jungle ruffle dress tutorial

June 14, 2012July 18, 201410 Comments

today, i’m reposting a guest tutorial i did for see kate sew’s fun ruffles 2012 series a little while back – a comfy, easy-wearing knit sundress for summertime with plenty of ruffly ruffleness.

happy sewing!

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Hello! I’m so happy to be here as Kate wraps up her awesome Ruffles 2012 series! What fun, wonderful inspiration. It has become apparent that I need to invest in a ruffle foot…but the project I’m sharing with you today does not require one! And no basting-and-gathering either!

I decided to recreate a store-bought vertical ruffle dress that my daughter wore to bits last summer. It’s soft jersey knit with lots of twirly swishy ruffles for the dancing girly girl. This dress is practical, ridiculously comfortable, and she loves to wear it because the ruffles bounce and move as she does! Since it looks like vines, I call it the “Jungle Ruffle Dress,” though of course it can be made in any color.

jungle ruffle dress tutorial // skirt as top

Here’s how to make one.

MATERIALS

1.5 yards jersey knit (for a 3 to 4T) – try to pick one that looks similar on the right and wrong sides, since both will show on the ruffles
various sizes of plates/bowls
fabric marking tool (tailor’s chalk or water soluble pen)
ball point needle
walking foot (very helpful, but not required)

INSTRUCTIONS

Cut out a simple a-line sundress body. I used the free oliver + s popover sundress as my rough guide, though I noticed as I went it was going to be too narrow, so I added insets to the side seams (later). Cut it more a-line than you see here if you want to keep it all one piece.

Fold the front in half and press, then fold each side to the midline and press, then fold the two creases together and press. It’s good to crease it, you’ll later cut along the creases.

Now make the ruffles. The ruffle effect happens because you are cutting the fabric in circles and opening them up. I used a dinner plate and then a smaller bowl to create my two circles – experiment with the size of bowls/length you need on some scrap fabric. You want the length of your opened up circle to be at least as long as your dress. I made my inner circle a little off-center, which will vary the width of the ruffle from top to bottom. The narrow side of mine is about 1″ wide, and the wide side is about 2″. Cut around the inner circle, and trim the edges so they’re smooth. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and I think it looks more interesting if there’s a little variety in the ruffles.

Once you’ve made the desired number of ruffles, start sewing them into the dress. Cut along one crease line (just one at a time!).

Open up each ruffle and sandwich the inner edge of the circle between the right sides of the main dress. Pin and sew or serge (I’d recommend matching serger thread – mine is white for clarity/because I’m lazy). Repeat for all ruffles. If you’re simply serging, you may want to run a few stitches back and forth with your regular machine to reinforce the bottom seams – when I serge without hemming, the edges tend to come undone over time.

After I’d added the front ruffles, I realized the dress would be too narrow at the bottom, so I added a panel to each side to give it more room. You’ll want the top to be pretty narrow so it doesn’t expand your armhole (just about 1″ so it disappears into your seam allowances), and the bottom of the panel can be a few inches (mine was 4″). Above is the shape. I added another ruffle to the front side when I pieced it with the main dress to camouflage it. Press your seams well, pressing each ruffle in whichever direction you want it to fall.

For the back, you could repeat the process with more ruffles, but I decided to just fold the top down to create a casing, then threaded 1/2″ elastic in to gather it to about half the size of the original width. Sew on each side to secure, pull the elastic tight, and trim.

Untitled

For the front yoke, cut a piece of jersey about 2″ tall and a little wider than the ruffled top of the dress. Pin and sew right sides together, then fold the band over the top of the dress, encasing the edge. Topstitch (walking foot is good here), then sew the front and back side seams, right sides together.

To bind the armholes, I made two smaller ruffle strips out of the inner circles left over from the front. Make sure they match each other in length and general shape. I stitched each on around the right side of the armhole, then double folded them to the inside and topstitched. The ends knot over your little gal’s shoulders and will curl to add just a bit more ruffle to an already ruffly dress.

Trim the bottom of each ruffle to match the hemline and carefully trim anywhere else that seems a bit uneven…and you’re done! Yay!

If you make a ruffle dress using this tutorial, please add your photos to the skirt as top flickr group! Thanks so much for having me, Kate – this has been such a fun series!

double bucket hats

June 7, 2012November 24, 201338 Comments

i found something out as i got ready to make the kids some new hats for summer…they have almost the exact same size head! my 18 month old’s head is just 1/4″ smaller in circumference than my four year old’s! kinda crazy, eh? i checked, and it turns out my husband and i have the same size head too. i accept full responsibility for largeheadedness of my children.

the pattern is the oliver + s bucket hat from little things to sew, also available as a free download. both are mediums and both fit perfectly. i really love this pattern – these are the fourth and fifth versions i’ve made (others here and here)! O’s is sewn mostly from the pattern, though i did try my buddy jessica’s no-hand-stitching method for the first time. genius. this side is heather ross far far away ii moons, which i’d been hoarding.

the other side is a dark blue thrifted corduroy. i like using at least one heavier material when i make these hats, it gives them nice structure. this hat has just one layer of medium weight interfacing in the brim.

we’ll see if he keeps it on, he likes to say “haaaa” and pull it off, hang onto it for a while, then try to put it back on all by himself. maybe he’ll get more used to it as summer wears on.

Em’s hat is also long-hoarded heather ross, this time far far away i double gauze. i first used it here and had just enough left! i widened the brim 1.5″, again a tip from jessica the bucket hat queen. her mini tutorial is here. i interfaced both sides of the brim but it was still a bit too floppy, so i added three rows of topstitching to give it more structure and add a little detail.

the fabric is a hemp blend from bolt – i’ve been saving it for a while for a skirt for me, but i think it’s perfectly rough and rustic when paired with the pink heather ross.

aside from the widened brim, i constructed this hat the “traditional” way, joining the layers by hand-stitching at the base of the side panels. i’ll give you a wild guess which side she prefers.

i took these photos up at the sound over memorial day. we love it up there.

all set for summer!

pink elephants on parade party

May 30, 2012September 14, 201239 Comments

way back before vintage may started, Em turned four! since her favorite thing is still the color pink (she’s obsessed with it, seriously), her party much resembles last year’s but with the added flair of elephants (her very favorite animal!). it’s a pink elephants on parade party!

the living room got the full elephant treatment, with even her favorite stuffed elephants in attendance…

the art was painted by my talented friend Erin in Em’s nursery colors before she was born, inspired by one we saw at a local store. she moved bedrooms so it normally hangs in O’s room now, though she has requested it be moved to hers soon. the elephant statue is from west elm a while back. i made the elephant garland out of felt using the same method as the elsie marley eye patch tutorial, which worked great though it was pretty much the most tedious sew ever. i wanted to do it right rather than glue it or something so it could hang in her room later (which it now does).

dining room decorations were a bit more subtle – just a little pink garland and a couple elephant drawings by our resident elephant artist…

our house is pretty small but has a great floor plan – the living and dining room are open to each other and separated by an archway, so we can fit a lot more people in than we should based on the square footage. and for parties, all i need to decorate are two rooms! kind of nice. we had the party in the morning again, which i love doing. the kids got a pancake bar and the adults got biscuits and gravy from pine state – yummmm…

Em helped me color her cake to be…which colors? oh yeah, pink and purple! i don’t care if this is all over blogland, pretty much no one at the party had seen it. Em helped me with the sprinkles (i cut a 4 out of cardboard and she sprinkled…er…dumped them into the stencil).

it was well-received.

the birthday girl wore a new oliver + s ice cream dress, a pattern i first made for her second birthday. this one’s View B in a 3T and because she has a big head i cut the neck hole in a 4T, though i should have just followed this tutorial to lengthen the opening because it slips down off her shoulder a bit. i omitted the v to copy gail. Em didn’t like the morning dew on her feet.

it’s in four colors of shot cotton from bolt, and i let her pick either a sparkly pink button or an elephant button…guess which one she chose?

i had originally planned to make the dress ombre but couldn’t find four pink shot cottons that worked, so i moved the colors around and added the purple. then i saw this lovely ice cream dress and realized i should’ve just done the top in the light pink too! gah!

her favorite gift was the sarah jane necklace we got her (you’ll never guess what’s on it).

it’s pretty crazy to me that she’s four already! she suddenly seems so grown up…

vintage may inspiration: little skirts with vintage flair

May 9, 2012March 2, 201416 Comments

i’ve long been intrigued by vintage trims like lace, doilies, and rickrack. what would i use them for? are they too granny? i’ve kept my eyes open to see how people use these sweet little trims in modern design, and i finally i know – you use them to make little skirts even cuter!

while i love vintage style and drink it in online, my own home, clothing choices, and what i sew for my kids tends to be more vintage-inspired. i love to follow purely vintage blogs for the eye candy and thrifty inspiration (smile and wave, cakies, bleubird, and a beautiful mess are some of my faves). months ago, i spotted an adorable doily skirt on cakies, a rickrack pocket skirt on bluebird, and i finally got the chance to try making them both! i’m super in love with the results and i thought i’d share a couple mini tutorials today.

*** RICKRACK POCKET SKIRT

make a simple selvedge-to-selvedge skirt (follow the oliver + s free lazy days skirt pattern, eliminating the ribbon hem and adding an extra .5″ to the length allow yourself to make a double fold 1/4″ hem).

my skirt fabric is kona mustard and the pocket is a vintage sheet.

make your pocket. cut two 5″ or 6″ squares out of your pocket material. fold in half and round all four bottom corners. sew right sides together, leaving a space to turn on the side. turn right side out, press. find the center of your skirt by folding it in half with the back seam, and also find the side the same way. center the pocket between the front and side.

slide rickrack under the pocket, and pin well. ease it around curves and try to keep the part poking out even. topstitch close to the edge of the sides and bottom of the pocket, which will close the opening in the pocket and secure the rickrack. add elastic to the waistband, hem the skirt, and you’re done!

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DOILY SKIRT

rubyellen’s doily skirt is hand-stitched, but i wanted to try machine-stitching it because it’s quicker and more secure. first make a skirt with a contrasting waistband (follow dana’s market skirt tutorial for directions but you won’t add the bottom band, so be sure to give your skirt enough length to work without it). wait to add the waistband elastic. i used a lightweight chambray and the waistband is a fat quarter from my stash. my chambray is two pieces, each 12.5″ long by 35″ wide for my petite four year old. i wanted it FULL. for best results, be sure your skirt material has some drape if you want to make it as full as this.

the doily looks like it’s from an estate sale, but it’s really from joann (probably would’ve been cheaper to thrift it, but i liked the look of this one, it’s cotton and sturdy). wash, dry, and iron it flat. i used basting spray for quilting to adhere the doily to the skirt centered between the front and side seam, and pinned around the edges as well.

take a close look at your doily and try to identify the “rings” that seem thicker and continuous so you can easily follow them around the doily.

starting in the very center, sew around a few “rings” using coordinating thread, backstitching at the beginning and end. then slowly sew around the perimeter of the doily, trying not to stretch it as you sew – just hold it down flat to the skirt. i sewed it on with a normal foot and my machine had no trouble – my stitches completely disappeared into the doily. can’t even see them from the front.

add elastic and you’re done! now your little gal can pick some flowers and relax in the shade with her best friend!

if you make a rickrack pocket or doily skirt using this tutorial, please add them to the vintage may flickr group!

today jess over at CINO has posted a tutorial for a beeeeeautiful eyelet overlay dress! you’ve gotta go check it out.

announcing…vintage may!

May 1, 2012May 3, 201217 Comments

i’m so excited to finally spill the beans on something that has been in the works for a while now – a brand new series that i’m co-hosting with jess of craftiness is not optional! it’s called Vintage May, it’ll run for two weeks starting may 14, and it’s going to be a blast.

we started chatting during week 1 of my season of project run & play when i remixed her junebug dress into the sweet tartan dress. after hitting it off via email and talking about blog stuff, jess said she had the idea to host a series, but didn’t know what it should be about. i helped her brainstorm, and then she totally surprised me by asking me to co-host! i made sure she wasn’t joking, then quickly agreed.

i’ve been a big fan of CINO for a really long time. jess is generous with her tutorials, her daughters are adorable, and she writes in a funny, friendly way. she’s one of those gals you wish lived nearby so you could just hang out and your kids could play together (her Sadie and my Em are just a few months apart in age, and her Charlotte and my O are pretty close too). i even love the name of her blog – if you’re a crafty/creative person, it really isn’t optional – you MUST create and you make the time to do it!

we’re both enamored with vintage style, especially for kids (but for ladies too), and find ourselves drawing inspiration from the past. whether it’s using thrifted/vintage materials, retro-inspired patterns with modern fabrics, or vintage patterns themselves, the results are interesting and fun.

jess and i will have a little pre-show the week before the series starts to share some of our projects and ideas, and then the real fun begins! we have each rounded up ten fantastic guest bloggers that we’re thrilled to have on board for two weeks of vintage/retro inspired projects and tutorials. we’re so thrilled, in fact, that we can’t keep them a secret! these are the guests i’ll be hosting here at skirt as top. some are blogging celebs, some are hidden gems, all are super talented. here they are!

sophie from cirque du bebe
danielle from my sparkle
gail from probably actually
rae from made by rae
cherie from you & mie
jess from running with scissors
rachel from nest full of eggs
meg from elsie marley
stef from girl.inspired
stacy from hart & sew

if you’ve never checked out these ladies’ blogs, do yourself a favor and click through. and jess will be hosting ten lovely guests of her own, so be sure to go check them out!

because this series is all about inspiration and sharing the love of vintage/retro, we’d love to see YOUR projects, too! if you’ve ever sewn an item of clothing from a vintage pattern, vintage bed sheet, a modern pattern that looks vintage, modern fabric that looks vintage, anything along those lines, please add it to the Vintage May flickr group! i’ve added some of my projects, jess has added some of hers, and a few of our guests have added some too, so there’s already plenty of fun stuff in there to browse. we’ll round up a few of our favorites from the flickr group somewhere along the way, so get ’em in there! we’d just love to see what you’ve made.

are you excited? i sure am! hop on over to CINO to check out jess’s awesome guests here, join the flickr group, and get ready to celebrate vintage lovelies!