Sewing for Teen Girls: Patterns, Fitting, & Tips for Success
If you have teenaged daughters, you' know how hard it can be to find dresses for them these days. My girls are pretty tall, so finding anything that’s not way too short has proven almost impossible lately! My older daughter has a classic style in clothing, which proves even harder to find. She asked me to make her a few new dresses and I was so happy to oblige. She chose some patterns and I got to work.
Sewing for teen girls is not super different from sewing for adult women, but I have some tried and true tips to offer, so I’ll focus this post around sewing for teens and recommend some patterns, common adjustments and some other tidbits of advice.
Before I start, let me say, we are also big fans of upcycling and refashioning clothes we already own that have been outgrown. For growing girls, this is a common practice in our house. You can read my post on refashioning clothes for kids and teens or go see the jean jacket refashion we did a few weeks ago, or how we recently turned Natalie’s self made Easter dress into a shirt.
First let me just show you how her new dress turned out! I originally bought Simplicity 9136 for myself, but Natalie spotted it and loved it. It’s a much better style on her than me, for sure. She really liked the fabric on the model too and while I couldn’t find that exact one, I found a blue and white striped rayon on Fabric.com that she liked just as well. Since the fabric was slightly too sheer, I also ordered a plain white cotton batiste for the lining.
I was relieved when she wore the dress the day after I finished it! You never know with teenagers, they could be saying they love it and then never wear it, ha! Thankfully, she really does love it.
Common Adjustments When Sewing For Teen Girls
When I sew for my daughters, I pretty much have to make the opposite adjustments I make when sewing for myself. While I usually need a full bust adjustment and sometimes have to move a bust dart downward when sewing my own garments, for my girls, I do a small bust adjustment and move the bust dart up. This is likely a common adjustment for most teen girls from 12-15-ish of average size. Obviously, girls come in all shapes and sizes, so it’s hard to speak on this topic as everyone’s fitting issues will be different, so I definitely recommend making a muslin! For this dress, I made a muslin of the bodice only, basting it together. From this, we learned I needed to adjust the darts and that she wanted the other sleeve version than she’d originally thought. it’s always worth the time to make a practice run!!
I use thrifted sheets for my muslins. This was a super nice Ralph Lauren one; I might make actual clothes out of it later, haha.
Now, about that small bust adjustment. Bust adjustment are among the most common in garment sewing. When I learned how to do a full bust adjustment, I couldn’t believe how easy it was and it made all my other perceived fit issues totally disappear! I learned to do a small bust adjustment when my girls outgrew children’s patterns and I first started making adult patterns for them.
For learning fitting adjustments, I recommend the book Fit for Real People. This book also helped me learn how to move a bust dart up or down, which is actually super easy.
Here is how my bodice front piece looked with my changes:
I’m so happy she’s happy with the dress! I’m looking forward to making the next one. She’s already chosen a few more patterns and my 13-year-old has chosen some too. I’m having great success lately ordering from Fabric.com, so that will probably be where I start looking for the fabrics for their next few things.
Patterns to Sew for Teen Girls:
Both my daughters have requests for a few more things, mostly items to wear to church because like I said, dresses are the hardest to find. Sometimes I grab a pattern that I know I could use for them, but I also try to let them look at the patterns online if there’s a sale coming up and pick some out for themselves. Here is the stack that I’m choosing from to make for them over the next few months. Almost the entire stack is McCall’s! Of the Big 4 patterns, McCall’s has recently been transitioned to more youthful designs and we are loving it!
McCall’s 8130 Apparently this is a costume pattern, but my younger daughter likes this pleated skirt.
Parting Tip:
I think the best thing to keep in mind when sewing for teens is that they are picky!! Haha. My girls have very different styles from each other. If you’re sewing for teenagers, the best bet is to include them in the entire process. Sometimes I show them a fabric I think they’ll love and they hate it and sometimes they pick a pattern I would never have chosen for them. In order to make sure the garment is something they’ll wear, I assume nothing. I try it on them multiple times while working on it and never assume which sleeve or pocket they’ll like best. I just ask. If they want it a tad shorter or longer, or taken in here or there, I listen, even if it’s extra trouble, because I want it to be something they will actually wear.
Do you sew for teens? Have any tips to share? Funny stories are also welcome, ha!
Cheers!
Nikki
Learn to hand quilt with minimal tools and without the perfectionism!