The thing about a paper pattern is that, even though its a little costly, it can be used again and again. The problem with that? If you make something over and over you end up with many garments that look alike. If you enjoy sewing shirts, dresses and other garments for your daughter or other little girl in your life you can use one pattern to make zillions of different outfits! All you need to do is learn how to make assorted embellishments. That way, each thing you make looks completely different! An outfit can look much different than another just by the pockets it has. You can cut squares, fold down all the sides, and sew it on like a regular pocket on a t-shirt - but much smaller. Or, you can make the pockets like weve all seen which have the point at the bottom. But, if you make other pockets, the next outfit you make will have a completely different look. Try making pockets shaped like hearts, for example. Look in coloring books and similar things for an animal shape that might work as a pocket. Its fun to find uniquely-shaped things and use them as patterns for pockets.
Use wide ribbon and you can make gorgeous bows in seconds. Cut a length of the ribbon, scrunch it together in the middle, then tie a piece of thread tightly around it. Use a few machine or hand stitches to tack the bow to the dress, shirt or other garment. Make just one large bow and add it to the neckline of a garment or make many tiny bows and attach them, here and there, on the outfit. Cut the ends straight for one look, with pinking shears for a different appearance, or cut them at a point on the ends to create yet another design.
You can quickly create designs on outfits when you use buttons and fabric paint. Apply a small mound of paint to one area then push the button into the paint until the paint oozes through the holes in the button as well as out from around the button. Using glitter paint, pearl types and other fabric paints you can use this technique to make flowers, letters, words and numbers or other images. Take a t-shirt and find the center line down the front. Make tiny dots with a pen on each side of the top of the line. Go down a couple of inches and make a dot on each side of the line again. Do this several times to straddle the line, all the way down the front, with dots. Cut a small hole at each dot. Now cut rectangles of cloth with pinking shears and use the pieces to embellish the shirt. Slide one end of the fabric through both holes then tie the material in one knot. With this technique you can change the look of the shirt in a couple of minutes simply by cutting more squares and trading them out for the existing ones. With the above shirt you have many other options. Instead of fabric pieces you can thread strips of leather, braided yarn or other materials through the holes. The strips, if they hang long, create a fringe effect down the front of the shirt. Its easy to change the look of an ordinary tank top or sleeveless shirt or dress, too. Tie a bow onto each strap, right where the front of the strap turns into the shirt, and the outfit will instantly look different. Tie long leather or other cords to it and you create another design entirely. Narrow lace, often used as trim for shirts and dresses, can be used in several ways to make an outfit look different than the pattern intended. Gather the lace and you create a frilly look around the collar, a pocket, wrist bands and hemlines. Sew the lace on flat and smooth, though, and you create a finished look thats tasteful and easy to accomplish. Use lace the same color as the garment to get one effect; lace of a different color to create another look for the garment. You dont need a whole bunch of patterns to keep that little girl looking nice. You just need to use more embellishments! And theyre much cheaper than patterns - especially when you make the embellishments yourself!
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