Transcripts
1. CLASS INTRO: Welcome to DIY dog Hodie, how to clone an existing garment and follow along
sewing tutorial. In this class, I
will show you how to replicate your dog's
favorite sweater or Hodie for you to sew infinite styles that you know
will fit them perfectly. This class is for
anyone who wants to pamper their four babies
with costume made hoodies while also
learning how to pull a pattern from a sewn garment
without unstitching it. A very handy skill for the
home so is if you ask me, which can be translated
to any garment you can sew and any garment that is tried and
true in your closet. If you're looking to upgrade your sewing game with new
skills, this class is for you. In case you don't
have one hoodie to copy from, do not fret. I will also provide you with a sewing pattern so you can
complete your class project. Join me so we can have
lots of fun while sewing.
2. Project and Supplies Needed: For our class project, we will create a costume do hoodie with its corresponding
sewing patterns. I am providing a sewing pattern in case you don't have
anything to trace from. To complete the assignment, we will need the following. Let's get working
on these hoodies.
3. Lesson 1 - Retracing Pattern: This is my dog's hoodie. It fits her perfectly and I know it will make a
great vase for me to create a new pattern and sew her more styles in
the same silhouette. The first thing I need to do
is find the exact middle of it so I can trace half of the garment as
flat as possible. I do this by finding
the side seams and matching them together with sewing pins so they
don't move around. This is what we will
trace onto paper. In my case, I am
using printing paper attached together with tape
to create a larger canvas. Large enough to fit
the hoodies body. The garment needs to be as flat as possible from seam to seam. In this case, from the
shoulder to the side seam. It's important to flatten the
leave as much as you can. You get a view of the
entire body's piece. I placed the Judis back
parallel to the edge of the paper so I can use the
straight edge as a guide. I am leaving a bit
of extra space at the top to account for
the volume of the garment which has more body because it's fabric different than
a flat sheet of paper. Trace the easy edges
of the garment first. In my case, that would be
the hemline and I like to do and I suggest you to mark
some guiding anchor points. In my case, the edge of
the back and the neckline, so I can have a precise
map of the outline. Now, for the inner
edges like the armhole, I am using this handy
tool, the tracing wheel. When it rolls, it leaves tiny indentations
in a pointed line so you can follow it along. Press the tracing wheel
along the seams to copy the outline of the piece where
you can trace with pencil. This won't harm the fabric
of the existing garment. And make sure you are
pressing enough for the tiny dots to appear on paper before moving the garment. As you can see,
it's not a problem that the wheel isn't
turning smoothly. I am interested in pressing
to leave a general marking, so skipping some areas
works just fine. Take a closer look at
the tiny indentations, the dotted line next to the
pencil line I drew from it. I will draw with
pencil that dotted line to start creating
and tracing my pattern. At the top edge, I am
adding these three Xs, which are a common
symbol to identify that this pattern piece will
be cut on fold right here. Now, take a look at
the existing garment. How much seam allowance or
hemline fold does it have? This will inform how
much space we need to add to our freshly
traced pattern. In my case, that would be a five eighth of an
inch seam allowance. Before adding it with
my quilting ruler, I will polish the
lines to make them straight so they match
precisely throughout. Then I can add the hemline
to give the hoodie a polish finish when
sewing and sim allowances, so I am able to
actually sew with the original fit from
the original hoodie. I will do this on every
edge of the piece. My pro tip is to make the lines coming from the edge unfold, perfectly perpendicular to it in a 90 degree angle to avoid giving pointy edges when
opening the fabric. Add the remaining information
to the pattern such as size and number of
pieces to cut from it. My next piece to trace
would be the chest. For this, I turned the hoodie inside out to visualize
the seams and the entire piece with more ease and proceeded to complete
the same steps as before, align the center on fold with the straight
edge of the paper, making the garment as flat
as possible and marking the outline with pencil and the inner seams with
a tracing wheel. Take a look at how I can shift the garment to
trace the shoulder seams. And since I already drew with
pencil the bottom hemline, I can rest assured that
the side seam and armhole will match once I reposition the hood to
continue tracing those seams. Keep in mind that we are tracing a three D shape because bodies are rounded with volume into a two dimensional flat surface. It's fine if you need
to shift the garment. This is exactly why you first mark anchoring points
to find your way back. Polish and refine the lines. Here, I made sure that the width from the
chest is the same in all its length and added a bit of a curve to the front neckline
with my French curve, which of course,
you could eyeball if you don't have
this type of ruler. For the hoodie I will be sewing, I don't want to have the
back pocket because I want the printed fabric
I illustrated to shine. I want to keep the silhouette
as clean as possible. But if you want to
see how I traced it, take a look to the bonus lesson
at the end of this class. Let's move on to the
next lesson to learn how to make sure all pieces are
matching with each other.
4. Lesson 2 - Match and Polish Seams: You can see, the
shoulder seam and side seam match together
from back to front piece. Naturally, they have to be a perfect match from
the pattern too. Take the shoulder
seam, for example. The back piece,
which I will take as my anchor because it
could lay flatter and probably is the one truer to the original has a
shoulder seam of 2.5 ", whereas the chest piece is a
quarter of an inch shorter, so I will lengthen this one
so the seams match perfectly. Remember to measure
the actual seams and not the outline from the seam allowances and smooth the continuous
line accordingly. Same with the side seam, measuring the back
piece and giving the same length to
the chest piece. In this case, I have to add almost half an
inch to the bottom. I did this because I don't want to mess around
with the arm hole. Adding length up there would diminish the armholes
circumference, leading to a tighter arm for my baby dog,
which I don't want. I then proceeded to add the corresponding seam
allowances to the entire piece. I repeated the same
steps for the hoodie, tracing the outline with pencil, marking anchor points, and tracing the inner neck line
seam with the tracing wheel. I added an entire inch for
the hemline around the face, same as the original and the same sim allowance of five eighth of an inch as
the rest of the pattern. I'll see you in the next
lesson to show you how I trace the leaves which needs
a few extra steps. Yes
5. Lesson 3 - Tracing a Sleeve: I will trace my sleeve onto the Frankenstein sheet of
paper to reduce waste. I'll start with the sleeve
and back piece facing up. Again, making the garment
as flat as can be and drawing the outline with
pencil and my anchor points. Then the inner seams
with my tracing wheel. Because this design
has puffy sleeves, it was a bit of a
struggle to lay it flat. Also note that I do not wish to add this puff detail
to my hoodie, so no need to add it
to the sleeve piece. My top tip here is to name
all the crucial areas of this leaf to understand
how to place it next. In my case, I am adding
where the folded edge is. Which one is the arm opening
and which one the arm hole, and I need to know
this is the top piece. I seen from above, like I usually see my dogs. Once I have the first
half of my sleeve, I flip the garment so
the folded edge matches and now I have the chest and lower piece of
this leaf facing up. Flipping it's not necessary, but it helps my brain so much
to understand what is what. Maybe it's a tip
that helps you too. I trace the remaining half of this leaf onto another
sheet of paper following the same
steps we've done before and adding the
same information. Then refining the line corresponding to the fold of the leaf to make it straight. I can match it with the
other side perfectly. I do not want to match
curved lines, for example. In order for me to
check that both sides match at the armhole and
side seam when folded, I added tape to
create some hinge and trace both side seams
with a darker shade of pencil so they are visible through the other
side of the paper. I suggest you do it against a well lit window to
increase the contrast. Once verified, I refine
the lines and continue by adding the corresponding
seam allowances throughout the entire piece. The last verification
we need to do is that the sleef pattern matches
the back and chest pieces. To do this, I retrace the
lines with a darker shade of pencil and proceed
to overlap the SIMS, pivoting the sleif
pattern to follow the lines on the back
and chest patterns. I was excited that the
shoulder seems matched first and then that the
front chest piece this two. We have successfully
pulled a pattern from an existing garment to create more styles that
we know will fit perfectly into the
existing body. In this case, my fur babies. Let's move on to the
next lesson so we can start stitching
our dog hoodie.
6. Lesson 4 - Cutting Fabric: To cut the fabric, my top tip is to optimize
your fabric space. My favorite thing about
creating or using prints with no direction
is how I can get away with slightly
tilting my pieces to fit them in a tight puzzle without
the print looking crooked. This yields less waste
in my experience, which is always great. In case you are using
a directional print, try to fit your pieces
as best as you can without compromising the
direction of the print, or it will look funny. Even if that means
creating a bit more waste, I think it's worth it and
we'll do what we can. I always pin my paper pieces to the fabric to attach them
and avoid any shifting. But whichever method you
feel comfortable with, cut all your pattern
pieces following the information you added
to each one of them. Then how many pieces, if they are cut and fold, et cetera, and have all of them
ready to start stitching.
7. Lesson 5 - Overlock Machine: In this lesson, I will
show you how to use one of my favorite sewing machines besides the regular
straight stitch one, of course, that we
always love here. This new machine is the
overlok also known as serger. This is a machine that's
sews while also cutting. It works with force
fouls of thread and they create a stitch wrapping
the edge of the fabric. This is great as a finishing to prevent fraying and
unraveling of the fabric. The edge is super even before it's wrapped
with the stitch thanks to the tiny cutting blade that characterizes
this overlog machine. In my opinion, this machine
is for the ist that knows she is in it for the long run and that she wants a
quicker way to finish sins. I say this because
it is an extra tool, so budget and storage
space must come into. Also, side note, my overlooker saved my life
because the fabric I chose for this project
is so fluffy and little particles were going
everywhere and I have asthma, so all that fluff was
killing me while cutting but the rough edge prevented
the flow from escaping. The rest of my
sewing plan was so much smoother once the
edges were finished. That's another part of having an overlog machine. All right. Here's my overlog. It mostly works as a regular sewing machine
with a few extra components. The ones we could already
be familiar with are the manual wheel to make
the needles go up or down. The threads pulls, in this case, all thread is feed from above. There is no bottom
bobbing, a presser foot, the lever to lift the presser
foot, the feeding dogs. This here is the cutting blade. It can be disabled in case you don't need it to do
the cutting or enable. I always keep it
enable to use it. The new elements that we could see are force pools of thread which feed a different part of the machine to create
this wrapping stitch. First, we have the top stitch, which is the red one,
a bottom stitch, the green one, and two
rows of straight stitches. You could use only
one if needed, and they keep both bottom
and top threads in place. These are the yellow
and blue ones. These force pools create a wrapping stitch to
seal fabric edges. In mine, I have this handy
picture coated with colors, matching the tension
dials for each thread. This helps me in knowing which dial to add just
when making samples. My top tip is to always do a sample with a scrap
of fabric to verify the tension of the
threads that it will work with the specific fabric
you will be working with. In my machine, it tends to be
different for every fabric. It is a very sensitive machine. Doing little samples
goes a long way. Sewing with an overlog
is basically the same as with a regular
sewing machine. Keep the fabric straight. Do not pull the
fabric at the back, but let the feeding dogs work at their pace and read your machines manual and
practice practice practice. My top tips here
are get familiar with the distance where
the blade starts cutting. In my machine, I like
to keep my fabric at the edge of the plate so
I get minimal cutting, but the blade still
catches and even edges. Another TP is never used pins. The blade could catch them. Generally, I use
my overlog to wrap the edges of each
individual piece of fabric, not to attach two
canvases together. I rarely use pins. But when I started,
I thought that the sewing two
pieces together was a great shortcut and
learned the hard way not to put pins near a
cutting plate with speed. There's that.
Always, another TVs always do samples with
scraps to chap the tension. And lastly, I like to avoid cutting the threads and
restarting the stitch. I usually stopped stitching when the threads come out
from under the presser foot, lift it and move that corner to the beginning
next to the blade. This is exactly how I did
all the edges of my pieces. Here I am doing the chest piece and it is not only quicker, but a lot less messy. I hope this helps you in asserting dominance over
your machine because overlog tends to be a bit moody and if you've
been eyeing one, I hope this inspires you
in getting one because it is truly a great machine
to have in your life. I already did all the edges of my parent pieces to save me from dying of an asthma attack, but go ahead and finish
yours if the fabric requires it with overlog or any other
method of your choosing. I will see you in
the next lesson to start assembling our dog Cody.
8. Project Intro: Our class project is
actually stitching the hoodie from the sewing
pattern we traced earlier. Grab all your sewing equipment,
sewing machine, fabric, scissors, pins,
thread, all that, and let's get sewing. In order to upload
your class project, you just need to share your
finished hoodie, and for one, I am excited to see your
cute creations hoping you include photos of your
dogs, let's get to it.
9. Project - Assembling The Bodice: With all my pieces
finished with overlog, I am ready to start assembling
the bodies of this hoodie. Step one, joining
shoulder seams. Open the back
bodies and place it with the right side of
the fabric facing up. Match the shoulder seams of back and chest right
sides together. I like to pull the overlog
threads down to secure them. I do not like cutting them
because they could unravel. Do this on both shoulder seams. And sew with a sewing machine with straight stitch
at five eighth of an inch seam allowance or whichever seam allowance you pulled from your
original garment. I like catching the
overlog threads that are hanging with
the line of stitches. Remove the excess thread and verify that everything
is sewn nicely. Step two, attaching the sleeves. Place the back piece with the right side of the fabric facing up with one armhole laying
flat in front of you. Mark the shoulder seam of
each sleeve piece with a pin. This is the straight line dividing the sleeve in half that corresponds to the fold when
laying the garment flat. The pin needs to match the shoulder seam we
just sew in the bodies. Match shoulder seams,
right side together, finger press allowance towards the back and join
with sewing pins. Make sure the back arm hole is matching with the top side of the sleeve and the chest is matching with the
bottom side of the sleeve. Leave free for now
the side seam of the sleeve that will match
the other end of the sleef. Then pin together the back with its corresponding sleeve, again, right side of the fabric
together and leave free for now the side seam of the sleeve that will match the other
end of the sleef. Do the same on the
other side, again, I am trapping the thread so I can stitch over
it to secure it. Attach the rest
of the armhole on both pieces together
with more pins. This is a concave curve
fitting into a convex one. Might seem off at
first, but this is what creates volume
for the shoulder. It helps if you keep
it in a curve to pin instead of trying
to make it lay flat. H Do the same on
the other armhole. We will sew with
a straight stitch at five eighth of an
inch seam allowance, back tack beginning
and end of each seam. While on the machine, I suggest you work with
the curve here too. My top tip is to identify
the side with more creases. This means this is
the longer side fitting into the smaller one. I like placing the
longer side facing down so I can curve the
piece upwards while fitting it to the
machine to achieve ker seams and avoid
skipping stitches. I also suggest you do
a few sample stitches with the fabric to confirm the settings of your
machine will work. In my case, I did a longer
stitch because this fabric is quite fluffy and giving space between each stitch
helps the pile, a fancy name for the
tins to settle down. Remember to remove your pins before going under
the needle for safety and confirm everything
is stitched correctly. Here, my muse and
also studio manager make sure everything is
being sewn smoothly. Step three, closing side seams. Match the side seams,
right sides together. I like finding the sleeve
seams in the back and chest first to match them and
have this neat cross seam. Then the edges, and then filling the
middle with more pins. Repeat the same on
the other side seam and sew both of them with a straight stitch at five eighth of an
inch seam allowance. Here's a sneak peek of
how it's coming along, looking more like a dog
each step of the way.
10. Project - Assembling The Hoodie: With the bodies assembled, we need to attach the hoodie. For this, we start by
placing both sides of the hoodie right sides
together and sew along the curved side with
a straight stitch at five eighths of an inch
to get something like this. We will then fold the straight
edge of the hoodie towards the wrong side for about 1 " and secure in place with pins. By now, you must know I like to do corners and center
and then fill in the middle with
pins to ensure you have an even
distribution of pins. Confirm the 1 " fold
every now and then. So with a straight
stitch on top of the overlock edge to
end up with this. Turn the bodies
inside out and find the center front by aligning
the shoulder seams. Mark with a pin and get the hoodie inside the
body's right sides together, matching the center
front pin with the overlapped folds on the hoodie and secure
with more pins. Repeat with the center back. Find the center back by aligning shoulder seams and
marking with a pin. Then matching this pin with the visible seam on the Hodie. Secure with pins and
attach the rest of the neck line to the hoodie
by filling with more pins. Stitch these pieces
together with the sewing machine with a straight stitch at
five eighths of an inch, similar ones to finish
assembling the hoodie. The only thing
remaining is finishing the hemline and the sleeves, so the overlog stitch is only
visible from the inside. For this, we will do the
same we did with the hoodie. Fold the edge of the bodies, half an inch towards the wrong side and secure
in place with pins. Go all around making sure it is even with the
help of a ruler, and as you already know, it is better to secure the
centers and corners first. In this case, the cross from joining together
the side seams. Once you finish all
around the hemline, so with a straight stitch close to or on top of
the finished edge, repeat with both
sleeves and you will be finished creating a costume
made hoodie for your dog. The options are infinite. You could do a fully
lined version or remove the hoodie or a longer
sleeves, anything you'd like. With this pattern from a base
you know fits them well, you can be adventurous and
create anything you imagine.
11. BONUS - Pocket: In this short lesson, I will show you the steps to add a pocket to your pattern, just like the one
in my base garment. By aligning the original garment with the traced pattern by the anchor points allows me to transfer the position of
the pocket onto the paper. For this, I stick sewing
pins through the garment, marking the anchor
points in the pocket, making sure they pierce
through the paper. So when I lift the garment, they are still attached to
the paper and I can draw with pencil on top to
mark their location, or at the very least they left a tiny hole for me to mark. Once I know where to
attach it in the bodies, I will proceed to
trace the pocket just like we did before
with the tracing wheel. Refine lines, add
the same allowances, highlight the same
anchor points and add the information to the
pattern, then cut it out. With the cutout, I verify the original anchor points by piercing pins through
both layers of paper. Two of them were a bit off, so I matched them
to the template and when transferring
these dots to the fabric, I will know exactly
where to place the pocket by matching
anchoring points. This is how you can
get a pocket in the back randomly in the back
of your dogs hood in place.
12. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for
learning how to create a costume Hule for
your for baby with me. If you have any
thoughts or questions, do not hesitate to leave them
in the class discussions, and I am looking
forward to seeing your Hulies and your process. So please share them in
the class projects below. Thank you so much for
being here and have a very happy creative
time. Thank you.
Valeria Carrandi, Textile designer & pattern maker
