Creating a Sewing Pattern

What's better than being able to repair or alter clothes?

I think I've mentioned the fact that I had to take Home Ec. in school, and it was in that class that I learned to sew.  While I credit Home Ec, and Mrs. Abraham with teaching me to sew, the fact is that I started sewing many years before that.  

When I was six, I was a Brownie Girl Scout, and I learned an embroidery technique for embellishing cloth napkins.  I also learned a very valuable lesson when I witnessed one of our scout leaders who had sewed her embroidered napkin to her skirt. 

In the seventh grade, as a Cadette Girl Scout, I learned how to hand sew using several different stiches, including a blind stitch for sewing hems.  My Girl Scout troop elected to make our own uniforms, and our troop leader instructed us in using a pattern and sewing that pattern together by hand to make a wrap-around skirt.  I finished my skirt during the HBO free weekend, sitting in front of the television and binge watching movies I would never see on TV in their unedited form, and which I couldn't afford to go see at the theater.  We were binge watching television before Netflix was a thing.  Just sayin'.

The six years in between learning embroidery and sewing my skirt, I made a lot of doll clothes and pillows.  

So, while my high school Home Ec. class deserves the credit for teaching me to be comfortable with a sewing machine, it wasn't the fuel that sparked my interest in making things using a needle and thread.  That fire was started many years before I was even thinking about high school.

Fast forward a lot of years, and sewing has become a happy past-time, for me - not something that I do for enjoyment, but something I *can* do, and mostly, enjoy.  The part that I enjoy the most is the ability to fill a need.  

Like making masks.  We needed masks.  I disliked the idea of disposable options (not only do I hate the notion of using something that is meant to be thrown away, but I also just hate the way they look), and so I made my own.  Deus Ex Machina has been wearing the cloth masks I made for him since April 2020, when his employer first mandated them.  He received lots of compliments and comments about the fabric choices, and the recycled elastics ;).  

And that's the second bonus, for me.  If I can reuse something to make something new that we need, it's a win-win.

Such was the case with Deus Ex Machina's undergarments.

The story is that he had some tee-shirts that were still perfectly usable, but he was no longer able to wear them.  They were a custom garment, and so we also couldn't donate them.  The choice was to throw them away, or find an other use. 

I found another use.  

A couple of his old tee-shirts became skirts, for me.  I made this skirt using a pattern I had purchased.  

But then, I noticed he had some undergarments that weren't in the best shape, and since I was already sewing, I thought, "I can make those."

Unfortunately, I didn't have a pattern.

So I made one.

Et voila!

Boxer briefs that were the perfect fit and were free!  I even reused the elastic from an old pair of briefs.

It doesn't get much better than that.

How to Create a Sewing Pattern:

1.  Disassemble an article of clothing that is the same size and style that you are hoping to create.

2.  Trace the shape of the individual pieces on to butcher paper.  Note: it's not necessary to use any special paper, but it is helpful if the piece of paper is large enough to hold the entire piece of cloth.  That is, taping sheets of printer paper together would work, but the tape might get in the way.

3.  Label the pieces of the pattern and indicate any special instructions - like how many of that size piece are needed (cut 2), or if the piece can be placed on a fold and cut out.

4.  Sew the pieces together.