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.

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.

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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!

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!

vintage may guest: you & mie

May 24, 2012May 21, 201316 Comments

i first discovered you & mie via the project run & play flickr group during week 2 of my season. cherie sewed this awesome boy outfit, won the sewalong that week, and i was an immediate fan. week after week, she just kept making really cool stuff (like this mini hippie outfit and this color blocked coat) and i was so surprised to see she had only been blogging for a few months! she’s already guest posting all over town (including here!) and her totoro costume is quite popular on pinterest (she just sewed mei-chan for this season’s PR&P sewalong!). this girl is going places, i tell ya. you may recall i actually MET cherie when i visited san francisco last month, and she’s a super fun gal in person too. she just has a knack for sewing – almost never uses a pattern and already shares tutorials like a champ! she’s got crazy talent.

cherie has sewn a wonderful historically-inspired jumper for her little gal today with a tutorial for you!

Hello vintage lovers! It’s amazing what Kristin and Jess have put together here and I’m so honored to be a part of it! I must have run through 50 ideas for what vintage-inspired creation I wanted to share with you before deciding on something – the possibilities are endless! I decided to go through some old family photos to see if I could find some inspiration there and I saw a particular style pop up a few times in my mom’s childhood photos from Japan in the 1950s.

(LEFT: My mom, standing in front, with her two brothers and mother RIGHT: My mom, center, my grandmother, upper left and their neighbors)

(My mom, lower right, with her brothers and uncle)

I loved the simple and classic style of the jumpers my mom and her neighbor are wearing in these pictures. So I created a suspender skirt for my daughter and I’ve got a tutorial so you can make one too!

It’s got a bit of a school uniform vibe, but it’s still cute enough to be worn anywhere. It’s a simple high waisted pleated skirt with a flat front and elastic in the back. The buttons in the front are just for fun and completely optional. The suspender straps are sewn in the front and adjustable in the back for longer wear. You could easily use this technique to attach straps to any style skirt, pair of shorts or pants. If you want to make the straps completely removable, you can follow the directions for the back of the skirt in the front, and then the skirt can be worn alone or with the suspenders. So many options!

I played around with two different lengths in these pictures. High waisted and HIGHER waisted.

Maybe too high?

:: CLICK OVER TO YOU & MIE FOR THE SUSPENDER SKIRT TUTORIAL ::

Thanks for having me, Kristin! I’ve got vintage fever now!

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isn’t her little yuki just so squeezable? i’m not sure i can handle it! thanks so much, cherie!

you’re not gonna wanna miss the awesome sauce leggings tutorial that jessica from me sew crazy has for you today over at CINO!

vintage may guest: running with scissors

May 21, 2012May 24, 201210 Comments

kicking off week two of guest posts for vintage may is a good friend, jess of running with scissors! i knew of jess’ blog before we competed together in project run & play (due to her awesome dino tails, which took blogland by storm a while back) but i became a big fan of hers during our season, where she sewed some really amazing garments – check out this suit! jess’ designs are often heavily influenced by history and she is especially great at designing for boys, so i asked if she would do a boy look for vintage may.

jess came up with this fantastic modern take on lederhosen and a tutorial for you to make your own! as a gal with german heritage, these make me especially excited. check it out!

I’m excited to be here participating in Vintage May! I love looking to vintage or even historical clothing for inspiration, and trying to take the old fashioned styles and make them modern. It’s a challenge for me to design clothing with the influence of the vintage piece, but make something that doesn’t look like a historical costume. I also love to sew for boys! So how I was inspired to make modern lederhosen. My neighbor is German and immigrated to the United States as a child, and was showing me a pair of heirloom leather lederhosen her brothers and sons wore. They were so cool, over fifty years old, and had metal exposed zippers for the side front closure. So I pinned quite a few lederhosen for inspiration and got thinking of ways to take a traditional Bavarian short design and make it modern and hopefully cool.

This top photo in the collage is my favorite, specifically the boy on the far right. {top}, {left}, {right}

So I designed a pair of knee length shorts with the double exposed zipper front, slant pockets, and a side flap-patch pocket.

The front of the shorts unzip into a front panel. To secure the front panel to the rest of the shorts, Velcro attaches at the waistband. I thought Velcro would be easier for little guys to get them on and off rather than two snaps, buttons, or hook/eyes.

I added my son’s nickname “RJ BOY” to the front of the flap on the side pocket, and you can see the contrasting orange stitching that I used throughout the shorts.