A friend of mine knows someone who sews "Knock offs" - Dresses that look just like those worn at the Oscars made by designers. The trick is Aluminum Foil! Yes! .. Plain old tin-foil!
I tried it and it works great! On a flat surface (like your kitchen table), lay out the garment you wish to copy, then simply take a piece of the foil and lay it over the part of the dress you want to copy, then take a soft cloth and rub it gently against the foil until you see where the seams are. Then cut out the piece of foil, then trace the foil on to a piece of paper, adding your seam allowances. Do this to each section of the dress and in no time you'll have all the pattern pieces to make any garment!
As far as the sewing directions? Well, you'll just have to figure THAT out for yourselves! Patterns cost WAY to much these days! So I've taken some of my favorite pieces of clothing and made my OWN patterns from them! I only make simple things like jackets without darts or collars or simple vests, but if you're an advanced seamstress, you could sew practically anything by using tin-foil to make your patterns! I'm sure you could make patterns for lampshades and many other crafts, even wood working, by using foil to copy your patterns
But, use care when rubbing foil over light colored fabrics, as you don't want to transfer the foil on to your fabric!
What I meant by the last sentience: "But, use care when rubbing foil over light colored fabrics, as you don't want to transfer the foil on to your fabric" was that the aluminum from the foil (that gray color) could actually "stain" your garment if your garment is a light shade. Example: Have you ever lined a light colored bowl with foil, put food in it, then scraped the sides with a fork or other utensil? Well, if you have, you'll know that sometimes the foil will "transfer" a mark or a line (from the fork) on to the bowl... So rub softly & put the SHINY (not the dull) side of the foil next to the fabric... Of course, If the garment your making the pattern from is Navy, Black or a dark color, don't worry... But if it's white or light pink use a light hand... But remember, you're doing this on the BACK side of the garment anyway (so you can trace the seams)... SO you'll not have to worry about it very much anyway unless your garment is silk, transparent or of a super light weight, because even if you DO get foil on your garment, it'll be on the wrong side anyway...
* But not to worry, I doubt very much if you'll ever have this problem anyway, I was just trying to be on the safe side!
This is good advice. I have an old summer shirt I love and have been meaning to try to make the pattern for it myself so that I can reproduce it. Thank you very much!
Thanks! I just ordered a blouse that I liked and took it 1/2 apart to copy a pattern off and then sewed it back together. Wish I had known that last week. Will try it the next time.
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A friend of mine knows someone who sews "Knock offs" - Dresses that look just like those worn at the Oscars made by designers. The trick is Aluminum Foil! Yes! .. Plain old tin-foil!
