DIY Gifting: Pinafore! {Tutorial}
9:46 PM Posted by Rachael Weeshare
I love love love making clothes for little girls. Alas, God has blessed me with two beautiful little boys... Who would be [understandably] scarred for life if I tried to dress them in girl clothes. Luckily, I have lots of friends with lots of gorgeous little girls so I seem to reach my quota anyway. Dresses are oh so fun, but I love a good pinafore!! They are so versatile! You can wear them in the summer with a tee under them (or nothing at all), in the winter with a long sleeve under, and you can make them a dress when they are babies and a shirt when they get big! Really, it's the perfect handmade gift for any little girl.
This pattern is so easy, I can bust one of these out in about 2 hours! Also, if you buy one yard of fabric in 60", instead of 45", you can easily make two at once. Hop on over to Smashed Peas and Carrots to see the full tutorial but here is my version:
First, pick an awesomely cute fabric that makes all the little nerves in your body down right explode (find it on clearance and double explode!), and then grab an accent fabric to match. It can be another print or a solid. I like to do solids because trying to choose double prints makes my head hurt...
Then, start your patterning. Print out it out and trace it onto your fabric. If you fold your fabric twice so you have 4 equal parts, you can make two pinnies at a time which is what I did this time around.
Next, you cut your fabric. Because I was using so many layers of fabric, I pinned them close to the drawn-on pattern before I cut so the fabric wouldn't shift. I usually use a rotary but chose scissors since the straps are so curvy. Also, if you only wanted to do one and were not concerned with fabric conservation, you could cut this all out in one big piece and save your self a step. I've never done that, but it makes sense in my head.
Sew your inners together at the same under the arm, and your outers together at the seams under the arm. Just put them right sides together and use a straight stitch. I did a half inch inseam but you could do a quarter inch, too.
Then surge 'em up or zig zag stitch to prevent fraying.
When you're done putting the pieces together, line up the inner and the outer fabric, right sides together, and sew that pinny up! You can surge or zig zag here too if you want but its unnecessary since you'll be making a top stitch as well. Also, it adds a little bulk. But some people are anal about their fraying and find that they need to use their serger as often as possible... (*ahem) Just make sure you leave an opening at the bottom so you can turn it all right side out. I recommend making the opening at least the size of your hand so you can reach inside and turn the straps' seams out really well.
Once everything is right side out, sew a seam all the way around the perimeter of the garment using a complementary color thread. I used the same color as my inner fabric and it looked super cute!
The last thing to do is add your buttons. Normally, I do button holes and traditional buttons. I just read the user's manual for my machine to learn how to do them. But today I wanted to try something a little different. Buttons are a great accessory to any kid's garment. But they are a pain in the butt for moms and children alike. I'm making this particular pinny for a 2 year old who doesn't quite have the motor skills to do real buttons yet. So instead I made snaps and hid them with the real buttons. Clever, huh? I think so!
First, line up the straps where you would like them to go so that you know everything will be even(ish).
Then use the awl to push through both pieces of the garment. This guarantees the holes will line up.
Now put your snaps on and voila!! (If you don't know how to use snaps, hop on over to Kam Snaps. They have great tutorials and good prices to boot!)
Honestly, I thought this was pretty stinkin cute just like this! But I already bought the buttons so those babies are going on there! I just sewed them above the snaps so the bottom half of the button covers them. You could hand sew them "around" the snaps or make sure you get buttons big enough to sew without disrupting the snap but that required entirely too much planning and I just don't work that way. I'm a sew-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal.
And lastly, you need a super cute little girl to wear it.
Well, the little girl this is for lives really far away so the Kid was more than willing to give it a try. (Honestly, it took me three tries to get a sad face and not a little giggle!)
Happy sewing!!
*Disclaimer: Making gifts and things for yourself from other people's free tutorials is fun! Selling it is not. Always get permission from the original author if you want to sell something from a free tutorial so she can get all the appreciation she deserves!
This pattern is so easy, I can bust one of these out in about 2 hours! Also, if you buy one yard of fabric in 60", instead of 45", you can easily make two at once. Hop on over to Smashed Peas and Carrots to see the full tutorial but here is my version:
First, pick an awesomely cute fabric that makes all the little nerves in your body down right explode (find it on clearance and double explode!), and then grab an accent fabric to match. It can be another print or a solid. I like to do solids because trying to choose double prints makes my head hurt...
Then, start your patterning. Print out it out and trace it onto your fabric. If you fold your fabric twice so you have 4 equal parts, you can make two pinnies at a time which is what I did this time around.
Next, you cut your fabric. Because I was using so many layers of fabric, I pinned them close to the drawn-on pattern before I cut so the fabric wouldn't shift. I usually use a rotary but chose scissors since the straps are so curvy. Also, if you only wanted to do one and were not concerned with fabric conservation, you could cut this all out in one big piece and save your self a step. I've never done that, but it makes sense in my head.
Now repeat the process for both your outer and inner fabrics and if you did two at once, sort everything out.
 |
| Don't mind the hanger. That's for later! |
Sew your inners together at the same under the arm, and your outers together at the seams under the arm. Just put them right sides together and use a straight stitch. I did a half inch inseam but you could do a quarter inch, too.
Then surge 'em up or zig zag stitch to prevent fraying.
When you're done putting the pieces together, line up the inner and the outer fabric, right sides together, and sew that pinny up! You can surge or zig zag here too if you want but its unnecessary since you'll be making a top stitch as well. Also, it adds a little bulk. But some people are anal about their fraying and find that they need to use their serger as often as possible... (*ahem) Just make sure you leave an opening at the bottom so you can turn it all right side out. I recommend making the opening at least the size of your hand so you can reach inside and turn the straps' seams out really well.
Once everything is right side out, sew a seam all the way around the perimeter of the garment using a complementary color thread. I used the same color as my inner fabric and it looked super cute!
The last thing to do is add your buttons. Normally, I do button holes and traditional buttons. I just read the user's manual for my machine to learn how to do them. But today I wanted to try something a little different. Buttons are a great accessory to any kid's garment. But they are a pain in the butt for moms and children alike. I'm making this particular pinny for a 2 year old who doesn't quite have the motor skills to do real buttons yet. So instead I made snaps and hid them with the real buttons. Clever, huh? I think so!
First, line up the straps where you would like them to go so that you know everything will be even(ish).
Then use the awl to push through both pieces of the garment. This guarantees the holes will line up.
Now put your snaps on and voila!! (If you don't know how to use snaps, hop on over to Kam Snaps. They have great tutorials and good prices to boot!)
 |
| Choo-choo trains on my floor and a dress in my lap: the life of a seamstress who only has boys! |
Honestly, I thought this was pretty stinkin cute just like this! But I already bought the buttons so those babies are going on there! I just sewed them above the snaps so the bottom half of the button covers them. You could hand sew them "around" the snaps or make sure you get buttons big enough to sew without disrupting the snap but that required entirely too much planning and I just don't work that way. I'm a sew-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal.
And lastly, you need a super cute little girl to wear it.
Well, the little girl this is for lives really far away so the Kid was more than willing to give it a try. (Honestly, it took me three tries to get a sad face and not a little giggle!)
Happy sewing!!
*Disclaimer: Making gifts and things for yourself from other people's free tutorials is fun! Selling it is not. Always get permission from the original author if you want to sell something from a free tutorial so she can get all the appreciation she deserves!
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