Regardless of what size pattern you buy for your plus size/overweight child, there are always changes that need to be made. Sometimes a single change will do it, and other times there may be 2, 3, 4 changes necessary before the store bought pattern will actually fit the plus size child. We are starting a series of alterations to patterns that may be needed in order to get the fit you want for your plus size child.
The first clothing garment we will work on will be the skirt. Many of the overweight children have a large protruding stomach, so we’ll start with that issue.
LARGE ABDOMEN (stomach) – the skirt will be too short and will ride up in the front. Draw a horizontal line across the fullest part of the abdomen on the pattern as indicated. Cut the line beginning at the center front and cut to within 1/2″ from the side seam. Separate the pieces the necessary amount and tape in place, as shown. Redraw the center front line, as indicated with dashed lines, from the bottom to the top, keeping the original line straight. This correction will make the waist larger so you will have to make the “fullness” into a small amount of gathers, which would give a little extra fullness for the large tummy.
A. WAIST/HIP – check your child’s waist and hip measurements and compare them to the measurements on the pattern. If the amount of change is the same for both, make the necessary change at the center front and center back lines. draw in the new skirt lines as shown with dashed lines.
B. LARGE WAIST – To make just the waist larger, extend the front and back waist line each 1/4 of the total necessary amount. Draw in the new waist to hipline curve as shown with dashed lines.
These alterations to store bought patterns is an excerpt from the book “Altering Store Bought Patterns For Plus Size Children”. Additional pattern making classes (for boys and girls) and full size clothing patterns for plus size children can be seen at Sew With Sarah.com (pdf/downloadable patterns in “sewing patterns”) and PlusSizeChildren.com for patterns already printed and ready to mail out. If you have a lot of plus size children in your area, you might want to consider going into a business sewing for them – check our our Sewing For Plus Size Children As A Home Business manual.
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