Tailoring: Simple Stripe Seam Match-Up

I covered this topic in a previous post, but anyways, here it is again!

I bought this green sweater at the thrift store. I love the colors, but it was a bit big across the bust. No problem. Usually, I try a shirt/sweater on, look in a mirror, and pinch around the excess to see how much I need to take something in. I did that for this sweater, however, I needed to do an extra step if I wanted the stripes to match up.

Okay, this really only works if the garment you are tailoring has stripes that ALREADY match up, or almost match up, at the seams. If the stripes are way off to begin with, trying to force them to match up will result in a bunched up mess.

Also, I know I usually tailor things around the armpit: the sleeve and the bust area. That's how I'm built. This may not be where you need to tailor. Maybe you have smaller hips and a larger bust. So for you, you would pin around the hip area. Same principle, just a different area. You can do this anywhere you need to.

So here is how you do it. First put a pin at the edge of the stripe from the top layer down into the bottom layer.

Now, lift up the seam and see if the pin is sticking through the edge of the stripe on the other side. This one magically was, so I didn't need to adjust anything.

Then, with the seam lifted, stick the pin back into the bottom layer and through to the top following the same stripe, like this.

Now flip the seam back down and. . .See?! A problem! See how the pin is coming up through the stripe instead of at the edge of the stripe? How to fix: Pick up JUST the top layer off the point of the pin. . .

And gently adjust it so that the pin is now sticking through at the edge of the stripe.

Here are a series of pins from the top. . .

And here are the same pins from the other side. They all match up perfectly from both sides.

Then, sew over the pins. Don't pull them out until you actually sew over each pin. Keep those stripes held in place until the last possible second!

Ta da! You can see a slight discrepancy near the armpit, but. . .who's gonna look that close? Only a very creepy weirdo with no life. 

Looks good enough in my book! You're done. Now, go work on your next project!

The End!

How to Fix: When Stripes Don't Match Up on a Garment

I bought this crazy dress at Rosewholesale.com...which you can find here if you like it as much as I did. 

However, this site is from China and it takes a while to get your merchandise...Also, because they are mass-made, you get little problems like this one. (Notice that the right-hand side dart stripes don't match up.)

Also, if you look along the bottom of the stripes, you will see that the bottom black stripe is kinda wonky as well. No matter. We can fix both problems!

First, take out the seam along the bottom of the stripes. . .

Then, take out the dart in question.

Okay, in order for the stripes to match up, fold the fabric and then pin the stripes. . .

Making sure that they match up from both sides. Then sew up the dart.

Next, I needed to fix the bottom stripe, so I pulled it down enough to make it symmetrical.

There! Both problems solved!

The sleeves were also really large (as in big around), so I tailored those in a bit...which I have ton a billion other times on these posts, so I didn't bore you with how to do that part.

The End!