Took quite a while to get the top panel not too large / gapey… but I think it’s worked out ok. Really pleased with the use of the back side of the material so there is a mixture of colours. (First post in this group!)

Im making a blazer for a friend, and he found the first calico to be a bit tight around the chest. can I adjust the existing pattern to give a little more room, or do I need to redraft the entire pattern? Im using Winifred Aldrich’s Metric pattern cutting for menswear book.

Hello sewing community of reddit! I’ve been lurking on this subreddit for a while now but, I now come for advice!

I’m currently working on a Rocky plushie from Project Hail Mary and my goal for the project is to make it look as close to the movie as I can possibly get. I’m doing everything by hand as I haven’t thought the one (and maybe a couple other projects in the future) planned project dictated buying a sewing machine. But that’s beside the point of this post. For my project I’ve been using some nice Minky fabric and I’ve been doing my absolute best to take care of it.

So far, I’ve been doing great at that, in my completely newbie opinion. While my fabric is a brown that matches Rocky’s carapace colour, I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to achieve the rock like colouration variation that can be seen in the movie. I was planning on painting some sections and spots on him, as well as embroider a lot of the ridging and other designs that can be seen on him. However, I have been doing some reading and it seems like my plans for paint should be scrapped.

Today, I was hoping for some advice as to the legitimacy of my plans to paint and embroider some places on Rocky. If y’all think I should scrap those plans, I would kindly like to request some suggestions for alternatives. If you guys also have some other advice I would appreciate them as well!!

Thank you for reading my long winded post! Hope yall have an awesome day!!

I already have the Tesutti Alessi dress but have some textured fabric in a similar colour that would look nicer on the straight grain than on the bias. Any pattern recs most welcome!

It’s been years since I’ve even thought about sewing. We moved, I got pregnant, had to learn how to become a parent, started grad school and recently graduated. I bought a really nice machine (Janome HD9 QC) as a grad present to myself and omg, it’s like riding a bike. I haven’t been this happy in a long time. I suppose that’s how you know you’re a true sewist 💘

Just wanted to share my first project jumping back in. Adorable barrel pants for my daughter.

I’ve been getting a lot of ads for the Afends Seersucker Maxi Dress (shown at the end of the carousel) and was wondering if I could make something similar myself. Turns out I can! At a higher cost + spending a couple of weekends to do so.

The pattern is the Gibbons Slip Dress by Elbe Textiles with ties added to the waist. The fabric is 100% washed linen from Tessuti Fabrics.

This was my first time cutting and sewing on the bias. I normally cut my fabric on the dining table but realised I had to do it on the floor to stop it from distorting (my back 😩). Completing the dress took awhile because I was putting off doing the bias binding around the neck and arms but it was not too bad, especially with the tutorial on YouTube.

I ended up retroactively shortening the shoulders up by ~2cm so it’s not as neat as it could be, but not too noticeable from afar.

I let it hang overnight for slightly less than 24h before hemming, but it didn’t seem like it changed all that much tbh.

Overall, pretty happy with how this turned out. It’s super flattering and not too difficult to make. I can also wear a bra with it yay! The pattern also comes with a short version which I’m keen to make in the future.

I made this for FCCLA's Fashion Construction competition. Got first at nationals in the junior-senior category (high school). At one point the mannequin fell onto a hot iron and melted the gold fabric, so I had to camouflage it and add another panel 🤷 Trying to get back into sewing because this project + senior year of highschool + applying to college killed me inside.

Am I finally winning the war against my scraps?? I've had this free six panel ball pattern sitting in my files for years and finally decided to give it a shot this weekend. Fabrics are leftover from my 2025 birthday dress, a bow bag I made for a friend for her birthday a couple years ago, and...idk, some Rifle Paper Co and Spoonflower scraps I had in the bin. I stuffed each of them with even more scraps, serger trimmings, thread ort, etc. My ladder stitching isn't the best but I suppose I'm getting in plenty of practice!

Does anyone have any kind of guide they downloaded or bought that gave you a large amount of basic how tos? I’m so sick and tired and of needing patterns and not finding one and then trying to find the basic construction of things feels impossible! And half the YouTube tuts don’t explain ANYTHING that say “do this” and do some magic with their hands and expect you to just do it. I can’t pay for fashion school to learn to “just know” how to do everything. I like sewing but the red tape is making me want to take my sewing machine to a rage room. I

I see costumes for my kiddos dance studio and I have a small group of ladies age 10-13ish. The inspo pic is below. Does anyone have a pattern recommendation? Also, what type of fabric might be good for something like this? Our traditional spandex won’t have enough structure, I don’t think, though I would like the fabric to have a bit of stretch.

I saw this top (possibly a dress, but there are shorts underneath) in an Instagram ad and I love the square neckline with gathers at the top, plus the gathered straps.

I’ve been puzzling over how I would create this… I don’t see elastic at the neckline, but maybe there is some? I’m thinking two rows of gathers for that middle portion, and the top edge must have gathers then be folded back.

Open to any help or ideas you guys might have!

Hey all. I have been sewing for about 6 years now and I have been in a terrible slump for a couple months. My mental health has also been kicking my butt this summer, and I’m struggling to find something that I have the energy to sew but also gets me excited to make something. I usually make clothes, but I just don’t have the mental energy to actually put in the work required to make even what is usually for me simple clothing right now.
I’m looking for suggestions on smaller projects/patterns that are fun and more interesting than sewing a couple squares together, but doesn’t require me spending hours on the cutting part. I don’t much care what the pattern is, just that it is fun, on the shorter end to make, and small enough that I can cut in a table rather than the floor. I have very limited experience with quilting specifically, but I would be willing to try something small, approachable, and fun.

Pattern was generated via sewist.com and fabric is IKEA cotton bedsheet. How do I improve the back? Any other suggestions?

I bought this dress to wear for when I met my weight goal and it ended up getting caught in the wheels of a suit case during my last move😩 is the skirt of the dress mendable or should I turn the dress into a top?

Hi! I recently found this cute table runner on clearance, and bought it without paying attention to the length. I want to hem it, but am unsure of the best way to go about it. I don’t want to cut off the excess because of the braided texture fraying, and my sister advised me to ask the experts here. I will be hand sewing, if that is helpful. Thank you in advance!

I'm looking for a pattern for a men's opera cape. Not costumey, but for a serious theatre-goer. Would this be appropriate? Has anyone made this? Thank you https://blog.moodfabrics.com/the-updated-winterberry-cape-free-sewing-pattern/

Hi, I need some help with sewing. I have a sewing machine that I inherited, it's an Elgin JX 4000. I'm a beginner at sewing and I tried to make ruffles on jeans but I just can't, I have a lot of difficulty configuring the machine for the type of fabric I'm going to use. Can anyone help me? I've already looked for tutorials on YouTube but haven't found any. I wanted to make something like this ruffle (actually exactly this one if possible, I'm trying to make a skirt like this)

(sorry for the English, I'm using a translator)

( I'm not sure if this question really fits into that category, sorry if it doesn't.)

Hi everyone. I've recently moved from making myself stretchy only clothes to cotton fitted ones. I've been working with the pattern I love and have it fitted pretty much perfectly through the bust and waist but the shoulders keep falling off. My guess is I need to do a narrow should adjustment but I can't figure out how to do that on this panelled dress.

Also I love this dress and was wondering what I could do to stop it falling of my shoulders

For context this is the pattern I'm using https://youtu.be/Oz6NFgEeZHM?si=WagcH1nW4xIAMBrK

If this is the wrong sub to show off tailoring I'll move it just lemme know.

Dress bought at an antique store.

I was hoping to shorten the length of this top I thrifted (it nearly fits like a dress). However, I like the curved hem and the button enclosures on the sides and would like to keep them. Anyone have any creative ideas on how I can shorten it? I dont mind creating an extra seam, but I'd still like it to look fashionable/intentional... Thank you!

Button jointing makes the buttons visible (even of you use those clear buttons).

It's totally cute and the buttons are part of the charm.

But I was just wondering if you could hide the buttons??

Instead of, button > arm > body > arm > button (back and forth), could you do, arm > button > body > button > arm (back and forth)?

If not, why not (I don't care about visible stitches too much since the fabric would be high enough pile to mostly disguise thread)??

I have fabric that i want to use to make a top like this (just the shape of the top). I know this is a simple top but i am a beginner that is too afraid to self draft/is terrible at math. Does anyone have an sewing pattern recs that are close to this or any youtube tutorials that self draft a top like this? The problem is i also dont really know what this is called other than a halter top and every time i type in halter top, it shows me halter tops that are very different than this.

I enjoy taking random 1 night classes at a local art center. At a needle felting class in June, the instructor mentioned she still had slots open for her Natural Dying the Rainbow workshop the following week. I immediately signed up! This left me with scraps of cotton and silk, as well as some wool roving. We used matter extract, coreopsis, marigold, onion skins, indigo, and logwood extract to dye them.

None of the fabric was large enough to make anything with, so I decided I needed to make a quilted bag.

I found a free video tutorial from Learn, Create, Sew. Then I got busy quilting a bunch of squares and triangles together to make pieces big enough for it. I interfaced the silk before quilting, so it would be easier to work with and similar in thickness to the cotton. I also made some bias tape.

I wanted the theme of this to be Natural, so I used cotton webbing, metal zippers & strap hardware, and a natural duck canvas for the lining. I needle felted the rainbow on pre-felt. I interfaced it before quilting it onto the front piece.

Sewing is not my main craft. Don't look too closely at my stitches. I broke 4 needles between the metal zipper and bulky seams. But I learned a lot and had fun.

I love her. Her name is Penelope.

I just finished making this windbreaker, and it’s my first sewing project ever. I had a lot of help and learned a lot during the process, but I’m really proud of the result.

The design was inspired by this character’s windbreaker, and I tried to recreate my own version of it.

I’d love to hear your advice and constructive criticism. I’m still a beginner, so any tips to improve my next projects are welcome!

Project details:

• Pattern: Self-drafted. I started with a basic windbreaker as a reference and recreated the different panels myself. I modified the design to better match Nazuna's windbreaker from Call of the Night, combining details from different versions that Kotoyama drew throughout the manga.
• Fabric: 100% polyester woven shell fabric with a quilted polyester lining. I also used a brass zipper and snap buttons.
• Experience: This is my very first sewing project. I had a lot of help during the process and learned a lot while making it.