1 00:00:00,099 --> 00:00:03,860 Hello! It’s Annika. Today, I’m going to show you how to turn one dress into two. 2 00:00:03,860 --> 00:00:05,800 [music plays] 3 00:00:15,300 --> 00:00:18,780 Today I'm going to film myself whilst I try and replicate a dress. 4 00:00:18,780 --> 00:00:20,390 This dress, in fact. 5 00:00:20,410 --> 00:00:25,250 I really, really like the style of this dress, and after I posted pictures of me wearing 6 00:00:25,250 --> 00:00:29,890 it on the interwebs, a bunch of you asked me to make a tutorial for a similar style of dress. 7 00:00:30,190 --> 00:00:35,339 But I really had no idea how I would make this kind of dress from scratch, so I thought 8 00:00:35,339 --> 00:00:38,569 then I set about first trying to “reverse engineer” the thing. 9 00:00:38,569 --> 00:00:42,550 And so this video morphed into a video where I show you some methods and tips and tricks 10 00:00:42,550 --> 00:00:47,589 for copying how you would go about replicating or "reverse engineering" your own dress. Or 11 00:00:47,589 --> 00:00:50,469 - I guess this could also work for a shirts, if you don't wear dresses? 12 00:00:50,469 --> 00:00:51,690 Anyway, let’s get started! 13 00:00:51,690 --> 00:00:55,989 So, let’s talk about fabrics. The first thing that you want to do is to find a fabric 14 00:00:55,989 --> 00:00:59,370 type that’s really similar to the one used in the item you’re duplicating. 15 00:00:59,370 --> 00:01:02,579 The fabric in this pink dress is a light knit with a small amount of stretch to it. 16 00:01:02,579 --> 00:01:05,059 I’m going to need to use fabric which is similar. 17 00:01:05,059 --> 00:01:08,600 This fruit-printed fabric is pretty much the same, plus it’s really cute, 18 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:10,360 so I’m going to use this. 19 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:14,270 Then, I scrutinized the insides of the dress, and I figured out how many individual different 20 00:01:14,270 --> 00:01:16,180 pieces of fabric the dress was made out of. 21 00:01:16,180 --> 00:01:20,869 So, I got my dress and some paper to make a pattern on – I’m using wrapping paper. 22 00:01:20,869 --> 00:01:26,159 And… whoops. These two things have the same exact pattern, so that’s going to be nice 23 00:01:26,159 --> 00:01:27,520 and confusing for the camera. 24 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:31,409 I folded the dress in half, with the collar flipped out of the way to expose this full 25 00:01:31,409 --> 00:01:34,320 bodice piece. I'm copying the front part of the dress first. 26 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:37,740 Then, I trace around the bodice. When I get to these parts that are connected to other 27 00:01:37,740 --> 00:01:42,570 bits of fabric, I use these pins to stab through the fabric on the seamline, and into the pattern 28 00:01:42,570 --> 00:01:47,439 paper below. This will make small, faint marks onto the paper, and let me trace the proper 29 00:01:47,439 --> 00:01:50,420 shape of this seam. 30 00:01:50,420 --> 00:01:55,990 So, to recap, I’ve just traced half of this front of the dress onto paper. This middle 31 00:01:55,990 --> 00:01:59,530 triangle section uses a separate piece of fabric to the main bodice, so I’ll be copying that later. 32 00:02:00,049 --> 00:02:04,770 Then, I add half an inch of seam allowance to every side of the pattern, except for here, 33 00:02:04,770 --> 00:02:07,479 because this is where the pattern will lie on the fold. 34 00:02:07,479 --> 00:02:13,850 Then I cut this pattern piece out, and I do the exact same thing for the back. 35 00:02:13,850 --> 00:02:17,350 Then I add a half-inch seam allowance, on all the edges except for the one that’ll 36 00:02:17,350 --> 00:02:21,810 sit on the fabric fold. So notice here, that where the dress was folded, that’s where 37 00:02:21,810 --> 00:02:25,570 I’m then going to put “cut on fold”, and where I will be placing the pattern on 38 00:02:25,570 --> 00:02:29,370 the fold of the fabric. And I also make a little note that the stretch of the fabric 39 00:02:29,370 --> 00:02:33,330 needs to run this way – across the bodice, just like in the original dress. 40 00:02:33,330 --> 00:02:37,640 Now the skirt is just a gathered rectangle, so instead of wasting paper making a pattern, 41 00:02:37,640 --> 00:02:41,590 I’m just going to take the length of the skirt, adding 1 inch for seam allowance at 42 00:02:41,590 --> 00:02:45,510 both the top and bottom. And then I take the width, multiplying by 2 to get the entire 43 00:02:45,510 --> 00:02:49,590 front and back of the skirt, and then adding a good 20 inches to allow for it to be all 44 00:02:49,590 --> 00:02:50,770 ruffled and gathered. 45 00:02:50,770 --> 00:02:55,290 Then I turn the dress inside out and I copy this triangle – with an added seam allowance 46 00:02:55,290 --> 00:02:59,040 of half an inch all the way around. And lastly, I copy the collar, which I lay 47 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:03,070 on top of my pattern paper like this. I traced around the collar, and added a seam allowance 48 00:03:03,070 --> 00:03:07,040 to the outside edge. I added an extra inch of seam allowance because these collar edges 49 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:12,100 are going to be sewn to something else twice – so it requires two lots of a ½ inch seam 50 00:03:12,100 --> 00:03:15,690 allowance. And I’m going to need 4 of these pieces. 51 00:03:15,690 --> 00:03:18,950 So, these are all the pattern pieces for the top of the dress (and for the skirt, I’ll 52 00:03:18,950 --> 00:03:22,590 just need to cut out a rectangle) – so, let’s go and cut out some fabric! 53 00:03:22,590 --> 00:03:32,320 So I use the pattern pieces to cut out the front piece, 54 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:40,050 the back piece, two of these triangle bits, 55 00:03:40,050 --> 00:03:49,460 a rectangle that’s 11 by 60 inches, and four collar pieces, and for this I use 56 00:03:49,460 --> 00:03:51,460 a different, white cotton fabric. 57 00:03:51,460 --> 00:03:56,400 Then the first sewing step is to place the back and front bodice together, right sides 58 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,000 together, and I sew them together here. 59 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:04,290 Then I place the triangle pieces right sides together, and sew them together across here. 60 00:04:04,290 --> 00:04:08,010 Note that I’m using a zigzag stitch for all of this, because the material I'm using 61 00:04:08,010 --> 00:04:10,620 is stretchy. You need to use the right stitch for your material. 62 00:04:10,620 --> 00:04:15,900 I’m then going to flip the triangle around and sew it together with the wrong-sides touching. 63 00:04:15,900 --> 00:04:18,400 Then I gathered the long edge of the rectangle skirt piece. 64 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:22,790 I did this by sewing long basting stitches along the top edge, then grabbing the top 65 00:04:22,790 --> 00:04:25,750 stitch, gently pulling on it, and pushing the gathers along. 66 00:04:25,750 --> 00:04:28,940 I adjusted the ruffles so that the length of the piece would match the circumference 67 00:04:28,940 --> 00:04:30,030 of the bottom of the top. 68 00:04:30,030 --> 00:04:35,100 So basically, if I can fold it in two and it matches the top, plus about 1 inch hanging 69 00:04:35,100 --> 00:04:36,460 over, we’re good to go. 70 00:04:36,460 --> 00:04:42,810 So then I flip this skirt bit over, and I’m going to sew it to the top right-sides together, 71 00:04:42,810 --> 00:04:46,840 with the skirt upside-down on the top, like this. 72 00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:50,130 I’m just going to pin the two together… 73 00:04:50,130 --> 00:04:55,760 And it needs to get sewn on, all the way around. Where the two ends meet up, they’ll also 74 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:58,830 need to be sewn together like this. 75 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:02,900 Yay, pretty! 76 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:08,340 Now, back to the collar, I’m placing each pair right-sides together, and sewing them 77 00:05:08,340 --> 00:05:10,180 together like this. 78 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:15,160 I clipped off the corners and the edges here to make the corners look neater, and then 79 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:20,180 I turn both these collar-tube-pieces the right way around. I use scissors to help me to get 80 00:05:20,210 --> 00:05:22,220 those corners nice and crisp. 81 00:05:22,220 --> 00:05:27,320 Then, I have a look at the original dress to see exactly how the collar is attached, 82 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:31,340 which is like this – it's actually sewn onto the inside of the dress. The triangle 83 00:05:31,340 --> 00:05:35,480 also seems to get stitched into this at the same time. So I insert the triangle where 84 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:39,370 I want it to sit. Then, after I check out the placement of the collar pieces on the 85 00:05:39,370 --> 00:05:45,770 front, I flip them over to the back of the fabric, and I sew the three pieces together 86 00:05:45,770 --> 00:05:47,810 all of the way around the collar. 87 00:05:51,620 --> 00:05:56,840 I end up with this, and to finish this off I sew these two ends together. 88 00:05:56,840 --> 00:06:03,650 To add cuffs, I cut out a rectangle of stretchy fabric that’s just a bit smaller than the 89 00:06:03,650 --> 00:06:05,570 circumference of the sleeve opening. 90 00:06:05,570 --> 00:06:09,450 I sew this into a loop, then I fold it in half lengthways, and I place it around the 91 00:06:09,450 --> 00:06:14,000 top of the sleeve, so that the raw edges are all matching, and then I sew them together like this. 92 00:06:14,500 --> 00:06:20,830 And the last thing I do is to hem the bottom of the dress, simply by folding the bottom 93 00:06:20,830 --> 00:06:24,120 edge up into the dress 1 inch and sewing across. 94 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:26,980 And that’s how I copied this dress. 95 00:06:26,980 --> 00:06:28,300 So - let’s compare the two! 96 00:06:28,300 --> 00:06:32,030 [music plays] 97 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:50,870 So that's it! That’s how I reverse-engineered a pattern and made a copy of a dress! 98 00:06:50,870 --> 00:06:55,230 So they're basically the same - there's some minor differences in that I sewed the triangle 99 00:06:55,230 --> 00:07:00,150 section a bit too far down, but because this was the trickiest part of this project, I 100 00:07:00,150 --> 00:07:03,550 really didn't want to redo it, and I think it looks fine so I'm going to leave it as-is. 101 00:07:03,550 --> 00:07:06,760 The back of the collar could also look a bit neater, but that's something I can improve 102 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:07,480 on next time. 103 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:10,570 [Now go forth and duplicate your own favourite dresses, in all different fabrics!] 104 00:07:10,570 --> 00:07:15,120 I hope this video was helpful -- if you try it out then don't forget to tag me on instagram 105 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:19,120 so I can see your results - just tag it with #diyannika. Give this video a thumbs up if 106 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:21,660 you enjoyed it and I'll see you all next time. Bye!