Patchwork How To

·         Reading the Patchwork How To Please be sure to read the entire Patchwork how-to before beginning. Reading the entire Patchwork how-to will give you a better understanding of the patchwork process and will help your clothing in the end.

·         Making the patterns The easiest and most effective way to make a pattern is to use an old piece of clothing. Find a piece of clothing that matches the style that you would like your patchwork to end up. You may use this pattern for as many pieces of patchwork clothing as you would like, it is not disposable (unless you want it to be).
1: First, you have to rip out the seams. The best way to do this is with a seam ripper. You can use a razor blade or scissors. Scissors are a pain in the butt though. Although the garment will be trash in the end (unless you want to sew it back together), you will want to make sure that you preserve the outline of the garment. Minor cuts or tears won't hurt anything as long as you can still trace around the peices.
2: Cut the garment at the old seams. You should cut right along the dotted line that was left from the old threads, and the needle. You will make up for this 1/4" that you cut off in the next step
3: Trace around the pieces, leaving 1/4" gap between the garment and your line. Now that you have got all of the pieces of the garment seperated from each other you should lay them on poster board, or any other material that you feel like using and trace around them. Trace around the pieces, leaving 1/4" gap between the garment and your line. This 1/4" will be for your seam.
4: Cut the shapes out. Now that you have the pieces drawn on the poster board (or whatever you decided to use). Cut them out.
5: You have your patterns. move on to the next step.

·         Cutting the fabric Before starting your patchwork you will need to cut the fabric. You should cut the fabric 1/2" wider than you want your patches to be. If you want your patches 6" wide, you should cut the fabric 6 1/2". There is no need to cut the fabric into squares at this point, just cut it into strips. Once you have the fabric cut into strips you should then start cutting your squares. A square has all four sides of the same length. You may also use rectangles. If you are going to use rectangles DO NOT double your length!!! (6 1/2" + 6 1/2" = 13"). Just double your desired finish length and add 1/2" (6" + 6" + 1/2" + 12 1/2"). If you use the first equation you will end up with excess material, and depending on how you are sewing your patches you may run into trouble and have to rip out your seams. You may also want to cut the fabric into bars (3 squares). If you do this you should also use the second equation. no matter how long you make them, only allow 1/2" for your seams. One more thing. Were sorry for the math lesson, we know that's not you're here. Please forgive us if we made your head hurt.

·         Sewing the Fabric Before sewing you should check that all of your dimensions are correct. This will save you a lot of time in the long run.You should also have a basic knowledge of sewing, and how a sewing machine works.
1: Lay two patches face to face (the good sides touching) and sew down one side 1/4" from your cut edge. Make sure they are laying perfectly square. After you have sewn your first two patches together, continue sewing the rest in groups of two, just like you did the first.
2: Next take two of your groups of patches that you have sewn together and lay them face to face, just like you did with the single patches. Now sew down one of the short sides, making a bar four patches long. Continue doing this with all of your patches, making several bars the length that you need them. Feel free to work in any rectangles or bars that you may have cut wherever you would like.
3: After you have several bars made you then need to sew the bars together. To do this you lay them face to face and sew down one side 1/4" from the cut edge.
4: Congratulations, you now have a sheet of patchwork fabric.

·         Laying out the Pattern. To lay out your pattern you will need to lay the sheet of patchwork fabric that you have just created face down. Now take the pattern that you made in step one and lay it on top of your sheet of patchwork fabric. Trace around the pattern with something that you will be able to easily see. We suggest a sharpie. Don't worry about the marker bleeding through the fabric, it will end up in the seam anyways. Once you have completely traced around all of the pieces you need to cut them out.

·         Cutting the Patchwork This step is pretty simple. There are lines on the back of your patchwork fabric (you know that, you put them there). Cut them. Cut your patchwork fabric on the lines that you made from drawing around the patterns. Be sure to stay on the lines as much as possible. The edges will be hidden when you sew your garment but you still want to be somewhat accurate because you will use the edges as a guide when sewing.

·         Hemming Closed Edges After cutting out all of the pieces of your patchwork garment there will be some edges that you will need to hem before sewing the pieces together. We call these the closed edges. Closed edges are those that will be sewn over and you will not be able to hem after the garment is completed, such as pockets. Pant legs and sleeves are open edges so you will sew them after you have completed the garment. This part takes some thought. We can not tell you everything that will be an open or closed edge on your particular garment but hopefuly you can figure that part out.

·         Sewing the Pieces Together This step (just like the last one) requires a little thought. Depending on the garment that you are making, there may be pieces that need to be sewn first (like pockets). You may want to sit back and think this process through before you just go sewing everything together. Try to remember how the original garment came apart. Think about which seams you ripped first, which seams were under others, etc. A good rule of thumb is most of the smaller pieces should be sewn on first. Now sew all of the pieces together by laying them face to face. Pockets and stuff may be back to face, just use common scense. Keep all of your seams 1/4" from the edge of the fabric, this is why we cut the patterns 1/4" larger. It is easiest to use the presser foot of the sewing machine as a guide for your distance from the edge of the fabric.

·         Hemming the open edges Once you have got all of your pieces sewn together, you can start to see what your garment is going to look like. Although your garment looks done, it's not done yet. You still need to hem up all of your open edges so that your patchwork garment will look completely complete. Do that. If you've gotten this far I know that you can figure that last step out on your own.

·         Glad we Could Help We really hope that our Patchwork how to helped you out. You don't owe us anything for the tutorial but if you would like to help out, please just tell one person about SuperHippie.Com. Telling one person means a world of difference to us. If you are done with this tutorial and you would like to do more to show your grattitude please post your success stories in our forum. Thank you very much, and good luck with everything you do in life. The SuperHippie Family wishes you nothing but the best.