Video: Part 2: How to Lay Out the Pattern: Sewing Tips

Learn how to sew a men's shirt in this free sewing project. Our expert seamstress will give tips on using patterns, adding buttons, how to thread a sewing machine, and other sewing instructions.

Video Transcript

Hi! I’m Stephany from Stephany’s Simply Sewing. I’d like to show you how to lay out your pattern to construct a garment. You have already chosen your pattern, ironed your pattern pieces, squared up your fabric so that it is folded with the straight of the grain. Now, I usually start with the largest pieces first. This piece as you can tell, has the arrow that is bent on both ends. That indicates that you are supposed to put that onto the folded edge of your fabric. In order to do that, you match this line with the fold. I like to put a pin, since this is larger pattern, about every 6 inches along the fold line. This stabilizes it, according to the fold line, so that you don’t end up mushing it a little bit this way and ending up with a pattern piece that has not been cut accurately. When you continue to pin, I then smooth my hand across the garment holding it down like this. This keeps the fabric and the pattern from twisting like this. Also, when you’re pinning a garment down that has multiple sizes such as this one does. You do want to be sure that you choose the one line that you’re going to cut in and pin inside or towards the center of the garment so that when you are cutting you don’t cut off your pins or cut off the end that you don’t need. This also helps you to know which line that you do want to cut on. Sometimes it is beneficial to take a magic marker such as a highlighter if you’re just new to doing these types of garments with multi sized patterns. But you can take a highlighter such as a yellow one and trace along the line that you wish to cut. That also helps when you are doing your garment and cutting out. Sometimes the lines overlap and it does become a little bit difficult to follow them. When I’m pinning my garment, I do make sure that I pin down any corners and any large expanses of fabric or pattern. I also double check by smoothing to be sure that the fabric is not bent, folded, or bulky. And that is how you begin to lay out your pattern on the center fold.

Part 2: How to Lay Out the Pattern: Sewing Tips

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