Yoga Wear Guru answers:

It’s not electrical tape… It’s a skinny version of masking tape.

For drafting, I prefer alphanumeric paper, aka dot and cross paper, aka pattern paper. If you’ve got a gridded cutting mat you can put a semi-translucent paper over it (I’ve used newsprint many times) and draft that way. And I’ve made a fair number of patterns out of sheets of newspaper taped together when that’s all that was available.

Some of the larger independent fabric stores sell short cuts of alphanumeric paper… Say 5-10 yards… For not a whole lot of money, but shipping can be pretty bad on it. Or you can order an entire roll from a place like South Star Supply, and have a lifetime supply.

Yoga Wear Guru answers:

I know a few people who take adult knee socks and cut the feet out of them and sew in and elastic cuff to make homemade baby leg warmers.

Yoga Wear Guru answers:

Try www.freepatterns.com

Yoga Wear Guru answers:

Wet Seal? <3

Yoga Wear Guru answers:

Make the size that goes with your body measurements. Pattern sizes come from a completely different universe than store bought clothing sizes and the size ranges bear absolutely no resemblance to each other. And they are not based on “vintage” sizes. In vintage 1950′s sizes you would be a size 16 -and it would still be too small in the waist for you -1950′s patterns assume that you are wearing a very tight girdle. In reality sewing pattern sizes are “true to size” while many store clothes are vanity sized. Don’t be upset by pattern sizes, no one will know what size you have made and you don’t have to tell them. So make the size that is closest to your actual body measurements so you get the best possible fit for your body.

I’ve been answering this question quite a bit over the past year or so as more teens and younger woman start sewing and my advice to you and all my sewing students is the same: Don’t get hung up or upset by size numbers. They mean NOTHING. Zilch. Zero. They are arbitrary symbols assigned to a set of body measurements and used to help you make clothes that fit YOU. If I could replace numbers with Iscandorian Petroglyphs from the Andromeda Galaxy then I would. Your size isn’t a judgement on your character or personality, it does not confer special status on you if you take a single digit size rather than a two digit size. And taking a two digit size in patterns does not make you large, fat, less cute or whatever…it just means you take a size ten in sewing patterns. Back in 1986 you would be buying clothes in a size 10 or a size medium and thinking nothing of it. A size 0 today is the equivalent of a size 6 back when sizes were standardized and a size 10 in the fifties. So shop according to your measurements, and don’t even try to compare them to stores sizes, and make things that fit you, not a number.