Sewing: Basic Tailoring and Taking In

 Today's post will show you how to tailor a basic piece of clothing like a jumper or a top so it fits better. This tutorial will help those of you who have lost weight or have picked up clothing that is ill fitting. I often find that clothing from the high street does not suit me well because it all tends to be made with almost zero fitting at all. As you can see from the picture below the jumper had straight sides which I then sewed to give a more flattering shape for the female form.

All you need for this is:

The garment you wish to alter

Sewing machine

Thread

Bobbin

Pins

Tailors chalk, chalk or a light eye/lip liner (I couldn't find any chalk...)

Scissors - optional 

1.  First you need to turn your garment inside out. You then need to wear your item whilst it is inside out.

2. Next you need to start pinning your clothing. You do this by first finding the smallest part of your body then grabbing the excess material from both sides of your body. Once you are comfortable with the fit you need to put a pin through both the back and the front of the item. This pin will mark where you will sew. Carry on until you are happy with the fit. Now you need to carefully take off the garment.

3. Now you need to trace around your pins, this will help to get a neater curve and make it easier when it comes to sewing.

4. All you need to do now is sew along the lines you drew. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of this part of the process because I was swearing at the sodding machine because it wouldn't work, then I realised I didn't have it switched on (doh!). If you need help with threading your machine click here. I used a straight stitch here just for ease.

5. All you need to do now is turn your garment back the right way and wear it. If you find that you have a lot of material left over you can always cut it away with a pair of fabric sheers. 

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, don't forget I've got a facebook page so you can now subscribe without having to be on bloglovin'!