I replaced the gathered waist with a satin elastic waistband to tweak the sizing and the color balance.

I used foldover elastic so it would fully encase the skirt fabric on both sides. Waistband and skirt were pin-eased together and straight-stitched while stretching the material as it was fed through the machine. Wooly nylon was used for both bobbin and top thread as extra insurance against future thread breakage.

written out 4 ease of access

HOW TO: WRIST CUFFS DIY

Step 1: Old Jeans Waistband

- Cut off waistband from rest of pants

Step 2: Cut to Wrist Size (X2)

- measure around your wrist and cut

Step 3: Add Closure

-button + buttonhole or safety pin + soda tab works best imo

- Sew down soda tab to one side, safety pin to other

Step 4: Add Hardware

- good options are spikes, more safety pins, more soda tabs, staples, chains, and whatever else you can find

Step 5: SHOW OFF!!!!

first: sacrifice a beanie D: this was a damaged and worn zip the cat. farewell sweet prince. thanks for your service. anyway take that beanie to bits

iron the pieces and trace them to make a pattern (make notes about how to reassemble NOW before you forget!)

Ask your sister to use her work printer to blow up the pattern from A5 to A3! thats four times bigger!!

get some plushy fabric from the craft store and get tracing and cutting (using medical scissors from that surgery you had four years ago)

SEW THAT BABY TOGETHER and then pick apart the head because you messed up AND THEN SEW IT BACK TOGETHER PROPERLY!!

make a little face :3 eyes, nose and whiskers!!

fill that beast with BEANS using your sister's hamilton shotglass (and some fluff for the head and body)

sew her up.... and take some photos!!

optional step: repeat the process to make some siblings!

Hello good people !!

I have made a few clown dolls before, and someone submitted a question asking if I followed any guide for them or had a guide myself. I sorta made it up as I went for the first doll, but I have learned better methods of doing things since then!

Here is my guide on how to make some dudes for yourself!

You will need:

Fabric for the body - I used an off-white fleece for the torso and limbs for this one, but have previously used a thin off-white sorta cotton fabric, which works better if you want floppier/thinner limbs!

Fabric for the clothes - Use whatever you want, honestly! I used some cool stretchy silver-metallic fabric for mine but have previously used cotton and polyester patterned fabrics !

Polymer clay - I used Sculpey III for this one, but for my previous two I used some other kind of Sculpey that was very very light and airy, which made it hard to sculpt properly without squishing it! If you want to add any detail to the face shape, use some firm polymer clay !

Posca pens (optional) and acrylic paints - Acrylics are used for the base coat on the head. I used the paints for the details too previously, but used posca pens on this one which was much easier to do the face details with! Either works just fine, though : )

Faux fur - for hair! If you want a bald clown or one with just a hat without hair, you don't need this!

Decorative trims and such - I used some pink frilly elastic trim, blue dotted non-elastic trim, white elastic frilly mesh, buttons, a silver bell and some blue velvet ribbon for this guy! You can literally use whatever you want (ribbons, bows, pom-poms, lace, etc) to make your clown look cute!!

Varnish - Use spray varnish if you can! It'll help prevent the face paint from smudging (all 3 of mine have had this happen using varnish with a brush). It is possible to use varnish with a brush on them but be careful with it! I used sculpey gloss varnish.

Tin/aluminium foil

Basic sewing supplies (needles, thread, pins, scissors)

Steps

1. Make a ball out of the foil, a little smaller than the size you want the finished head.

2. Cover it in a layer of Sculpey and sculpt the face shape you want. Include a pretty thick neck with the base at the bottom WIDER than the rest of the neck. This will be how the head is anchored to the body!

3. Bake the clay, let it cool, and sand it down so that it is nice and even without any finger-prints!

4. Paint a base coat on it with acrylic paints!

5. Paint/draw on whatever face details you want using acrylics or posca pens! Let your creativity flow!!

6. Varnish it!

7. Draw out the body pieces (torso and limbs) on your body fabric. You'll need two torso pieces, four leg pieces and four arm pieces. Honestly there's no method to what shape to draw, just draw what shapes you want them to be! (Remember to reverse each second piece though so that they match up when sewing them together). I used a rounded rectangle for the torso, and chose to make the legs on mine very long!

8. Cut out all the pieces and sew them together with the CORRECT sides facing INWARDS and the WRONG sides facing outwards. Once sewn, flip them inside out. MAKE SURE TO LEAVE THE TOP SIDE OF THE TORSO UN-SEWN TO INSERT THE HEAD!

9. Almost fully fill the body with plastic pellets, and only partially fill the limbs (I filled them about 1/4 full)! If you don't have those, use dry rice like I did (or dry lentils) or sand! If you use sand, ensure sure you make your stitches REALLY close together so sand doesn't come out of any gaps! If you want the limbs to be chunkier, fill them with more pellets OR stuff the rest of them with poly-fill or cotton wool!

10. Insert the neck into the torso and sew the opening tight around it, like this! The wide base of the neck stops the head from coming out : )

11. Sew on the limbs! The stitching doesn't have to be perfect here since the clothes will hide it!

12. Make the clothes! You can make whatever kind of clothing you like; I just made a baggy little jumpsuit sorta thing for my guy! To do this, I laid the clown out on the fabric and roughly drew the shape for clothes around him based on what I wanted! Flip it, lay it down in the fabric again and then trace this to get the second jumpsuit piece!

13. Use the same method of sewing the pieces together with the CORRECT sides facing each other so the WRONG sides are facing outwards. Then turn the clothes inside-out so that the eight sides are now facing outwards! MAKE SURE TO LEAVE OPENINGS FOR THE HEAD AND LIMBS TO COME OUT THROUGH!

14. Put the clothes on the clown!!

15. (Optional) Glue fake fur on the top of the head in the style you want it! I used hot glue because I didn't have anything else, but fabric glues and all-purpose glues would be good too! If you don't want hair, just skip this step!

16. (Optional) Hat!! Cut out a wide triangle shape, sew the opposite sides together and then sew a circle to the base if you want a pointy hat like my dude's one (I don't have photos of this sadly but I'm sure there's a tutorial out there of how to sew a cone)! Then glue the base to the top of the head.

16. And finally, add all the trims and extra bits you want to make them look super cute !!! I just sewed on some ribbon to the base of the hat and around the ankles, sewed some frilly elastic trims around the neck, added a little silver bell to the hat, sewed frilly trim around the wrists and ankles and then sewed two buttons onto the front of his clothes!

And then, your little clown is done !!!

I hope this comes in handy to anyone wanting to make their own clown dude!

I would appreciate any reblogs and such of this to help spread the clown joy !!

Have fun !!!

If you're into vintage fashion, you've probably heard about the one hour dress. It was a simple style of dress that was popular back in the 1920's. While they rarely only take one hour to make, they're beginner-friendly and highly customisable thanks due to their simple shapes.

The dress:

The one hour dress is a simple dress that's usually made out of a woven fabric. It's nice and loose, which means it doesn't need any fasteners.

The top part is a simple T-shape while the bottom is a wide rectangle, extending far beyond the top's margins. This extra fabric would be gathered and sewn into a cut inside of the main dress to create room for the hips.

If you'd like to find out how to make these, check out these tutorials by The Closet Historian, Festive Attyre and The Vintage Dancer. They'll show you how to draft a pattern according to your own measurements, and how to put the dress together.

Check out this original 1920's drafting guide by Mary Brooks Picken to see how it was originally done.

(Image source) [ID: a peach-coloured one hour dress with colourful floral embroidery and pearls.]

(Image source) [ID: a page out of a 1921 edition of the French magazine "La Femme de France", showing instructions on how to sew a one hour dress.]

(Image source) [ID: a hand-drawn diagram showing how to draft a one hour dress pattern from scratch. The torso is a simple t-shape, while the skirt part is a wide rectangle.]

The slip dress:

Sometimes, one hour dresses were made from sheer materials to create different effects depending on what slip dress was worn underneath them.

These slip dresses are even easier to make than a one hour dress. The principle's the same, but the top's a rectangle instead of a T-shape with sleeves. Check out this tutorial by Sew Historically to find out how to make your own 1920's slip dress. This tutorial by American Duchess shows you how to make a version without the gathered hips.

You can easily turn these slip dresses into a playsuit by adding a rectangle at the crotch, turning the skirt part into shorts. Check out my 1920's playsuit project to see an example.

(Image source) [ID: off-white silk slip dress with gathered hips, lace decorations, and a flap at the crotch.]

(Image source) [ID: page out of a 1922 edition of the French magazine "La Femme de France", showing instructions on how to sew a dress and a matching slip.]

(Image source) [ID: pattern drafting instructions for a 1920's slip dress as shown on a piece of green fabric. Text: "1920s slip. www.sewhistorically.com".]

Conclusion:

This type of dress is a lot of fun if you're looking for an easy, highly customisable project. Add whatever trims you want, mess around with the neckline, make a sleeveless version or one with longer sleeves, turn it into a mini- or maxi-dress,... There's plenty of options.

Coming back to this post, I wanted to show you all just how customisable this pattern is by sharing three different pieces I've made with it.

I'm sorry about the wrinkly photos.

[A brown dress displayed on a red mannequin. The dress has a pointed collar decorated with beige lace, and fringes at the bottom hem. Beige strips of lace sit at the top of the box pleats at the sides of the dress. A short strip of lace extends down from the centre of the neckline, decorated with three brown buttons.]

You've already seen this brown summer dress in my Scarf to Dress post.

This version uses an (admittedly pretty messy) box pleat on the sides.

[A flowy pastel purple top displayed on a red mannequin. The top has wide kimono sleeves, a square neckline, and gathered side pleats. The neckline and sides are decorated with white floral lace.]

This top is the one hour dress minus the skirt part. It's made with a very lightweight purple cotton fabric, making it perfect for summer.

This version uses a box pleat with subtle gathering at the sides.

[An ankle-length red woollen dress with short kimono sleeves is displayed on a red mannequin. Plaid accents in red and green with white stripes have been sewn around the sleeve's edges, waist, and neckline.]

Lastly, this red woollen dress is an ankle-length one hour dress. I used second-hand red wool fabric for it, combined with an old woollen scarf I don't wear any more. Aside from the decorative touches in the front, I've also hidden a strip of the plaid fabric within the side folds which you can only see when I'm walking.

For this dress, I opted to simply fold the excess fabric towards the back of the dress, like shown in The Closet Historian's one hour dress tutorial. I then hid the top of my fold with a belt-like strip of fabric.

others are encouraged to add onto this!! (just don't recommend corporations like amazon. not cool.)

1. patches!! you don't need to buy them. DIY patches are not ugly or boring. in fact, they are encouraged here!! DIY, in my opinion, is always the best thing to do when it is an option and is safe to do so.

2. speaking of DIY, spikes!! you can make them!!

cut the top and bottom off of an empty can. cut down the middle of the cylinder and flatten it, so it's just a flat rectangle of metal.

cut out a shape that is kind of a third of a circle, but around 3/4 of the curved edge is taken up by triangle shapes. (I'm not very good at describing, so here's a badly drawn picture)

roll it into a cone, leaving the 4 triangles sticking out at the bottom. this bit is optional, but you can fill it with hot glue to make it more sturdy, just be careful touching the hot metal. I tend to hold the cone by one of the triangles with a bit of fabric wrapped around my fingers for this bit. cut 4 small holes in your fabric in this kind of shape:

and put the spiky bits of triangle through the holes. fold the triangles in on themselves to secure the spike in place. boom. spike obtained. this is one I made and attached to a little piece of fabric to test this method out:

3. battle vests!! (like the base jackets). the best places to buy these are charity shops and second hand websites in my opinion, but if anyone else knows any better options, please reblog with those!!

a good trick I find works well on eBay is to filter search results to your country (or state? can you do that in the US? idk) so that a: fast delivery because local, and b: all the sellers of everything that shows up are in YOUR TIME ZONE.

why is this important? when people sell something for really cheap, it goes FAST. check eBay at like, 2am or something. all the scalpers in your area are asleep. grab the cheap stuff while they can't.

4. sewing!! want patches, but can't sew for whatever reason? I've heard of a lot of people with joint conditions like arthritis complain about the inaccessibility of patch stuff, and that does sound extremely annoying, however:

safety pins!! while they are still a little fiddly, they're much less work so you don't have to fiddle about for long. if you can, you could even ask a friend to help, since it doesn't take long at all I'm sure someone will be willing to help out!! (I know I would, but that's just me, and I love this kind of thing). safety pins on clothes are also widely considered to be a symbol of solidarity, so if anything, you're adding some extra love and meaning to your patch pants/battle jacket.

if that's still too fiddly, fabric glue is always an option. unfortunately this means you won't be able to remove/reposition patches, at least without leaving a massive patch of residue, but if you're ok with that then fabric glue is probably your best bet.

for people who prefer sewing: as for where to get the thread, I've heard a lot of people recommending dental floss, as it's apparently much cheaper and works just as well. I haven't tried this myself so can't confirm that, but I thought I'd share it regardless.

5. where to get fabric!! old clothes. rip em up. you don't need any kind of fancy fabric from the craft store. my patches are made of old jeans that I grew out of.

don't have any old clothes and you don't want to waste any good ones? I'm not sure about other countries, but in the UK, as long as you're not on private property (trespassing), dumpster diving is perfectly legal.

I definitely ;) do NOT encourage ;) trespassing rich people's land ;) to steal from their dumpsters ;)

or tbh it doesn't matter too much how rich the person is, since it's all going to landfill anyway. if it's in the bin, it's free game, but you didn't hear that from me. ;)

Thank you for the tag!

That's an amazing example of visible mending on a couch.

The original link leads to Pinterest, so here's a direct link:

Visible mending on t-shirts

There's a lot you can do when it comes to visible mending on t-shirts.

One thing to keep in mind is that most t-shirts are made of jersey, a stretchy material. Mending small holes won't make much of a difference, but if you're going to change large areas of of your shirts, big mends that don't stretch along with the fabric may cause fit issues.

No-sew mend:

If sewing isn't your thing you could try to repair the holes with a small piece of fusible interfacing, or by using iron-on patches. Note that sewn mends will usually hold longer than ironed mends, as ironed patches can become loose over time.

Ladder stitch and cover-ups:

Small holes or tears can be fixed with a ladder stitch. You'll still see where you've made your mend because t-shirt fabric tends to pucker when mended this way, but you can easily hide your mend by sewing something decorative over it and turning it into a design element. You've got a lot of options here: lace, patches, appliqué, buttons, studs, embroidery, pearls,...

(Image source) [ID: before and after picture of a tear in a blue knit fabric, closed up with a ladder stitch. You can still see the outline of the original tear in the after picture even though it's been sewn shut. Text: "From this to this. Easy sewing."]

For example, I did this exact same mend on a dress a while ago. A hole developed in the the jersey part of the dress, so I closed it up with a ladder stitch, then hid the mend beneath a piece of lace.

(Image source) [ID: close-up of the neckline of a gray dress with black details, showing two black buttons and a patch of black floral lace at the neckline.]

Embroidery can also look really neat and is a good way to cover up holes or mends.

(Image source) [ID: close-up on a brown jersey garment attached to an embroidery hoop. The fabric has several holes, which are in the process of being covered up with embroidery of brown leaves.]

Another creative way to cover up holes and add some personality to your shirt is appliqué. You can sew any shape or design over your mended spot.

(Image source) [ID: close-up of a strawberry appliqué on a t-shirt with red and white stripes.]

Appliqué is usually applied to the outside of the fabric, but you could also use reverse appliqué and add your design on the inside of your garment so it peeks through the hole you're fixing up.

(Image source) [ID: reverse appliqué of a heart in a green shirt. A heart has been cut out of the fabric, and a piece of white fabric with blue flowers peeks through the hole.]

Or you could just embrace the fact that there's a hole in your shirt. If you finish its edges with a blanket stitch, it won't unravel further. Make it part of your design by embroidering fun things around it.

(Image source) [ID: close-up of a hole in a yellow t-shirt. The edges of the hole have been finished off with a blanket stitch in yellow thread. A pair of eyes and nose holes have been embroidered above the hole, turning it into a face with an open mouth.]

Darning:

You could also try darning the holes. This can be a little tricky on t-shirts because of the stretchy fabric, but it's not impossible. I darned a hole in a shirt a while back, then turned my darn into a heart shape.

(Image source) [ID: a red t-shirt with a lace yoke and an embroidered heart in the front.]

Check out this t-shirt darn by For Keeps or this shirt darning tutorial by Instructables to see neater examples of what this could look like.

(Image source) [ID: back view of a person wearing a shirt with black and white stripes. Four spots have been darned with green and white thread.]

Conclusion:

It sucks when we get holes in our favourite shirts, but it's not the end of the world. There's plenty of creative ways to both mend the hole and add some flair to our shirt. Have fun with it!

If you're looking for more inspiration, check out r/Visiblemending.

Interesting question! Let's take a look at darning and darning tools.

Darning eggs or embroidery hoops?

What is darning:

Darning is a sewing technique used to repair holes or worn areas in fabric, using a needle and thread.

Woven fabric consists threads crisscrossing each other. These threads are called a warp and a weft: the warp threads are the vertical base of the fabric, while the weft threads are the threads that are drawn through these warp threads during the weaving process.

When we're darning woven fabrics, we first create new warp threads across our hole, then weave new weft threads through them.

(There's also Swiss darning which is a technique used on knits, but let's leave that for another day.)

(Image source) [ID: a diagram of woven fabric, showing the vertical warp threads and horizontal weft threads.]

(Image source) [ID: Vintage instructions on how to darn a hole.]

Darning tools:

Darning is a whole lot easier when the fabric you're trying to repair is pulled taut, similar to how weaving is usually done on a loom. This helps to keep the tension on your fabric even, avoiding loose or uneven stitching.

Both darning mushrooms/eggs and embroidery hoops can be used to pull your fabric taut.

For example, if you're fixing something that's difficult to handle (e.g. small cylinders like socks or gloves), you can employ a darning egg to pull the fabric taut while darning so you don't need to put your hand inside of your garment. Situations like these won't work with a hoop because those cylindrical items are too small for most hoops.

(Image source) [ID: seven different darning egg sizes and types: chicken, small goose, large goose, classic handle, curved handle, mushroom, and mini.]

(Image source) [ID: a red sock with a hole in it in progress of being darned with blue thread over a wooden darning egg.]

If you're fixing up bigger holes, or holes in fabric of which you can easily reach the back, an embroidery hoop might be more convenient depending on your personal habits.

(Image source) [ID: a piece of denim fabric in progress of being darned with the use of an embroidery hoop and yellow, orange, and red thread.]

You could also use something else to pull your fabric over, like a jam jar, a light bulb, or a tennis ball. I personally don't own a darning egg, so I tend to use glass bottles when darning items that can't be put into an embroidery hoop.

(Image source) [ID: a gray knit sleeve in progress of being darned with blue and green thread. The sleeve is pulled over an empty jam jar.]

Conclusion:

You can use both a darning egg/mushroom and an embroidery hoop to darn your clothes. Which one to choose depends on your personal preferences and the type and size of garment you're trying to mend.