[Free Download] And, cut (your pattern out)!

I'm also pleased to introduce my husband Zac who wants to learn to sew (he's got big dreams of making his own camping gear).  He offered to be my guinea pig and model for this project, and he's just as excited as you are!  :)  So here we go! 

You'll need:

• a tshirt (any size will do; ours was a child's large)
• 2/3 yard of fabric (either 45" or 60" wide) if your tshirt is less than 18" wide.  If your tshirt is wider than 18", you'll want 3/4 yard. We're using two different pieces, since we had some scraps lying about.   You could also use clothing, but part of today's lesson will be cutting on grain.
• Some newspaper if you're making your own pattern (I explain the measurements you'll need below), or you can download the pattern I used here- you'll need to tape it together and adjust it for the width of your tshirt.  Don't worry, it explains how to.  :)
• A measuring tape or ruler or both
• Scissors
• A marker or pen
• Fabric/sharp scissors (nothing dulls scissors faster than paper, so my fabric scissors are used for nothing but fabric.  It's one of our house's cardinal rules.  Seriously.  Don't cut paper with my fabric scissors.  You will pay.  :))
• Pins

Step 1:  Measure the width of your tshirt.

  Ours is 15.75" wide, and the pattern download is made for a shirt that's 15.75" wide.

You can either make your own newspaper patterns like I did, or print out a copy of my pattern, and follow the instructions therein to make the adjustments you'll need. Either way, you'll rock it:  if you have a straight edge ruler and a calculator (or super fast arithmetic brain :)) I say go for making them yourself. Otherwise, kick butt on taping those 8.5"x11s" together, and then follow the instructions to make adjustments for whatever size shirt you have.  One note:  if you use the pattern download, it has notches (peek back at our pattern markings glossary if you need a refresher) and you'll have a chance to practice matching them. :)  When you cut your pattern pieces out, go around them. Make little triangles sticking out of the fabric, just like they look like :)

 

Step 3:  Pre-wash, dry and iron your fabric (if you haven't already).  It's best to always iron your fabric before cutting something out.  Exceptions are if you are using fabric that can't be pre-washed (like if the care instructions are dry clean only); then you might not need to.

Step 4:  Cut the hem off your tshirt!  Here we go (top 2 photos)!

Next cut off the torso of the tshirt just below the armpits.  Use your straight edge and draw a line from armpit to armpit right on the shirt if you don't have nice lines to follow like we did :)  You've got your bag middle!

Step 5:  Lay your fabric out folded in half with the selvages together. 

Try to get the selvages perfectly match for the entire length of your fabric. Smooth the fabric out so that it's not lumpy. If your fabric is lumpy near the fold, it might've been cut off grain, and you can check out the video from last week for tips on how to straighten it out.

Remember what the selvage looks like? It's the edge that's a bit more tightly woven, and perpendicular to where they cut the fabric at the fabric store.

Step 6: Now we'll start positioning pattern pieces on the fabric; we'll mimic the diagram provided in the pattern (also below. Note that two different sizes are shown in the layout diagram below, click to enlarge.) For part of the cutting you'll have the fabric folded in half, and for the last piece, you'll have the fabric laid out so that it's only one layer thick.  Remember that the grainline on each of your pattern pieces should be parallel to the selvage. Whew! It's not as complicated as it sounds, I promise!

Step 7:  (The next couple steps are interchangeable- I'm just going to pick a pattern piece and start with it :)) 

Put the edge of the bag top band piece (pattern piece number 2) on the fold.

Pin each corner down, and smooth the pattern piece to the other two corners. Pin those corners down, then go back and pin the middle of the piece. 

Use pins every couple of inches- you want to make sure that the fabric doesn't slip around while you're cutting the piece out. 

But don't cut yet- let's get the other pattern piece pinned down first.

Step 10: Lay out the bag bottom panel (pattern piece 1) We only need one of this piece, so we can unfold our fabric, and although we might have just made the selvages disappear when we cut out the other fabric pieces, those pieces were cut on grain, right? And since the pattern pieces were straight lines, we can use them to measure the grainline from for this piece. Make sense?