Adjusting Clothes

I had no sewing experience at all but wanted to learn so I could adjust my daughters clothing. I found a sewing teacher that offered a basic class, bought a machine and was off...I do not claim to have beautifully adjusted clothes but they are good enough.

(Also see good info from another mom on how to alter clothing:
http://conni60640-ivil.tripod.com/id26.html )


Underwear:

• Buy a size bigger than they wear,
• Cut or rip the shorter legs side seam out,
• Re-sew the now separated sides, and
• Add snaps- most time consuming part of the process (or Velcro)
• Make sure the "pokey" part of the snap is away from the skin.

Swimsuits:

• I bought Tankini swim suits and adjusted the bottom portion just like I did the underwear above.

• I purchased the swimsuits from Lands End because you can order a regular size top and a larger bottom to allow for the adjustments.
• I just hand sewed the swim suit adjustments.

Pajamas:

Since I have a daughter, she could certainly sleep in nightgowns, or even big t-shirts but I am trying to keep what we can keep "normal", normal so I adjusted the same style she wore prior to the procedure.

• Buy a size larger than they wear.

• Cur the pajama leg to right above wear the fixator will go.

• Then pin near the side of the leg and cut the pajamas open. If there is a seam, rip open the side.

• I didn't have a seam so I made a cross stitch in hopes to prevent raveling,

Re-sew the now separated sides,

Hem the pants, and

• Add Velcro (or snaps). Read the labels closely of all sewing supplies to make sure you are buying the specific item you were looking for- it is easy to grab the wrong item. The instruction for the Velcro are pretty good. The main thing to watch out for is to put the hard scratchy Velcro facing away from the skin. Cut the length of the Velcro, pin it in place and sew it in.

Shorts for Physical Therapy:

• I adjusted shorts just like I did the pajamas above. 
• I didn't have to cut the shorter leg of course since they are shorts and therefore there was no hemming involved.
• I just cut the seam, cross stitched the sides to prevent unravelling, and sewed in the Velcro

Skirts:

Since I have a daughter she could easily wear dresses but another mother said her daughter's grandmother's made her daughter long skirts to wear. They provided dignity and helped keep the pin sites clean. My daughter liked wearing skirts and since I am trying to keep what I can similar I made her long skirts.

• Since I am a beginner I found an easy pattern at Joann Fabric:

• I had made the skirt true to the pattern before so I just had her put that skirt on and measured from the end of the skirt down to her ankle on her long leg, then I added the additional 8 in. to the bottom of the pattern.

• I found out at our last doctor appt. that the fixator she will have will be approx. 6 inches in diameter so I added 3 in. to the front and back material for the fixator, and another 2 in. to the front and back of the material to account for the snaps I would add to the one side. So I added a total of 5 inches to the width of the pattern.

• I cut the material out with the longer length and width I had added with a ruler, and marked with the blue tailors chalk.
• Then I followed the instructions on the pattern for the side that would be sewed like normal: pin the "wrong" sides of the pattern together, sew a 5/8 seam, and iron the seam.

• I sewed the sides of the skirt that would be opened by ironing, and then sewing.

• I then followed the pattern instructions on how to sew the waist casing for the elastic (iron, sew CLOSE TO THE EDGE to make sure there is enough room to slide the elastic through - learn from me!), pulled the elastic through with a safety pin and sewed the ends 3 times to hopefully secure the elastic in place. Typically you sew a complete circle but you can't do that when wearing an external fixator.
• I struggled with how to account for her tiny waist and the wider 5 inches for the fixator and snaps. Adding the additional 5 inches to her waist worked fine since it was an elastic waist. There are just more gathers than would normally be. (This was a much better plan than the first skirt where I tried to keep the waist normal then angle out to the additional 5 inches where it needed to be wider.) This assumes the extra gathers don't bug her.

•  Then I hemmed the ends (iron and sew) and am done until I have time to go back and add the snaps...

 

Close up of "finished" product- still need to sew snaps

Full view of the finished skirt less the snaps...