When my acquaintances find out how much I love to sew, they often say things like, “I have a pair of pants that need to be hemmed,” or “I have a ripped shirt that needs fixed.” But let me just say that sewing and mending are two different things…

Sewing is a creative endeavor; mending is not. It’s more like housework! Mending is when a sewist stitches something back together, patches a hole, or repairs a garment in some way. Without the creative element, these kinds of projects are a lot less fun.

However, even those of us who love to sew creatively must repair or alter a garment from time to time. So recently, when I bought some new pants that were just a wee bit too long for me, I took the time to put together a very short tutorial, showing all of my friends and acquaintances my technique for hemming pants.

Now, whenever someone suggests that because I love sewing, I ought to hem their pants, I’ll give them my business card and say, “I have a great tutorial for that on YouTube.” That way they can do their own hemming! 😉

Additional Information:

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My Gallery Page is the easiest way to search through all of my patterns to find what you want. Each image on the Gallery Page takes you to links for patterns and tutorials.

Need help printing my patterns? This link offers a tutorial showing you how to download and print my FREE patterns using Google Docs. (For the older print-a-pattern tutorial, which uses Microsoft Word, click here.) To review my difficulty scale (demonstrating how hard or easy a pattern is by the number of flowers displayed), take a look back at this blog post.

Please note: you must enlarge my patterns to fit a full-sized piece of American computer paper (8.5 x 11 inches or 216 x 279 mm) without margins, before printing. These designs use a scant 1/4 inch seam (4 mm to be exact).

If you’re wondering why I make patterns and videos without charging a fee, please visit the “Chelly’s Books” page, and that should explain my general motivations. My patterns are now available through “Creative Commons Attribution.” This means that I created my patterns (and therefore I own rights to them), but I’m willing to share them with everyone who will tell people about my website.

Here are some helpful ways to tell the world about my patterns:

• You can pin them on Pinterest.
• You can like them on Facebook.
• You can tweet about them.
• Use any other form of social media that appeals to you!

Are you new to sewing? I’ve got a playlist of tutorials for the beginning sewists on my YouTube channel. It includes video tutorials showing you how to do a basic straight stitch when sewing by hand, how to use the whipstitch to hem a garment, how to sew on snaps, and even how to design your own doll clothes patterns, for those who are new to design and alterations.

In case you haven’t heard, I have actually designed some commercial patterns for Lammily LLC. They have some new dolls in their line, including a new male doll, so you might want to visit the Lammily website to see what they’ve got going on.

If your question wasn’t answered here, feel free to submit a question. I’m always happy to help my followers find what they need, so they, too, can make amazing doll clothes and crafts!