I think we all have that one favorite garment that you wish you could have in every color. As it turns out – you can! Let me show you how to knock-off, or copy, a finished garment.
One of my favorite places to get unique fabric is…thrift stores!
I found this skirt with this great herringbone weave, kind of creepy floral print, and it’s rayon so it’s super soft. But it’s a little too old-lady-ish as a skirt. I think a bold-print blouse would be more interesting. So I shopped around in my closet for a summer blouse that I can knock off the pattern from.
Here we go, another second hand gem.
I’m considering the things I want to change about this blouse. I know I want more dramatic points at the collar, I want to widen the shoulders a bit, and bring up the armscye. I also know I’m extremely limited on fabric, so I’m going to shorten it a bit and not make a separate placket piece (where the buttons and button holes are).
With these things in mind, I’ve drawn a straight line on pattern paper for my grain line, and I’m spreading the blouse, butting the center front placket up to the grain line.
This blouse has a bust dart, so I’m only focusing on the area below the dart to start. I’m tracing around the hem because it’s a finished edge.
Here I’m holding the fabric in place right at the seam, and using my finger as a guide to mark the seam on the paper.
Be consistent marking – if you start marking at the edge of the seam allowance in one part, you might forget later and add seam allowance again, and then it will be too big. Or worse, you do the opposite and it’s too small! I like to always mark right at the seam/stitch line, so I can chose how much seam allowance to add later.
The dart point will be hard to mark, so I’m using a pin to poke a hole in the paper right at the point. You can also use a tracing wheel, but there’s always a chance you could damage the garment.
I’ve marked the lower half of the blouse, including where the dart starts, so now I’m going to pivot at the dart point (keep the point secure with either the pin or your finger) and spread out the upper portion of the blouse. Then mark the dart edge, and continue marking out the blouse.
I’m marking anywhere there’s a seam or dart edge with a little plus. And mark every half-inch or so at the curves.
After you’re sure you’ve marked everything, remove the garment and true the lines (connect the dots) with straight and curved rulers.
I also check to make sure the measurements are right, like the side seam, shoulder, and front edge are correct lengths. And that the dart is the same width and length on paper as it is on the blouse. Both edges of the dart should be the same measurement from the point.
Now I’m going to move on to the back piece. I’m measuring the back and marking the center with pins in several places.
Then I drew a straight line on the pattern paper to use as my grain, and I spread the back of the blouse on it. Same thing as the front, mark the finished edges and the stitch line of the seams. I also mark where the dart meets the back.
Because of the shoulder seam you’ll find the garment doesn’t lay completely flat. You have to shift it as you work your way up or down. Just keep a hand on it to try to minimize unintentional shifting and work methodically. In the photo above I’m holding the shoulder point at the neck so I can mark the neck curve.
Then draw out the pattern.
Next I marked a short line on the pattern paper, and folded the collar in half. I pinned through the collar stand and through the collar to mark center. Then line the collar stand up on the grain line.
I’m marking along the curve of the collar stand and marking the shoulder seam, where the collar inserts, and around the top curve.
Then do the same for the collar.
It’s common for collars to be a straight line across the top like this one, and the bottom edge is usually slightly curved.
The collar stand should be the same height for the entire pattern. I often draw out the bottom line, then use my ruler to mark out the upper line at 1″ or whatever the sample garment is so it’s consistent. A French Curve ruler helps mark the small curve of the front.
Be sure to leave plenty of room around each piece to accommodate the seam allowance and any changes you might want/need to make.
Now here’s the important part. We’re going to true the pattern, which means making sure the seam of each pattern piece matches its partner. Using this dotted paper comes in handy for this part because you can see the lines from the pattern underneath! Well, it doesn’t really show in the photo, but trust me, I can see through it in real life 😉
I’m lining up the edge of the shoulder seams, and checking to see if they meet up. If not, I need to adjust one or the other to make them even.
At the side seam they won’t meet up because of the dart. So I’m lining up the armscye, checking where that mark for the dart is on the back piece underneath, then moving the back pattern up to skip over the dart opening, and checking the rest of the length.
The collar stand gets a little tricky because it’s on a curve. To check this one, we’ll do one of my favorite pattern making techniques – walk the seam (it’s also such a cute name!). Walking the seam means we line up one edge, let’s say the center back. Then use a pencil or awl to hold the pattern in place where the seam lines start to diverge, and pivot slightly until they line up again. Then move the pencil or awl down the seam and pivot again.
I’m marking where the shoulder ends on the collar stand, then walking the front neck. The front piece is about 3/8” bigger than the collar, which is not good.
I can see on the original blouse that it’s puckering, so the original is too big also. It’s okay if the collar stand is a little larger (up to 1/4″ per side depending on the fabric) than the neck opening, but smaller is no good.
I checked the blouse on my body I decided it’s safe to remove the 3/8” from the center front. The collar is already a little big so I didn’t want to make it any larger.
Lastly true the collar to the collar stand.
Now that I have a duplicate of the blouse, I want to make my adjustments.
I want to widen the shoulders, so I extended the shoulder line, marked out 3/4”, and I’m blending it into the armscye (have I mentioned how much I LOVE these Dritz curved rulers??? These aren’t even affiliate links, I just really like this damn ruler). Same thing on the back bodice.
I also want to raise the armscye, so same concept here – extend the side seam up, marking how high up I want it, and blend into the armscye. Again, repeat for the back bodice.
I’m also going to shorten it quite a bit and straighten out the hem. I marked the adjustment at the side seam so I would take the same amount off of the front and the back.
I wanna just get crazy with the collar points, so I extended the front collar line, marked it at 5”, and I’m blending it into the collar.
Now it’s time to add seam allowance. I like to work with 1/2” seams, so I’m adding that to the side seams, shoulder seams, armsyce, and neck.
On the front, I’m going to fold the dart as if it was sewn and pressed down. Then use a tracing wheel to mark through the pattern paper. This gives me the shape of the dart seam allowance.
See how it’s pointed? If you cut straight down the side seam (especially on a deeper dart) you might not have enough seam allowance and would have a raw edge at the side seam instead.
At the center front I’m going to fold the fabric back for the placket (the original blouse had a separate placket piece that was sewn on), so I’ll give it 1.5”. Do the same trick as the dart here – fold the placket back as though it was sewn and use the tracing wheel to mark the top edge. If you mark it out straight from the neck, there won’t be enough seam allowance where the neck begins to curve!
I’ll add just a 1/2” at the hem. And the collar and collar stand get 1/2” all around.
Then I cut them all out and labeled them, but the pattern’s not done yet!
I want to make a pattern for the undercollar. If you watched my videos about the sequin jacket, you learned a bit about turn of the cloth, which is the minute amount of fabric you lose on folds. Yes, it’s something you can account for during sewing, but why not add it into the pattern now?
I’m tracing the collar pattern onto a new piece of paper.
Then I trimmed 1/16” at the front edges of the collar, and 1/8” at the back edge, to 1/16” at the point. You can barely see it in the picture, it’s so minute, but it does make a difference!
And the last pattern pieces I need are armscye facings. My blouse sample has binding at the armscye, but I’m going to make a facing and hide the seam.
I traced the front armscye area and marked the grain line.
Then I drew a line 2” into the pattern piece. This will give me a 1.5” facing because it includes a 1/2” seam allowance. Do this for both the front and back armscyes.
Now, similar to turn of the cloth, the facing is going to bunch up in there if it’s the exact same size as the rest of the blouse. The facing needs to be ever so slightly smaller, so I’m trimming 1/16” to 0 at the shoulder, and 1/8” to 0 at the side seam. Again, you can barely see it on the pattern in the photo above, but your garment will notice it 🙂
Don’t forget to label the new pieces, and there you have your very own pattern!!!
I’ll show you how to sew it up in the next tutorial 🙂
Thrift stores are a gold mine for sewing enthusiasts! I used to scour the local second hand shops for fabric (both uncut and in the form of a garment), garments to knock off the patterns from, vintage sewing patterns, and technical sewing books. I still have a lot of those books in my library, and a few I use quite frequently to this day! I mentioned in a previous post that thrift stores are a good resource for bed sheets, which can be used for mock-ups / fit samples. But if you’re a DIYer I probably don’t have to tell you how wonderful second hand shopping is 🙂
About 10 (or 15?) years ago I found a fantastic 70’s trench coat that fit me perfectly (a rare find, indeed!) but it was sky blue corduroy fabric. You might have noticed I prefer the darker shades of the rainbow. So I knocked off the pattern and put it in my pattern stash. I tried to dye the coat but failed miserably and ended up throwing it away. I would pull the pattern out every few years, wondering if I would ever actually make it, or maybe I should just throw it away too? Luckily I held onto it all this time (it was a sentimental thrifting day), and at the beginning of this year I ordered 5 yards of faux rabbit fur and made the coat at last! And I’m so glad I did!
Have you had any amazing thrift store finds? Was it fabric, garment for knock-off, pattern, other? Share in the comments!
