Sweet Springtime: Day 3

Day 3! Today we will finish the bodice part of the dress, making it ready to add the skirt part on tomorrow. If you have been following these posts in real time, waiting expectantly for day 3, sorry about the delay! Both my girls are battling RSV, one needs breathing treatments every 4 hours, and the other is potty training too. So, I have had my hands full! I am realizing now that it takes longer for me to write the blog posts than it does to sew the dress! Hopefully it is just because I am a beginner, I'll get it all figured out in no time(hopefully!). Anyway, let's move right along to day 3.

First, we are going to press a hem into the sleeves. We will be putting 3/8" elastic through these, so leave enough room. If you have a serger, you can serge the edges, and press it up. If you, like me, do not have a serger, you will need to press it up , fold under, and press again (a traditional hem). Just make sure you leave enough room to fit your elastic through! About 1/2" clearance is great.



Now, while your iron is hot, go ahead and press the same type of hem, also leaving room for elastic, around the neck hole of your bodice. Keep in mind that you will be turning under part of your ruffle on the front of our bodice, which will be thick and difficult to press, but it will turn out fine when it gets sewn in place. If you are big on pins, go ahead and pin it as you press. I am a bigger fan of starch, but for new cotton fabric, you can get away with nothing but a hot iron to keep your hem in place.
When you finish your pressing, your bodice should look something like this:



Okay, now that you have a beautifully pressed bodice, we are going to go ahead and completely ignore those beautiful seams that you just made as we sew shut the sleeves. You will want to open the hem up and sew the fabric flat. That way it will be shaped to fold back up when you actually do hem it, but it will make a continuous space for your elastic to pass through. Use the picture below as a reference for what I am talking about. After you sew shut the arm holes, go back and serge the raw edges. If you are like me and do not have a serger, this is when you rub your lucky penny and wish for one as you zig zag stitch the raw edge... okay, maybe not the penny part, you'll need both hands to operate your sewing machine ;) If you missed the day 2 post about zig zag stitching to seal the raw edges, read it here.



Now that the sleeves are sewn shut, go ahead and sew around the neck hole and arm holes that you already hemmed. Make sure you sew right up on the edge of your hem to allow room for your elastic to pass through. Also, leave a small opening, about a half inch, to insert the elastic. I like to start near a seam (ie the underarm area of the sleeve, the shoulder area of the neckline) and sew in a continuous seam until I see where I began, then stop short about 1/2 inch from there...does that make sense?





When you finish sewing up the hem around the neck and sleeves, your bodice should look something like this:



Now you will need to get out that 3/8 inch elastic that I keep talking about. Measure around your child's arms (or a shirt that fits well) and add 2 inches to that measurement, then cut. You will need 2 pieces that length, one for each arm. Then measure about how wide you want the neck hole to be, this measurement can vary. Some people like their peasant dresses really cinched up tight, while others leave them looser. You can always cut a long piece of elastic (for a loose neckline) and cinch it in more later when you see how it looks altogether. Okay, moving on. Fasten a small/medium sized safety pin to the end of one of your elastic pieces.



Push the end of your safety pin into the hole that you left open in the hem of your bodice, and start feeding it through, pulling the fabric down the elastic as you go. Make sure to hold onto the opposite end of your elastic so that it doesn't get lost inside the hem.



Your fabric should start bunching up around the elastic as you pull it through. When you come full circle, lead the safety pin out of the same hole that you started in. Pull both ends of elastic and tie them in a square knot, leaving about 1" on each tail to help pull it tightly.



Last step for the day! Once you have your knots tied tightly you can trim the tails, then go back and stitch up the small holes in your hem.



Now you have finished the top half, and more difficult part, of your peasant dress! It should look something like this, however, yours should have the ric rac covering the ruffle on the front. I had forgotten to add that part when I made my bodice and had to go back and put it on later.

Sweet Springtime: Day 2

It's Day 2 of the Sweet Springtime Dress and we are going to get the bodice half way done today.

First things first, press bodice pieces, sleeve pieces, and those two little 3x10 strips nice and flat. Then take one of the bodice pieces, fold it in half, and press a sharp crease down the center. You will use this crease as a guide later to lay your ruffle on. We want to make it centered!

Let me take a minute to go over my sewing ground rules before we fire up that machine! I will not say these every time, but they need to be done unless otherwise noted.
1. Always leave a 3/8" seam allowance (about the width of your presser foot)
2. Always backstitch at the beginning and end of a seam to hold it in place.
***The only time you DO NOT backstitch is when sewing a gathering stitch.
3. I am always using a straight stitch, unless you are sealing an edge with a zig-zag, or otherwise noted.
4. I am always using a basic foot (or sometimes a walking foot) unless otherwise noted.
5. Always follow up a stitched seam by pressing with a hot iron. It makes it look so much nicer!

Now, let's get busy! Put those two strips right sides together and stitch down both of the 10" sides leaving the 3" sides open.



Flip the whole thing inside out, so the right sides face out and press it flat.



Fold in a little bit (1/4 to 1/2 inch or so) on one side of the strip and press. Sew it shut. You only need to do this on one side, the other side will get shut when we sew the skirt part on.



Now we are going to sew the first of many GATHERING STITCHES. Here's the play by play:
1. Set a long stitch length on your sewing machine (4.5 to 5.0)
2. DO NOT BACKSTICH at the beginning OR the end of this seam.
3. Make sure you have a little extra thread through the needle and the bobbin before beginning your stitch (4 inches or so)
4. Align your needle right down the center of your strip and sew a straight line down from the very top to the very bottom.
5. Pull out the fabric from the machine leaving a long tail of thread hanging from the fabric (about 4 inches.
6. MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER which thread came from the needle (top thread) and which came from the bobbin (bottom thread). You'll want to keep a firm grip on that top thread.


Now, holding firmly to your top thread in your right hand (try not to pull on your bottom thread if at all possible), start to slowly tug the top thread to the right, while pushing the fabric to the left. The fabric should start to gather up. You can pull your top thread from both ends to gather your strip.


Next, set your sewing machine back to regular stitch length (2.0/2.5ish).
Get the front bodice piece that you pressed a crease into earlier. Lay your gathered strip down that crease and adjust the gathers as needed to fit the length of the crease. Pin the enclosed end of the gathered strip down about 3/4 inch from the bodice neckline. You will need to leave that part open for the elastic encasement tomorrow. Following the gathering stitch seam, sew the strip down the crease of the bodice.


Lastly, cut a piece of ric rac the length of the ruffle and briefly run a lighter flame over the cut edges to seal them. Using matching thread, sew your ric rac right down the center, hiding the ruffle seam. While making my dress, I forgot about this little step and had to go back and do it later. That is why my pictures might not look exactly like your project at this point, so don't worry.


Next we will attach the sleeves to the bodice. Lay out the piece of the bodice that you just added the ruffle to, and lay one of the contrasting sleeve pieces on it, right sides facing, so that the arm holes align. Pin, and sew the two together along the arm holes.


Open up that sleeve to pull it out of the way and align the second sleeve with the other side of the bodice and stitch along the arm hole.


Don't forget to press your seams!

Now get the other bodice piece, the back. Align it, right sides together, with the sleeves, one at a time, and sew along the arm holes.


When you finish both sides, it should look like this:


Almost done! Hang in there! Lastly, we need to seal up the frayed edges of the fabric on the seams that we just sewed so it doesn't start to unravel and look messy. If you have a serger, lucky you, just serge the seams. If you do not have a serger, like me, you will need to use a zig zag stitch to seal them, like this:


If you have never used a zig zag stitch to seal up the edges of a seam, you are in luck, I will teach you right now! It isn't too terribly difficult really, but it is necessary for making your projects clean and pretty.

Start by setting your sewing machine to a zig zag stitch, and if you can figure it out, set your stitch length pretty short (0.6-0.9) and your stitch width fairly wide (4.5-5.0). Some sewing machines are computerized and you can select these numbers by pushing a button. Other machines are mechanical and you may need to use the screwdriver that came with your machine to turn a little knob. If in doubt, check your owners manual. If you don't have the manual, there is always Google! It would be advantageous to figure it out one way or another, it is a very useful stitch.

Moving forward, you are going to start at the top, backstitch like usual, and sew along the outside of the seam that you already made. Your needle will first "zig" to hit the fabric outside of the seam previously sewed, and then it will "zag." Ideally, you want the "zag" to hit just off of the fabric so that it will seal the raw edge. As you are sewing, you may even see the fabric folding up under itself inside the zig zag stitch. Great! It is sealing well.


Once you have all 4 of the arm hole seams sealed up you are done for today! Yay! You are on your way to a cute new dress for your sweet girl! I hope you will be back tomorrow for day 3, bodice part two.

P.S. I am still very new at this, so if there is something that is not clear to you, please leave a comment and I'll try and answer your questions as best as I can!

Sweet Springtime : Day 1

This is my "Sweet Springtime" peasant style dress. Cute, right? It is an intermediate level project. I'll divide it up into 5 days. Let's get started!

Day 1, gathering materials and cutting.
I made this in a size 2T, so you might need to adjust a bit for a different size. I bought 1 yard of the colored flowered fabric for the main part of the dress (but I had a bit left over, you could easily get by with 3/4 yd), and 1/2 yard of the green for the sleeves and ruffles. I also used 2 1/2 yards of jumbo rick rack (1 package).
Now for the cutting. For this part, I find it helpful to use a regular shirt that fits your child well (or is the size that you want your dress to be). My daughter is in a 24mos, but I want this dress to fit this summer, so I used a 2T shirt to help with the size.

Lay out your main fabric, folded in half like it comes off the bolt from the store. Fold your child's shirt in half and lay it up next to the foldline. With a fabric pencil (or a plain old #2) trace from the fold up around the neck hole to the shoulder, down a little below the arm hole at the shoulder, and a few inches down the side seam, then across to the fold again. I drew black lines on this photo to show you the shape that you want to trace. Once you have it drawn and it looks good, cut it out. Then use that piece to trace a second one on the fold. You will need two of these pieces, one for the front, one for the back.





Now you are going to cut a straight piece from the fold to the selvage that will make up the main part of the skirt. For my 2T, I cut this piece 13 inches long, allowing that there will be added length from the ruffle at the bottom.



Now for the green fabric! Open up this fabric all the way flat and cut along the foldline crease. We will use one half to make the ruffle at the bottom of the dress. Take that half and fold it in half (for all the teachers out there, hot dog style)so that the selvage edges are together at one side and the raw edges are together on the other side. Press with a hot iron, and cut down the foldline crease. Now do the same thing again with each of these two pieces. Fold them in half (hot dog style), press with iron, cut along foldline. Now you should have 4 strips of nearly equal size with the fabric grain going the same direction on each. (Sorry this picture is overexposed!)



With the other piece of the green fabric we are going to make the sleeves and the ruffle on the bodice. For the sleeves, you will want to cut two rectangles on the fold. Mine are about 9"x6", with the fold along the 9" side.



Align your two sleeve pieces on top of one another. Now lay your previously cut bodice piece on top of your sleeve pieces so that the tops align and the arm hole in the bodice piece meets up with the selvage side of the sleeve pieces. Trace the arm hole and cut it out of the sleeves (note that this is on the selvage, not the folded side). Leaving the pieces aligned, cut the sleeve pieces along the bottom edge of the bodice also. Here are step by step pictures:



Yay! Day 1 done! Come back tomorrow for the first part of the bodice tutorial.





Now you should have just a bit of green fabric left. Cut out two rectangular strips, mine were about 3"x10". All your fabric is cut! Here is a picture of all my pieces together, note that two of my 4 long green strips are hiding underneath the two that are showing. You should have 4 altogether.



Yay! You finished Day 1! I'll be back tomorrow with the first part of our bodice tutorial.

The Idea

When I started making clothes for my babies I had a lot of people asking if I could make something for their kids too. So I opened up a little Facebook shop to sell some of my creations to friends and family. Since then, I have gotten more people asking if I could teach them how to make clothes for their babies than I have gotten orders. Since the arrival of our newest addition, Violet, it has been hard to find time to sew much at all. Let's face it, with the time I do have, I would much rather be sewing things for my own girls than taking orders for others. I was feeling a little bogged down every time someone wanted to buy something, and I wasn't enjoying sewing much anymore. Right around this time, like many of you, I also discovered Pinterest. I started reading sewing blogs written my mommies just like me who were not only making sweet little things for their little ones, but also posting directions for the rest of us to follow along. What a brilliant idea! So I am closing up shop and starting a new blog to help guide those who wish to learn. In my mind, this is the best of everything: time to sew for my own girls, make projects that I enjoy and get excited about, and teach others how to fend for themselves and make precious things that their children will cherish now and when they are grown.

So how is this going to work? Well, each time I make something for my precious ones, I am going to photograph it each step of the way and post the pics with directions. Hopefully this will make it easy for you to sew along if you so desire.

I will "level" each project into these categories:
Novice: Project requires very little sewing experience or skill, but it might be nice to know how to use the basic functions of a sewing machine.
Beginner: Project uses basic sewing techniques, but with more steps than novice projects, broken down with detailed instructions.
Intermediate: For those who know the basics and are able to follow along with slightly fewer images and less detailed instructions.
Advanced: Not sure I am even qualified for this category yet! Projects will use more functions of your sewing machine and will have more difficult techniques.

Most mommies, like myself, have to operate on a limited number of "alone minutes" (i.e. Nap Time!). I use my precious "alone minutes" for showers, eating lunch, and getting household chores done. Occasionally, I have the luxury of catching up on a DVR show or checking e-mails. Rarely, I have enough time left to work on a sewing project. For this reason, I am going to break up each project into small segments that you could accomplish (ideally, that is) in about 30 minutes. If you can give 30 minutes a day for 5 days, you will have a new, little, mommy-made, something something for your sweet one at the end of the week. I hope this works out for all of us! Happy Sewing!