guest posting at kojodesigns

July 6, 2012August 14, 201227 Comments

today i’m over at the fab kojodesigns as their final guest blogger for color your summer 2012! color your summer is always a bright, cheery, fun series with lots of great projects both at kojo and delia creates and i’m excited to be a part of it this year. click on over for my tutorial to adapt rae’s ever-versatile flashback skinny tee pattern into a breezy tunic for your little gal.

if you ever may have wondered what i bought at britex a few months back…this is it (well, some of it). $30/yd luxuriously soft circle eyelet. suffice it to say i made a muslin first. and i only bought 1/2 yd. thank goodness Em is small.

i’ve got some super fun stuff going on next week too – i’ll be announcing a new project with jessica that i’m especially psyched out of my mind about (that’s a clue right there) and a guest post that’s all about SHORTS! but first, head over to kojo to find out how to make this little top and check out the rest of their color your summer rainbow!

have a great weekend!

UPDATE: i reposted the tutorial for this tunic here on skirt as top too.

later alligator lazy days skirt

July 3, 2012July 3, 201220 Comments

here is Em posing like a boss in hawaii with her pink pool noodle, wearing a skirt full of alligators!

the fabric is tammis keefe tribute later alligator by michael miller, which i picked up at bolt. tammis keefe was a pretty cool lady, you can learn more about her here. i got the fabric when it first came out, and this skirt has been an unfinished object for a long time! i don’t actually have many of those floating around; i tend to finish what i start or it bugs me, but i think i cut this one and sewed the center back seam during a KCWC (maybe last spring?) and never finished it. luckily, i cut it long enough that it still fits my little beanpole.

i used the oliver + s free lazy days skirt pattern. i know i’ve mentioned my love for that pattern before; it was my first sewing project when i started to sew as an adult. i’ve made many since. it’s an easy sew, but has a lot of style. it made me fall in love with making clothes for my kids, liesl gibson commented on my flickr photo which made my stomach do flip flops, and i became quickly addicted to both sewing and the sewing blog community. this little free skirt pattern probably changed my life. sappy? overly dramatic? true.

there is one change i make when i sew these skirts: when i first pin the ribbon to the skirt, i align the long edges with each other rather than placing the top edge of the ribbon 1/2″ above the raw fabric edge as instructed. i sew the top edge of the ribbon per the pattern, then trim away all but 1/4″ of the skirt edge before folding the ribbon over to the right side and stitching the other long edge. i think this small change just makes it even easier for a beginner and saves time, because you’re not fiddling with making sure the floating ribbon is right where it should be. you could also simply mark your fabric 1/2″ from the edge with disappearing marker/chalk to guide your pinning and follow the pattern exactly, if your ribbon is so wide you’re worried your sizing might be thrown off by aligning the edges.

as i sewed this skirt, however, Em claimed she didn’t like it. i was bummed but didn’t totally believe her (because of the pink ribbon and the fact that “never smile at a crocodile” from peter pan is her jam). but while we were in hawaii, she picked it out to wear multiple days in a row! yay! she actually doesn’t want to wear skirts very often these days – only dresses – so i was pretty relieved.

finally, to wrap up what is turning out to be a more emotional post about a skirt than i intended, i want to put in a plug for “skirting the issue,” which is a great new series going on in the month of july from liz and elizabeth, the ladies in charge of project run & play. they are pulling together as many skirts as they can from the greater sewing blog community to donate to girls in foster care around the country. i’ll be posting a fun skirt tutorial later this month on the project run & play blog, but if you would like to sew for a great cause, the lazy days skirt is a great project (especially if you’re a beginner, someone that has a sewing machine but has never used it, or a mother of boys that needs a little girl sewing in her life! if you can thread your machine, you can make a lazy day skirt). find out more about skirting the issue here.

okay that’s all. late night slightly jet lagged blogging for the win!

skinny tee tank dress

June 26, 2012November 20, 20126 Comments

it’s summer and i’m out doing summery things, so today i’m bringing home a guest post i wrote for the leadup to elsie marley’s spring kid’s clothes week challenge. it includes a supertinymini tutorial for how to turn rae’s flashback skinny tee pattern into a flutter sleeve dress, and a bonus photo that didn’t post on meg’s blog due to technical difficulties on my end.

***

When Meg contacted me with her idea to have a bunch of gals sew Rae’s flashback skinny tee pattern, I immediately knew what to do – remix it into a dress! My daughter is almost four and wants to wear a dress every day. She considers them essential for dancing, which is her most favorite thing to do. I like sewing dresses, especially when they’re washable, comfortable, and easy for her to play in (I’m a practical mama). Soft jersey knit is the perfect material for all of that!

I made this simple tank dress with an XXL Old Navy shirt from the clearance rack, plus scraps of a t-shirt from another project. I have trouble finding good knit fabric and I almost always end up using repurposed sale rack men’s shirts – as big as I can get ’em! Extra bonus points if I can preserve the factory hem, though Rae offers great hemming tips within the pattern as well.

I extended the hemline of the 3T skinny tee pattern about 6″ (use a dress you already have as a guide), and made it A-line by using a straight edge, starting at the armpit and finishing about 3″ from the side of where the original pattern would be if it were dress length. I trimmed the top of the shoulder seams about 1/2″ (though I might recommend a little more), bound the armholes per Rae’s pattern instructions, and widened the neckline a bit. I also added a little pocket for extra detail.

For the flutter sleeves, I added 5″ to each armhole measurement and cut two strips to that length, each 1.5″ wide. I rounded the ends and gathered them along the longer edge. I attached each sleeve to the underside of the armhole, topstitching both on the outside and inside edges of the binding to catch it securely. I left the edges raw, since knit doesn’t fray.

The skinny tee pattern is a quick sew and so versatile, it’s great for adding your own customizations! I first sewed a “regular” version here as practice before remixing it into a dress.

Thanks for designing such an awesome pattern, Rae, and thanks for having me, Meg!

semi-handmade maxi skirt

June 20, 2012April 28, 201428 Comments

i always want to sew myself more clothing, and i always agonize over it. it needs to be “just right.” i think i’ll get the fit wrong, pick the wrong fabric, whatever, and then i just overthink myself into inaction. but inspired by ladies that just go for it and make/refashion themselves awesome clothes like it ain’t no thang (i’m talking kate, melissa, and liz specifically), i went ahead and did it! behold, the semi-handmade maxi skirt.

so this was barely any work. i bought an XL maxi dress off the old navy clearance rack for $17, which i figured was cheaper than buying enough yardage to sew it from scratch. as a dress it’s not a style that would flatter me, but i liked the bright color block skirt and the lightweight flowy fabric (100% polyester, baby!).

i chopped it off about 3″ below the chest seam, serged the top, folded it down, and stitched a casing. i added elastic (about 5″ less than my measurement after some trial and error). added a little ribbon tag in the back, and it was ready to wear!

now instead of changing into pajamas after a long day at work, i change into my comfy and bright maxi skirt. it’s even pretty enough to wear out of the house on a date (we saw moonrise kingdom last weekend – SO great)! the lightweight material is nice and cool, and it’s super friendly to the typical mama lifestyle of bending down, picking kids up, and sitting on the floor with them. only downside is Em likes to try to hide under it constantly, which is a little annoying.

quick and easy confidence-building maxi skirt for summertime. done.

ps – thanks so much for your response to my first confession sunday post! wow! i felt a bit vulnerable hitting publish on that one, so i really appreciated that so many played along and commented. looking forward to more random sunday discussions! 🙂

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!

***

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!