Basic top pattern

So I'm going to share with you my basic top pattern. I use this for almost all of my dresses, and it will be heavily used in my upcoming tutorials. I usually make it out of craft paper. I got a huge roll of Melissa and Doug craft paper, because it doesn't rip as easily as wrapping paper, but i've used that before too. I like the Melissa and Doug paper because it doesn't easily rip and i can fold it up and keep it nice a lot easier than wrapping paper. 

So what you'll need. 

Paper (wrapping paper, easel paper rolls, printer paper taped together, as long as it works for you, it doesn't really matter what you use, but I would probably not use toilet paper) =)

a shirt that fits your child

pen or pencil

scissors. 

1. Fold your shirt in half and lay on the paper

2. Trace around the shirt, follow the body of the shirt and the inside of the sleeves. This will just be the body not sleeves so flip them up and follow the curve of the arm hole. Follow the front neck line or you can do the back of the neck line and then draw the front in too, I do that for ones where I want the neck in the back higher and it saves on time if you don't have to make a new pattern. 

3. Cut it out. 

Thats it. Super easy. This will be the basis for a few tutorials I have coming up. So if you do this then you will be ahead of the game to start your dresses! 

Summer blog Challenge day 23-25

Summer blog challenge

Sorry I got behind again! So here are days 23-25

Day 23 favorite blog post you've written before this challenge. Probably my pretty in Pink Lace Dress tutorial. I love that dress and it was my first tutorial to be featured on Craft Gossip. 

Day 24 Favorite eco-friendl thing you do. We try to be pretty eco friendly. we have a brita filter and take reusable bottles with us, we recycle anything we can. I like to re use loathing items to turn them into something else, usually clothes for Tabitha, but I've also repurposed some of my own clothes for my self since i've lost weight. I turned a way too big top into a maternity shirt and turned my favorite jeans that got a hole in the thigh into a jean skirt. But the thing I do most often that is eco friendly is cloth diapering. I'm amazed at how much garbage we produced by using disposables on Tabitha and besides saving money, cloth diapers don't sit in landfills for 100's of years. And besides who can resist those cute fluffy butts! =)

Day 25 Ideal day of Me time

Ha whats that? Even on Saturday which is supposed to me my "me day" where I can get my sewing and blog stuff done that didn't get done during the week, i still have to have Eva with me (Morgen does take Tabitha, but she usually stands at the bottom of the stairs yelling at me most of the day until I give up and come down), and I usually end up getting half my list done if that because Eva is going through a very needy stage and I think about to cut a tooth. 

But if I could have a whole day to myself with out having to do cleaning or taking care of kids, I would turn on some silly trashy tv show like damsons creek or one tree hill (darn netflix doesn't have the last season and I want to finish it!) Or something cheesy and creepy like the original Dark Shadows (I watched that while nursing today and I'm hooked although netflix only has a small fraction of the series, they start when barnabis collins returns and then only have 160 of the 2000 something episodes.) I would watch my shows, and sew all day. Stoping to eat dryers all fruit bars, drink newmans own lemonaid. and snack on mike and ikes. 

The very simple dress tutorial

So a while ago i was going through my fabric and came across some stretch velvet I got for super cheap from a remnant box. I was trying to think what I could do with it and came up with this very easy super quick dress for Tabitha, Although it came out a little big, I forgot it stretches so I didn't need to add any give to it like I usually do. This dress took me less than two hours start to finish, and that included trying it on Tabitha and taking pictures.
What you'll need
enough streatch velvet (or any streatchy fabric) I think i had a little over a yard for a 3t.
thread, a needle for streatch fabrics, scissors, all that jazz.

Fair warning this is not a picture intensive post so I'll have to explain a lot of what i did. Sorry, next time i'll take more pictures!

First for the pattern.

1. I took a shirt of my daughters and folded it in half then traced around it on butcher paper leaving the sleeves off. See the picture below. For the front I made the neck a little lower than the back.

2. I measured where the shirt ended on my daughter and where I wanted the dress to go to. Then added that amount to the bottom of the pattern. (you can ignore the lines on my pattern i use the same pattern for a lot of different dresses)

3. fold fabric and cut out the front and the back on the fold.

4. Pin front and back together. 

5. Sew front to back and side and shoulders. 

6. Hem bottom of dress by folding over bottom edge 1/2 inch and sewing then folding over 1/2 inch again and sewing. 

7. Measure around the entire neckline. 

8. Cut a strip the length of the entire neck like +1/2 inch x 1 1/2 inches

9. pin strip front of fabric down to the outside of the dress at the neck and sew all the way around folding in and overlapping the ends slightly. 

10. fold the strip over and in half so it looks like the picture below, and pin it to the inside of the dress at the neckline. 

11. sew along the neck.

12. repeat steps 7-12 for each arm hole. 

And your done! Super quick and easy dress. 

(please excuse the abundance of Tabitha's toys in the background!)

Tabitha loves it and it was super easy to make. It is a little big on her so I may make a belt to go with it but I think its nice by its self too. 

This would be a really easy dress for a beginner since there are no zippers or buttons. 

Wonderland Dress Part 4

Ok so here we are! The last part of the Wonderland Dress!

Step 1: fold contrast arm bands in half (outside facing out) and iron down

Step 2: Place folded contrast fabric on sleeve, open end and bottom of the sleeve together. 

Step 3: Pin sleeve to band

Step 4: Sew the sleeve to the contrast band. 

Step 5: Iron the sleeve and band flat

Step 6: Ruffle the top of the sleeve the same way you did the skirt

Step 7: fold sleeve in half (outside in) sew up the end. cut off the excess

Step 8: Turn bodice inside out and pin sleeve to the outside of the dress. The inside of the Dress is facing you, so the sleeve will be inside the bodice. 

Step 9 sew the bodice and the sleeve together

Step 10: Fold the hem and iron down all the way around the dress. Then fold the hem and iron again. 

Step 11: if you don't want to learn to use a twin needle then hem your skirt and you are finished, if you do keep going. 

This is your twin needle. It will become your friend!

Step 11: place a bobbin of thread (same color) in front of your spool of thread. 

Step 12: line the threads up and loop them through your machine like one thread. 

Step 13 separate your thread and place one through each hole in the needle. 

One thread through each hole

Step 14: Sew a single hem line around the skirt, you will end up with parallel lines. Make sure the outside is facing up because the back looks like a zig zag and thats not the look your going for. 

See nice even hem line!

Look at your work and admire it! Sorry no model tonight she's too sick! 

I would love to see all your wonderland dresses! leave me a link to yours and if I get enough I'll do a round up next week. 

Thanks everyone for sticking through my first ever Sew-A-Long!

Wonderland Dress part 3

Hey Everyone!
Sorry this is so late, apparently I picked up a flu thats going around and had a really rough day.
Tomorrow's post will be a little late too because I didn't get any sewing done but i'm going to try to get it up earlier than today.
Ok well here we go on to part three, the skirt.

Step 1: Lay skirt tops with outsides facing in on top of each other lining up the edges. 

Step 2: Pin front of skirt to back of skirt. 

Step 3: Sew front of skirt and back of skirt together.

Step 4: Place contrast strips on top of each other with outsides facing in, and pin

Step 5: Sew Contrast strips together forming one continuous band.

 Step 6: Place contrast band and Skirt face to face at bottom of the skirt, and pin them together.

 Step 7: Sew skirt to contrast band.

 Step 8: Take both bottom trim pieces and lay them face together and pin the sides. 

Step 9: Sew the bottom strips together forming a continuous strip. 

Step 10: Pin the bottom strip to the contrast strip. 

Step 11: Sew the bottom band to the skirt at the white band as close to the edge as you can.

Here is what your skirt should look like now. 

 If you have a ruffler foot attach it to your machine now.

Step 12: using your ruffler foot sew around the skirt following the directions that came with your foot. 

If you don't have a ruffler foot, go here for step by step instructions on how to gather the top of your skirt.

 Here is what your gathered/ruffled skirt should look. 

Step 13: Turn your bodice inside out.

Step 14: Slide skirt (outsides together) into bodice so the waist of the bodice and the waist of the skirt meet. 

Step 15: pin bodice to skirt.

Step 16: Sew the bodice to the skirt making sure to cover your stitches from ruffling/gathering the skirt. 

 What your dress should look like now!

Ok so come back tomorrow for the last part of this sew-a-long! Tomorrow we will be doing the sleeves and attaching them to the bodice, then hemming the skirt. 

Part 4