldn't end up fitting right.
In fact, this is a good example of
why store-bought clothes don't look great on most people.
If ready-to-wear clothes don't look good on you,
that's not your fault.
it's the clothes' fault, because ready-to-wear clothes
are made from quote-unquote standard patterns
that are based on a limited number of body shapes.
But because I'm making this piece of clothing,
I can change the pattern.
And I can move the shirring down to my actual natural waist,
which I'm marking with chalk right now.
I was a little skeptical of this pattern when I started
but I actually think I'm gonna like it when it's finished.
We're almost there.
Okay, three rows of shirring
with the middle one going around my natural waist line.
One, two and three.
The very last thing to do is to hem the leg holes.
And Ella hates when I stand in front of the camera,
she just doesn't understand why I'm just standing there
not paying attention to her,
which is why she looks so uncomfortable here.
Now, I actually quite liked the length of them unhemmed
so I don't want to lose much fabric here.
So what I'm gonna do is overlock the bottom edge of the legs
then with the romper inside out,
I'll flip the ends over and make a narrow hem,
sewing it down with a straight stitch.
And that's it, we are all done.
Time for the reveal.
(upbeat music)
(camera shutters)
- [Luciano] Put your back foot behind your leg again.
Behind your leg.
Put your back foot forward, forward, no forward, yeah.
- Ow, my arm hurts!
- (laughs) Lean back,
but look at your arm.
- Oh! This is not natural.
(camera shutters)
- Ah! Oh god.
Well random book that I found in a vintage store,
you actually made a pretty cute pattern.
It sure took longer than the advertised half a day though.
I don't know if you saw how many outfit changes
I went through in this video,
but I filmed it at least over six different days.
I think if you were super energetic
and you're really really focused,
you might be able to make this in half a day, maybe.
But for a piece of clothing that covers my whole bod,
it honestly didn't take too long.
And even though they were the most minimal of instructions
I actually found it quite fun to figure it out.
I think this was one of the easier ones in the book,
but there are heaps more patterns in here
that I think would be really fun to try.
Like I really like this wrap dress,
and some of these other pattens just look like
good basics to have.
What do you think, should I make more out of this book?
If you enjoyed this video and want to see more,
let me know.
I want to make the stuff that you want to watch.
Hey! You there!
It is time to stop watching,
and it's time to start
leveling up.
But please watch to the end of this video.
You think it's easy to sew using mind power alone?
(laser burning)
Well, think again.
It's difficult as frick!
But never fear.
Being able to do something super skilled, like me,
starts with learning.
So why don't you sign up to Skillshare
and kick your butt into learning some new skills!
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with thousands of classes covering a whole range
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All from the comfort of your very own home.
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which is less than $10 a month, gives you
unlimited access to every single class on their site.
Learning is something that always gets me, The Super Sewist,
out of a real existential funk.
Even if I'm already the best, I am and always will be
a lifelong learner.
And if I could clone myself like my arch nemesis,
the evil overlord of crochet, Radavnia the Raveller,
Radavnia, I'll get you one day!
Then I'd absolutely do that,
because if I could have 10 of me around,
then I'd learn 10 times as much.
And because Skillshare is sponsoring this video,
you can sign up with the link below in the description box
to try out Skillshare for an entire two months,
totally for free.
So try it today!
Level up!
And one day you might even be almost as powerful as me.
The Super Sewist! (laughs)
Hold on, I have received a call.
Someone is out and their pants have ripped at the crotch.
Duty calls!
Check that link in the description.
I'm like peak dad humor right now, like what is this?
- [Luciano] (laughs) And the fact that you don't even
look like any modern integration of Catwoman,
you look like (laughs)--
- 1960's Catwoman?
- (laughs) you look like the Adam West era of Catwoman,
I love it.
- Do the romper, do the romper,
do the romper, do the romper.
This is gonna look great.
- [Luciano] You're a butternut pumpkin.
- A what?
- [Luciano] You're a butternut.
- So why don't you learn a--
- [Luciano] So why don't you learn a butt you skill butts!