Transcripts
1. DIY Baby-Sweater Introduction: Hello, welcome to this amazing sewing project. My name is Jildou and I am a Dutch fashion designer and a few years ago I started my own fashion brand called Piple. It means people inspiring people. I love to inspire you by making your own clothes. I would like you to experience how much fun it is to make something yourself. There are a few basic principles you can make so many beautiful things. In this class, I take you step-by-step into the process of making this amazing and beautiful sweater for your little one. Including design pattern that is suitable from size 86-68. So for a child age three months to about one a half years. This is a really good beginner's project and you only need a regular sewing machine and a few special tools. Then I will tell you every detail in this course. I really hope you love this class. So let's get started.
2. Tools and Materials: Step 1, grab your tools and gather your materials. You need a piece of fabric. For a sweater, I will prefer a thicker piece of fabric made from cotton. Make sure it's flexible, comfortable and soft milliliter threads of at least five percent. It depends on the size how much fabric you need, but you need a maximum of 90 by 90 centimeters of fabric. This is 35.4 inches. I only work with GUT certified fabrics and sewing threads. GUT uses a textile certification that limits the use of toxic bleaches, dyes, and other chemical inputs during their production process of textiles. Of course, this is way better for the environment and for the people, but also for your baby's skin. This was some extra but very important information. Besides a beautiful piece of fabric, you need a pattern. To make it easy for you, I uploaded the pattern in the link below. In this template, you find exact dimensions of the sweater. In the next video about the pattern, I'll show you the right way how to print this full scale and how to cut the pieces. Of course, you need scissors. I use three different scissors. One is for paper, one is specially made for cutting fabric, and the smallest one for cutting the threads. You also need certain threads in the right color, and you need sewing pins, a ruler, and tape, and engineer's sewing machine. Normally I also use my lock machine. If you have this one, you can of course use this one. But because this is a beginners class, I show you how to use your regular sewing machine without having to use more complicated machines.
3. Download the pattern: The pattern. I uploaded a template for you and you can find it in the link below. Open this file, and it's very important that you print this file 100 percent. So it's exactly on scale. Make sure you print this page with the settings exact same size. You can check if the dimensions are right by using your ruler. I made two black boxes. The first box needs to be exactly one centimeter and a second box needs to be one inch. So check if the dimensions are correct. On the second page you see a thick line at the top. You can cut away the area above the thick line of page 2. Let page 2 overlap page 1, so it becomes a pattern. Both sides need to be lined up. Repeat this with the other pages. This size is suitable for a baby from three months to 18 months. Cut out the size you would like to make. Cut it exactly on the lines we have made for you, because the seams are already included in this.
4. Cutting the pieces: Cutting out the pieces. Now you are ready to cut all the pieces. Put a pattern on the fabric. In the file, you can see how you can place the pieces on the fabric, so that's your waste as little fabric as possible. You cut the front, back and the sleeves with a folded fabric. Of course, you cut the sleeves twice. In the end, you have five pieces, the front, the back, the sleeves, and the neckband. We call those pieces, A the front, B the back, C the sleeves, and D the neckband.
5. Sewing #1 Sewing The Shoulders: Sewing part one. Using pieces A and B. Now we start with the most fun parts, sewing. Take the front and the back part from the sweater, so piece A and piece B. Put the right sides of the fabric on top of each other and attach the shoulders. Before we start, we have to set up the sewing machine. I use a regular straight stage with a distance of 2.5. Now we are going to sew the shoulders together in one straight line. To make it a bit stronger, you can choose to sew the shoulders over each other several times.
6. Sweater #2 Sewing the Neckband: Sewing part 2. Attach piece D, the neckband. Take piece D, the neckband, and fold this one with the right sides facing inwards. Sew this part of the neckband, I sew this part a couple of times by going straight and backwards again so that it's extra strong. Make a very small cut in the center of the neckband with your scissors. Do the same with the neckband of piece A and piece B in the top of the sweater. Take your neckband and attach this one with the sewing pins on the top of the sweater. Start with the back side. Stretch it out and find the middle of the seam, this helps to make it a bit more even. Now, we carefully sew the neckband. Now you have three layers of fabric going on instead of two. We have to keep an extra eye on to make sure that everything is lined up properly. Just make sure you tuck a little bit along the way so it gets tied. Now we're going to do the top stitch. You don't want that the neckband is going to roll up. To attach the top stitch, helps to keep it down. The way I do this is push the pressure on the center of the seam. Then I'm going to move the needle over. Sew the whole neckband in one straight stitch very carefully.
7. Sewing #3 Sewing The Sleeves: Sewing part 3. Attach BC the sleeves. Take the two sleeves, it doesn't matter which size you're attaching to, because the front and the back are the same, because it's an oversized sweater. To find the middle of the sleeves, you can also make a very smart grid in the middle with your scissors. Attach it with the sewing pins. Here we go, we're going to make a straight stitch all the way down. Now we are going to do the same thing on the other side. Now, we are going to lay our sleeves together. Make sure that on the arms are lined up nicely. Here we go. When everything is pinned together, you can see do form. You all have to do is run straight stitch from the sleeve all the way down to the waist.
8. Sewing #4 Making The Hem: Sewing part 4, the hem. We are almost there. In this part, we are going to finish the sweater by making the hem. We finish the sweater by making a hem at the forearms and the bottom of the waist. I fold it inwards and attach it with the sewing pins. Measure how far you want to seam to be placed. I like to make a two centimeter seam everywhere. This is 0.8 inches. What's you're going to do, is take a ruler and fold two centimeters, so about 0.8 inches inwards, and pin it with the sewing pins. Make sure every part is equal. Do the same thing at the forearms. Now you're going to sew all the way around with a straight stitch. I'd like to make two stitches for a beautiful and professional finish. You can use a twin needle if you have this one, but I will show you the way if you don't have a twin needle. Put the pressure on the center of the seam you made earlier and then you are going to move the needle over. Sew the entire seam all over again.
9. Class Project: Class project. You did it. You made a beautiful sweater for your little one. How cool is that? Of course, this is your class project. I can't wait to see your results and receive photos of your little one shining in your beautiful handmade sweater. If you have questions or recommendations about this video, please let me know. I really hope you enjoyed this class and that you have learned new basic solving skills. I really hope to see you next time.