How do you make your own clothing?

Hi all im new here so this is my first post. I dont know if this has been asked befor if it has sorry for double posting. or if ive posted in the right place?

I have recently got a Male Jiaou figure and will be hopfull getting more for creating some custom character that I have created im my game The SIMS lol Dont ask me why but i thought it would be cool to actuly have some figures based on them.

Im a keen model maker so wanted to try my hand at making some of the clothing my self as lets face it a lot on offer isnt cheap. Basic stuff is fine i can buy but a lot of my characters ware Branded clothing with logos etc. My biggest problen is finding patters that will look ok and fit the body. ive already made some underwear and that turned out ok but now I want to make some T shirts. I got a few patterns I thought i could modify that would work but they just dont. Or look stupid lol Is there anyone here that makes there own clothing that could give me some tips and advice?  Or know were i can get patterns that would work just basic stuff like T shirts and jeans to get me going. my other option is to try and make patterns from some clothing but at mo i dont have any to use as a guide so a bit stuck realy. My first character is an army guy of sorts and wares a string mesh T shirt I have got the netting fabric to make it but no idea how to turn it in to a T shirt
Anyways hello to all.
Best wishes
Steve ;-)

Anyways

Welcome aboard, Steve. I wish I could help, but I’ve never tried to make modern wear, myself. Too lazy. There are T-shirts available on eBay, and other similar places — unless you are looking for specific types. Hopefully someone like Lynkhart can chime in on making modern clothes.

Stryker2011 wrote:Welcome aboard, Steve.

Thanks for the welcome.
Ive just managed to make his white string T shirt, god its was fiddily and had to hand sew it as its netting fabric but it looks ok. So my soldier is getting there just waiting for his tacktical waist coat and army trousers in the mail from china but probly wont get here till the new year. Then he will be finished...for now lol
I just find it odd that there isnt anything out there on the wide web for making clothing for the 1/6 scale figures. But yes there are T shirts on ebay and when i need some plain ones i will no doubt buy them then see if i can get a  pattern from them. Also waiting for a vest and jeans so hopfully i can get patterns from them too but will see.
best wishes
Steve

Steve, I'd imagine it is difficult enough to get these just right in 1:1, never mind 1:6. Patterns are helpful, whether designed for real life or a smaller scale (you can always re-scale them), and there are plenty available, but not for everything; then there is the struggle to make it work... I'm glad you managed to get the mesh shirt done; there are some of these out there, but not many, and I don't know at what price, not to mention whether or not the look would work for your character. We have some threads on the site that focus on clothing, but not to much that would help with modern clothing, I think.

I just got a new sewing machine as an early Christmas present [my old one didn't make it through the last house move], so I'll probably be trying to track down some more patterns here soon. Though my area of interest in customizing is more sci-fi/fantasy atm, not to mention mainly centered around creating female characters, so perhaps won't be directly helpful to you. ;p

Re: patterns and other resources -- at times when the resources specifically for action figures are hard to come by, I tend to turn to the doll-customizing world for inspiration. If you search some doll related sites or pinterest boards, you may be able to find some clothing patterns that are adaptable to the more realistic 1/6 proportions.

I personally just resize patterns I look up online and go from there, when I sew stuff which is very rare. That being said I think the biggest problem with sewing in this scale is that a lot of the fabric one can find is often times too thick and thus ends up making the pieces look weird or out of scale.

Does one know how to acquire the elastic smooth thin fabric used on some 1/6 clothes? I first saw that fabric when it came with the Jiaou doll male body (top and pants), the Painkiller Jane top and later those vickysecret overalls. It's quite stretchy, but somehow different from normal cloth fabric I know.

I am not sure which you are talking about -- even from looking at pics I'm unsure. What are the VickySecret overalls?

If you have a fabric store near you, take the pants with you and ask one of the knowledgeable clerks if they can point you in the right direction. JoAnne’s Fabrics here in the States is great that way.

Stryker2011 wrote:If you have a fabric store near you, take the pants with you and ask one of the knowledgeable clerks if they can point you in the right direction. JoAnne’s Fabrics here in the States is great that way.

Yes, that is indeed probably the best way. 

It's best to purchase fabrics in person anyway, since it's so hard to tell things like drape and actual colour from online pics. 

theboobomb makes a great point that one of the difficult things about making 1/6 clothing is choosing fabric that actually works at this scale. Perhaps a reference list of various types of fabrics that work for 1/6 could be useful? 

Here are some off the top of my head: 

- thin cotton and/or stretch jersey fabric 
- suedette [also known by various other names, depending on location] - this is useful because the edges do not need to be hemmed
- thin 1:1 socks can be made into 1/6 sweaters/jumpers. I've even used 1:1 socks for 1/6 'knitted' socks, as well. 
- same with 1:1 tights/stockings
- probably some fake denim/ really thin denim and/or jeggings could be used to make 1/6 jeans
- faux leather/pleather -- though of course proceed with caution, as it is known to stain bodies 
- various types of lace can be used for dresses, gowns, or undergarments
- silk gauze
- silk crinkle chiffon 
- even certain types of ribbon could potentially be used to make female 1/6 clothing
- i've also used 1:1 thin scarf material to make a cloak


That's just a bare handful of suggestions, but the possibilities are endless -- it just depends on what kind of figure one is trying to create. Sometimes you don't need to even go to a fabric store, but can use basic things found in any clothing aisle, or even something you already have that you don't mind cutting to pieces. ;p

I find “super thin” leather (lamb or kangaroo) works great, as well.

skywalkersaga wrote:I am not sure which you are talking about -- even from looking at pics I'm unsure. What are the VickySecret overalls?

I mean the white outfits I used for those mirror yoga people. Your snow Padme is wearing a two-part outfit made of that kind of material.

Ah ok, I thought you might have meant that, but wanted to clarify. I’m thinking that would be a kind of Lycra (elastane), cotton-Lycra knit blend, poly-cotton, or something similar.

I’m not sure exactly what that material is — there are ‘burn tests’ one can do to figure out synthetic vs natural fibres, but given the slightly ribbed quality and stretchiness of that material, my guess would be look at various synthetic (or synthetic blend) stretch knit fabrics.

Welcome to the Herd, Stevieboy. It´s easy to sew shirts and give them a Logo by Yourself with a Paintbrush of a pen.

Nice group shot. Is that a new character, Ephiane?

hi all thank you for the replys im still not having much luck lol T shirts, and underwear ive managed to get workable patterns as I used the T shirt pattern to make the netted white top and that worked ok.
What I realy need is a jeans pattern as I want to make some white 1/6 scale Levie also need to make some lace up side leather pants for my dark angel character im planning I can modify the jeans pattern to make them but realy need a patern thats workable first. I brought a pair of 1/6 scale jeans thinking i could copy the pattern from them but it simply dont work.
Yes another point is finding fabrics that is thin enough to use i mean there would be no way i could make them from reguler denim would be far too thick and would look awfull and out of scale.
but back to my soldier character ive added hair to his head given him a real beard and added tiny stud earings all i need now is the green army trousers and tactical vest to arrive and he will be done....for now lol just need to find a jeans pattern for the next two projects. also need to find some thin black leather type fabric for the dark angel and some thin ish dark brown leather for a gladiator already worked out the pattern for that but need the leather thats not to thick so can make all the outfit from.
Best wishes
Steve ;-)

Ephiane wrote:Welcome to the Herd, Stevieboy. It´s easy to sew shirts and give them a Logo by Yourself with a Paintbrush of a pen.

they look great. I have sort of found a way to make the logos with iron on paper using the dark paper to get the white tiny logos it worked although very fiddily trying to iron them on, so that bits taken care of for now lol But yes paint or pen would work for some things

There’s also printable cloth. If you can work out the size of the image prior to printing, and make sure you place it in the right spot so you still have room to cut your pattern out around it.

Stryker2011 wrote:There’s also printable cloth. If you can work out the size of the image prior to printing, and make sure you place it in the right spot so you still have room to cut your pattern out around it.

Printable fabric? never herd of that were would i get that?
Best wishes
Steve

I’ve found it at craft stores like Michael’s. But you can also find it on Amazon. It comes in 8.5 x 11” sheets, so it’s perfect for any home printer.

Stryker2011 wrote:I’ve found it at craft stores like Michael’s. But you can also find it on Amazon. It comes in 8.5 x 11” sheets, so it’s perfect for any home printer.

What is is called so i can look for it? Or is it just called printable fabric?
Best wishes
Steve

Yep. “printable fabric” will give you plenty of options.

Stryker2011 wrote:Yep. “printable fabric” will give you plenty of options.

Ok cool I will see what I can find Thank you
Dont happen to have a 1/6 jeans pattern as well do you LMAO Its driving me mad i just cant make a workable pattern

Best wishes
Steve ;-)

Sorry, no jeans pattern. Some things are just easier to purchase — but I understand you want white ones. An option you might consider is purchase a pair of 1/6 jeans and either tear them apart to reverse engineer your own pattern (I did that with a pleated mini-skirt), or see if you can’t bleach the crap out of them to make them white.

I’d definitely recommend checking out My Froggy Stuff on Youtube - she makes clothes mainly for Barbies, and now some Integrity dolls, but her tutorials usually include how to make patterns for the doll as part of the process and they’re very easy to follow.

I’ve accumulated lots of tutorials and patterns over the years from various sources - most are for Barbies and the like, but can be altered to suit different brands!


https://pin.it/kucgoaxui7dir6

I’m still relatively new to sewing in general but I’d like to make up some decent patterns for 1/6th scale fics eventually to share with everyone, though I don’t have many figs to work from. XD