El vestido aqua - Refashion

Here it is at last!  I've been waiting for it to get warm enough to wear this outfit so I could take pictures of it outside and blog it.  There was 2 feet of snow on the ground when I made this a month or so ago.  Finally this past Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, it warmed up to almost 50 degrees.

I've wanted to experiment with making dresses that look like tops+skirts because you get the look with the effortlessness of a dress.  So simple.  

I love long flowing ties!  Feminine and floaty.

I had just taken a shower and it was 9pm when I started the project.  Please pardon the horrendous before images.

Supplies: Large cotton knit shirt with gorgeous neckline applique,  Fabric from a bedskirt a while ago...I think.  It is a rather heavy weave. I also used some white sheet, interfacing, a zipper from the stash and thread, of course.

This shirt was just too pretty to get rid of and to large to wear.  Make it the top of a dress! 

The skirt is based off of Simplicity 4070.  I used the pleated part.

The waistband I freelanced.  It is just long rectangles.  

I wanted to get the young, free, summery feel of a long white sash and bow but I wanted to make it part of the dress.

I hand-picked the lapped side zipper in such a way that the ties are sewn in at the seams and look like  a continuation of the front waistband.

Hand stitched hem.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  Next time I would cut more off of the bottom of the shirt before I gather it and connect it to the waistband so that it sits more at my natural waist.

The colors and stripes remind me of some bright spanish festival or fiesta down in Mexico.

Looking forward to spring and getting my fingers and toes in the garden.  I'm planting dozens of poppies this year.  

Thanks Nathanael for taking the pictures for me even though it was breezy and rather cold out. :-)

Girl's Pillowcase Dress Tutorial

Sewing projects for Emily are just so quick and easy.  No fitting around curves and messing with yards of fabric to get a satisfactory result. Just an old pillowcase, but my, what a lovely pillowcase it is.  Now Emily has  a dress made out of bedsheets too! ;-)

Supplies: One pillowcase (or sham, if you prefer), and one package of seam binding.  You can also make your own bias tape.

Why do people not make bedding like this anymore?

1) Cut off the seam at the end of the pillowcase //  2) Get a shirt that fits your little girl (cute, right? :-)

3) Measure from neck to underarm // measure from side to edge of front

*Ok, this might get confusing.  Go the finished project and get a good look at it, then look at step 5 and imagine how it is going to become the dress.  Worst case, read the whole thing and then come back here. :-)*

In the above left, the two red pins at 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 represent where I want the dress neckline (4 1/2) and how much fabric I actually need (3 1/2) because of the casing we are going to make.

Also in the above left, the line of pins at 7 inches represents the underarm line.

On the right we have where I want the dress "bodice" edge to come to; the edge of the front.

4) Move measurements to pillow

Now all these numbers will be different on your girls shirt.  Make sure you're using a shirt that fits!

Above we have a picture of how we are using all the numbers.  First of all, I messed up.  That green pin at 3 1/2 inches?  That should be at 4 1/2.  Imagine it is at 4 1/2.  (Yes!  I do have three different tape measures.  Stay focused people, you only need one.)

Okie dokie.  The top horizontal measure is 3 inches, that is our side to edge of front measurement from the right picture.  The edge we are pinning is the same one we cut at the very beginning of the tutorial, the closed (now open) edge opposite the wide hem. Because now we don't have to hem it!  Yippee!)

The pink vertical measure represents the left picture.  Why doesn't it start at the top?  Because we had those two pink pins.  The top of our pillowcase needs to start at the top pink pin.  So we take the underarm measurement (7" in my case) and subtract the amount from the top pink pin to the top of the shirt (in my case it is still 3 1/2 inches because 7 divides evenly like that).  What is left, (3 1/2) is what you measure from the top of your pillowcase.

5) Fold pillowcase in half lengthwise so that you can cut both corners off at the same time.

6) Cut in an arc.  Cut from one pin to the other so that the line left behind is concave, not straight.

7) Sweet!  Nice job.  Open up the pillowcase to reveal your lovely semicircles.  Bind them with your...binding.

8) On both the front and back  top edges, create a casing by folding it down an 1/8 inch, and then another 3/4 or so.  Just enough to comfortably fit your binding through. Sew them down very close to the edge forming your casing.

It looks so pretty!

9) Sew two 2 ft section of binding to create your ties and pull one through each casing.  And you're done!

It will make pretty gathers that should accommodate your little girl for quite a while.

To make the ties into straps you just tie the front to the back at each end.

Front // Back

If you look closely at the front (above) you'll see that I also added a little pocket.  Little, because I made it with those scraps we cut out for the armholes.  Yup.  "Waste no, want not," they say!

(The pocket isn't on in the pictures where she is trying it on.  I used my extra binding and made a sash for a little waist definition and I LOVE it.

Front // Back

I'll update with pictures after she wears it this summer.  Somehow I don't believe I could convince her to wear it outside in front of our igloo. 

Voices of the Mountain Dress

Pattern: Simplicity 4070

Fabric: A sheet from Goodwill
Lining is a purple sheet from Goodwill.  Leftover from this dress. :-)

Notions: Hand-me-down zipper from stash and one brown button from stash

I was excited to try the fit on this pattern because I like the idea of the lace overlay and want to make sure the fit is right before I get the lace.  As it turns out I'll be using it to teach a friend how to sew so it is a good thing I did!

I've discovered something about sheets.  They tend to be faded at the top edge.  I almost made a dreadful mistake in the folding of the sheets that would have put more faded pieces next to bright pieces.  Thankfully I saw it and now when you look at it you can't even tell that there are differences.

I think "gap" design element it very classy with a sheer fabric but with this it tends to look like I ran out of zipper or forgot to zip it up all the way... What do you think?

Listening to the Pocahontas soundtrack, the indie/boho feel of the fabric pattern, the odd gap above the zipper, and the cut out made me name this Voices of the Mountain.

I put invisible pockets in the side seams on this one.  They are so handy.  Why would I ever not put pockets on a dress?  I wore a skirt I had made the other day that didn't have pockets and I felt the lack very sorely.  Where to put the lens cap??!!  *sigh*

This is what the inside looks like when you do invisible pockets.  I used a pattern once and now it is second nature.  Should I do a tutorial?

The pattern didn't call for a sash but I like the look so I lengthened the piece from Simplicity 1880 here and cut it on a bias.  Even if I don't wear it as a sash I could still wear it as a headband.  My mom says she likes self-fabric sashes. 

I modified the neckline to get more of a boatneck or "bateau" as everyone in haute couture is calling it these days.  It sounds a lot like pompous nonsense but as it is french and I actually know what it means I can't help using it no matter elite and smug it sounds.

I did the cut-out my own way, but I was inspired by this bodice here.  I think it turned out quite nice. :-)  I see more cut-outs in my future!

I became extremely lazy (and I was crunched for time) and did the zipper by machine and it turned out pretty ugly.  But it works and as it is getting chilly I can cover it up with a sweater. :-)

Front

Side

Back

Bateau neck + cut-out

Pretty insides...

Not to shabby for a sheet! :-)