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X Factor Top and Dress Easy Hacks

July 28, 2020


 

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Mini or Peplum options


First easy hack that we waned to show you is how to shorten the X Factor dress to a peplum top or mini dress. For my example I decided to make a running dress with a mini skirt. I used swim fabric for this cute green dress.

You will start by grabbing the skirt pattern and marking your new cut lines, one for peplum and one for mini skirt. I used the Sweetheart dress skirt as my guide since that one includes all 3 option. The Sweetheart skirt is a full circle while the X Factor one is a half circle. Lay the X Factor pattern piece on top of the Sweetheart pattern matching the bottom edge. 


Mark the new cutting line starting with the “fold” edge. Using a French curve, or if you have a steady arm, just your hand, draw the two new curves. Make sure that you keep a constant distance from the bottom edge on both sides of the pattern. If you do not have the Sweetheart dress pattern you can measure 5″ up from the bottom for the Mini or 10.25″ up for the Peplum option. 


Once you created your new pattern piece, cut your fabric and sew the dress a instructed in the tutorial. I skipped hemming my swim skirt so mine final mini look is 1″ longer than intended. Your dress, your call! 😉


 

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Tie Back

Crop tops are back in a big way and the X Factor Crop is such a standout! It will take you from the gym to date night (if you’re not too sweaty, of course!)… there aren’t many garments that can do that!

The Patterns for Pirates team always loves to give you even more options. I’m so excited to share with you a tie-back hack for the X Factor! And, it really couldn’t be simpler.

Assemble and cut your preferred pattern pieces. For this make, I chose the cropped tank.

Modifications are so simple!

You will square up the cross-over pieces of the Front Bodice…


And cut 2 of the Back Band pieces (on the fold).

Assemble the top per the pattern instructions, stopping at the step for attaching the Back Band.

From here, you’ll attach your two band pieces, one to each end of the bodice cross-over.

At this step, I serged all of my edges. That is a matter of preference! You can leave them raw if you prefer.

Finally, finish all edges with a narrow hem.

Throw your top on, tie it up, and get ready to turn heads… no matter where you are! You can even experiment with tying and wrapping your top in different ways.

You’ve got the X Factor!!

  

 

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Separates


We couldn’t let this Easy Hacks series end without a separates option, especially since the top is already a stand alone pattern. So for the separated you just need to finish the skirt waist without attaching it to the top. You can do that in various ways. I opted for a simple waistband. I cut 2 of the back band pieces. After pressing them wrong sides together, open them back up and sew the two ends RST to create a loop. 


If your waistband piece has excellent recovery and stretch you can continue marking the quarter points. If you’re not sure, I would add 1-1.5″ wide elastic in the waistband to make sure it stays on throughout the day. 


Mark the skirt quarter point and pin the waistband to it matching said points. Attach the waistband using your favorite stretch stitch. All done. You just created a half circle skirt that pairs beautifully with the X Factor Crop top and not only. 


 

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Nursing friendly  

 

Last but certainly not least Djem is showing us how to modify the X Factor dress to make it nursing friendly. 


 
Prep the front bodice, add lightweight interfacing to the triangle notches. Complete the bodice per tutorial. 

Add elastic to the top of the front skirt using a zigzag stitch. Measure the top of the front skirt and multiply by 90% to get the elastic measurement. I found 1/2” and 3/8” wide elastic to work nicely. Optionally, serge the top of the skirt, without cutting anything off, to have a nicer finish. Continue with the tutorial for the pockets and sewing the skirt side seams. 
 

  Now the fun part! When attaching the skirt to the bodice, drop the front of the skirt at the side seams. 
 

 Find the center of the front skirt and mark. Sew the triangle notches on the bodice together with a stretch stitch. Pin or clip the bodice notches with the center of the front skirt. 

 Tack the bodice notches and skirt together. Keep your tack on the elastic. 

Voilà! 
Processed with Focos
Processed with Focos

Filed Under: Frequently Asked Questions, Pattern Hacks, Pattern Release, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Oversized Sweater :: Easy Hacks

January 23, 2020

It’s here! It’s here! The comfiest, snuggliest, coziest sweater you will ever have. The Oversized Sweater includes so many options for both youth and adult but we couldn’t help ourselves…we wanted more! The P4P blog team is showing you how to make an Off the shoulder sweater, a mini dress, a color blocked one, the cutest pom poms hack ever and a higher side slit one. Enjoy!

 

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Off the shoulder

Off-the-shoulder shirts are my jam. I still remember falling all the way in love with the first one I saw Alex do for the Relaxed Raglan. This Oversized Sweater is the PERFECT top to hack into your favorite Pinteresty slouchy off-the-shoulder sweater. And it’s pretty easy! Grab your fabric and pattern pieces–let’s get started!

Layer your front, back and sleeve pieces on top of each other.

Measure down 1/2 inch.

Draw a line. This is going to be your new cut line.

Cut out your pieces.

**Tip: Place a clip on the front of the sweater to differentiate your pieces.

Sew your sleeves on first. They aren’t going to be sewn all the way up so remember that. You’re going to sew them on similarly to how raglan sleeves are done. They’ll look like this:

Once the sleeves have been attached to both the front and back pieces, it’ll look like this.

Cut a neckband 3 inches in width by 85% of your measurement of your shoulders (with shoulders down, measure around your body). Add the neckband.

Finish assembly as instructed in the tutorial and then rock the hell out of it!

I’m wearing a hachi sweater knit in a straight P1 with a curved hem.



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Mini dress

Next up, we have a mini dress hack. I love anything that I can wear that’s comfy, but that’s also really sexy, and this mini dress hack fits the bill perfectly.

For this version, we’ll be using the high-low hem option of the sweater.  Because the bottom of both the front and back pieces of the bodice are straight, it’s very easy to simply add length to the bottom of these to lengthen your sweater into a dress. How much length you add to the bottom of your pattern pieces is completely up to you, but I found that 4 inches was perfect for the “mini” look I was going for.

When cutting out both the front and back pieces of your sweater, simply add 4 inches to the length at the bottom of each. Please note that the high-low bands were not changed at all for this hack; only the length of the main body pieces have been altered.

Cut and sew together the rest of the sweater as described in the tutorial, and voila! You now have a cute and very trendy mini dress, ready to go!

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Poms

If you’re anything like me you might have an addiction to Faux Fur Poms especially on the littles! They are just so cute! I’m going to show you a quick and easy way to substitute the ears for Poms! You’ll sew your hood together exactly the same as all of the instructions but before sewing the hood I recommend marking your ear placements slightly past the seam allowance in a washable pen that way you know where to place your poms. Then I highly recommend adding interfacing where your poms will be for added durability especially if using a pom with snaps.

 

Now if you have a sew on pom you’ll sew it right along the markings you made for the ears. I recommend going directly through the seam allowance, once again for added durability.

 

If you are using a pom with snaps (which I recommend for washing purposes as well as pom changing fun!), push your seam allowance toward the back of the hood and attach your snap through your interfacing and the seam allowance.

and wallah! You are done and now have super cute pom ears!

 

Happy Sewing,

Michelle

 

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Colorblocked

I am all in anytime that I have a chance to sport some spirit gear for our local team (Go Grizzlies!). Awhile ago, I was doing some aimless browsing and came across a colorblocked sweatshirt that was absolutely perfect. Of course they didn’t have our team colors, but the oversized sweater was the perfect starting point to recreating this sporty look.

To begin, you will want to divide the front and back bodice pieces, as well as the sleeve, into the sections. For mine, I began with the front bodice piece. I measured 5″ down from the neckline and placed a vertical line. I then measured 6″ below that to create my second color block. The remaining section will be for my third color block.  For the back bodice, I lined up the bottom hemline of both front and back piece, and transferred my lines to this piece as well.

To create the colorblocked sleeve, I began by aligning to top of the sleeve with the front bodice neckline and again, transferring these lines.

Once the lines are drawn, you will then need to cut your pieces on these lines (you can also fold your pattern on each of these lines if you’d rather not cut your original). To cut the fabric, you will need to add an additional 1/2″ to each line you drew, both to the top and bottom colorblocked sections of this line, to account for the seam allowance.

Now that you’ve cut out your pieces (phew, wasn’t that fun?! haha), you will begin to reassemble the bodices and sleeves. With right sides together, match up each colorblock section and sew using a 1/2″ SA.

Once your pieces have been sewn together, you will then follow the original tutorial to construct your sweatshirt.  And just like that, you’re now ready to show off your favorite colors, prints, or school spirit all in one fun, colorblocked sweater!

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Higher side split

Let’s end this easy hacks series with a Pinterest inspired hack. One of the testers shared a picture of a high side slit oversized sweater and I knew I just have to have one. This is super easy look to achieve!

I chose to make the slit 5″ but that is just a mild suggestion. You can certainly make it bigger (or smaller) if you’d like. Mark 5″ up from the bottom raw edge on all 4 side seams. You can use pins, clips or a tailor chalk.

Sew the pattern as instructed in the tutorial but stop the at the 5″ mark. You may find this step easier to be done if you sew (at least the last few inches) with a sewing machine. Repeat the steps on the other side.

Press a 1/2″ hem on both sides of the side seam. Stitch the hem down with a zig zag stitch, twin needles or a coverstitch.


Continue adding the front and back bands ad in the tutorial. See that was super easy!

I did the hack on my turtleneck version but it would be super cute on all neckline.

Tip: If you would like to make the high side seam on the curved hem option you would have to sew the side seams the same way you do the high low option. 


 

Hope you enjoyed these as much as we loved making them for you. As always, don’t forget to show off your creations in the P4P Facebook group or Instagram (use #patternsforpirates) so we can ohhh and ahhh over them!

Filed Under: Pattern Hacks, Pattern Release, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

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