A Bit About Making Your Own Clothes!

Do you love beautiful clothes? Do you find yourself sketching outfits and spending hours toiling over the sewing machine? Do you know cutting edge fashion trends? Learn how to design your own clothes and you may just become the next Coco Chanel.

Clothes Designing Tips

1. Learn how to draw so you can sketch your ideas into reality.
2. Learn basic and advanced sewing techniques. To design clothes you will need to choose and cut fabric, make patterns and sew the final garment together.
3. Get ideas from fashion magazines and other media.
4. Invest in a sewing machine and dress form.

Introduction

• Designing your own clothes is a great way to save money, earn a living or express your sense of style. When designing clothes, there are many factors to keep in mind. You have to consider the clothing's purpose, shape, texture, fabric, color and cost of materials.YouTube: How to Become a Fashion Designer (Time: 1:42)¹ However, your biggest overall challenge will likely be figuring out how to translate your design concepts into gorgeous garments. Read on to learn how to design your own clothes.

Step 1: Develop Your Design Skills

• Designing clothes requires a particular skill set, from drawing to sewing to having an eye for color and style.

Drawing and Sketching

• Fashion sketching and technical drawing play a vital role in designing clothes. Drawing is the first step to committing your vision to reality. First of all, if you don't already know how to draw, you need to learn. Take a drawing or art class, read books teaching how to draw fashion, and most of all, practice!
• Here are the basic steps involved in sketching your designs:

1. Use a pencil for beginning sketches so you can fix and refine as you sketch. Later you can do final sketches in pen and in color, if you desire.
2. Draw a rough sketch of the human form.
   • -The body can be in any pose you like, but when a beginner, you may want to draw the arms akimbo.
   • -If you're not comfortable with your drawing ability, you can use a template of the body. That way you just have to worry about sketching your designs. Simply place semi-transparent paper (tracing paper) over a body template, trace the body and then sketch your designs. You can buy or make your own templates.
   
   
3. Decide what type of garment you are going to sketch (e.g., blouse, skirt, pants, etc.).
4. Draw the garment the way the model would wear it in real life. Think about how the fabric would drape and fall.
5. Fine tune your sketch, darkening the lines. Give your model hair, shoes and/or accessories. Make sure he or she has personality!YouTube: Fine Tune Your Design (Time: 1:53)
6. Now you can bring your sketch to life with details and even color. To color in your sketch:

1. Choose your color palette and select your colored pencils.
2. Outline the garment, making sure to trace the seam lines.
3. Carefully color in the garment.
4. Add shading to provide depth.
5. Add any pattern details. Feel free to include notes about color, style, technique, structure, fabric, etc.

For a more detailed look at learning how to draw, check out Mahalo's How to Draw page. If you just don't have drawing skills no matter how hard you try, don't give up on designing clothes. Instead apply your ideas directly to the dress form and take Polaroids.

Sewing

• Like it or not, to design clothes you have to learn how to sew. Even though you can teach yourself, for the best results, you may want to take a sewing class. Make sure to learn how to sew by hand and how to use a sewing machine. For a thorough guide, check out Mahalo's How to Sew. But here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Start your own sewing kit. Tools to include: sewing needles, assorted thread, tape measure, sewing gauges, pins and pincushion, stitch remover, sharp bent-handle dressmaker shears, pinking shears, regular scissors and a bodkin.
2. Sew on a large, stable tabletop.Instructables: How to Sew (Using a Sewing Machine)
3. Invest in a decent sewing machine and then take the time to get to know it. You should be able to change the needle and the presser foot. About.com: Presser Foo You should also be able to adjust the stitch length and thread the needle.

Pattern Making

A pattern is the template of your design that you will use to trace each piece of the garment onto the fabric. To make a pattern, you will need pattern paper, newspaper or any other available material. here are a few different ways to make patterns.

1. Use your own clothing. As long as your clothing fits, this will give you the proper measurements without the measuring.HowCast: How To Make Your Own Sewing Patterns (Time: 1:16)
   1. Trace the garment onto the pattern material.
   2. Make sure to add a seam allowance, about a half-inch.HowCast: How To Make Your Own Sewing Patterns (Time: 1:16)
   3. Cut along the line to form your pattern.
2. You can also make your own patterns from scratch. How you go about it will vary slightly depending on the type of garment.
2. 1. Think about how many panels (pattern pieces) you will need.Expert Village: How to Make a Pattern for a Flared Skirt (Time: 1:09)
   2. Make sure you use a pattern material with perfectly square corners for easier measuring.About.com: Sewing Lesson
   3. Using measuring tape, take your (or your model's) measurements. For example, if you were making a skirt, you would measure the waist, hips and length. To learn how to make a sewing pattern for a shirt, check out this article on eHow.eHow: How to Make a Sewing Pattern
      • 
        
   4. Record the measurements.Expert Village: How to Measure Your Hips and Waist: Making a Flared Skirt (Time: 1:03)
   5. On your pattern paper: Draw a straight line down the center, the length of the garment.Expert Village: How to Make a Pattern for a Flared Skirt (Time: 1:09) Then draw two perpendicular lines, the vertical line on the left edge and the horizontal line at the bottom edge of the paper.eHow: How to Make a Sewing Pattern This will give you a frame of reference.
   6. Trace the measurements onto your pattern paper using a straight edge.
      • Add a seam allowance, about a half-inch.HowCast: How To Make Your Own Sewing Patterns (Time: 1:16)
   7. Cut along the line to form your pattern.
3. Buy a ready-made pattern.
   1. Follow the directions provided with the pattern.
   2. Cut along the lines that indicate the size you desire, i.e. small (s), medium (M), large (L).Expert Village: How to Lay Out Sewing Pattern Pieces
   3. These patterns have helpful symbols, which provide directions, like where to place the pattern on the fabric.Dummies.com: Read a Sewing Pattern For a crash course on how to read pattern signs and symbols, check out Threads' Pattern Road Map.
   4. The pattern should already include the seam allowance.Expert Village: How to Lay Out Sewing Pattern Pieces

• For more information on pattern making, you may want to buy one of the many books on how to make a sewing pattern.

Draping

• Once you learn basic sewing and cutting techniques, you may also want to learn draping techniques. Draping creates garments by using a single piece of fabric or multiple panels that are draped on the dress form and held without sewing.FabSugar: Drapi This is another skill that would be beneficial to learn in a classroom, but here are a few tips:

1. Buy a dress form!
2. Pin style lines to the dress form.YouTube: Style Lines (Time: 5:45)
3. You can sketch your idea beforehand, or just play with the fabric on the model until you get the look you want.Home Sewing Association: Dress Form
4. Hold the garment together with friction and gravity, by tying, or use accessories like sashes, clasps and pins.

• Step 2: Design Your Garments

  • It's now time to put your new skills to the test and design an outfit or item of clothing.

  1. Get inspired! Read fashion magazines like Vogue, Women's Wear Daily, Glamour and Cosmopolitan.eHow: How to Become a Fashion Designer
  2. Sketch your ideas.
     • Don't worry about getting it perfect right way. Start with the basic shape of the garment and refine as you go.
  3. Select fabrics.
     • Consider the color, texture, weight, pattern and cost of the fabric.wikiHow: How to Design Clothes
     • You can buy fabric at a fabric store, craft store or even recycle your old clothes. Use your imagination!
  4. Measure the model (or yourself).wikiHow: How to Design Clothes
  5. Create the pattern.Expert Village: How to Lay Out Sewing Pattern Pieces
     • Don't forget, you can buy a pre-made pattern from any craft store.YouTube: How to Become a Fashion Designer Part 2 (Time: 4:59)

• Step 3: Construct Your Clothes

  • You've sketched the design and created the pattern; now it is time to construct the final product.

  1. Lay out the pattern pieces on top of the fabric.Expert Village: How to Lay Out Sewing Pattern Pieces
     1. You'll want to create two sides of everything, so to make it easier, double over the fabric and cut both pieces at once.Expert Village: How to Lay Out Sewing Pattern Pieces
     2. Think about the direction of the pattern pieces. Make sure the pattern pieces go with the grain of the fabric.
  2. Carefully cut the fabric.
  3. Pin the pieces together.
     1. Lay out the pieces, lining up the edges that should be pinned together.
     2. Overlap the pieces a half-inch (the seam allowance) and pin the pieces together.Expert Village: How to Pin Panels of Fabric for Sewing (Time:1:24)
     3. You can also use a dress form. The dress form should match your body, or the body of your model, as closely as possible for the best finished product. Add padding where needed.Home Sewing Association: Dress Form
  4. Sew the garment.
  5. Add closures, like buttons or zippers.wikiHow: How to Design Clothes
  6. Add embellishments and accessories.eHow: How to Design Your Own Clothes
  7. You're done! Take a step back and admire your genius. Don't be afraid to make any adjustments.

• Conclusion

  • Even if your first few outfits don't turn out the way you planned, at least you can say "I made this!" Keep practicing, hone your techniques and one day you may become a fashion designer or start your own clothing line. Have fun!