BIG WARNING: PICTURE AND TEXT HEAVY. I CURSE ALOT IN THIS I'M SORRY. GOOD LUCK.
So yeah this is my writeup on how I made my sailor uniform from
this post! I documented most of my progress, as the tie didn't get any, but if plenty of people need help with that, I'll write it!
You will need:
- Iron
- Shirt fabric (I used a bottomweight from Joanns, and 1 yard of it, it cost me $5)
- Sew-On snaps
- Bias Tape (or you could use your shirt fabric to make it match like me)
- Skirt/Collar Fabric (You could use Twill, Sateen, Broadcloth. I used Symphony Broadcloth, which is like $3-4/ yard at Joanns, and I think Hancock has this constant sale for like $2/yard?)
- Sewing Machine (or you could hand sew it, if you're a fuckin wizard)
- lots of pins
- Interfacing for the collar
- needle (hand sewing snaps on)
- Determination and resolve of a 5-year veteran of the Recon Corps
- time. fucking time.
So I started working on the skirt first, and you better fucking figure out if you want to do knife pleats or box pleats because amigo you need a game plan.
I made a knife pleated skirt, so what you need to do is measure your waist, and multiply that by three, because pleats are greedy bastards that want your fabric.
cut out three rectangles with your waist measurement + 1/2 inch by how long you want it + and inch for your hem.
Stitch your three pieces together, and I finished it after straight stitching them together with a zig zag stitch.
Hem that long ass-piece of fabric.
Idk how to explain the actual pleating part so uh use the pictures as a reference
Pinch the fabric, in reference to the last pleat. If it's the first one, make a "z" fold, and boom.
Lay that down like so.
IRON THAT DOWN. Seriously, just do that. Knife pleats need to be right godddammit, not wrinkled.
Pin it down!!
Have my fabric pleated!
I zigzagged stitched the top of the pleats just so they would have a little more structure uwu
Box pleating is alot more complicated, but i just pinched the two ends towards the center line.
The waistband is just a reactangle hemmed, and I finished it *obviously* with a zigzag stitch as well.
I sewed the two together,the two finished hems put together as so
I have no idea how to explain the invisible zipper, so here's how it looks!
Finished skirt!
the inside!
**THE SLEEVES***
I altered a pattern, so this is the general shape of my sleeves!
But the sleeve cuffs are the entire part for this uwu
So first cut out your sleeve cuffs as the same length as the bottom of your sleeves by the width of what you want it + 1 inch
Sewsewsewsewsewsew that down, flip it out, and iron it down!
flip it out!
Now this is how I made bias tape.
I used the same fabric I used for my shirt uwu and cut it into strips 2x the width you want.
Fold it and iron it in half.
Open it up, and fold and iron the ends towards the middle.
you're done with that!
Now pin down the bias tape and sew down the edges. to the sleeves cuffs.
sew the sleevecuffs to the sleeve edges.
both the sleeves done!
**THE SHIRT AND COLLAR**
This is the shape of the style collar I made, and I cut two pieces of the shape out, and sewed the outer edge together, and flipped it out, and ironed it down.
EDIT: I used interfacing on my last 3 sailor uniforms, and it supports it alot better!! I used a midweight fusible, so I ironed it down, and just continued the same steps listed above.
I laid the collar on top of the shirt, and cut out the the v-neck. I would cut it out with about 1/2 inch away from the collar.
I'll post the shape of the pattern of the shirt and sleeves later!
I sewed bias tape down
how it looks so far pinned:
I cut notches into theback of the collar as seen here:
I sewed on the sleeves to the shirt at this point, and sewed up the shirt!
I pinned and then sewed the collar to the shirt.
I made the bow, and then the bow holder! I made that the similar say as the sleeve cuffs, and then experimented with the embroidery stitches on my machine as cute detailing. (I have a Simplicity Sew Mate, and the stitches I used were 46 and 48)
I hand sewed snaps on the bow holder, and I was done!
And you're done!
I'll keep adding information to this post when I make more sailor uniforms and pick up more tips!!
Good luck!!
