Kid-Smart Sewing Tips - Sew News Library

From our October 2003 Issue


	Kid-Smart Sewing Tips JENNIE ARCHER ATWOOD Over 40 tips to make sewing for children easier and more productive. Make sewing for children worth your time and effort by creating a garment that's both easy to make and easy to wear. Explore ways to create two or three garments that will become their favorites. Begin by selecting patterns and fabric carefully, including your child in the decision-making process. Children grow quickly, so modify the design and construction to allow your creation to fit as long as possible.

Pattern Selection

Choose a pattern that's loose-fitting and easy to adjust.

Pick styles with few pattern pieces and eliminate time-consuming elements you (or your child) don't like.

Consider pattern details that promote independence, such as pull-on pants, rather than zippered or buttoned pants.

Make sewing for your child more efficient. Trace the pattern onto pattern tracing cloth in the sizes you need and place them in clear plastic bags. Adhere a label to the bag with a drawing of variations or combinations that work. Get rid of all the pattern pieces you don't need or use.

When you find a pattern you like, use it over and over again, changing it slightly every time. Each garment will be unique, and you'll save time because you know the pattern works!

Fabric Selection

Choose quality fabrics, notions and trims that will last as your child grows. Pick materials that launder well and are fade-resistant. Let your child help choose fabrics with soft, appealing textures- make it easy for you and fun for your child!

Prepare materials when you bring them home so they'll be ready to sew. Pretest the fabric, notions and trims and make note of any changes or information that'll be important during construction-such as shrinkage and raveling. If you don't like how the materials respond to laundering, don't use them.

Keep all the materials for a project together in a clear plastic bag along with the pattern. Make note of yardage amounts, laundering results and ideas for design and embellishment.

Sewing Tips

When sewing multiples of one item, use production-line sewing techniques to save time and effort. Cut out each garment and keep the pieces in separate piles. Using a thread color that works for all the fabrics, complete each step for each garment before moving on to the next step.

Construct easy-to-wear garments. Avoid elastic at the wrist and ankle and tightly fitting necklines that bind as the child grows.

Avoid buttons down the garment back-these may press into your child's back when they're seated.

Make the sleeve and pant length adjustable by adding knit rollback cuffs that unfold as the child grows. Try recycling the cuffs from their socks as the rollback cuff (1).

Include generous hems when making dresses or create hemline tucks that can be removed as your child grows.

Use your sewing skills to get more wear from garments. Add length to trousers by adding decorative trim or fabric. If pants will be too short next season, cut off the legs and hem them to shorts. Consider the same option for long-sleeve shirts.

If your child is sensitive to anything scratchy, replace a self-fabric waistband with a sewn-on casing made of soft silky fabric (2). If seams or other areas of construction are bothersome, cover them with satin ribbon or seam binding, or fuse a square of soft cotton over the scratchy area.

Eliminate facings that can get twisted, don't stay tucked in or bind at the neckline--use a bias binding to finish the edges.

Always include pockets; they hold important treasures (3). Inside pockets can be added to jackets for mitten storage. Add hook-and-loop tape to the pocket upper edge to keep it closed. Make the pockets out of lining or lightweight fabrics to reduce bulk.

Sew fabric-covered elastic bands onto the back of a dress that's too full, or attach elastic with suspender clips to eliminate some of the extra room and to allow room for growth (4).

Dressing Tips

Help your child to dress themselves. Put buttons on the garment front so they're easily reached. Larger buttons are easier for small hands to manipulate.

Use large-tooth zippers when possible and add a bauble or a ribbon as a pull-tab. If a zipper is hard for your child to manipulate, consider replacing it with snaps, buttons or hook-and-loop tape.

Avoid belts -- if they aren't lost, they're usually dragging in the toilet!

A jumper may be more practical than a dress and is usually easier to sew. It can be worn with a short- or long-sleeve blouse, or no blouse at all as a sundress.

Sew an elasticized button tab onto each mitten and a corresponding button onto jacket sleeves to prevent loss.

Make several outfits using coordinated fabrics. The separate pieces can be mixed and matched for more wardrobe options.

If stains bother you, stick to darker patterned fabrics. Solid white fabrics are reasonable if you don't mind bleaching.

Add a hanging loop to a coat, bathrobe, etc., and put your child's name on it.

Embellish fabric before or after construction with fabric paints using stamps or stencils, or even handprints (see "Squirt a Shirt").

Maximize your time and effort by working with outerwear fleece-it doesn't ravel, stretch or slide. For many garments, facings and interfacings can be eliminated and the edges can be finished using a rotary cutter with a pinking or wavy blade.

Expanding Ready-to-wear

Recycle clothes whenever possible. Use old sweaters, jeans or other discarded clothing to make clothing for your child. A single mitten can become a pocket. Two or three sweaters can be combined to create a colorful jacket. Cut a band of fabric from a swimsuit around the waist and it becomes a headband.

For a quick and easy project add a gathered skirt to a T-shirt. If your child is potty training, make the dress length above her knees so it won't drag in the toilet.

Use vintage textiles. Incorporate a tea towel into the front of a dress (5), or use an embroidered edge from a pillowcase or dresser scarf for a collar or pocket. Use vintage tablecloths in combination with embroidered pieces, lace, trims, and buttons to make dresses, jackets and more.

Remake a wedding dress into an heirloom christening dress or dye the fabric and use it to make dresses- possibilities are endless for all that fabric (6).

Embellish purchased garments. Add lace, trims, buttons or paint to a pair of pants or a jean jacket. Get your child involved and let them assist in the project.

Sew ribbon roses or jewelry baubles found at the craft store around a dress neckline for an instant "necklace."

Make a simple bib out of a terry-cloth dishtowel. Cut a hole in the center large tough to go over your child's head. Cut 4 1/2"-wide length of ribbing long enough to go around your child's head. Sew the short ends together to form a circle then fold it in half with wrong sides together so the raw edges meet. Using pins, quarter-mark the ribbing and the neck opening. Pin the ribbing to the towel, stretching it to match the marks, and serge the edges together (7).

The ideas from this list will help you create clothing your children will love. Whenever possible, let them participate and honor their choices. The combinations they come up with will make for a creative collaboration they'll be proud to wear.

SQUIRT A SHIRT

Try a little creative painting at your child's next birthday party.

Have the kids wear old clothes or provide large plastic bags with holes cut in the bottom and sides so they can slip over heads and arms for a protective smock.

Before the kids arrive, prepare small squirt guns with fabric paint. Use fabric paint that comes in small squirt bottles and place a small amount of paint into the gun opening. Fill the gun halfway with water, close the stopper and shake to mix. Test the color by squirting onto a paper towel. Adjust the color concentration by adding more water or paint.

Set up an area in the yard or garage that won't suffer from a little paint. Tape plastic over tables or boards and cover them with newspapers.

Give each child a squirt gun and a prewashed, white cotton T-shirt. Have them aim the squirt gun at the T-shirt and fire! Of course they can share colors for even more expressive results.

Let the shirts dry while the kids are eating cake or doing some other activity.

When the paint is dry, heat-set the paint according to the paint instructions. Note: You could prepare heat-setting instructions and send them home with the T-shirt and let their parents take care of this step.

Use this technique on any item made of 100% cotton fabric, such as bags, hats or socks. You can even decorate fabric yardage before making clothes or accessories from it.

Jennie Archer Atwood sews for her family and home in Topeka, KS, receiving creative collaboration from her three daughters. She shares her love of creative sewing and combining old and new textiles, in her book Sew Vintage. Jennie is the author of numerous articles on sewing and has appeared on HGTV's Sew Much More.

RESOURCE

Sew Vintage by Jennie Archer Atwood available in bookstores nationwide from Taunton Press, Dept. SN, 63 S.Main St., Box 5506, Newtown, CT 06470-5506, www.taunton.com/.


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