Tag: sewing

Onesies and Rompers

June 24, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

I personally don’t wear onesies because I overheat, I did one time for cosplay though! And it was super comfortable! I honestly wouldn’t mind trying to make one again now.

Now there is a onesie, something that you would imagine like a child wearing, and there are kigurumis, something that children could also wear but I often see them more personalized towards adults. They are much baggier than a onesie. I can see a onesie being something you sleep in and a kigurumi being something you walk around the house in all day in quarantine or after work.

Here is a list of Onsie Tutorials!

Crafty Amy has an older tutorial on youtube from 2013! With this she has you base the onesie off of your own sweatpants and sweatshirt.
Madebyaya has a very similar tutorial without words but this one includes a hood!
Withwendy has more of a kigurumi style, one that is more of a baggy version of a onesie.
Berriebarley has a cute Mike Wazoski tutorial, it’s much quicker than the other videos.

I never used to wear rompers, making that Medusa cosplay was probably the first time I ever wore one and it wasn’t until my sophomore year of college when I started wearing them again! Now I wear them all the time because honestly they are much more comfortable than most clothes.

Here is a list of Romper Tutorials!

The Craftpreneur gives a simple tutorial where all you do is trace your shirt and shorts- which is honestly all a romper is.
Jamie-Kay also has a quick video, they have the pattern in a different video though which is probably why it is a quick one.
WithWendy has a romper tutorial as well! The more I blog the more I’ve noticed her on YouTube.
Jonyae has an interesting tutorial where they actually turn a baggy shirt into a romper.

It’s a bit hard to find differences in videos with these two types of sewing themes, most of them are basically the same or have very similar methods. With almost everything fashion and sewing, of course there are always different looks and with that it requires a lot of research to be done!

Making Dresses

June 20, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

Me? Sewing something that isn’t for cosplay? Shocker!

At this point in my life I hated dress shopping. I didn’t weigh as much as I do now but they still didn’t make many pretty dresses in my size. Most of the girls my size had also already bought all those dresses and claimed them on the prom dress Facebook page so I decided to make my own!

Prom wasn’t all that special to me. I wasn’t dating anyone, most of my guy friends went with their girlfriends, and I didn’t really see a reason as to why I should doll up all that much and spend hundreds of dollars on a dress. So I made my own… In like, a day and a half.

I’m still very proud of how this dress turned out though. The photo my mom took is a very unflattering angle for the dress but nonetheless no one at prom had as unique a dress as I did!

When making dresses I sort of eyeball it. I think once I watched enough tutorials I kind of just started doing my own thing- again, probably not the smartest idea. I think though after making this blog and trying to link tutorials for beginners I might actually start trying what they do.

How To Sew A Dress

Just like all the other blog posts, I have to say this. There are so many different types of dresses that if you want to make one you should probably do some research beforehand and figure out what type you want to make!

Michara Tewers– I have shared her before! She is honestly one of my favorite YouTubers and probably one of the two cosplayers on YouTube that I watch frequently. She often makes dresses and “gives tutorials” but she does everything sped up so you don’t really know what she’s doing unless you’ve sewn something like that before. Nonetheless, she’s entertaining and she loves to recreate dresses like Ariana Grande’s dress. (I would also like to add that when you type into YouTube how to make a dress she shows up as well.)
Coolirpa has a tutorial about making a dress without a dress-form! It’s horrible of me, but I sort of forgot that most people don’t own dress-forms.
Jessica Shaw has a cute tutorial about making a dress from scratch. It’s a simple dress, nothing too flashy so it’s a good starter if you’re new to sewing.
Kara Metta has a tutorial where you make your own pattern and my mind is blown. She used wrapping paper to make the pattern, I have never thought of that or heard of that. I only knew of pattern paper and people using newspaper!
Rosery Apparel gives you a free pattern that you can download which is very nice of them to do.
Sew Aldo shows how to make a skirt into a dress which these types of things are always interesting and are such good life hacks.

Sewing Skirts

June 17, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

I’ve found so far that skirts are pretty fun! Personally I don’t wear them often, but a lot of characters from video games and television shows do!

Most of the time you don’t have to sew a skirt, they are an item sold quite often in the Summer and again, can be found easily in Good Will or so on, especially if you’re looking for odd patterns.

Mina Ashido from Boku no Hero Academia- a 2018 cosplay

Most of the time I just make circle skirts, such as this one and one I showed in a previous post in my Nora from RWBY cosplay. Circle skirts are quick and easy, or at least I think, because it’s literally just a circle pattern you cut out. This video by Annika Victoria is the video I always follow when I want to make a circle skirt.

Fun Fact, I used a circle skirt pattern for the cape on my Wirt cosplay, so they aren’t just for skirts! Being creative sure is fun!

Wirt from Over The Garden Wall in my 2015 cosplay- still one of my favorite cosplays

However, there are other types of skirts, so many that when I look up different types of skirts, there are pictures that claim to have all the types but so do other posts that have types the other picture didn’t have and so on!

PopOptiq has a list of different skirt types, many I have never heard of and wish to some day sew myself!

Other Easy Skirt Types

Bluprint has an easy skirt tutorial, you need to buy the pattern, but it’s called a rae skirt so if you really like it I suggest to do some digging if you want it for free.
Fabricdotcom just has an easy skirt tutorial, just using two pieces of fabric you sew together along with an elastic for the waist.
MADE Everyday has a good tutorial on how to add pockets into your skirt- which is very nice and something that I want to do more often!
Angela Clayton makes a rectangle skirt which I’ve made in the past but haven’t attempted again in a while. I really like the look of them
Joyfully makes a gathered skirt tutorial, something I have done similar to in the past back when I didn’t even attempt to watch tutorials and just went for it like a fool! I recommend watching videos and just getting practice.

So I’m not listing all the types of skirts, these are just ones I thought would be easy to start out with. If you have other skirts you want to try I recommend looking at the list and looking those up specifically or maybe when Joanns opens up again go look at the pattern books they have and purchase a pattern!

Sewing Pants

June 13, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

Pants… are not for me. I never really see a reason to make them when sewing when you can easily go to the dollar store and find some wacky pants there.

Even in this cosplay I made in 2014 wasn’t even me making the pants. I had to go out and buy two different colored pants and sew them together! Even that was hard! I was actually thinking about it the other night and debating on if I just wanted to make some two colored shorts just for fun some time though, it had sucked but around 2012 was when I first got into cosplay, so at 2014 I wasn’t very good at sewing yet and had just gotten my sewing machine!

Sadly 2014 was a year with bad cell phone quality. Most pictures I do have of myself in pants that I made are very blurry and I know there are some cosplays that I had made but during those years I was super self conscious about my body type and my lack of sewing experience that I never really had people take pictures of me to share online.

However, just because I do not like making pants does not mean I don’t want to learn how to!

Shorts!

I figured I should add these as well to this blog post because shorts are very similar to pants so why not?

Of course I had to add this DIY making shorts out of jeans tutorial in here. Amber Scholl posted this and I honestly don’t think I’ve ever made shorts from pants before. I have bought shorts and cut them up to make them look more like pirate themed but that’s about it

2019 Team Aqua Grunt from Pokemon (this was made in one night so excuse the bad paint job on the shirt and tights)

Sew Cutesy has a good making shorts tutorial, with this you can make a pattern so you will always have the pattern if you ever want to make more shorts!
The Polkadotter has a good tutorial as well, however there is no voice over which can sometimes be confusing, but you do end up with the basic type of easy sewing shorts.
Sew Aldo has a shorts tutorial with pockets! I know that when it comes to sewing I almost never add pockets and then regret it later.
Coolirpa has a high-waited shorts tutorial that also includes pockets and includes sewing buttons on for a little extra style to it.

Just like with shirts, there are many different styles with shorts and pants. These are just some of the easier ones so these are what I’m listing. If making pants or shorts is what you’re interested in I’m sure these tutorials and a little research of your own can help a lot! Especially if you’re looking for styles that I don’t include.

Pants!

Mattie Ice is a rookie at sewing so he says, but that just means anyone can make pants if they try! I found his video pretty funny because he ends up taking apart his own pants to make the pattern for these new ones. It’s not much of a tutorial, but still.
Kim Dave has a nice tutorial, she uses tracing paper so she can have the pattern for the future, don’t worry, you can just use newspaper! She gives a bit more details which can be helpful so the video is a little longer.
OnlineFabricStore.net has a cute tutorial on how to make pajama bottoms which is honestly very tempting now that I think about it. Maybe it will be my next project after Summer classes are over!
Evange is a 2010 tutorial. This is being posted here mainly for nostalgia reasons for I followed it when I made my Muffet cosplay that I sadly do not have pictures of. I just remember being so shocked by how comfortable they were and surprised they aren’t a trend now!

I think that pants are something I will dabble in after this Summer. It will make my cosplays feel more genuine and honestly making pajama bottoms could be pretty fun!

Sewing Sleeves

June 10, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

This is going to be a post about shirts in general, or tank tops, but sewing sleeves sounded nicer.

I can make tank top straps pretty easily, it’s not hard. You can even do it with ribbon if you wanted to make everything even easier! I know I have done that before. However, I find this is one of the hardest parts of clothes. This is where the weight lies on your shoulders. With this weight, seams can rip, and with ripping means all that hard work you put in has to be redone.

This dress is still not finished and I don’t know if I will ever finish it oops, sorry spots

This dress based off the superhero costume from Miraculous Ladybug was very fun and simple to make, however, the straps constantly need to be fixed! Time and time again they break and I still haven’t figured out the best way- but this is something to always expect when making your own clothes! Sometimes tings break! Heck! This happens even when you didn’t make the clothes!

I have to admit though, I’m sure a lot of my downfall comes to when I don’t end up looking for tutorials. Most of the time I can make something look correct, but may not feel correct. I tend to just eyeball how other jackets or shirts look and go along with it or eyeball a pattern I see on Google

One thing I would like to mention before throwing some tutorials your way is that there are many different items of clothing that you can make. There are so many different types of styles out there that you can look up, but for this blog for now they will mainly be simple things!

Here is an easy T-Shirt tutorial by WithWendy, every tutorial will basically be the same as this when it comes to t-shirts so this is the only video I will link for t-shirts. WithWendy also has a lot of other nice tutorials so I recommend checking them out!

Happily Dressed shows how to make a jacket, which is very similar to making a shirt! They also show how they added lining into their jacket as well.

I’m also just going to share this sleeve tutorial by Professor Pincushion where they just give a tutorial on how to simply make a sleeve! I like this tutorial because they use two different colors to show you the difference between the sleeve and the shirt so it’s easier to see what’s going on.

I would also like to add how to make a hoodie in here by Melly Sews, it’s a bit longer than these other videos but she goes over the steps very well.

One of the things I often make when it comes to sewing is making tubes. A tube is just when you sew one piece of fabric to itself. CandTPublishing shows how to turn those tubes right side out considering sometimes this isn’t the easiest task.

Zune’s Sewing Therapy I found funny because it’s a tank top tutorial but it’s for toddlers and the first thing they tell you is to go subscribe to them so you can get the pattern for free. However, it is a good tank top tutorial. Here is the cutout that they have posted on their Pinterest though! I personally would just grab my own tanktop and trace it though so you can get your size.

Again, there are so many different styles of tank tops or jackets to make. I will probably make another blog to post about my personal preferences and how to make them like a sweetheart neckline or some that I haven’t made but would like to!

Sewing Buttons

June 6, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

I am making this a post because I personally had a hard time with buttons at first. I didn’t quite understand how tight they had to be against the fabric or how to correctly loop the needle through. It can still be a bit challenging, especially due to the fact that there are so many different types of buttons out there! Now let me also mention that I never looked up videos for sewing buttons, I sort of just assumed at first and figured it out myself.

One thing that I have noticed about these is when they start the thread they only do one knot. I personally do multiple because sometimes I pull the thread too hard and the knot will go right through the fabric! It’s not hard to do multiple though, it just takes up more time.

I had to choose this video! I just had to! The camera quality isn’t the best and it’s from 2011 but honestly it just cracked me up with the fact that the woman is using a giant button! This video is by Nicki Callahan!
This video got me. It’s a sewing video directed at men and honestly it’s very entertaining! It has very good camera angles and a good voice over! Now it’s said to be for men, but honestly it’s just a good sewing technique and I learned something from it so I recommend watching this video by Real Men Real Style – especially if you want to replace that button on your shirt sleeve.
This is the same button style but just another view from someone else on how to sew a button. This is from When Creativity Knocks and the host of it is a very sweet lady. Her introduction line is about how her kids friends don’t know how to sew! How could they? Anyways she gives a nice step by step tutorial too.

Something else I notice with the YouTube selections that are given when typing in Sewing Buttons is they are almost all the same type of button. I understand that those are the most common type of button, but there are others and I have had to sew those others before! There are fabric/shank buttons (which Sewing Bee Fabrics actually made a tutorial on how to make fabric buttons which I have never done before but seems fun! Treasurie does it as well!)

Treasurie shows you how to sew on multiple different buttons which is very nice! I definitely wish that when I started sewing I looked up how to sew buttons and different button types instead of just winging it, it would have made everything much easier!
Make It Coats has a tutorial as well, it feels a bit slower but I’m sure if you’re going along with it, this helps a lot! Again, I probably should have looked up sewing this type of button in my past because I see now it could have been much easier.

Sewing Stuffed Animals

June 3, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

This was how I got into sewing in the first place! I read a cute little (very long) webcomic called Homestuck that I don’t recommend reading unless you have a lot of time on your hands (over 8,000 pages oof) There was a stuffed animal in this comic that a lot of people loved and so did I, so I looked up a tutorial and started at it!

It Actually Became A Prop For A 2015 Cosplay Of Mine

I haven’t made too many other stuffed animals besides that, but it honestly helped me learn so quickly when it came to sewing I was very surprised! It also helped me to visualize things in three dimensions. It’s easy to look up how to sew something, so with a quick Google search I found 30 free patterns that should be easy enough if you follow the tutorials.

Most tutorials that you may see will most likely be pushed towards those who sew with a machine for it tends to be more secure and quicker to do. However I will say that you can still do those tutorials, it will just take longer with hand sewing and it will most likely teach you how to get better with sewing by hand!

This video by BudgetHobby shows how to sew basic stitches while also making a cute plush! There is also this very cute elephant sewing tutorial by Lia Griffith where she hand sews as well. I highly suggest looking up more tutorials, these can make great gifts as well as get you into a new hobby. It will also promote hand sewing and show how much love and effort you have put into it!

I am however biased for a sewing machine though. I do need to sew more often by hand, but when it comes to what I usually make which is cosplay, I would rather get it done faster than slower.

A cute stuffed animal that I want to do is this bat by BeeZeeArt, which on her channel it looks like she has a good chunk of other designs to do as well! Another cute design I wouldn’t mind trying is this cute cat by Let’s Make It Together! Again, I recommend looking up more designs on your own time, I don’t know what people may like to sew for stuffed animals and I’m still discovering for myself.

One last thing I would like to mention is fabric. Felt and fleece is what I often use, I’m sure you could use cotton and so on, but a warning would be is that stretchy and fluffy fabrics may be a bit more difficult to use. Stretchy fabric is nice because it often tends to be soft, but it can warp the outcome of the stuffed animal at the end and it will require a lot more fluff and stronger stitches. Fluffy fabric is often hard to cut and it ends up being very thick to use. It leaves a lot of fluff everywhere as well so it’s just a general warning, I use it every so often and always forget the mess it makes every time.

Making Masks

May 30, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

Right now is probably the best time to learn how to make a mask! We are in an epidemic and that is why making masks is the first sewing tutorial I want to post about!

First and foremost I would like to say you do not need to sew for every mask, here is a tutorial on how to just make a mask with a bandanna, elastics, and sometimes a coffee filter. Here is one link with a bottom down view and here is a link with a front facing view! And here is another by Jan Howell to show you how to no sew one out of a shirt!

A lot of the posts I have seen for sewing masks have been on my Facebook, and I know there are many different tutorials and many different types of masks that can be made! One of the first posts I had seen was this one by Kaitlyn where she actually adds wire into the mask- something I had not thought of before or seen in other tutorials yet!

When making masks, you need materials! The materials I specifically use is some cotton I bought from Walmart (wash the fabric first! It can bleed and shrink so just get that out of the way!), some interfacing that my friend suggested from this site (this is just an extra layer to put in the middle), and some sort of elastic, fabric, or ribbon. I bought this because it’s not very thick and doesn’t hurt my ears as much so I recommend it!

So there are many ways on how to make masks, some are very easy and some can be more intricate like Kaitlyns. Here are some tutorials on sewing with and without a machine!

Hand Sewing

Treasurie shows two different styles of one mask type, one with a pocket and one without.
Titiz makes another style of mask.
Jess Dang shows how to make two different masks. MOM DOES DIY also does a version of the first mask.

Machine Sewing

Machine sewing is very similar if not exactly the same as hand sewing but a little bit faster. Melanie Ham does a mask that you tend to see more often.
Erica Arndt also makes another simple face mask style close to Melanie Hams style.
Sweet Red Poppy makes a mask that you can tie around your head. She adds a few extra steps so it looks a bit more complicated.
Sew Much Moore In Store makes the same style as Sweet Red Poppy but it’s a bit easier.

An Introduction to Sewing

May 28, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

For this blog, I will be linking many tips on how to hand sew as well as sew with a machine. I personally do not hand sew very often, but I do know the basic steps.

I do want to also add to be careful when sewing. You are using a needle. I have seen many YouTubers and friends poke themselves and get hurt or even sometimes drop the needle on the ground and fear possibly stepping on it!

Hand Sewing:

Sewing with a needle can be fun, it’s something you can do while watching television and the outcome of the piece tends to feel more personal. – Image From https://unsplash.com/

How To Thread A Needle

Threading a needle can be hard, I know I always find it difficult especially when I start to get stressed. I found this YouTuber called Stitch My Style which she has multiple videos on beginner sewing videos! There are also needle threaders that Red Ted Art made a video for. Needle threaders often come with small sewing kits you can buy for cheap at places like Walmart.

How To Tie A Knot

After threading a needle the string needs to be cut and so the string doesn’t fall out, you need to tie a knot! Having the string fall out would be frustrating considering how annoying threading it already is. Again Stitch My Style gives a good example of how to tie some knots in the thread.

Finally Sewing!

There are many different ways to sew, my personal reference is always the invisible stitch that OnlineFabricStore.net the YouTube channel shows quite well. Here is another video by Easy Sewing for Beginners if you need another view! There are other stitches besides just the invisible that you can do, here is a short video by Thaitrick as well as a longer video by Homedit!

Ending a Stitch

Ending a stitch is just another knot that you add at the end of sewing, just something that keeps the hard work you just did all in place. It’s fairly quick so here is a video by Shuryanie and these are the types of stitch endings I do all the time!

Sewing With a Machine:

A sewing machine can look pretty scary at first, and often sound pretty scary, but once you figure it out sewing becomes much quicker! – Image From https://unsplash.com/

Work With the Bobbin

A bobbin holds some of the thread, which putting thread in it is something you have to do manually. Before I link a video, I just want to say to make sure to always check and see how much fabric is left on your bobbin! I’ve sewn before just to find out my bobbin has run out and have had to redo it! Howcast has a video on How to Wind a Bobbin and How to Load a Bobbin. My personal sewing machine does not have a bobbin loader like hers, but I still recommend the video!

How To Thread a Sewing Machine:

There are a few more steps to threading a machine, it confused me a lot when I first started sewing but you get used to it after a while. Also know that different brands of machines have slightly different setups, so if you do have a specific machine and these videos don’t make sense, look up that machines brand for better instructions. Howcast also has a Threading Your Machine video that I recommend watching.

Sewing With the Machine:

Most sewing videos are pretty long, so here are two that I found that are shorter but still cover the topics that needed to be covered! Coolirpa goes through all the steps as well as suggests items that you should have when you start sewing. Tock Custom also goes through all the steps that were listed before this so you can view them setting up their machine as well!

I hope that these steps helped with learning how to sew and that you will follow along with them!

May 24, 2020 / rabbott / 0 Comments

*Star Butterfly Photos Taken by Lexi Stiller*

Sewing for me started out because my group of friends talked about things called anime conventions, places where nerds could meet up, dress up, and talk up about their favorite series, characters, or video games! I quickly found that is was a positive and helpful community that convinced me to sew more than I ever thought I would!

Pulling an all-nighter to make a baggy shirt with your bestie.

The first thing I ever learned how to sew was stuffed animals, I still have the one I first made all those years ago! It was thanks to the online sewing community that I learned how to think in a three dimensional way. An online community like Cosplay Amino is a place where you can share, ask questions, and learn from the wide amount of people who also love to sew and create (this one specifically is usually just for cosplay creations). I have also joined many Facebook groups like Cosplayers of New Hampshire where we would discuss what was going on in our sewing lives.

Sometimes you go through Starbucks painted pink.

I personally think that it’s important for people to learn how to sew. It doesn’t have to be with a sewing machine specifically for those can be pricey and sometimes tough to start learning (I know I had a hard time learning to how use one by myself), but I think it’s important. I don’t think people should have to go to a seamstress and spend a ton of money to fix a rip or hem some pants when those could literally take seconds to fix at your own home not wasting as much money. My roommate asked me to re-sew her button on her clothes one time, I happily did it, but I wouldn’t have had to if she knew how to do it herself.

It’s not even hard to look up how to do some of these simple tasks, people use the internet to search so many things why not this? I understand that people are busy, but that’s why this is a hobby and then something that could help with the tear in your pants later on in life.

Off to go to a formal cosplay ball in a blue wig with your purple friend

I’m not saying get into sewing so you can get into cosplay and such, those are very big steps. Those are steps I chose because I am a nerd and I loved dressed up on Halloween and thought hey, why not be able to dress up more often than just on Halloween? And found out there were tons of people who felt the same way. That was a risk I was willing to take, I get strange looks but I also get compliments from strangers and often random little girls getting pictures taken with me by their mom who doesn’t know who I am but I am wearing a fancy dress so I must be some character their child loves. I do think it would be cool if more people tried this, but I am not at all saying “get into sewing so you can get into cosplay”, getting into cosplay was just my reason for learning how to sew properly.

I’m saying learn the essentials of sewing. If you like it? Great! Keep at it and make it a hobby! If it extends to more like it did for me? Great! Go find that community you can fit into! If you learn the essentials of sewing but don’t like it? That’s great too! You tried! That’s what matters. You now know how to sew kind of and can fix things if needed.

Some of the people I watch when it comes for just entertainment now and not educational sewing tips would be someone like Micarah Tewers, a youtuber who will literally see a couch on the side of the road and make a dress out of it. Another would be AnyaPanda, someone who often gives storytimes of her cosplay experiences, reviews cosplays she bought online, as well as shows behind the scenes to her photo shoots.

These people inspire me to want to create more when it comes to sewing and making outfits, and that’s what I want to do with these blogs for other people.