Sewing Business Blog

Girls Size 16 Plus Patterns Won’t Fit 9 Year Olds! Get The Right Fit!

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My friend has a 9 year old daughter who has a 36″ chest, 34″ tummy and 38″ hips.  Buying pre-made clothes for her is impossible since a skirt that fits in the waist has a length that goes past the feet, and long sleeves hang several inches below her fingers in order to get a size that fits in the chest and shoulders.  My friend decided to try making some clothes, only to find similar problems with patterns.  Thinking the new “plus” sizes would fit, she was disappointed to find that, while a 16 Plus would fit the chest, the “waistline” hung about 2-3 inches below her waist, the skirt length was way too long, the neck and armholes were much too large and the shoulder width fell way off the shoulder.  After all, the measurements used in the store-bought patterns are for a “chubby” 16 year old, they’re not designed for an extra chubby/overweight 9 year old.

The solution to altering store bought patterns for overweight children and plus size children is to learn how to do “spot” altering on the patterns.  “Spot” alterations, as shown in our “how to alter patterns for overweight children” tutorial series covers main problem areas such as large abdomen, larger than normal waistline and large chest and upper arms.

The “spot” alteration tutorial series are an excerpt from the book, “Altering Store Bought Patterns For Hard To Fit Children”.  This book contains 70 pages and covers the alteration process for nearly any garment you want to make for boys and girls.  Each alteration process is complete with step by step instructions and diagrams.

Send this information along to any friends or relatives you know that also have problems fitting plus size children and overweight children, or check out our “Sewing For Plus Size Children as a Home Business” if you’d like to get into a hot market for seamstresses!

 

How To Alter Skirt Patterns For Plus Size/Overweight Children

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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.

 

Finding Christmas Clothes for Plus Size Children

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We’ve be overwhelmed with requests for our Altering Store Bought Patterns For Plus Size Children — mothers and grandmothers are writing to say “The Christmas program is fast approaching and I simply can’t find anything suitable for my overweight daughter / granddaughter to wear!”  Another grandmother purchased the Altering Patterns class and said:  “I have a granddaughte who is autistic and her measurements fit no one’s chart due to sensory and eating issues.  Violin recital coming up fast.  Thanks so much for offering this class!”

It appears that there are many beautiful dresses out there as well as little suits for the boys, but almost nothing for the plus size and overweight children.  There is still time to get a pattern that’s “close” to the overweight childs’ measurements and do the proper alterations on it, as written in our Altering Patterns for Plus Size Boys and Girls class  so they also can have the beautiful garments for the Christmas Season.

And for those of you who want to expand on your sewing abilities and actually be able to MAKE the patterns according to the measurements of your plus size and overweight children and grandchildren so that all their garments will fit properly, check out the variety of pattern making classes we have for children at PatternsThatFitYou. 

As a grandmother myself with an overweight grandchild, the pattern making and pattern altering classes were the ONLY way we got clothes to fit that child.