[miss_sonja]

I’m a quilter/costumer, and new to sewing from a printed clothing pattern. I bought the paper pattern for the Sleepover PJs and want to make them to fit my son now (12-18 months size) and be able to make another set for him as he gets bigger. How does one do that since all the sizes seem to be over-printed?

thank you!

[Sarvi]

What most ladies here do is to trace the size they need (onto a variety of things from swedish tracing paper, to interfacing, to freezer paper) and keep the original pattern sheet whole. This is also useful if you need to blend sizes — say trace a 3 in width with a 5 in length for a lanky child. Hope this helps!

[miss_sonja]

Ah! OK, that seems obvious now, but as I said, new to the clothing pattern process. I’ll try the freezer paper since I have some. Didn’t know one could blend sizes either!

thank you:-)

[Sarvi]

My pleasure! We have folks with all levels of experience, please feel free to ask if you have questions or help out somebody newer.

[Masha Richart]

I trace a lot of the time, but I also use this method: http://www.burdastyle.com/techniques/trace-a-pattern-easily-without-cutting-it. The link wasn’t working right a moment ago, so in case it is forever broken, here is the gist: You lay the pattern down on top of your fabric (it works best to cut apart each pattern piece as close to the largest size as possible before starting) and weight it down in the middle. Then use a fabric pen (or whatever – I often use a regular one since I am going to be cutting on the line) to mark tiny dots along the cutting line. You’ll be lifting up the edges of the pattern to do this, make sure it doesn’t shift. You’ll need fewer dots along straight lines, more along curves. Then you can either connect the dots with the pen, or just cut using them as a guide. This method works well for simpler pattern pieces.

[meleliza]

I often use a tracing wheel and tailors wax paper so I don’t have to cut or trace. However, I bought the pjs pattern last year and since June have made exactly 5 1/2 pairs! So the tracing wheel would have torn it apart by then. Especially since I have to blend sizes to create a boy shape! These might be worth tracing out.

[bren5kids]

What I like to do with the smaller sizes and smaller pattern pieces is photocopy them. Saves me from having to trace, and works great.

[lifeinoz]

I love the Swedish tracing paper method. It’s awesome stuff, you can get a large roll on Amazon!

[Sarvi]

Sounds like a topic for a blog post! Any other methods not listed here?

[Liesl Gibson]

Oh, will someone volunteer to write this for us? I’m bogged down writing at least a dozen blog posts at present, but I think it’s a great topic and would be really useful to explain various options.

[Sarvi]

When would you need it by? I’d quite like to take a crack at this one as I’m curious about the other methods mentioned, which I haven’t tried yet, and I remember being a little baffled by freezer paper until I’d handled some.